Author Topic: Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.  (Read 2148 times)

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Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.
« on: January 17, 2010, 12:53:05 PM »
Hi there!

I have been looking at the Noble class from the DragonLance campaign setting, and while the class itself is only a little more useful then the DMG Aristocrat, it does get an interesting class feature at level 1; Favor.

Basically Favor grants you a roll of d20 plus a bonus of +1 at first level, up to a bonus of +5 at level 20. The roll itself represents the characters ability to influence political systems and have people of influence grant them favors ranging from fairly minor favors at DC 10 and up to truly fantastic favors at DC 25. Beating DCs of above 25 have no defined effect, but there is a clause in the rules for the ability that bars it from letting the PCs circumvent the campaign by having others do their adventure for them, or downright 'break the game'. The roll is not modified by any ability score.

Now, the challenge here is: With an investment of only one level of Noble, can you help me build a character that:

1) Gets the ability to reliably beat DC 25 Favor rolls as early as possible.

2) Takes advantage of a high Cha score? The Noble has a lot of good Cha based skills on its list, and I want to continue taking advantage of them even after I multiclass out of Noble at level 2.

3) Retains the potential ability of having 9th level spells at level 20, and Epic Spellcasting at level 21.

and finally:

4) Fits into the DragonLance setting by belonging to a race common in the DragonLance setting, which would be races like Dwarf, Human, Gnome, Elf, Silvanesti (grey) Elf or the like, and not needing to worship gods from other settings.

Any ideas? All I could come up with is to abuse a persisted Surge of Fortune spell from Complete Champion, whych would grant me a +2 bonus to the roll.

Remember that influencing political systems and VIPs can take time, so boosts that only lasts for a short time will not help! Let us assume that any buffs that last for less than an hour will not last long enough to actually influence the roll.

All books that are not dedicated to specific non-DragonLance campaign settings are allowed.

And now.. Can you please do me a DC 25 favor?
« Last Edit: January 17, 2010, 01:02:56 PM by E-mail »

juton

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Re: Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2010, 01:15:30 PM »
The first thing that pops into my head is that the utility of this is going to be limited to campaigns where there are a good number of receptive higher level NPCs. So it may work in Forgotten Realms, but would be pretty useless in Ravenloft.

It also can of reproduces a key part of a Diplomancer except instead of favour they use diplomacy. So you'll want to maximize and synergize CHA, try here. Luckily, if your DM allows other Dragonlance books the book Legends of the Twins contains a feat that lets you change a divine caster's casting stat to charisma. So you could go Noble 1/Druid 19, which is a pretty good build right there.

telehax

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Re: Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2010, 01:40:14 PM »
The roll is not modified by any ability score.

Ahem. If only it were that easy.

Aldgar

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Re: Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2010, 01:48:00 PM »
Surge of Fortune can be discharged for an automatic roll of a 20.

So, cast surge of fortune twice, then discharge one to get a result of 23.

I dunno how to get that last +2 bonus, though...

melinore

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Re: Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2010, 02:22:42 PM »
Are you sure Surge of Fortune would work? It is limited as to what kind of rolls it can affect.

The result of the next attack roll, saving throw, skill check, ability check, or spell penetration check you attempt is treated as a natural 20, as long as it occurs within 1 round of the time you invoked this power.


I'm not sure a favor check qualifies as any of those.

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Re: Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2010, 02:45:42 PM »
Blast! You are absolutely right on that, Surge of Fortune is out :( That only makes it harder.

That wis to cha feat is really nice though, and will probably find its way to a DMM build of mine soon..

telehax

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Re: Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2010, 11:19:07 AM »
More party pooping: Dynamic Priest doesn't *completely* change casting stat to Cha. I'm not sure which of the three ability dependencies it affects though, just that it isn't all 3. IIRC you still need wisdom = 10+spell level, so it's not that bad.

Also, for those of you who don't have the book, the favor check is a simple Favor Bonus(Determined by noble levels)+d20 roll. So only things that affect any d20 roll will work.

Havok4

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Re: Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.
« Reply #7 on: January 18, 2010, 01:37:26 PM »
More party pooping: Dynamic Priest doesn't *completely* change casting stat to Cha. I'm not sure which of the three ability dependencies it affects though, just that it isn't all 3. IIRC you still need wisdom = 10+spell level, so it's not that bad.
It actually effects everything except save DCs.

Endarire

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Re: Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.
« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2010, 04:44:45 PM »
Cleric1 with the Luck domain
Hood - My first answer to all your build questions; past, present, and future.

Speaking of which:
Don't even need TO for this.  Any decent Hood build, especially one with Celerity, one-rounds [Azathoth, the most powerful greater deity from d20 Cthulu].
Does it bug anyone else that we've reached the point where characters who can obliterate a greater deity in one round are considered "decent?"

bearsarebrown

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Re: Optimizing Favor, THE class feature of the DL Noble.
« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2010, 04:03:12 PM »
Fate Mantle. 1/day add you Ardent level to ANY d20 roll.