buzz said:
Aristocrats start with 6d8x10. The most a PC class can start with is 6d4x10. It's more, but not extremely so. Even maxed out, it's not enough for a suit of non-masterwork half plate.
In a pure RP'ing sense, though, it should allow the PC access to resources that a "commoner" PC woulnd't have.
Remember that an aristocrat is an NPC class. If you wanted a PC class along those lines, beefing up the money or adding a "favors" check that goes up by level and allows access to resources and such from friends and family in low places would seem apropos.
On the general subject of points for flaws...
Having had the benefit of running the same players over many years in various systems including several DnD editions, MNM, vampire, hero and so on, I can say that the best character's i have had submiutted have been for the non-flaw systems.
In the flaw-fer-points systems, the players almost invariably pattern their character around the pre-packaged flaws and also almost invariably tend togravitate towards the flaws less significant in play effects. I am sure anyone experienced with HERo has seen this, as thatsystem is one of the more egregious cases.
In the "no flaws for points systems" like DND, then every aspect of the character and his background is there not for points, not to get another dice of damage or another feat, but because the player WANTS IT. It represent something he WANTS to add to his character. I get character backgrounds which are richer, more complete and frought with personal biases and intrigues and old enemies and so forth. All of these personality traits become a part of the character the player embraces, as opposed to something he felt he needed to tag on in order to "measure up" so to speak.
One other difference I have seen is that in the no point for flaw system, the character's evolve more. They work through those issues in game. They see their hunted eventually get hunted down and handled as a course of the story and move on. This is purely a roleplaying issue. There is no sudden scrounging for points to buy off the flaw or seeking for a new phobia to replace the old one that you see in systems where the flaw was worth points and the accounting is demanding recompensation for finally killing your archnemesis.
In the future, in cases where i will use various forms of merits and flaws for character and power building, i will never use a "loan shark" mechanic (get extra points now for taking the flaw and expect circumstance to "collect" later in the form of bad things happoening in play) but will use a "no pain no gain" style system where flaws are taken outside of accounting but each time the flaw significantly impacts the character he gets a reward, like say a hero point. This looks to turn the focus for player-thinking-about-flaws towards seeing "how often this flaw will occur in play and procude real problems" as a positive value, not the downside of a flaw that needs to be dodged.
YMMV
