Why would A Future King become A Adventurer?, and even if he did why be A Thief? and why would A Future King only have A Int of 11 and A Wis of 9?

[Leatherhead]

I see where the confusion is. I did not intend to question the legitimacy, I only intended to highlight the fact he wasn't king yet.

 

[JMISBEST]

I've had a thought. What do you think?

My thought is that not only will no Lawful Fighter work for A Thief theirs also the problem that most Good or Neutral Fighters won't work for A Thief

But The GM said that almost almost all Fighters dream of becoming A Rich Land Owner, maybe even A Noble, but roughly 69% of them don't succeed and of those that do roughly 57% end up not having as much land as they'd like to have

So that got me thinking, since my Thief Pc is A Future King surely their would be at least a few Fighter type Henchmen that if the rewards are big enough would put aside their dislike for him, after all he's A Future King and if they serve him well they will hopefully fulfil every fighters dream of becoming A Rich Land Owner, maybe even A Noble

Then I had another idea. This idea is that since my Thief Pc is The Future King of A Country were people can buy Noble Titles maybe The Fighter/Fighters Type Henchmen would offer A Deal, the deal being that they get a lot less cash then normal and in return the rest of their pay goes towards them buying of A Noble Title, which would guarantee that they fulfil every fighters ultimate dream of becoming A Noble, not just(?) A Rich Land Owner

 

[Tonguez]

The would be king was too young to be crowned and a regent was established. The regent is however the puppet of a neighbouring country and the young kingling has been sent there to be educated but in reality is virtually under house arrest. The young king has however learnt to sneak out of the confinement of the palace and adventure, thus gaining an insight in to the regents tyrannical ways and the conspiracy to conquer his nation

 

[jdrakeh]

What you've said would justify most members of Royal Families only having A Int of 11, only having A Wisdom of 9 and not being of good moral character(A Thief) but he's not just(?) A Member of his homelands Royal Family, he's his Homelands Future King

Many rulers (kings) IRL have had average or even dull intellect and lacked wisdom. More than one has certainly been a notoriously immoral. I don't know why you think a ruler (king) can't possess these traits. History is littered with such rulers (kings). What I'm saying is that being of royal birth or next in line to be King doesn't necessarily mean you'll have stunning intellect, great wisdom, or strong morals. You seem to be really insistent that it does and I'm telling you that this is simply not the case, as evidenced by real life.

[Edit: For a notoriously dimwitted king, lookup Charles II of Spain. For notoriously immoral royals, look no further than the House of Borgia.]

 

[JMISBEST]

Many rulers (kings) IRL have had average or even dull intellect and lacked wisdom. More than one has certainly been a notoriously immoral. I don't know why you think a ruler (king) can't possess these traits. History is littered with such rulers (kings). What I'm saying is that being of royal birth or next in line to be King doesn't necessarily mean you'll have stunning intellect, great wisdom, or strong morals. You seem to be really insistent that it does and I'm telling you that this is simply not the case, as evidenced by real life.

[Edit: For a notoriously dimwitted king, lookup Charles II of Spain. For notoriously immoral royals, look no further than the House of Borgia.]

I'll be honest and admit that I made the mistake of assuming that it wasn't possible for A Future King to be of average or even dull intellect, lack wisdom or be notoriously immoral, but when you put it the way you have you've made me realize that I was wrong. Thank you and sorry

 

[Morrus]

why would A Future King become A Adventurer?

 

[aco175]

The PC could be rather young and that may explain some of the Int/Wis being lower than thought for a noble. Doesn't the older editions have aging bonuses/penalties, where you reach adulthood and your Wisdom goes up?

Another thought is that the PC is traveling undercover and the others do not know he will be the King. He could be searching for the McGruffin that saves the kingdom one day, or he may be searching for the assassin among the noble families that poisoned his mother and tried to poison the rest of the family.

Being a thief does not mean that he is bad or needs to dress in black all day and pick the pockets of any passerby. He has a different skill set. Sort of like in an army where everyone may have some basic common skills from basic training, everyone goes to a special training where they may be infantry, tanks, doctor, clerk, etc. The kingdom may have a group of thieves in the military that gather information or act as spies. There is a lot of skills that thieves have that round out a party and each unit needs one of these along with the medic and artillery soldiers.

 

[Ixal]

The low stats are easy to explain.
There are two requirements for being a king. Being a descendent of a king (or someone who can reasonably claim to be one) and getting the nobles to accept you as a king.
The first does not guarantee any good mental stats and the lords might be quite satisfied with having a weak willed king they can push around.

The big question is why he is a thief and why he starts out with crappy equipment and is not decked out with magical items and a retinue.
Also, being the oldest son does not automatically mean that he is the heir. Or the sole heir who takes over his fathers kingdom. There are many different forms of inheritance for nobility besides primogeniture which have been used historically.
Maybe kings are elected and he wants to make a name for himself through adventuring to increase his chances. Maybe uncles inherit first and he is a long way from claiming the throne. Maybe his father selects who becomes his heir and has wants something done which requires adventuring.

Or maybe he is on the run. Just look up how succession in the Ottoman Empire worked (Turkish Succession? Not sure if that is the official name).
Depending on the era either all children try to rally support from the other nobles and the one who "wins" murders all of his brothers (and the father can stack the deck in favour of his preferred heir by giving him land closer to the capital) or the oldest living member of the family becomes king and all others are kept in (comfortable) captivity until its their turn (which can take 40 years or longer).
If your character wants to escape from that it would explain why he is a thief, why he does not have vastly better equipment than others and why he hides himself in a group of adventurers who usually tend to travel a lot and are thus hard to find.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

There's an easier scenario for this.

The man who is currently King, the father of this character, was not always a king. Before he was king, he might have experienced adventures of his own and romances with women in other places. So just because your character is the first born son of a king, doesn't mean he was born when his father was king, or born by the queen. The king may or may not even be aware of his existence, or kept him a secret so as not to bear shame or scandal upon himself, the queen, or the royal lineage.

Thus, the character was raised in a completely different environment, having not the same access and priveledges as one expects of a royal noble, like education and comfort. But just because he is entitled to the throne doesn't mean he willing (or aware) to accept it.

 

[Lanefan]

I've joined A RPG Group, I'm A Player and I've ended up with A Thief with Str S 10, Con 15, Dex 17, Int 11, Wis 9 and Ch 10, 6Hp and A AC of 5

The thing is that when rolling for his background The 1st 1D100 roll was A 100, The 2nd was A 8, the 3rd was A 34, The 4th was A 66, The 5th was A 56 and the 6th was A 45. This means that he's the oldest child of A King, which means that 1 day he'll be A King, he's got 4 younger siblings, he's legitimate, his country is slightly smaller then normal and its calm, peaceful, quiet, beautiful and prosperous

The 58 followed by A 45 means that despite sharing borders with 4 countries that are all both a lot bigger then it and a lot more powerful then it the place has never been invaded and that's because 1,386 years ago the 4 countries it shares borders with decided that letting it remain independent is in their best interests, their thinking was, and still is, that it would be a very good idea to have A independent Country that share's borders with all of them that is willing to trade with all of them, that in times of peace is friendly to all of them and in times of war would be neutral to all of them

So has anyone got any idea how to justify this. I mean seriously?, why would A Future King become A Adventurer?, and even if he did why be A Thief? and why would A Future King only have A Int of 11 and A Wis of 9?

First off, nicely done! The very first PC I ever played, after a similarly low-odds rolling sequence, also turned out to be first in line to a throne. He was a Ranger, and the justification for his field adventuring was pretty easy: he (and his parents) felt he needed to get out and toughen himself up a bit before settling in to the life of a noble.

As for your PC being a Thief, you say the throne he'll one day inherit is that of a trading nation. Well, what better way to learn all about trading - the good side of it and the bad - than by becoming a Thief and learning it in practice rather than just in theory; and what better way to quickly advance your skills and knowledge as a Thief than by a bit of field adventuring.

As for why would the future king have merely average Int and Wis, maybe those traits run in his family. Or maybe the throne comes with some magic items (or, more likely, very competent advisors!) to cover off these shortcomings.