Playing a rich guy in d&d 3.5

[agahii]

So im running into a bit of a wall when trying to find a class, and feats ect to play a rich guy type. So far Im thinking leadership(to help in combat some), landlord, and maybe favored in house from eberron. Pretty much any book allowed non updated 3.0 and 3.5

Mainly I need a class. I want to play a guy that dosent help in combat what so ever, I just want to have connections money ect. I could just play whatever class and just be rich via feats I mentioned before. I would like however to get some class features from a rich guy type of class if possible. Thank ya in advance for any help.

[Crow]

Spymaster PrC gets a bunch of cover identities and stuff that maybe a rich guy would have. I think Shadow Thief of Amn is a "connections" type of PrC too.

Barring those, you'll have to wait for someone with more knowledge to suggest something that fits better.

[Tichrondrius]

Aristocrat.

[Gavinfoxx]

If you want to be really wealthy, be a noble or aristocrat. Talk to your DM, and say, "I want to be fantastically wealthy, and I promise to never ever ever use this wealth in any way that is useful for adventuring or actually solving problems without your permission, I just want to play up being really wealthy. I want to own land, have a noble title, be able to tell people what to do, the whole thing, but basically be the spoiled rich kid used to getting his way all the time."

Then, get a charisma focused, spellcasting, skill-heavy class. Bard or Beguiler or FACTOTUM work well. Then, there are a few wealth focused feats, if you want. Leadership, Mercantile Background, an appropriate Apprentice feat, Landlord... take a look at these feats.

[Grynning]

"doesn't help in combat whatsoever..."
Monk? Oh wait, rich guy, right...

You may want to consider having some combat options. Honestly, I'd recommend Wizard. They do have the easiest time making money, either via crafting magic items or just conjuring up arbitrary amounts of raw materials.

[Crow]

Wizard...Is there anything it can't do?

[agahii]

Where are Spymaster and Shadow Thief of Amn from?

[Alleran]

Wizard...Is there anything it can't do?

Bake you a cake in a kitchen they built with their own two hands, then swan-dive off a waterfall into the best night of your life?

Actually, now that I think about it, they can do all that too...

[Eldariel]

Mercantile Background from Player's Guide to Faerun would be a very, very good addition. Level 1 in Aristocrat would make sense but after that, I'd take levels in some class, even if only Rogue (which fits the "adept, mundane social manipulator"-archetype very well). Factotum [Dungeonscape] could work too. Basically anything skill-based is probably the way to go.


Spymaster is Complete Adventurer, and Shadow Thief of Amn is from Forgotten Realms Campaign Settings or PGtF, can't be sure.

[Sir_Elderberry]

One concept I've had a lot of fun playing in the past is the rich sorcerer, who's used to getting everything by dint of birth--first he was born into wealth, and then he just happens to be able to throw fireballs out of his hands. This lets you be a combat-capable character who hasn't necessarily put in a lot of training before adventuring.

[Newbieshoes]

Compared to the rest of society a mid level adventurer is already several magnitudes richer than the average commoner could hope to be.

[Godskook]

This one requires a *LOT* of DM-approved re-fluffing, but it'll provide that Schnazzy rich-man feel:

1.Play an artificer

2.Craft items as normal

3.In-story, refluff them as 'purchases', 'slave labor' or what-have-you.

4.?????

5.Profit!

[Danin]

The Noble from the Dragonlance Campaign Setting is fairly appropriate. Little to no combat abilities apart from a watered down inspire confidence / greatness. They do, however, have the ability to call in a number of favors a week equal to half his class level (minimum 1). If this is what you are looking for go for it, the landowner feat (which you use to purchase properties and businesses in every bloody city) staffed by followers you get from leadership (instant, no cost contacts that have various knowledge and more illicit skills).

Alternatively, play a cleric. If this person is so fantastically wealthy, why would he go out fighting instead of paying someone to? A simple fix is that you have found a god who tells you to go out and change the world (god of trade?) and you are doing so the only way you know how. This way you could heal and buff people in combat and not really get your hands dirty. It also helps if you jack your diplomacy score into the troposphere. Use it on your followers. Make them zealous. Bonuses and no penalty for having them fight to the death. Besides, who doesn't want to have a small army of followers loyal to the death like in the overlord games.

Alternatively, play a martial. They kind of suck, but you could just flavor it as some rich noble in expensive armor demanding that people fight harder, ignore wounds or charge the dragon. Bonus points if you threaten their families for that extra bit of "encouragement".

[agahii]

thanks for the suggestions so far :)

for a bit of info, the reason he is out adventuring is that he is bored and seeks adventure, along with a slight bit of an invincibility complex from his years being the son of a powerful and wealthy nobel. For combat effectiveness(not shafting the party's average level) i'll be using hirelings untill I can get a cohort(who i will minmax a bit to help with the 2 level diffrence)

Nobel is actually sounding great for the first few levels, thank you. I just need something for the next few levels untill I can get into propagandist from champions of darkness and maybe another prc or class that improves cohorts if possible.

[Randel]

Maybe do one of those things where players play as a familiar bossing the wizard around?

Like you are a rich lazy aristocrat but you've got a battle butler working for you who does all the fighting. Or you're a wizard or artificer who's got a lot of constructs/undead working for you.

You sit back complaining about the hassle of keeping cocktail shrimp cold on a journey while your solid gold golems and finely polished animated dinosaur skeletons help fight the monsters.


Other than that... I guess a bard or other ally-boosting class would be the way to go. Boost your allies and call it a day. Buy up a bunch of Healing Belts or other magic items

[HunterOfJello]

Sorcerer with dips into Marshall. You use your charisma to inspire your allies, when you feel like it. At other times you just hang around being awesome by right of birth.


Factotum is also good, later going into something like Chameleon. You have tons of skill points over all different skills that you always have ready outside of combat. You also get a couple arcane spells to charm or manipulate people when you feel up to it.

[742]

bard, marshal, non-combat beguiler-for improved loyalty

[true_shinken]

Danin is correct. The Noble is the best option.

[Lev]

Zeppelin Airship Captain

His crew is his guild, base of operations, treasury, home and transportation.
Don't like that? How about a wingship? Flying whale thing?

Having a ship means having a crew, a leadership cohort first mate and a handful of trustworthy followers to work the ship so you don't have to.

I'd recommend something with a lot of charisma and a lot of skillpoints, you def. want perform, diplomacy and perform on there, and you should focus on the 3 mental stats.
Perform works the same as diplomacy in terms of lightening the situation, which means you get a free second roll even if it was a natural 20 success.
Perform Oratory is your skill here, see the anime One Piece for abuse of this skill like every few episodes.

Diplomacy/Sense Motive are your bread and butter for social grace. Bluff should have 5 ranks, or more if you want to play a scoundrel, but I wouldn't advise it compared to the knowledge skills you could get instead. Bluff is overall a more useful skill, more bang for your buck, but not only will it detract from your leadership score in terms of fairness, but it will also label you as a scoundrel, altering the mentality of your crew, your companions, how people treat you and failing a bluff check is FAR worse than failing a knowledge check, which is why a lot of people take bluff.... but my view is why fail when you can choose not to lie in the first place?

[kabof]

Cityscape has some rules and feats for contacts too, doesn't it? The book's WE also has ACF that merges well with the concept.

[Hironomus]

I know you probably wont approve of this and I'm not sure how compatible it is anyway, but there is a basic core class in the Starwars RPG that is pretty much exactly what you seem to want. Sorry thats not very helpful

[Kaeso]

No offence, but have you ever taken a good look at the wealth per level table? A commoner with two or three gold pieces can already consider himself a rich man. All adventurers are rich, playing a noble/merchant is mostly roleplay. For example, a bard could have gained his skills as a noble at a court, with teachers at his beck and calls, while a crusader could be the youngest son of a powerfull baron, who joined a knightly order because he can't possibly make a claim to his father's throne.

[FelixG]

I think the thrallherd gets alot of people that you could classify as servants just needs a bit of a refluff!

Also I dont know if my friend has it posted but we did a really sweet conversion for the dread pirate to turn him into a crime lord PRC (like from starwars).

If he posted it il dig it up and post the link here

[Psyren]

The Noble from the Dragonlance Campaign Setting is fairly appropriate. Little to no combat abilities apart from a watered down inspire confidence / greatness. They do, however, have the ability to call in a number of favors a week equal to half his class level (minimum 1). If this is what you are looking for go for it, the landowner feat (which you use to purchase properties and businesses in every bloody city) staffed by followers you get from leadership (instant, no cost contacts that have various knowledge and more illicit skills).

Was just going to suggest this; It is the PC version of the Aristocrat class.

Their coolest ability is that they can learn any one cross-class skill in the game as a class skill. Boost your damage with Iaijutsu Focus, or dabble in Truespeech/Autohypnosis for kicks, or grab Martial Lore.

[agahii]

Ill prob go with UMD for the class skill. So far im looking at noble 3 then marshal 2(cha-skill and melee bonus auras)

Then going propagandist prc for 3 levels then manipulator for 5.

This is pretty feat intensive, so I will take 2 flaws(combat related ones)

Now I may just go back to noble or try to find something else.

Look good? any suggestions?

[Maho-Tsukai]

Another class, while third party, may also work with this character concept. D20 Rokugan has a class called the Courtier which is very similar to the noble but with different abilities. Rather then those combat buffs for friends it gives you some very nice diplomancer type abilities that make you basically an awesome party face type and you literally get rich simply for taking the class. At 1st level for each 1 point of cha modifier you have you get + 50 starting gold. The courtier also gets a whoping 8+ Int skill points though your skill list is more tailored to social interactions, research and knowledge as appose to usual skill monkey type stuff.

However, if you want to be like Seto Kaiba and be able to screw the rules with absurd, anime-level wealth and your open to some homebrew the Golden Alchemist class made by Magicyop is absolutely perfect for the job.

Golden Alchemist:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170912

[Weasel of Doom]

It looks like you've kinda decided what you want to play but I really think factotum fits well.

You sink you're skill points into skills like diplomacy, knowledge (nobility), profession (merchant) and then the other aspects of the class represent him being a bored dillettante who dabbles in practically everything. You can cast a few skills because you were bored one summer and bugged your father until he hired a wizard to tutor you. Another summer you filled your gratuitous amounts of leisure time learning different dueling techniques.

[Psyren]

Ill prob go with UMD for the class skill.

Oh right, I forgot that's cross-class for them; yeah, good choice.

[Gavinfoxx]

Oh! You could be a Factotum. That's a great skill heavy class for this sort of thing. No need to sink skill points in tons of flavor stuff to be REALLY competent at any given skill, it's all possible with the base class...

[Greenish]

Merchant Prince.