True nobility is exempt from fear - GLOG Class: Caste Noble

Quite by coincidence at least two other noble-themed GLOG classes have been published in the last week. Much like busses, you wait all day for one then three come at once.

You are a Caste Noble, a descendent of great heroes - or exceptionally successful cattle rustlers. In truth, if you go back far enough, there is often little difference. You may wear any armour or shields you wish. You cannot fumble with swords, maces, bows or lances, unless wielding a magical version of those weapons in a formal duel.

Starting Skill: roll twice; 1. Command 2. Heraldry 3. Hunting 4. Character Judgement 5. Siegecraft 6. Logistics

Equipment: Three bronze weapons of your choice, a bronze breastplate and helm, a shield bearing a personal device, a bad tempered warhorse, a signet ring, cloth-of-gold clothes, 3d6x50gp worth of jewellery, one item of choice or two rolls on the Heirlooms & Inheritances table, and a sense of entitlement a mile wide.

Every template gives +1 To Hit & +1 to Reaction Rolls

A: Warborn, Sobriquet, Retainers

B: Raise Banners +1 Retainer 

C: Crush Resistance +1 Retainer

D: Corona, +1 Retainer

A: Warborn

You have the rare quality of Nobility, which is a kind of disregard for the value of life combined with the skill and ability to take it. Against brigands, peasant militia, savage demihumans and beasts, along with anyone else who doesn't have a lifetime of training in battle and hunting (like Soulknives and Ironmen), you roll damage on the following table, using the damage die of your weapon;

1-3 1HD

4-6 2HD

7-9 3HD

10+ 4HD

You kill the indicated number of HD worth of foes. Most peasants, bandits and goblins have 1HD or fractions thereof. Any excess carries over to any other foes in range if your weapon. Be sure to lovingly describe the comical slaughter you inflict.

A: Sobriquet

Your deeds affect the lives of many, and so by them you are known. You start being known as either The Great or The Terrible, at your choice. Your actions in the course of play may change this.

If you are known as The Great, any reaction rolls of Uncertain are automatically upgraded to Friendly. Reroll any result of Immediate Attack. Your social inferiors are welcoming and talk openly and frankly around you, but slow to bend to your wishes.

If you are known as The Terrible, any reaction rolls of Uncertain are automatically set to Leave, and any rolls of Immediate Attack are instead rolled as Possible Attack. Reroll any results of Friendly. Your social inferiors are obsequious and obedient, but avoid your pesence and talking about anything that may anger you.

Regardless of your Sobriquet, you are recognised as highborn and may own land, wear armour in a city, and can demand trial by a jury of your peers.

A: Retainers

You have [Templates] servants of exceptional loyalty, whose families have served yours for generations. All have stats as a 0-level man-at-arms. They do not count against your normal hireling limit. If killed a replacement can be obtained on a roll of 2:6 for each month spent in civilisation. Roll from the following table, but your first one is always a Dogsbody, lamentably;

1. Dogsbody: A man with no brain, or the wit to be disloyal. Equipped with livery and a concealed knife, no special traits beyond absolutely unflinching loyalty and obedience - seriously, they will do anything you command - but can carry, set up tents, build fires and cook (badly). Has some kind of odious personal habit, like nose picking or chewing tobacco.

2. Torturer: A terrible person, of singular skill. Equipped with an executioner's sword and splint mail. Can extract d3-1 answers to questions of your choice from a helpless person, no save allowed, but the victim will surely die.

3. Sage: A wise man, devoted to learning. Equipped with a belt knife but will not participate in combat unless cornered. Can identify magical items with a 2:6 accuracy rate per day of study and provide mundane answers on topics of history, geography, theology and art.

4. Bodyguard: The most deserving of retirement, the least likely to attain it. Equipped with a breastplate, shield and spear. Can take a hit for you, at the cost of being taken out of the fight. He gets back up on 1HP as soon as danger is passed, unless a merciless foe takes the time to kill him while he's down or you quit the field.

5. Courtier: Perfumed, silver-tongued, deceitful - and on your side. Equipped with a ceremonial tipstaff - counts as a club, but will not fight if they can flee. Can secure you a meeting with any prominent public figure in d4 days, and allow you to be treated according to your station even in lands hostile to your own.

6. Assassin: Soft of voice, soft of step, dead of eye. Equipped with a leather jerkin, a sap and a poisoned stiletto. Give him the name of an NPC and as many pieces of information about a given target they would wish to keep secret as you can. He has a [secrets]:6 chance of killing them by the next morning, as long as their HD is equal or lower than yours, otherwise he dies unless on a roll of a 1. Nameless NPC's of no importance can be dispatched without a roll, but it will still take a day.

7. Poison Taster: Possessed of a strong stomach, in every sense. Equipped with a dagger and a pouch of medicinal charcoal. Can identify potions for you by taste, and has a 3:6 chance of ignoring any negative effects after hurriedly stuffing down a handful of charcoal.

8. Confessor: An accessory to your many sins. Equipped with a crozier (counts as a club) and gambeson. If you are subject to a curse, they have a 4:6 chance to be able to tell you the exact steps (penances) needed to break it. On a 1, it's very easy.

9. Physician: A scholar from foreign lands with foreign ideas, like hygiene. Equipped with a gambeson, dagger and healer's kit. While he is in your entourage you have +1HP per level, these are lost at a rate of 1HP per day if he leaves or dies.

10. Artist: A weak and tortured man, his memory will outlive you. Doesn't accompany you on adventures, but you may choose to spend money funding his works - you gain no benefit for cash spent in this way, but in the event of your death the gold spent becomes the XP total for your next character.

B: Raise Banners

Any men-at-arms under your direction gain a bonus to their attack rolls and AC equal to your Templates in this class. With a week of drilling peasant militia, you can pacify an inhabited hex of any trouble related to banditry, humanoid attacks or dangerous mundane animals. 

C: Crush Resistance

Any successful attack you make while charging deals an automatic critical hit. If you are also mounted on a horse or chariot, enemies subject to such a charge must immediately test morale.

D: Corona

You apprehend the true name Blood, and may teach it to sorcerers if you wish, they will expect to have to do you a great service in return. You are immune to emotion-based attacks and effects, and may freely control your own blood temperature. Furthermore, any oath sworn in your presence while you bear a bleeding wound, no matter how shallow, is magically binding, with the consequences determined by the wording of the oath. Any such oath must be prefaced by the affirmation "I swear" or "I promise". If you force a bandit to forswear all villainy on pain of death and he agrees, even at swordpoint, then fate will conspire to ensure that his next crime is his last. Any oaths you swear to uphold yourself are just as binding.

Heirlooms & Inheritances

1. A crumbling keep on a rugged (two of the following keywords; rocky, barren, lawless) bit of land, many leagues and multiple terrain hazards away from any large settlement. Would take an investment of a small fortune to make it profitable, but it could be done.

2. A war chariot that once took part in the royal lion-hunt, horses not included.

3. An extensive cosmetics kit, including perfume essences.

4. A distinctive barrel seal, its imprint can only be forged on a 1:6.

5. A pair of incredibly good boots - passed down from your grandfather, having been through multiple wars, and still look just elegantly vintage.

6. A leopardskin cloak, the head of the beast taxidermied to act as a pauldron. Adds a sufficiently exotic flair to make any ensemble fit for court.

7. Five arm-bands of gold-chased bronze. Give one to someone who swears service to you to raise their loyalty bonus by +15.

8. A pair of overshoes mounted on inch-high copper rings. Keeps the hem of your cloak out of the muck, and incidentally lets you walk over caltrops unharmed.

9. Ancestor scrolls, detailing your lineage and your ancestor's significant accomplishments. Allows you to reroll failed Saves versus Fear, if  succumbing would cause you shame in their eyes.

10. The inlaid horn of an extinct auroch, sacred in a time when the gods walked among men. Wine that has been poured from it is as mystically potent as blood.

11. A longsword made from steely iron, left behind by the Ironmen and expertly maintained since.

12. D6 clay blessing tablets. Break them on the steps of a temple to gain a bonus to endeavours related to the god's purview for the next day.

13. D6 clay curse tablets. Throw them against the dwelling of a hated enemy to give him a penalty to a particular action of your choosing equal to the number of tablets smashed for the rest of the day.

14. A mail-piercing poignard dagger, made of iron. Reduces the AV of non-plate armour by 2. Snaps on a natural 1.

15. A set of books and scrolls containing treatises on three of the following subjects, enough to make the reader an armchair expert; 1. Warfare 2. Statecraft 3. Law 4. Myths & Legends 5. Geography 6. Imaginitive Lovemaking.

16. A folding wax tablet and stylus, for making impromtu notes. 

17. Two Scytale, a cipher rod used to encode messages. Your family patriarch also has an identical one.

18. A lacquered box containing number of common poisons, measured out in microdoses. Using them to kill someone would make you reviled as a coward for the rest of your life, but as long as you consume them regularly you have a +4 bonus to Saves vs. poison.

19. A ball of fine silk twine, remarkably strong and light, 100 meters long.

20. An unusual trinket, roll d6;

1. A sphere of runed iron, the size of an olive. While it is in contact with your skin your body is, metaphysically, considered to be made of iron without actually changing substance. Sorcerers will shrink from you like you were a leper while wearing it.

2. FIVE LIONS RAMPANT - a (+1) tulwar of immaculum, hilt of gold and ivory. Twirling it over your head produces the sound of a host of roaring big cats.

3. The deed to a haunted mansion, which you have to survive the night in to claim ownership. If you succeed, all the tenant spirits become your sworn vassals.

4. A black ribbon, attached to a token of tomb-silver. Can be exchanged for the services of the Assassin's Guild in eliminating any one subject. They will keep sending progressively more deadly agents until the target is dead, or return the token with an apology and a really nice bottle of wine.

5. The porcelain death-mask of your line's founder, decorated with carnelian tears. While wearing it undead roll for reaction with you as normal and can be conversed with, even non-sentient undead - though some knowledge of ancient languages may be required. Those who are hostile were probably slain by your ancestor.

6. An ivory cameo of an elven princess, set in repousséd gold, token of an ancestor's ancient tryst. While holding it close you can see dimly in darkness out to a range of 30ft - enough to fight and navigate around a room in pitch blackness, but not to read or make out facial features - and can passively sense the presence of hidden doors on a 1:6.