[3.5] To destroy, you must first understand...

[tuesdayscoming]

I've just read the description of Scholar's Touch (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041210b&page=2), and was immediately grasped by the idea of a villain whose goal is to collect all knowledge throughout the multiverse and to eventually use this for purposes worthy of a hearty Evil Laugh™.

I think there's potential here, and would love to hear your ideas for the build and/or flavor!

I haven't thought the build out terribly well, but the Cerebrex from DrC sprang to mind. The class get's 1/2 spellcasting progression (I know, I know) for any pre-existing casting class. This, in no uncertain terms, sucks. But its 'Eidetic Memory' ability at 6 gives perfect recall for all 5 senses. There might be a better way to get a similar effect,

So the idea is to use an item of Scholar's Touch (ST) at will, combined with Eidetic Memory (EM) to learn – over a long period of time – literally everything, and to have this knowledge on hand at all times. Immortality would help, as the pursuit of knowledge might get slow from time to time, so Elan seemed like a decent idea, too.

But thinking about what the nature of such a character might be, I also thought that it being some form of lawful construct, or its being some minor (or even major?) mainfestation of law itself. The real issue is immortality. Death makes omniscience tricky, so a way to treat death – even violent death – would be quite helpful.

Outside of this, the concept is pretty formless. What's he gonna do with this information, if and when he ever acquires? Maybe that doesn't matter. The idea will occur to him when the time is right. For now, he just needs to start building a multiplanar information empire that somehow consolidates knowledge in his mind. Or maybe he's had an end-goal all along, I dunno.

I like the idea, personally. But I'm just not sure how to actually execute it. Anyone have any ideas on how to spruce the guy up? Races and classes, spells and items, origins and end-goals, I'm open to any and all ideas to make this guy work.

Help me out, playground! Just how useful can universal knowledge be gained and used?

[SamsDisciple]

1 idea I have for the reason he wants all the knowledge Is simply for the secret of life. his race and civilization was destroyed so he wants to learn how to bring them back and create a new utopia but the only way to create a utopia it to determine what life is "unnecessary" and destroy it

[Cerlis]

the Archivist i believe remembers aspects of a monster and is able to tell his party how to defeat it, in the form of combat bonuses.


Further, the idea behind a Monk getting phyiscally more perfect is part of the whole "becoming one with the universe" thing, which is an aspect of understanding. Someone who sought to know everything might think doing so will make him perfect, or even ascend him to godhood, expessially if he thinks "i think therefore i am"

thus "I know all, therefore i am all"

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Arent Warforged immortal and do they have to deal with forgetting things?

A warforged with a mental instability from faulty construct might be paranoid about not being good enough and seek to be perfect in everyway, knowledge being the primary way.

[Necrus Philius]

A good example of villains who want to learn everything:

Orochimaru from Naruto. Wants to learn all the jutsu, obviously immortality is necessary so likely a lich. Elf lich would be neat and show how far he's willing to fall for knowledge. Naturally he has side goals to keep himself entertained. But he's completely amoral in learning.

The black hole thing from full metal alchemist. Wanted the "Ultimate Knowledge".

Edit: Fistandantilus from D&D novels also had that mentality originally.

[JonRG]

Maybe go for an Elan Archivist/Psion? Doesn't do much about violent death, but it handily deals with aging. Also it gives you a good justification to persuade your DM to get Autohypnosis as a class skill.


Memorize

You can attempt to memorize a long string of numbers, a long passage of verse, or some other particularly difficult piece of information (but you can’t memorize magical writing or similarly exotic scripts). Each successful check allows you to memorize a single page of text (up to 800 words), numbers, diagrams, or sigils (even if you don’t recognize their meaning). If a document is longer than one page, you can make additional checks for each additional page. You always retain this information; however, you can recall it only with another successful Autohypnosis check.

As for villainous motivations/goals, he could be like the giant brains from Futurama - collect all the data in the universe, then destroy it so no new information can be added. :smallamused:

[Crossblade]

The BBEG in the solo campaign started his career in evil with this goal. I didn't know about this spell though, it's quite awesome.
Basically, what I did with him, was with gained knowledge, he started a search to find information to become a god. In and of itself, the goal isn't that evil... except experiments have to be done, and thus far... they were always on infants (come to think of it, I never noticed that until now).

Once he gets the power, I'm not even sure what he'll do with it... and my player hasn't even asked. Though it is quite a high amount of power, and past actions have shown he isn't the type to stop to discuss things over tea (unless he's doing so to insult you)

As for build, I actually went straight for Lore Master. Full spell progression and bardic knowledge... which would help with the knowledge theme of things.


Just how useful can universal knowledge be gained and used? Universal knowledge can be used to accomplish any task any other BBEG would set out to do. They would just do it in a more educated way.


Just how useful can universal knowledge be gained and used? It can be gained, in the most evil extremes, by ransacking libraries.. something that in fantasy settings full of dirt farming commoners wouldn't normally have access to; meaning a King would get rather upset if his royal library was broken into and cleaned out. Excellent to task to send low levels out to investigate who did it, and for high levels to get everything back unharmed.
How it can be used... well, a more important library could have very important secrets hidden away inside it. Ancient maps to secret treasuries/useful locations, royal bloodlines, terms of treaties, powerful spells, How-To's on building your own McGuffin....