OGL books with lesser used classes

[Curbludgeon]

A recent post about Athas.org got me thinking about that site's Life-Shaping Handbook. In that work there's a crafting system, whose included class best equipped to take advantage of it is otherwise not far from a specialized expert. This is a thing which seems to have come up often in the 3E OGL era. From things like Green Ronin's Medieval Player's Manual, with its Scholars and Artists, to the Coglayer of Dragonmech, there has been a good amount of page space dedicated to concepts which more likely than not only saw use as NPCs, if ever.

I'm debating running a cross-setting game which highlights this. I'm unsure if, as some compensation, characters using such concepts would be a higher level than more traditional combat-oriented classes, or perhaps instead incorporating gestalt in some fashion.

What are some examples of this concept in books from the 3-3.5 period which come to mind?

[Particle_Man]

Would the Noble count? Good at running domains, getting along in High Society, etc.? I think I saw one in Legends of Excalibur, and wasn't there one in Dragonlance?

There was also a nice social-fu character called the Thief in Iron Heroes. I think their capstone ability was basically an unopposed Bluff check 1x/day, so you are just believed.