The Ultimate skill bot?

[Metahuman1]

Ok, so,

Most people know about the trick with having your Bard pick up Bardic Knack AFC from PHBII, and taking Jack of All Trades on top of that giving you equivalent to 1 rank under Maxed Cross Class Skill rank in all skills.

What I want to know, is is there a way to improve this? Is there a way to pump it too where your getting more then the 1 under maxed cross class rank?

Thanks for the help. =)

[Psyren]

There is - be a Factotum or Savant so you simply get all skills as class skills :smalltongue:

[Ksheep]

If you truly want the ultimate skill bot, check out the nanobot swarm (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19870890/Updated_Nanobots_Conquer_D38;D_(AC,_Attack,_and_Sk ill_Records)), a bunch of fine-sized animated objects that help with any skill check, giving you around a +5,750 to ANY skill check. Downside: to get the max bonus, you must be gargantuan.

[Godskook]

Marshal gives you +Cha to sills based on a certain attribute, at levels 1/3/5/7/9(don't need a 5th cause concentration isn't needed). That allows you to be quite versatile in your skill-monkey ways without investing too many skill points into any one skill.

Works incredibly well in Gestalt, and a Marshal//Sorcadin is absolutely ridiculous SAD.

[Salanmander]

Factotum by itself is an /extremely/ good skill monkey. There are two key class features for this:

1) They add their int bonus to any str- or dex-based skills. Not instead of str or dex, in addition.

2) Once per day per skill they may spend an inspiration point to add their level to a skill roll (must have at least 1 actual rank in the skill).

I'm playing a factotum right now, and also have the luck feat that lets you re-roll any skill checks, and what it basically means is this: I'm an expert with any skill I have at least one rank in, and guaranteed to be better than the rest of the party if I have max ranks.

[TurtleKing]

Elf Dilientte for Elves and Able Learner for Dopplegangers and Humans.

Chameleon PrC lets you mimic other classes and even PrCs to a degree depending on that days focus(es).

[Draz74]

Use the Bard-only spell "Improvisation" (Spell Compendium) constantly. :smallcool:

Edit: For sheer quantity of bonuses to a huge variety of skill checks, I think my "ultimate" build is

Factotum 3 / Incarnate 7 / Umbral Disciple 10 with Able Learner

since Incarnum can boost so many skills by large amounts, just by shifting your Essentia into the right Soulmeld when you need it.

[Person_Man]

Depends on the Skills you care about and the ECL you're playing at.

Binder 1 with Naberius vestige for Diplomacy and Bluff.
Binder X with a variety of different vestiges for other specific Skills, Balam vestige in particular lets you re-roll any check once every 5 rounds.
Marshal 1 if you want a buff to all Skills based on a single stat (especially Charisma).
Factotum 1 if you just want all Skills on your class list, including Iaijutsu Focus.
Factotum 3 to add your Int bonus to Str and Dex Skills.
Incarnate or Totemist has a wide variety of Skill buffs, but because the soulmelds with useful Skill buffs tend to be pointless in combat, you basically end up buffing a small number of Skills.
Bard X if you only need to buff Skills a limited number of times per day with magic.
Item Familiar if you want to buff 1 particular Skill by a lot.


Just keep in mind that beyond ECL 7ish, virtually every Skill can be more effectively replaced with magic. The exceptions are Free Action Sleight of Hand, Hide/Move Silently with Darkstalker if your DM is fond of handing out See Invisibility for no reason to his enemies, Diplomacy if your DM is fond of creatures immune to Mind Affecting effects, and Tumble if you're a melee build. Everything else will either be used very rarely, or can be replaced by low level magic.

[Metahuman1]

Ok, those make for a good start.

Um, someone tell me, if I took Factotem 1/Bard X, The able learner feat, Bardic Knack and Jack of all trades, would that actually improve the usual benefits form just taking Bardic Knack + Jack of all trades?

[Greenish]

Um, someone tell me, if I took Factotem 1/Bard X, The able learner feat, Bardic Knack and Jack of all trades, would that actually improve the usual benefits form just taking Bardic Knack + Jack of all trades?Nope, except for being able to add Int to each skill roll 1/day.

[OracleofSilence]

if you don't mind the very cheesy, then there is the omniscifier. you play an elven Artificer and use scrolls for a bunch of stuff along with some single use items to set up a real infinite loop, resulting in a +infinity to all skills. then communicate with a deity and get him to alter reality them into permenancy since they are derived fom a single spell. (can be done through commune scrolls) but this isn't really a character any more...

edited: spelling

[Metahuman1]

Ok, well Playground, you've helped me greatly on this little venture, and I dare say I think I've found what I need. More so since I'm not actually looking to break the game into Fine Sized Pieces, but to simply make a skills character that can be really, really, really good at that role, reliably, and can still allow me to invest enough resources elsewhere to be functional in one to two other roles. Thank you.

Edit: Spelling.

[Draz74]

Nope, except for being able to add Int to each skill roll 1/day.

Worse, it's actually just a +1 bonus to each skill 1/day. You were mixing up Cunning Insight with Cunning Knowledge ... happens a lot.

The one thing this would make you better at is maxxing skills that aren't Bard skills. Since Bards have a huge skill list already ... not such a tempting option.