Here’s another thought regarding the relative power of nobles. The thinking behind makings kings weaker than border barons is generally sound in terms of “earned experience”, which drives the player characters. On the other hand, not all kings are lay-about weenies. Frederick Barbarossa (you can access a scholarly review of his life HERE) and Henry V come to mind, as do Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, etc. These are the architects of empire, as opposed to the heirs of empire. So – if you’re doing your king or duke or count as an architect of a great kingdom or empire, by all means, use the Borderer stats for him or her.

Now for some more samples, using this table as a source for nicknames.

Marquessa Hiertrude the Bounteous, the Blood Marquessa
The Marquessa Hiertrude is mostly known for her large, loving family – six children by her late husband, the Marquis. It is less known that she is a vampire, turned by a foe of her husband. She has since turned her children into her spawn (save the eldest, Hormand, who is in hiding) and is even now preparing to rally the humanoids she once fought and lead them into the heart of Azura’s kingdom. Her retinue (also vampire spawn) consists of three men-at-arms, two clarks, her court musician Antonio and two sons of the lesser nobility, Anatole and Freder, who were serving as page boys in her husband’s court before she turned them. They are now eternally eleven years old and thoroughly evil.

HIERTRUDE: HD 9 (42 hp); AC 2 [17]; Atk 1 weapon (1d8) or bite (1d10 + level drain); Move 9 (12 out of armor, F18); Save 6; CL/XP 12/2000; Special: Eight followers, vampire powers.

Count Gudolph the Cunning
Gudolph is a cunning man, though only lightly educated. He knows well that his county lies in the path of the Blood Marquessa, and has been recruiting heavily among the priesthood of the kingdom for the last year, giving generous gifts of land to the church in an attempt to shore up his defenses or, at a minimum, convince Hiertrude to march her armies around his land. His retinue consists of two scribes (lay priests), three men-at-arms and three sergeant-at-arms. All of his bodyguards have been trained and armed to deal with vampires.

GUDOLPH: HD 5 (22 hp); AC 2 [17]; Atk 1 weapon (1d8); Move 9 (12 out of armor); Save 12; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Eight followers, treasure as CL 15, intelligence 14.

Queen Azura I, the Calf
The young Azura has recently assumed the throne after the mysterious death of her mother. She is only 16, but head strong and confident. Faced with signs of rebellion on her borders, she is assembling an army to meet it head on, caring little for the council of her advisers. Her retinue includes four lesser nobles, four sergeants-at-arms (one of them her secret lover) and four scribes doing their best to educate the girl-queen while she scurries about barking orders and managing her new kingdom with gusto.

AZURA: HD 2 (14 hp); AC 2 [17]; Atk 1 weapon (1d8); Move 9 (12 out of armor); Save 16; CL/XP 2/60; Special: Triple normal number of followers, treasure as CL 20 intelligence 8, wisdom 6, strength 16, constitution 16.

 

Let’s begin by defining nobles. Any character with a crown and a fief or kingdom can be a noble, but we’re looking at them as antagonists or support staff for the player characters, and putting them in the “monster” or NPC category.

The toughest nobles are the border nobles – the guys and dolls on the fringe of the wilderness fighting against humanoids / barbarians / neighbors day in and day out. We’re going to give these folks 9 Hit Dice, making them roughly equal to the name-level characters who might live next door. These folks probably have titles like baron or margrave / markgraf / marquis.

The next toughest are the lesser nobles dwelling within the kingdom’s borders – far enough from the barbarians to not be fighting every day, but close enough that they have to muster maybe once or twice a year to fight a war for their liege. Because they aren’t the upper nobility, they’re more expendable, and might very well have to form up in ranks and charge into battle. We’ll give them 5 HD to reflect their combat training and experience. These folks can be barons, viscounts, counts and maybe dukes.

Dukes, however, are usually part of the greater nobility, along with grand dukes, archdukes (yeah, all the various varieties of duke) and the royals – princes, kings, etc. The greater nobility are politicians more than anything else. They’re trained to fight, but they don’t have to do much fighting. We’ll give the greater nobility 2 HD to show off their training and better living.

This makes nobles pretty plain, really – just men and women with 2, 5 or 9 HD. What makes them noble? Well, power, of course. Some hold more treasure than somebody with their hit dice should hold. We’ll say the greater nobility have treasure as though they were CL 20 monsters, lesser nobility as CL 15 and borderers as CL 9. They also specialize in retinues. Nobles always get twice the number of followers that their charisma (we’ll assume a charisma of 10, but those nicknames we’re going to roll up can change that) would normally allow. Greater nobles have triple the normal number of followers.

Who follows a noble? Roll on the table below for each follower …

Noble Followers (Roll 3d6)
3. Court jester (thief or bard level 1d4+2; re-roll if a second jester comes up)
4. Court musician (bard level 1d4+2; additional musicians are level 1 associates of the first)
5. Rake (5% chance of being a level 1d4+2 assassin; additional rakes are just plain rakes)
6-7. Lesser noble
8-10. Scribe (1% chance of being a level 1d4+2 assassin spy)
11-13. Man-at-arms (platemail, pole arm, sword, maybe crossbow)
14-15. Sergeant-at-arms (platemail, shield, longsword, maybe crossbow)
16. Champion (fighter level 1d4+2; additional champions are level 1 comrades of the first)
17. Court magician (magic-user level 1d4+2; additional court magicians are level 1 apprentices to the first)
18. Chaplain (cleric level 1d4+2; addition chaplains are level 1 assistants to the first)

So, here are our basic noble stat lines:

BORDERER: HD 9; AC 2 [17]; Atk 1 weapon (1d8); Move 9 (12 out of armor); Save 5; CL/XP 9/1100; Special: Double normal number of followers.

LESSER NOBLE: HD 5; AC 2 [17]; Atk 1 weapon (1d8); Move 9 (12 out of armor); Save 12; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Double normal number of followers, treasure as CL 15.

GREATER NOBLE: HD 2; AC 2 [17]; Atk 1 weapon (1d8); Move 9 (12 out of armor); Save 16; CL/XP 2/60; Special: Triple normal number of followers, treasure as CL 20.

Now, about those nicknames.

We’ve all heard them. Charles the Bold, Richard the Lionheart, Pepin the Small. They can describe the person’s appearance, faults, foibles, personality and deeds. So, why not let them make nobles something more than cookie-cutter monsters or NPCs.

What follows are 600 possible nicknames, 99% of them drawn from history. Yeah – the weirdest ones are all real – I added about 5 to give me a solid 600. Most nobles have a single nickname, a few have more than one (see below).

Number of Noble Nicknames (Roll 1d10)
1-8. Roll for one nickname
9. Roll for two nicknames
10. Roll for three nicknames

Roll 1d6 to determine which list to use and then 1d100 to determine the nickname. This post has the first list – the other five will follow (hey, this took a while – I need to get more than one blog post out of it).

Since I don’t know which set of rules you’re using, I tried to keep things basic. If your rules don’t give a bonus for high dexterity, then nicknames that give high dexterity should just be treated as descriptive. If a noble gets two nicknames that give him character class levels, then either treat he or she as dual-classed, or re-roll if that doesn’t make sense. Of course, anything that doesn’t make sense, ignore.

Where a title is mentioned (in ALL CAPS), insert the title appropriate to your noble. If your noble is a baron and you roll “Iron DUKE”, just change it to Iron Baron. For REGION, insert the name of a region or kingdom in your campaign world. For BARBARIAN insert the name of a human barbarian tribe or a group of humanoids – i.e. Hammer of the Orcs, Judge of the Scots. References to “virtuous spells” and “sinful” spells we’ll be dealt with later, though most of you can probably figure it out.

If a rolled nickname doesn’t make sense to you, re-roll.

Click the Table to make it full sized.

TABLE I (Roll 1d100)

Sample Nobles (using nicknames from Table I)

Baron Usted the Bald
Being bald doesn’t get Usted much, but as a noble he does get double the normal followers, giving him 8. We roll and find he has the following people in his retinue: For men-at-arms, three scribes (one is a 6th level assassin) and Marcus, the son of the Countess Genevieve, Usted’s liege lady.

USTED: HD 9 (41 hp); AC 2 [17]; Atk 1 battle axe (1d8); Move 9 (12 out of armor); Save 5; CL/XP 9/1100; Special: Eight followers.

Countess Genevieve Hairyfoot
The countess has some halfling blood in her; after all, her mother adored pastries and that halfling gourmand who worked at the castle was often called to visit at odd hours. She now rules a prosperous county in the middle of the kingdom. Her eight followers are Wodwick, a sergeant -at-arms, four men-at-arms, a scribe, the Baroness Salamandra, a childhood friend and Sister Sarah, a 5th level cleric.

GENEVIEVE: HD 5; AC 2 [17]; Atk 1 weapon (1d8); Move 9 (12 out of armor); Save 12; CL/XP 5/240; Special: Halfling racial abilities, eight followers, treasure as CL 15.

King Humphrey the Antichrist
King Humphrey was birthed on a moonless night, the midwife a witch and his mother a sacrifice. A bastard, he was presented to the court by his uncle and, within a decade, had seized the throne and instituted a reign of terror. His followers include five scribes, five men-at-arms and their sergeant-at-arms, Zabbo, and the wicked Viscomte de Gris.

HUMPHREY: HD 2; AC 2 [17]; Atk 1 weapon (1d8); Move 9 (12 out of armor); Save 16; CL/XP 2/60; Special: Twelve followers, treasure as CL 20, spells (1/day – bestow curse, inflict light wounds, protection from good).

FIND PART TWO HERE