New Feat: Noble Born

[gaymer_seattle]

has anyone else had that one player who wants a noble born character? Then you have to deal with "but my family...." or relegate them to the black-sheep-noble bucket. i introduced, fairly successfully a new feat called "noble born" into my campaign. it is primarily for use at character creation, but there is room for discovering that your fighter is actually the bastard chaild of......

The specifics are....

FEAT - Noble Born

Reqs:
Must be taken at creation
Must be Human, Dwarf or Elf and choose appropriate House (these are particular to my campaign)

Benefits:
Free Room & Board, no monthly upkeep cost for character*

Monthly Stipend
levels 1 - 5 lvl x 10gp level 11 - 15 lvl x 20 gp
levels 6-10 lvl x 15 gp levels 16 + lvl x 25 gp
or twice value in house resources

and here is a sample noble family


Noble House - Kant
Business
Purebred Houses
Inns & Pubs
Land Travel Gear/Services

The House of Kant resides primarily in Rome, but maintains presences in Milan, Florence and Pompei. The House is primarily known for the series of Inn and Taverns along the roadways through Italy, and travel services between them. The true pride and joy of the House, however is their purebred horses. They earn significant revenue when dealing with the tribal people.

[bosssmiley]

Noble title feats have been done several times in various d20 sources. Dragon #315 had several Greyhawk-specific background feats like Celestial Scion and Landless Noble.
These feats basically gave you max starting cash and a Diplomacy, Intimidate or Gather Information check bonus around people who knew of your noble ancestry.

"Fading Suns d20" - not strictly D&D - made a big thing of Social Feats (gotta love any game with mechanics for smear campaigns and inciting religious zealotry). Their take on the Noble Rank feat was a stacklable feat that added progressively larger bonuses to Diplomacy and character fame.

[idksocrates]

Dragon magazine recenlty had an article for being noble born, including a feat for use with this. The benefit was often that you recieve political power and masterwork starting equipement, but that you had social responsibilities to the people you lord over.

A Game of Thrones roleplaying game has rules for being noble, getting a Level Adjustement score based on how powerful a house you are a member of.

[Gorbash Kazdar]

I've always found that statistics for noble status are best expressed in terms of specific settings - it gets wonky to try and make something generic enough that isn't totally useless or flavorless. For one, the actual importance and power of noble families or houses can vary greatly from setting to setting, and even game to game.

In my current Eberron game, one of the PCs is from a minor noble family - and it really doesn't matter that much except for background, because it's an exploration themed game (think Indiana Jones). But, if I were to run a politically based Eberron game, being noble would be a very big deal - it would open doors for even a socially inept character that might never be opened for even the most charming commoner.

[tokara2132]

Dragon magazine recenlty had an article for being noble born, including a feat for use with this. The benefit was often that you recieve political power and masterwork starting equipement, but that you had social responsibilities to the people you lord over.

A Game of Thrones roleplaying game has rules for being noble, getting a Level Adjustement score based on how powerful a house you are a member of.

I do have this Dragon Magazine, and I can give you the stats for it right now,although you were a bit off, idksocrates.

Noble Born (General)
You were born into a family of nobility and wealth, and have gained some benefits from your time with the family.
Benefits: Diplomacy and Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) are considered class skills for you, even if you normally do not have them on your character skill list.
In addition, you gain a +1 bonus on your Leadership score should you have the Leadership feat.
Restrictions: This must be taken at 1st level.

[TheThan]

I had the idea of adapting the noble class from StarWars d20 to DnD (I’m sure other people have as well). It’s a really good class, though its not very combat oriented. Perhaps that’s more of what you’re looking for rather than a mere feat.

[bosssmiley]

I had the idea of adapting the noble class from StarWars d20 to DnD (I’m sure other people have as well). It’s a really good class, though its not very combat oriented. Perhaps that’s more of what you’re looking for rather than a mere feat.
IIRC the SWd20 Noble was a lot like a non-singing Bard varient wasn't it? Good social abilities, inspire confidence and suchlike, the ability to pull rank based on reputation.

That's a really good basis for a urban/political noble PC in a social-heavy D&D game.

Dungeon crawling though? :P

[Caelestion]

There's also WotC's Dragonlance Noble, AEG's Swashbuckling Noble and AEG's Rokugan Courtier. I particularly like the Courtier (Cou).

Cael.