Nobility Feat? (3.5)

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Is there a Nobility feat or something like it for 3.5? Something that denotes a character is descended from nobility. I'm sure I've seen something somewhere. I know Dragonlance has the Noble class but I'm looking for a feat.

 

[Blackrat]

This one is from some dragon magazine:

Noble Born
You are a scion of a noble house. You were raised to rule and learned the art of diplomacy as soon as you could talk.

Benefit: Diplomacy and Knowledge (nobility and royalty) are always considered class skills for you. In addition, if you gain the Leadership feat you receive a +2 to your Leadership score.
Special: This feat can only be taken at 1st level. It indicates a tie to a noble family, which might or might not still exist.

 

[Nyeshet]

The Landlord feat might work ...

... but it has issues of its own (being 3.0e, requiring use of a book no longer in print, etc). You can hand wave a lot of it, however.

Landlord [special] (source: Stronghold Builder's Guide
Prereq: PC must have 9+ levels.

Benefits: The PC has a small allowance of virtual funds that can only be used to build or expand upon a stronghold. These funds are virtual - they cannot be spent on anything else. Also, if you spend your own funds beyond the virtual allotment, part of your funds are matched (about 1/2 to 1/6).

Example: A 12th level PC takes the feat, gaining 100k gp worth of funds to build a stronghold. Beyond this, for every 100k they spend of their own money, they gain a virtual addition of 25k. Upon attaining level 13, they gain an additional 150k virtual gp to spend on their stronghold - and for every 150k they spend of thier own funds (beyond the initial 150k), they gain 50k additional virtual funds to spend on their stronghold.


Personally, I think this works rather well for a nobility type feat, in that most nobles gained and held their title - and gained whatever wealth they had - only through ownership of land (and the use of those resources - natural and human - upon said land).

The details, however, should perhaps be considered a bit iffy. The actual level of virtual funds, for example, could be modified based on the campaign world, the level of rank, the location of the lands, etc. Also, without the Stronghold Builder's Guide (whose prices were rather suspect / odd in many respects) the virtual funds mean little as you do not know the cost of the items you need to buy with said funds.

This is a WotC source, but there are also quite a few good books on such from 3pp to consider.

 

[Ghostwind]

I don't have it in front of me, but there is the Famous feat from Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous that may fit the bill.

 

[Ghostwind]

I found it in a Word document I had.

Famous (General) [Book of the Righteous – OGC]
As you climb in the religious hierarchy or commit great deeds, people start to know you and treat you better. A person who has committed sufficiently important deeds or climbed high enough in her religious hierarchy may take this feat.
Prerequisite: Character level 6+, you must have done at least one thing that makes you known publicly – write a great opera, save a town, become an archdeacon, etc.
Benefit: In a world where religion and great deeds are important, there comes a time in many adventurers’ careers that everyone knows them. When you buy this feat, you become famous; as you climb in power and commit great deeds, you may become more famous. This feat allows you to put points in the Famous skill, which becomes a class skill.
Normal: Without this feat, you may never gain ranks in the Famous skill.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Wealthy: Can only be taken at Character Level 1. Character starts with double maximum starting money.

That's 'nobility' for ya.

It's from Arcana Evolved, by the way. Probably elsewhere too. Note that in that, everyone gets a feat that can only be taken at 1st level (they're called Talents.) These are gratis, so different rules might need to apply.

For something a little more elaborate, I suggest checking out 'High Born' from Iron Heroes. It's a Trait, which is a lot like a Talent in AE, so again the rules might need to be jiggered with.

 

[CharlesRyan]

As several of these examples illustrate, if you don't have an underlying system that grants advantages to noble status, a feat that grants noble status doesn't really have a mechanical benefit to build upon. Without a mechanical benefit, there's no reason to require a feat (which is a mechanical cost).

Now, it so happens that in my home campaign I do have an underlying system that grants advantages to noble status. If anyone's keen, I'd be happy to post the entire system, but since the OP asks for a feat, I'll boil the essentials of the mechanical advantage down to a single feat:

High Status
You are a noble or a person of standing in a secular or religious hierarchy. Others are uniformly impressed by your stature.

Benefit: You gain a Status score of 1. This has the following benefits:

• You gain a bonus on Diplomacy and Intimidate checks equal to your Status score (maximum +4).
• You may "pull rank" on individuals with lower Status. When you arrive at the crowded inn, for example, you may demand that a lower-status guest is expelled so that you may have a room.
• You have extraordinary access to high-status individuals. You can normally expect to be received by NPCs with a Status score equal to yours + 2.

Normal: You cannot normally expect access to NPCs with a Status score higher than 2. The local baron might receive you upon request, but the Emperor will not see you without extraordinary reasons.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time your Status score increases by +1.

This feat hints at an underlying system and creates some assumptions about your game and setting (and it technically requires you to give every high-status NPC a Status score), but I think it's otherwise pretty self-contained. Maybe it will do the trick for the OP.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Eberron has the Favored in House feat, which allows the character to request favors from his House periodically (using Diplomacy, with bigger favors having higher DCs). While it's primarily written toward dragonmarked characters (sort of a de facto mercantile nobility) in Eberron, there's no reason it needs to be limited that way.

I like that concept of Status, but I'm a fan of old-school feudalism in my fantasy gaming. A substantial percentage of players, for whatever reason, just don't like that kind of rigid social stratification in RPGs. I've found myself more willing to give up faux-feudalism (other than lip service) than to risk ruining their fun.