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The Demented One
2009-03-14, 09:29 AM
True Genius

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/RacesNClasses_Gallery/113183.jpg

Few could ever match you at...anything. Whether it is by your own immanent ingenuity, the benefice of a deity, or some half-mad insight, you have an endless wellspring of inspiration, a genius that empowers everything you do. You can sword-fight with master duelists, pick the locks in the vaults of archfiends, weave magics of unquestionable power, or call upon divine intervention. Nothing is beyond your grasp.

Requirements 21st level, inspiration class feature

{table=head]Level|Benefit
21st|Genius Talent
24th|Hero With A Thousand Faces
27th|I Cannot Fail!
30th|Enlightened Brilliance
[/table]

Genius Talent (Ex)
At 21st level, you are treated as having maximum skill ranks in all skills, and all skills are class skills for you. In addition, choose one skill. You do not roll when you make checks with that skill–instead, you are treated as having received a roll of 20 on all checks with that skill. At 24th, 27th, and 30th levels, you may choose an additional skill to have this ability apply to.

Hero With A Thousand Faces (Ex or Su)
At 24th level, you become the sum of all heroes. As a swift action, you may choose any class feature offered by a base class at 20th level or lower, and gain that class feature. Your effective class level is treated as being equal to your character level. If the class feature has subsidiary abilities (as with a Bard’s bardic music, a Druid’s wild shape, or a Factotum’s inspiration), you gain them as well (but not improved versions of that class feature, as with evasion). You may change which class feature you have gained as a swift action. In addition, you may prepare spells of up to 9th level with your arcane dilettante class feature, if you have it, and may prepare a number of spells equal to half your character level. At 30th level, you can also use this ability to gain destiny features from any epic destiny, as long as they are available at 27th level or lower.

I Cannot Fail! (Ex)
At 27th level, your brilliance shines to brightly to ever fade. As long as you have at least one inspiration point remaining, you do not die from being reduced to -10 hp or lower, nor do you become disabled when reduced to below 0 hp. However, if your actual hit point total is reduced to -10 or lower, then you begin losing an inspiration point each round, and may only take a single standard or move action each round.

Enlightened Brilliance (Ex)
You realize the true nature of your inspiration, an enlightenment that allows you to do the impossible.
At 30th level, you may use your highest ability score modifier in place of any other ability score's modifier for all purposes.

Immortality: Undying Genius
You make your own immortality Perhaps you double-cross a demon prince, tricking him into granting you immortality even as you sell him out to the gods. Or perhaps you devise a thaumaturgical formula that transmutes your flesh into an immortal body, or come across some artifact of immeasurable life-extending power. The only limit to your immortality is what you can conceive of.

The Demented One
2009-03-14, 05:33 PM
And a bump for good measure.

Shinizak
2009-03-14, 08:18 PM
It seems a little broken, even if it is epic level...

dyslexicfaser
2009-03-14, 09:42 PM
Not so much overpowered as a logical extension of the Factotum class, I think. Hero With a Thousand Faces and I Cannot Fail! (I see you added the ! mark :smallsmile:) are damn strong, of course, but then he's building an epic destiny for the best skill monkey in the game.

Personally, I might change Genius Talent to something else; an epic-level factotum can already pretty much do anything he wants, skill-wise. Why improve that further?

The Demented One
2009-03-14, 10:01 PM
Personally, I might change Genius Talent to something else; an epic-level factotum can already pretty much do anything he wants, skill-wise. Why improve that further?
I felt like expanding the Factotum's scope from "mastery of 6 + Int skills" to "every skill ever" was important, and the voters agreed. The auto-success aspect of it also helps ensure their dominance in their chosen field. It also really fits the general spirit of the Factotum. A True Genius can jump over walls, sneak through the fortresses of arch-demons, maintain perfect focus in the eye of a hurricane, recall any piece of information about anything that might possibly be useful, perform a nigh-impossible surgery blindfolded, and compose epic poetry off the top of their head. They're the best at what they do, skill-wise, and what they do is everything.

dyslexicfaser
2009-03-14, 10:11 PM
True enough. And for some of the epic skills out there, an auto-20, max ranks in everything, and the ability to spend an inspiration point to gain your factotum level in extra ranks doesn't guarantee a success.

Adumbration
2009-03-15, 01:35 AM
Hero with a thousand Faces is a bit broken, in my opinion. Say that the True Genius, at each morning, first grabs Soul Binding as a 20th level Binder - it's a single class feature - and after binding the necessary vestiges he switches for something else?

dyslexicfaser
2009-03-15, 01:53 AM
I would assume the bound vestiges would immediately realize that the factotum in question no longer had the soul bind feature, and devour his soul in protest.

Guyr Adamantine
2009-03-15, 03:22 AM
I would assume the bound vestiges would immediately realize that the factotum in question no longer had the soul bind feature, and devour his soul in protest.

That.... really isn't their style. I'd say loss of their abilities and incur the penalties for going agains't all of their respective influence taboos.

The Demented One
2009-03-15, 06:38 AM
Hero with a thousand Faces is a bit broken, in my opinion. Say that the True Genius, at each morning, first grabs Soul Binding as a 20th level Binder - it's a single class feature - and after binding the necessary vestiges he switches for something else?
Once he gives up soulbinding, he loses the vestiges. That easy.

Adumbration
2009-03-15, 07:35 AM
Once he gives up soulbinding, he loses the vestiges. That easy.

All right, but that was just an extreme example: do you not think it overpowered that the True Genius can gain the whole point of a single class - say, in this case, a binder - without taking any class levels? A 20th level binder is far from weak, and only the tiny minority of it's power comes from class features other than Soulbind.

Not only that, but can the True Genius gain 20th level casting with his ability? Spellcasting is a class feature, and with this he can gain multiple sets of castings a day. For an example, he might start with a Sorcerer, a spontaneous caster, use a variety of useful spells, and then switch to another spontaneous caster such as Beguiler or Warmage, gaining another bunch of spells. Not to mention Favored Soul and Spirit Shaman.

The Demented One
2009-03-15, 08:13 AM
All right, but that was just an extreme example: do you not think it overpowered that the True Genius can gain the whole point of a single class - say, in this case, a binder - without taking any class levels? A 20th level binder is far from weak, and only the tiny minority of it's power comes from class features other than Soulbind.

Not only that, but can the True Genius gain 20th level casting with his ability? Spellcasting is a class feature, and with this he can gain multiple sets of castings a day. For an example, he might start with a Sorcerer, a spontaneous caster, use a variety of useful spells, and then switch to another spontaneous caster such as Beguiler or Warmage, gaining another bunch of spells. Not to mention Favored Soul and Spirit Shaman.
I'm almost sure that spellcasting isn't a "class feature" proper, but I'll clarify that as soon as get to a computer. As to the balance, I think it works. Sure, they could get a barbarian's rage, or a druid's shapeshift - but at the same level they would be getting their second epic destiny features, which are much more powerful. I think it works.

dyslexicfaser
2009-03-15, 04:42 PM
Besides, an 18th level factotum can get any class feature up to 15th, right? It's not like most classes have a capstone worth stealing.

horngeek
2009-03-15, 09:32 PM
I'm almost sure that spellcasting isn't a "class feature" proper, but I'll clarify that as soon as get to a computer.

You are ON A COMPUTER RIGHT NOW!

LordZarth
2009-03-15, 11:19 PM
You are ON A COMPUTER RIGHT NOW!

Not necessarily.

The Demented One
2009-03-16, 06:41 AM
You are ON A COMPUTER RIGHT NOW!
There's a small demon imprisoned within a summoning circle in my phone, hand-whittling an Internet connection from the lumineferous aether.

Kuma
2009-06-02, 02:25 PM
Just wondering, where can I find the Factotum?

The Demented One
2009-06-02, 03:16 PM
Just wondering, where can I find the Factotum?
Dungeonscape.

readsaboutd&d
2009-06-17, 04:19 AM
The part that bugs me is "at 30th level, sacrifice an ability to get an ability that is (theoretically) stronger and you can change it around as much as you want.

readsaboutd&d
2009-06-17, 04:25 AM
The part that bugs me is "at 30th level, sacrifice an ability to get an ability that is (theoretically) stronger and you can change it around as much as you want. And you should exchange 24th and 27th level abilities

One or more 21st-level features
A 24th-level feature that makes you harder to kill
A 27th-level special power
A 30th-level feature
But at the same time, all of theirs become harder to kill at 27th level?

Ryuuk
2010-07-05, 05:20 PM
A year old, but I might get a reply.

What exactly do you get with Hero With A Thousand Faces? It's mostly this line:

If the class feature has subsidiary abilities (as with a Bard’s bardic music, a Druid’s wild shape, or a Factotum’s inspiration), you gain them as well (but not improved versions of that class feature, as with evasion)

Lets say you pick a Factotum's Inspiration (having accessed the Epic Destiny with only a few levels of factotum), what are its "subsidiary abilities"?