EDIT: I made some minor tweaks to the Disgraced Noble after reading feedback here in the thread. My blog post now has updated links for the new version of the class.
I made a new homebrew class - the Disgraced Noble! You can read about it at my blog; a description of the process and links to everything are there:
https://www.generallypithy.com/blog/2019/3/11/disgraced-noble-new-torchbearer-homebrew-class
I like this class a lot. Well done!
One thing to note, Bribes are a weapon in Negotiations so there may be some weird interactions there. Now there is a question as to whether a Negotiation is a Convince conflict or it’s own beast. My vote is for the latter, because Haggler. Haggler gets no love, and it’s a social grace! But I digress.
EDIT: (Got it)
It’d be nice to be able to download that pdf.
Good stuff.
Just a thought on the Raw Abilities: drop the “and Health may not start higher than Will.” Let the player discover (suffer) what happens if they choose a beefier noble. It might be interesting to have that variation in the class-a noble that fought in wars of conquest but now is washed up sitting around in finery. 4/4 Health/Will is not bad (perhaps mechanically the best anyway), but a 5/3 former warrior noble could be fun to play too. Not a big deal either way. Food for thought…
There’s a Dropbox link near the bottom of the blog post!
Ooh yeah I should probably figure out the interaction and make a note.
For the negotiation thing, I’ll probably keep the wording vague and let individual tables decide what they think makes the most sense
I REALLY like the level benefits you have listed here, especially levels 2-4. Nothing particularly game breaking, as they’re all pretty specific, but just super heavy on flavor. Just reading through the level benefits gives a wonderful image of who the character is. Really great stuff.
The only feedback I have is on the Aura of Confidence level benefit and how it’s worded. I’m not sure if it’s been pulled from any of the other classes, but is the intent that the character can ignore the condition as a result of a failure, or that they can convert a failed roll to a successful one once per session but still take the condition? I’m guessing it’s the former, but I read it as the latter.
Cool, I like the edits.
More random thoughts…
The alignment sentence jumps out at me now. Maybe we can find a better word than obscurity or hon that sentence.
Would a lapse into disorder lead to obscurity? Sure, it could. But, I am reminded of Leconte’s movie Ridicule. It’s a great movie about the sheer cruelty of the court. They wouldn’t let someone fade away unpunished.
So, this character is already disgraced. What more could this character lose then? Would a lapse into chaos change the disgraced noble’s social standing? Would the court forget? It seems to me they would strike even harder-to rip apart something that reminds them of their own inherent social weakness. They might laugh him out of the country and kick him while he’s down. They’d call him a dog and treat him as such. They would destroy him because he is a threat to their order.
Having a weakness or defect reminds me of Napoleon’s winter campaign. Napoleon’s generals instructed the soldiers to shave every day, even though a beard would help to protect their faces against the chilling wind. There were a lot of reasons for this decision, but one of the main reasons was to maintain discipline. Shaving was a habit, and it was a norm that was valued by the French. Giving up on shaving was seen as an inner weakness-a personal defect. If we dig deeper, we can see how being unkempt was an affront to the order of the whole campaign. Could then this noble value Law or being Unaligned still after being disgraced? Could a fall from Law unravel something personal instead? I think that might get closer to reflecting the consequences of a shift in alignment.
Reasonable folks may differ, but I stick to the convention of 5 skills for humans and 6 for demi-humans. I would probably cut orator and spread those points out to Hunter and Rider.
When I said obscurity, I mostly imagined the former noble becoming the town drunk and dying of alcohol poisoning over several decades or some such similar circumstance that is suitably meaningless and far removed from their former station.
They’ve basically embraced nihilism in this scenario and that’s why they’re unplayable and have to be retired. (I also imagine that they were a minor enough noble that no one in court actually cares what happens to them.)
I’m not quite sure what else I would put to convey that, but I’m open to suggestions!
Also I do think that their belief in hierarchy—Law—is what makes them a noble (something they’d definitely like to be again some day), so going as far away from that as Chaos means that they’ve completely given up on their identity and must change classes to reflect that. Maybe they become a Thief or Barbarian, but I don’t think a Chaotic noble is something that exists because Chaos is a rejection of the kind of order that nobility requires.
Oh also I think you’re probably right about the Health and Will restrictions, so I’m going to drop it in my next editing pass.
I knew about the convention of 13 skill points for humans and 15 for demi-humans but I didn’t realize there was an additional breakdown of 5 and 6 skills respectively! I’m going to go ahead and change it to:
Commander 3, Rider 3, Steward 3, Hunter 2, Scholar 2
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