Okay, an odd idea came up the other day from one of my players. Currently, it is not something we are running with, but wanted to hear thoughts of some of you folks on this.

Keeping the concept of medieval era in mind, the idea was that often, successful middle class merchants would try and "buy" nobility. So, the player suggested that, on occasion, struggling noble families would sell off their bloodline to a commoner who gave them financial aid (and would also incidentally marry into the family usually) by making an elderly uncle invest them with their bloodline, rather than pass it on to their children. Note that this would be for members of the family that are "off" the core branch of inheritance.

Obviously, the merchant would have to be darn wealthy - as they would also have to pay for the ceremony of investiture, as well as paying the fee for the bloodline.

The social drawbacks would also be considerable - the nouveau riche syndrome would be applied to the new noble, and would face numerous reaction penalties amongst the nobility. Meanwhile, the older, destitute family now with renewed funds would also be castigated.

Note also that this more applies to commoners rather than guilders with assets/holdings/bloodlines already - but on the other hand, how much WOULD El-hadid pay for a stronger bloodline? After all, doing so would enable him (meta-gaming wise) to earn way more RP, and thus, become far more competitive.

Thoughts, folks? I know that it is not totally in keeping with the concepts of keeping bloodlines "divine", but thematically, an argument could be made for it.

Again, right now, I am avoiding this one very carefully - seems like it could disruptive by far in a campaign, especially in an established one. I am tempted to run an experimental campaign with this as a possibility someday though.

The interesting thing is that this would then, in some ways, replace the magic item shops that you see in other worlds - adventurers with lots of cash, and no magic items to buy, could cash in for magic abilities instead, via bloodlines. Oddly this would bring back some of the game balance that is argued about in other threads - that due to low magic, CR at certain levels can be skewed.