(Mongoose) Quintessential Aristocrat - PDF Out Now!

[MongooseMatt]

Hi guys,

The all-new Quintessential Aristocrat is available for download now at;

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2875&

This is a book I have been wanting to complete for quite some time - after all, the Aristocrat class never seems to get a proper look-in. After this Quintessential, I promise, you will even consider it for player characters!

All the usual Quintessential suspects are there for you to fine tune your Aristocrat, from character concepts to prestige classes - whether he is a Lord in a major city or an Orc Chieftain looking for some more charismatic powers, there is something for every Aristocrat here.

Tricks of the Trade will give you solid rules for conducting negotiations, bribery, education, family heraldry, and new uses for old skills. There are lists of clothing that marks position and status (important to any Aristocrat), guidelines on upper class diversions and games, and affiliations to land and organisations that will give an Aristocrat true prestige in a campaign and immediately make him more than a secondary character class.

Status and Titles are covered in fine detail, and the book winds up with the building of a Manor, the true homestead of any Aristocrat.

All in all, a fine introduction into the options available to this character class!

 

[Samothdm]

Yay!

I've been waiting for this book for a long time as well.

Thanks, Matt.

 

[Crothian]

I just got this tonight, so only had a chance to glance through it at this time. One really nice thing I like is the bibliography has web sites, lots of websites. The art is good, though lots of pictures of females and few of males.

 

[Samothdm]

One really nice thing I like is the bibliography has web sites, lots of websites.

I did a LOT of research for this book, from how the aristocracy differs by culture and time period, to the construction of manor houses, to the meaning behind the symbols used in Western and Eastern heraldry, to aristocratic clothing (just to name a few!). I think a good bibliography is always helpful in steering people to places to get more information.

 

[Eosin the Red]

What era was this based on or does it cover several? And can you give a rules to fluff ration [Hint...I like fluff]

 

[Samothdm]

What era was this based on or does it cover several? And can you give a rules to fluff ration [Hint...I like fluff]

Thanks for your interest.

I used a lot of resources when writing the book, including books and websites on the Carolingian-era, ancient Rome, ancient China, feudal Japan, ancient Korea, medieval Europe, and 15-18th century Europe as well as many more. The ideas are sprinkled throughout the book in all of the different sections.

As far as rules to fluff ratio... well, it's really a Player's Guide to being an aristocrat. It has rules in the form of Character Concepts, Prestige Classes, Feats, new uses for skills, new equipment (mostly clothing, actually, as opposed to weapons or armor), and stuff to add to your manor (basically, unlike a castle which is purely defensive in nature, a manor is mostly ornamental and so has things like halls of statues and elaborate gardens).

For fluff, there is background on each different character concept, and I also did that with the prestige classes. I designed the very basic bare bones of a government for each race and built a prestige class around that to use as an idea starter for helping to flesh out the governments in your setting.

The real fluff still includes rules applications: things like Bloodline Feats, which enable an aristocrat to come from an aristocrat house that has magical blood in their past.

Let's see... this is all from memory and I wrote it quite a while ago. A few things I created that had quite a bit of fluff were ideas on heraldry (making a family icon and the symbology behind them) and an "aristocratic affiliation" (basically, ideas for designing a noble house or other organization for your aristocrat).

Each affiliation has "ability scores", just like a character. And, they can gain "feats" like characters, and basically give bonuses to the characters who belong to them. That was a fun chapter to write.

When I get back to my other computer tomorrow (the one where my copy is downloaded), I'll try to make a better guess as to the ratio. Basically, if you've ever looked at one of Mongoose's Quintessential series, you'll get the idea. Lots of ideas and cool background info supported by rules to make it actionable during a game.

 

[Voadam]

Is this an expansion for the aristocrat as an NPC power level class as given in the DMG or does it redo the class and bring it up to PC power level?

 

[Samothdm]

Well, that's hard to answer. It kind of does both.

Basically, I did not change the class at all - the mantra behind the Quintessential Series from Mongoose is not to change the base classes - only to provide more options and alternatives. So, this book does not alter the base aristocrat class to add any "powers" beyond what is already given in the DMG. That was part of the challenge of writing it - providing rationale why the base class alone could stand up as a PC-worthy class. That section is in the Introduction and the first chapter, Character Concepts.

That said, it would be quite easy to alter the class for your own campaign to do something like add bonus "aristocratic feats" (included in the book) at every third or fifth level to give it a little more "oomph".

Thanks for the questions - keep 'em coming!

 

[Crothian]

Also, unlike the other Quint books I've seen this one discusses multi classing with the other core classes. That will help for those that find the class a little underpowered.

 

[Samothdm]

Also, unlike the other Quint books I've seen this one discusses multi classing with the other core classes. That will help for those that find the class a little underpowered.

That part was fun to write, and I'm glad it's still a part of the book considering that it's not typical of the Quintessential series to do that.