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Cquote1 Now come along, bring me before your master so that we may begin the Trial of the Century. Cquote2
Kubota
Kubota
Biographical information
Death

Year 1184

Hometown

Azure City

First Comic

412

Last Comic

595

Physical description
Gender

Male

Hair color

Black

Chronological and political information
Affiliation

House Kubota

Class

Aristocrat/Unknown Prestige Class

Alignment

Lawful Evil

Known masters

Lord Shojo (deceased)

Known apprentices

Therkla (deceased)

Status

Deceased/Destroyed

D&D Stats
Level

1+/7+

Abilities

Ability to fool magical lie detection (Ex)

Daimyo Kubota was a male human aristocrat and the head of House Kubota. He led several noble houses in abandoning Azure City on the eve of battle of Azure City over a disagreement with Lord Hinjo and Roy Greenhilt regarding how best to address the impending threat of Xykon.[1]

On Kubota's orders, both a pair of ninjas[2] and a convict released to fight for the city[3] tried (and failed) to assassinate Hinjo during the chaos of the battle.

Due to the ruling of the lone magistrate to escape the fall of the city, Hinjo was unable to arrest Kubota for these actions.[4] As Kubota's ships sailed with the fleet of refugees leaving the city, he made several more attempts on Lord Hinjo's life using charmed aquatic monsters and his own ninja, Therkla.[5]

Hinjo described Kubota as the kind of man who would not care whether all of Azure City fell to the forces of evil, just so long as he came out of it with his power intact.[4] However, Kubota actually was more actively villainous than even Hinjo suspected, conspiring with devils to place himself on Azure City's throne.[6][7] Kubota had an appreciation for the finer things in life, from caviar[6] to imported rugs, which extends to a dim view of commoners like Kazumi Kato and her husband Daigo.

Kubotadead

Disintegrated Kubota

While he surrendered to Elan following the murder of Therkla,[8] he seemed infinitely confident of the aristocratic countermeasures he had plotted out, assuming that any trial will turn into a circus to make Hinjo look even worse, in part due to a non specified "aristocrat-friendly prestige class that grants the extraodinary ability to fool magical lie detection". All his bragging was for naught; Kubota never even got to trial, thanks to a Disintegrate spell from an annoyed and trance-deprived Vaarsuvius. This was followed with Gust of Wind, which effectively swept Kubota's remains into the sea, thus preventing him from being resurrected.[9]

Vaarsuvius then admitted to not even knowing the man's name or precisely what he had done wrong, simply that, as Elan's prisoner, he was most likely a villain of some sort, and that the trial Kubota mentioned would distract from Vaarsuvius' research. Elan did not approve of the killing, comparing to it something Belkar would have done.[10]

As he had no heirs, his house was made defunct with his death and its remaining assets were seized by Lord Hinjo to set up a town in the new Azurite colony.[11]

Powers and Abilities[]

  • Aristocrat: Kubota's base class is the Aristocrat NPC class, which is generally weak when compared to PC classes.
  • Unnamed Prestige Class: Kubota strongly implies that he has levels in a prestige class in addition to his base class, making him more powerful. The class must be "artistocrat-friendly", meaning the entry requirements could be met by an Aristocrat in terms of not requiring spell-casting ability and using skills which an Aristocrat has access to. According to Kubota, it also "grants the extraordinary ability to fool magical lie detection." There are two primary candidates for this class:
    • Assassin: The prerequisites for Assassin are: evil alignment, Disguise 4, Hide 8, Move Silently 8, and killing someone for the purposes of joining the class. Disguise is an in-class skill for Aristocrat, but Kubota would have had to buy the other two at double cost, for a total of 36 skill points. If Kubota had 12-18 Intelligence (which governs skill points for Aristocrats) he could have put together the prerequisites at Aristocrat level 5. However, as the maximum rank for cross-class skills in 3.5 is [(Level + 3)/2], he would have needed to be at least a 13th level Aristocrat to reach the required ranks in Hide and Move Silently. Assassins gain proficiency in poison use, which Kubota has shown. At 7th level, they also gain access to the Glibness spell which allows them to avoid lie detection or forced truth telling. This would require him to be a 13/7 Aristocrat/Assassin though. Kubota quite clearly is not a 20th-Level character, which is at latest proven when Vaarsuvius manages to kill him with a single cast of Disintegrate. The only option for the unmentioned Prestige Class to be Assassin would be for Kubota to either have multiclassed to something that gets Hide and Move Silently as a class skill (most likely Rogue), or to possess some rather rare feat that adds these skills to his class skill list (which, at least for Move Silently, has not been printed). The simplest build would then be 4+/1+/7+ Aristocrat/Rogue/Assassin. Still, this would mean that Kubotas entire protection from magical lie detection would rely on a single spell, and requires the NPC to dip into PC class levels.
    • Spymaster: The 2005 Complete Adventurer includes the 7-level Spymaster prestige class, which is far more likely to be the class in question. The prerequisites are: Bluff 8, Diplomacy 4, Disguise 8, Forgery 4, Gather Information 4, Sense Motive 4. As well as the Skill Focus (Bluff) Feat. All of the required skills are in-class, for a total of 32 skill points and one feat. Thus he could have taken this class at Aristocrat level 5, making the same assumption about Int. The entire ability set for the spymaster class revolves around disrupting their opponent's ability to detect their alignment, thoughts or intentions by natural or magical means, culminating in the 7th-level ability Deep Cover, which flat out disables all divination magic from getting any true information about the spymaster's true persona. As all the previous spymaster abilities already provide significant bonuses against such divination magic, Kubota could be a 5+/1+ Aristocrat/Spymaster, with a cap at 5+/7, meaning his "build" would reach its maximum potential at level 12. Given Lord Shojo identified himself as a 14th-level Aristocrat[12], this seems to be a more attainable goal.

Other Appearances[]

  • Kubota appeared in the bonus digital comic "Spoiler Alert", published in February 2015, featuring Therkla. This story was republished in the 2018 Good Deeds Gone Unpunished.
  • Kubota may appear at Shojo's funeral in the War and XPs bonus strip #416a, "Requiem for a 14th-Level Aristocrat". There is a lone person in the empty seats at the funeral with a topknot in Kubota's style. However, the timing of this appearance is complicated by Kubota's apparance in #414, where he tells Hinjo he is going to his junk. Also the character is not wearing Kubota's usual pauldrons. Alternatively, this character might be one of the soon-to-be leaders of the Azurite Resistance.

References[]

  1. Comic #414, "Noble is Goodble"
  2. Comic #453, "Heck of a Fight"
  3. Comic #435, "Amoral Dilemma"
  4. 4.0 4.1 Comic #503, "Surreptitious Admirer"
  5. Comic #506, "Flanking Crush"
  6. 6.0 6.1 Comic #509, "It Has Flowers, Hearts, and a DC 30 Lock"
  7. Comic #631, "Who Doesn't Get Ten of These a Week?"
  8. Comic #594,Rock the Boat"
  9. Comic #595, "Trial of the Century"
  10. Comic #596, "Convenience Story"
  11. Rich Burlew's Patreon, "Answer Post (Mar/Apr 2020)"
  12. Comic #289, "Senility Now!"
Appearances
412, 413, 414, 484, 503, 509, 562, 589, 590, 592, 593, 594, 595
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