Turning the aristocrat into a true PC base class

[Nellisir]

Green Ronin has a Noble "Master Class" book.
The Black Company RPG, the Spiros-Blaak setting book, and the Thieves' World Players Manual also have Noble core classes. I can't tell you the similarities or differences right now, but they're not all the same class.
Relics & Rituals:Excalibur has a Knight core class.

 

[Set]

For 'Nobles' in my games, I use the Bard class. A little bit of 'gentleman's combat training,' a little bit of 'education' (ranging from literacy to minor spellcasting) and the ability to inspire others through Perform (oratory) using inspirations from history or even by reciting stirring tales of military derring-do.

I ditched the whole music angle, and got rid of the abundance of music / sonic themed spells that have crept into the class with later books, since the Noble's leadership / inspiration ability comes from his training in the arts of command, not any sort of 'magical music.'

I also tweaked the spells option, allowing there to be two paths for a Nobleman to take regarding the arcane arts. He might be part of a 'noble bloodline' and follow the usual spontaneous spellcasting progression, or he might choose to be an educated scion, and use a smaller number of spells / day, and prepare his spells from spellbooks (giving him a larger pool of spells known, basically making this version of the 'Bard' the 'kinda / sorta wizard' to the standard Bards 'kinda / sorta sorcerer').

The education, the limited combat skills, the inspirational leadership and limited spellcasting, either from a dynastic bloodline of power or the expensive (if somewhat shallow in scope) tutelage available only to the spoiled brats of the noble class.

Basically the Bard covers it all, stripped of any connection to music.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

I also tweaked the spells option, allowing there to be two paths for a Nobleman to take regarding the arcane arts. He might be part of a 'noble bloodline' and follow the usual spontaneous spellcasting progression, or he might choose to be an educated scion, and use a smaller number of spells / day, and prepare his spells from spellbooks (giving him a larger pool of spells known, basically making this version of the 'Bard' the 'kinda / sorta wizard' to the standard Bards 'kinda / sorta sorcerer').

How about divine spells? Many traditional societies saw their nobility as the bridge between the shaman and the warrior. "The King and the Land are one and the same" is a famous quote from the movie Excalibur. In the middle ages, the king could cure scrofula, at least those descended from Edward the Confessor. And during the early middle ages, the barons of the realm held most of the power and seen as holding that power divinely. The Saxon nobility claimed descent from Odin and other Germanic gods. Some Merovingians claimed descent from Jesus and Mary Magdelene.

On a related note, it has been suggested that royal purple reflects the dual religious and warrior role of the king since purple is a blend of red (representing Mars and blood) and blue (representing the sky, heaven, Jupiter, &c.).

 

[Nifft]

How about divine spells? Many traditional societies saw their nobility as the bridge between the shaman and the warrior. "The King and the Land are one and the same" is a famous quote from the movie Excalibur. In the middle ages, the king could cure scrofula, at least those descended from Edward the Confessor. And during the early middle ages, the barons of the realm held most of the power and seen as holding that power divinely. The Saxon nobility claimed descent from Odin and other Germanic gods. Some Merovingians claimed descent from Jesus and Mary Magdelene.

On a related note, it has been suggested that royal purple reflects the dual religious and warrior role of the king since purple is a blend of red (representing Mars and blood) and blue (representing the sky, heaven, Jupiter, &c.).

Puts the whole "leader = support" role of the Cleric into a decent context, huh.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Claudius Gaius]

The problem with the "noble" as a single class was that they generally had the money and influence to get training to suit their talents, rather than following any particular progression. Maybe you just want a noble talent that lets you multiclass more freely or a full point-buy system.

 

[Set]

How about divine spells? Many traditional societies saw their nobility as the bridge between the shaman and the warrior. "The King and the Land are one and the same" is a famous quote from the movie Excalibur. In the middle ages, the king could cure scrofula, at least those descended from Edward the Confessor. And during the early middle ages, the barons of the realm held most of the power and seen as holding that power divinely. The Saxon nobility claimed descent from Odin and other Germanic gods. Some Merovingians claimed descent from Jesus and Mary Magdelene.

Which would be yet another variation, one where the noble actually did have a 'divine right' to rule, for whatever reason. I didn't go there because I was trying to stick to a really quick and easy Bard-to-Noble conversion. Adding a divine option would require tweaking the spell list a bit more than the arcane/spontaneous tweak.

Still, it's a valid concept, although I would have it location-specific. (Not every ruler with 'Noble training' would necessarily be divinely sanctioned in this way, just as not every ruler would have some sort of bloodline of power that allows for spontaneous spellcasting like the generic dragon-blooded 'Bard' of 3.X.)

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

I'm not sure if this would help you, but some nobles in my campaign have a sort of "divine right". They're born with a rune on their bodies, in my campaign its written in draconic and represents a basic concept-much like a deities portfolio (Fortune, Truth, the Grave, the Moon). Arcane magic was derived from these runes, learning their fundamentals and then branching off to become its own science. As such, each rune consists of 3 thematically tied spells of 1st and 2nd level (typically 2 1st level spells and 1 2nd level spell) off of any list and functions very similar to those spells but at an exponentially more powerful level (depending ont he strength of the noble).

These runes function as supernatural abilities but every time they're used the noble gains a temporary negative level that can only be healed naturally. Thus, most of the time they function like middle class fighters or rogues (Standard aristocrats, though typically they pick a basic defensive or offensive ability that they can boost the duration to all day with, like Divine Favor, Expeditious Retreat, Mage Armor, Shield, Chill Touch, Shocking Grasp or similar and use this as the bread and butter) and then like wizards they can go supernova in a battle-but this leaves them weakened for the rest of the day.

They have a few other moderate powered abilities to tide them over otherwise, the Touch of Healing ability from the Dragon Shaman class and at higher levels a 3/day aura that reflects one of their abilities (+2 bonus to AC/saves and usually 2d6 damage or a status effect for one round to attackers, a lesser Holy Aura). It's possible to get very different characters of this class.

Example runes:
Prince Medion (Blooded Noble 7, Cha/Str/Con) is known to be a strong battlefield commander. He has the Fortune Rune (Bless, Bane, Entropic Shield), with Runic Bless he can give all allies in a 100' radius +3 to attack/saves vs. fear. or vice versa with Bane. With Runic Entropic Shield he can gain 60% miss chance vs. ranged attacks and any attack that misses is redirected at its sender.

Prince Amnion the Wise (Blooded Noble 14, Wis/Cha/Dex) is known to associate with cleric cohorts who he can empower. When he's in trouble he can call upon the moon's madness to infect his opponents. He has the Lunar Rune (Sanctuary, Lesser Confusion, Owl's Wisdom), with Runic Sanctuary he can provide a Sanctuary effect to him and another for the whole day-although unlike the normal spell they can make attacks without it dispelling. Runic Wisdom gives him and another +10 enhancement bonus to wisdom for the day, boosting a divine spellcaster's DC's by 5 (but not adding extra spells per day). Lunar Confusion can effect up to 21 targets in range, no save, to confuse them for 21 rounds.

Other runes: Grave Rune (Chill Touch, False Life, Death Knell), Truth Rune (Shield, True Strike, Zone of Truth), Lightning Rune (Shocking Grasp, Expeditious Retreat, Cat's Grace).

If you're interested in seeing more, just say so.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Frankly, every noble class here looks weaker than the bard class, and thats saying something.

Here's what I'd do, take bard:
Drop Spellcasting
Change bardic knowledge to Education
Drop coutersong, change bardic music's name, Inspire
Drop whip weapon proficiency
Have a requisite charisma score for different levels of 'bardic music', and ranks in diplomacy or intimidate instead of perform.
This way charisma still has importance for the class, a 21 charisma should be enough to gain acess to all levels of bardic music, proably an 11 or 13 for the minimum.

Add full base attack bonus, martial weapons, medium armor, heavy armor, shields and d8 hit dice.