a class fit for a king?

[Shademan]

probarly been asked allready, but whatever.

What class would be most fitting for a king?
he would not be a particularly good king but exactly evil. think of a standard medieval king. maybe slightly kinder.....
anyways, he would be able to hold his ground in battle but dont be better than his higher ranking knights.

What class??

[Da King]

A mid-level Marshal or Knight(PHB2) perhaps?

[Reel On, Love]

Aristocrat with some Warrior or Fighter levels. Or maybe Knight. It really depends on the king.

[Frosty]

An aristocrat with levels in Fighter sprinkled in.

[Shademan]

Aristocrat with some Warrior or Fighter levels. Or maybe Knight. It really depends on the king.

he's quite a douche.
second in line but got his elder brother legally banished for being half dragon.






i like the cross-class idea of aristocrat/knight or fighter

[Reel On, Love]

he's quite a douche.

Aristocrat 5/Jerk 3.

ETA: If he ever levels up, he can take the Irredeemable Jackass PrC as long as his alignment is still Lawful Bastard.

[Tengu]

Aristocrat for a lazy non-combat king.

Marshal for a king with combat experience - this is a default class for military officers, to be honest. You can find the class here.

Crusader, if you believe that Authority Equals Asskicking.

[The Rose Dragon]

Noble. Yes, there is such a class. No, it does not make a distinction between royals and nobles. It can be found in Dragonlance Campaign Setting.

[Hal]

It just depends on what you want his background to be.

As said before, your average noble will be Aristocrat, with levels of Knight/Fighter/Marshall thrown in there to reflect military or martial experience. Alternatively, he might have levels of some spellcasting class thrown in there, depending on how seriously the kingdom takes such matters. If it's a theocracy, chances are he probably has Cleric or Paladin levels.

You really want to have a douche bag king? Give him levels in Blackguard. Nothing screams evil antagonist quite like it.

[Kurald Galain]

probarly been asked allready, but whatever.

What class would be most fitting for a king?

A wizard

[Emperor Tippy]

Psion. Make the royal family Psions, it explains the whole blood line thing. The more "pure" the blood the stronger the Psion (i.e. higher level). Mess around with the skill list though.

[The Rose Dragon]

A wizard

He said king, not god, silly.

[UglyPanda]

Marshall. Above average individual, but can't do anything good without some help. Also, it gets skill focus(diplomacy) for free.

[cupkeyk]

King Azoun iv was a Paladin / Purple Dragon Knight.

[Pironious]

There's a Noble class in a 3rd part book called "Empire". It does the job quite well.

[Thurbane]

Aristocrat X/Legendary Leader X

[Bag_of_Holding]

I think if the king (as an NPC) was to have a legitimacy of being a blue blood, then he must have some levels aristocrat class. After that they might have a few levels in Fighter/Marshal or whatever you want them to be, I guess.

The only exceptions would be theocracy/magocracy where the bloodline may not matter so much.

[LibraryOgre]

I think if the king (as an NPC) was to have a legitimacy of being a blue blood, then he must have some levels aristocrat class. After that they might have a few levels in Fighter/Marshal or whatever you want them to be, I guess.

All Aristocrat really represents is someone who has martial training (i.e. weapons and armor proficiency), but spends more time on their duff playing politics than they do learning to be a soldier (worse BAB, better skills than a Warrior).

[bosssmiley]

repost of an earlier post that got eaten by server lag:

You could always take a leaf from "Birthright" and rule that the king is whatever class is required by the storyline. He might be a priest-king, a warrior-king, a sorcerer-king, w/e. The important thing is that he's the guy with the clout (for which read class levels, an army and a cadre of wizard buddies) to hold onto the crown.

As for Aristocrats: these guys are the Drones Club of the D&D world. They're important not for themselves, but for the fact that their daddy (or uncle, or cousin...) is a bad-ass with class levels and wizard buddies. Think of an Aristocrat as the thick braying Tarquin that gets a job through who he knows, rather than through merit or hard work. The main purpose of Aristocrats is to ride around oppressing the peasantry, keeping the lowly local goblin tribe in check, and making sure the tax stream keeps flowing into the king's treasury.

Should serious trouble kick off (and by serious I mean Witch King, Aboleth, or demonic incursion scale stuff) the purpose of Aristocrats is revised. Their job is now to squeal, cower and light up the Bat Signal to call in the *real* hero types. Of course, when the BBEG is defeated the prettiest of the Aristocrats then gets married off to the conquering heroes (it being considered prudent among D&D kings to have the dragonslayer as son-in-law, rather than rival).

As for historic kings. In the western world the ideal has usually been of the heroic warrior-king, so fighter would be wholly appropriate (Beowulf, Charlemagne, Richard I), or possibly Paladin in more pious and chivalrous cultures (Edward the Confessor, St Louis, etc.). Of course, for the scheming, 'too clever by half' type of king (John, Louis XII, Richard III, Henry VII) rogue or fighter-rogue works too.

[kamikasei]

I would say the most important question is the general power level. When you say "not stronger than his higher-ranking knights", how strong are they? At what point level-wise are the PCs People To Be Reckoned With? That'll influence the level the king should have, and how we could build him. You could also take the option of making him higher-level than most (so good HP, saves, skills etc.), but with two or more non-synergistic classes, so that he might be not quite as good a Knight as his best subordinates, but he's also a Bard (or something).

Psion. Make the royal family Psions, it explains the whole blood line thing. The more "pure" the blood the stronger the Psion (i.e. higher level). Mess around with the skill list though.

I like this one.

[Shademan]

wow, alot of good feedback here.
ok, where to start? uhm, paladin i think not. he does not have the piety or focus a paladin needs.

the PC's are a elite team brought together by the rightful heir (the half dragon) to act as a strike team. ever played commandos 2? thats what im thinking. only medieval. They are considered to some of the best of the best. they are LV5.
sounds little to you? well remember that a normal soldier is a lv1 warrior. the mightiest of the kings knights are thusly lv.5 knights.

i think i'll make the douchebag king a lv3aristocrat/lv3knight

since he isnt really that much of a inspiration to his troops he dosnt get any marshal levels.

[senrath]

-snip-
(it being considered prudent among D&D kings to have the dragonslayer as son-in-law, rather than rival).

Who ever said that they couldn't be one and the same? I know plenty of people who don't get along with their father-in-laws.

[Wulfram]

Psion. Make the royal family Psions, it explains the whole blood line thing. The more "pure" the blood the stronger the Psion (i.e. higher level). Mess around with the skill list though.

Sorceror also works for this. Since it's suggested that it's connected to draconic heritage, it must be inheritable.

Though personally I think Bard is the natural class for royalty. Good all round education, with magic and combat included for personal defence, and the ability to inspire through oratory.

[StickMan]

Bard with Perform (Oration) works quite well.

[hamishspence]

Azoun IV: paladin?? somehow i did not get that vibe from the novels: no healing hands, for one thing. (and he died before 3rd ed came out, so would never have been statted out as Purple Dragon Knight)

[Emperor Tippy]

Sorceror also works for this. Since it's suggested that it's connected to draconic heritage, it must be inheritable.

Yeah. But Psionics has some benefits.
1. It's not generally in play so it should be rarer than Sorcerer levels.
2. With Psionics is Different it can make them a real bitch for the party (most of their magical defenses don't do jack).
3. There are multiple Psionic classes that you can use for different types of nobles (psion, wilder, Psi Warrior, Soulknife, the stuff in Complete Psi)

Though personally I think Bard is the natural class for royalty. Good all round education, with magic and combat included for personal defence, and the ability to inspire through oratory.

Bard is a good choice as well.

[Riffington]

If you are going to add something to Aristocrat, may I recommend Rogue? It goes with everything. But of course, Aristocrat does just fine by itself, if you have powerful servants/friends/viziers..

[Tsotha-lanti]

Azoun IV: paladin?? somehow i did not get that vibe from the novels: no healing hands, for one thing. (and he died before 3rd ed came out, so would never have been statted out as Purple Dragon Knight)

He was, according to TSR, a LG Fighter 20. Had a vorpal sword and all. He's in the Heroes sourcebook with all the others. (Forget the book's name, actually.)