playing a noble

[ecorsis]

Hi I play Conan rpg and in my current campaign i am a noble. i didnt roll the best of stats, but i have decided that i will find my nitch and make use of it. I try and talk my way out of any encounter I handle animals whenever there is one. but i am very upstaged but the fighter in my group in the sheer killing department. I am usually not hitting hard enough to do damage or knocked unconscious.

my new idea is to use alchemy and herbalism to aid my allies and to harm my foes. so any suggestions on how to be more useful in a fight by using the ways of the noble.
Or just suggestions of what kind of concoctions i should always try to keep a full supply of?

 

[Clovenhoof]

First off, NOBODY beats the Soldier in the pure straight-on melee fighting department, provided he has access to the gear of his choice. That's his job. That class can really only fight and do nothing else.

But let me think about how a Noble can be useful in Combat. Never really paid much attention to the class since we don't have one in our group.

#1: Tank. Noble has Heavy Armour Proficiency AND the money to make use of it, so get a Large Shield, Full Plate and Great/Visored Helm. You'll still get hit quite often due to your crappy Defense, but DR12 goes a really long way and is almost impenetrable. Let the mooks slash at you futilely while you just stand there and laugh.

#2: Magekiller. Noble is the one class beside Scholar that has a Good Will Save. So whenever there is an Evil Sorcerer nearby, rush at him, get between him and your crew. You're the one with the highest chance of surviving those nasty Will Saves.
If you go that route, you should limit yourself to Light Armour, take the Iron Will feat and also Fleet Footed so no Sorcerer can outrun you.

#3: to deal damage, max out Bluff and take the Power Attack and Improved Feint feats (and maybe Skill Focus Bluff). You can feint one opponent and attack him in the same round. A feinted opponent has DV10, so you can crank up that Power Attack.
You might also add in some Thief levels for that nasty Sneak Attack, which applies every time you have feinted an opponent.

 

[Ichabod]

#1: Tank. Noble has Heavy Armour Proficiency AND the money to make use of it, so get a Large Shield, Full Plate and Great/Visored Helm. You'll still get hit quite often due to your crappy Defense, but DR12 goes a really long way and is almost impenetrable. Let the mooks slash at you futilely while you just stand there and laugh.

Yeah, if there's already a soldier (assuming fighter = soldier) in the party, then heavy armor isn't likely to be suicidal like it is in our campaign. Doesn't help with offense, though.

#3: to deal damage, max out Bluff and take the Power Attack and Improved Feint feats (and maybe Skill Focus Bluff). You can feint one opponent and attack him in the same round. A feinted opponent has DV10, so you can crank up that Power Attack.
You might also add in some Thief levels for that nasty Sneak Attack, which applies every time you have feinted an opponent.

It seems to me that the character already exists and that there isn't a lot of rewriting that can be done nor does the question seem to be about how to make a character better at combat by ceasing to waste time as a noble.

I don't know that there's a great need for Improved Feint, which takes two feats the normal way (using up all three feats that, say, a 3rd level noble should have). I'd much rather take Cleave as it's Cleave at lower levels that is the hotness of PA/C where PA gets a lot better when the BAB gets around 4 or so. Of course, the assumption is that the character is using a bardiche or greatsword since there's no reason not to.

Knowledge: Zingaran Fencing School would be an interesting way to go since it gives stuff like Improved Feint for free, but it's not likely to help this character much since you still need damage output to make it worthwhile and K:ZFS limits to broadsword or arming sword, meaning pretty much you want a bunch of Sneak Attack - not exactly a noble's strength.

No, resign yourself to being a spearchucker. It's okay. Everyone in our party except the 23 STR barbarian is a spearchucker at least some of the time, almost everyone is a spearchucker all of the time - we run into so many things immune to Sneak Attack stuff that even the thief is regularly neutered. How do you help as a spearchucker? Well, the tank thing helps take pressure off if you form good combat lines, but mostly, you embrace the aid another action. It's amazing how often our group forgets that our impotence makes aiding the killing machine the only reasonable choice. Just selfish to swing on an enemy futilely. Also, when your attack is good enough, remember to fight defensively when aiding another. The noble was even meant to be a spearchucker with the horridly undesirable Lead By Example power - relish your ineffectualness. Relish!

Not that I particularly understand the grapple rules, but maybe you can pick up Improved Grapple to become a countergrappler so that the hitters in the party don't get bogged down in tedious grapple wars.

At higher levels, can start in on the Steely Gaze, Menacing Aura, ..., "Look at me and my party kills you" (or whatever the end feat is) path. Of course, by 6th level, a noble should have an army to do the fighting which may or may not need any help.

 

[Clovenhoof]

I stand corrected. Ichabod's tips are better than mine. ^^

 

[Old Bear]

Hi I play Conan rpg and in my current campaign i am a noble. i didnt roll the best of stats, but i have decided that i will find my nitch and make use of it. I try and talk my way out of any encounter I handle animals whenever there is one. but i am very upstaged but the fighter in my group in the sheer killing department. I am usually not hitting hard enough to do damage or knocked unconscious.

my new idea is to use alchemy and herbalism to aid my allies and to harm my foes. so any suggestions on how to be more useful in a fight by using the ways of the noble.
Or just suggestions of what kind of concoctions i should always try to keep a full supply of?

Why even try to be good in a fight? This is roleplaying, not some online MMO hackfest. Your character doesn't actually have to be any good at all. Some of the best 'noble' characters in the Conan stories are thoroughly undesirable. My advice: play dirty, amass heaps of money and get other people to die for you. Oh, and open a theatre. You can never go wrong opening a theatre. :wink:

 

[Barbarossa Rotbart]

If your campaign is more combat orientated than I would suggest, that your noble uses a missle weapon and stays out of the melee.
If combat is not so important in your campaign, then your noble need not to have any combat skills. Concentrate on your social skills.

 

[Majestic7]

If you want a combat focused Noble, don't ignore cultural bonuses that depend on the background of the character. They can guide weapon choices and aid in actually hitting your enemies. Intricate Swordplay is one feat that can give a Noble quite good Parry score. However, the point of playing a Noble should not be combat, but superior social skills - and even more importantly - social position that allows the character to follow different rules and laws than common people.