Psychofactotum: the base class to end all base classes. PEACH.

[sengmeng]

The Psychofactotum is a psionic creature capable of amazing feats of emulation and versatility, as long as it has psionic power remaining.

Starting Gold 3d4x10 (75 gp)

Alignment: any

HD: d4

Skill points per leve: none. The Psychofactotum gains only bonus skill points from high intelligence or from being human.

Skills: all

Abilities: Charisma is the most important of a Psychofactotum's abilities, as it determines their saves and bonus powerpoints, but Constitution is also important in battling their main weakness, which is weakness itself.

{table]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will |Powerpoints|Boosted Save|Special
1st | +0 |+0| +0 |+0| 3|+2|Emulate ability, Emulate skill, Emulate Feat, Boost
2nd | +1| +0 | +0 |+0 |6|+3|
3rd | +1| +1| +1| +1|10|+3|
4th |+2| +1 | +1| +1 | 15|+4|
5th |+2| +1 | +1| +1 | 21|+4|
6th |+3|+2 | +2 |+2 | 28|+5|
7th | +3|+2 |+2| +2 |36|+5|
8th | +4| +2| +2| +2 | 45|+6|
9th | +4| +3 | +3 | +3 | 55|+6|
10th | +5| +3| +3 | +3| 66|+7|
11th|+6|+3|+3|+3|78|+7|
12th|+6|+4|+4|+4|91|+8|
13th|+7|+4|+4|+4|105|+8|
14th|+7|+4|+4|+4|120|+9|
15th|+8|+5|+5|+5|136|+9|
16th|+8|+5|+5|+5|153|+10|
17th|+9|+5|+5|+5|171|+10|
18th|+9|+6|+6|+6|190|+11|
19th|+10|+6|+6|+6|210|+11|
20th|+10|+6|+6|+6|231|+12|
[/table]

Powerpoints: The Psychofactotum gains bonus powerpoints based on their Charisma.

Emulate Ability: As a Swift action, the Psychofactotum may spend powerpoints to emulate all class abilities of a single other class for one round. Their effective class level in the emulated class is equal to the number of powerpoints they expend. The number of powerpoints they can spend to do so is equal to their Psychofactotum level. They may choose to emulate a class at a lower level by expending less powerpoints than the max. They may also emulate two or more classes at once, but the total levels they choose to emulate may not exceed the limit of their class level. Thus, an 11th level Psychofactotum could spend 11 powerpoints to emulate a 5th level rogue and a 6th level wizard at the same time, and should be considered a 5th level rogue/6th level wizard for one round. When emulating a spellcasting or manifesting class, the Psychofactotum is treated as knowing all spells and powers on that class's spell list. The save DC's of all spells, spell-like abilities, and powers is determined by the Psychofactotum's Charisma modifier. When emulating a manifesting class, the Psychofactotum draws on a separate powerpoint pool that exists for only one round, which is effectively infinite, meaning that they do not use their normal powerpoints to manifest when emulating a psionic class. They may not emulate the Psychofactotum's class abilities.

Emulate Skill: A Psychofactotum may spend powerpoints as a free action to treat one skill as if they had maximum ranks for their Factotum levels for one skill check. The number of powerpoints they must spend is equal to half their Psychofactotum level, rounded up.

Emulate Feat: A Psychofactotum may spend four powerpoints as a free action to act as if they had a feat they do not have for one round. They are treated as always meeting the ability prerequisites of any feat they emulate, but must use this ability to emulate any prerequisite feats to the feat they wish to emulate. They may only emulate a number of feats per round equal to half their Psychofactotum level, rounded up.

Boost: As an immediate action, the Psychofactotum may spend powerpoints to increase their base attack bonus and saves for one round. All saves change to the number in the boosted save column for their Psychofactotum levels on the class table (as if they were a 'good' save) and their base attack bonus equals their Psychofactotum levels. This costs a number of powerpoints equal to half their level, rounded up.

[peacenlove]

Dip for 1 level then psion/wilder all the way. Not balanced at all since psion makes 19 levels of this class irrelevant.
This should be a 5 level prestige class with its abilities evenly spread out (and not a caster class). Still it would be very similar to the chameleon prestige class.

[Doorhandle]

And someone has already made chameleon a base class so....


Yeah, you should ether rework or kill this idea... Sorry.

[Garryl]

What's with the PP progression? It starts off 1 point better than a Psion at level 1, then drops to ~2/3 of a Psion's PP over the course of 20 levels.

Emulate a Cleric 1/Ruby Knight Vindicator 7. Then use your copious amounts of swift actions to emulate being a Psychofactotum a few times (for infinite PP) and all the Extra Turning feats you feel like.

[Tebryn]

And someone has already made chameleon a base class so....


Yeah, you should ether rework or kill this idea... Sorry.

Hold up, just because someone has made something similar there can't be another version by someone else? What?

[blackjack217]

Emulate Feat: A Psychofactotum may spend four powerpoints as a free action to act as if they had a feat they do not have. They are treated as always meeting the ability prerequisites of any feat they emulate, but must use this ability to emulate any prerequisite feats to the feat they wish to emulate.


Dear god... that has no time limit... its a pun-pun :smalleek:

[Doorhandle]

Hold up, just because someone has made something similar there can't be another version by someone else? What?

Well, not so soon... and not this poorly done, at least. It implies this was jsut a copy of The chameleon base class.

Also
Emulate Skill: A Psychofactotum may spend powerpoints as a free action to treat one skill as if they had maximum ranks in it for one skill check. The number of powerpoints they must spend is equal to half their level, rounded up.



And you get the ablity to have 20+ in any one skill whenever you want. yeah, thinking of dipping in this. /munchkin, that applies unless i'm reading it wrong.

[sengmeng]

Some fixes were made so that the powerpoint pools can't be abused so radically, tying the emulation abilities to their Factotum levels and limiting the number of feats they can emulate in one round.

[Tebryn]

Well, not so soon... and not this poorly done, at least. It implies this was jsut a copy of The chameleon base class.

Only to you...it's clearly not a copy or else it wouldn't be so "poorly" done in your words. And even if he got the idea from the chameleon class (which there is more than one on these forums) so what? That doesn't mean he shouldn't post it.

I take it you're referring to this Chameleon class (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90955). Which you know...was made 3 years ago.

[Welknair]

Emulate Feat: A Psychofactotum may spend four powerpoints as a free action to act as if they had a feat they do not have for one round. They are treated as always meeting the ability prerequisites of any feat they emulate, but must use this ability to emulate any prerequisite feats to the feat they wish to emulate. They may only emulate a number of feats per round equal to half their Psychofactotum level, rounded up.

...


Epic Feats.

...

[Kobold-Bard]

So basically this is the Wizard on crack?

It can cast any level-available spell at any moment, whether arcane or divine, as well as powers. And it can also have any martial manoeuvre or any other class ability it might need at the drop of a hat.

Yes it's limited by power points, but that's not much of a comfort tbh.

Maybe I'm missing something, but this is a bad class tbh.

If it imitates Binder, I'd assume it is considered to have Vestiges already Bound. Is it considered to be under their influence or not?

[Welknair]

You know, I think this is more powerful than the Mary Sue (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dandwiki.com%2Fwiki%2FMary_Su e_(3.5e_Class)&rct=j&q=mary%20sue%20dnd%20wiki&ei=rFBRTsHCIIfmiAKT8N2gAQ&usg=AFQjCNElATGt31z_BlrwyhGKKgsYK7lr3A&cad=rja).

[sengmeng]

You know, I think this is more powerful than the Mary Sue.

I don't see how it can be more powerful than the Mary Sue, since it can't do everything at once the way that can. I think that the concept can be balanced by lowering the powerpoint pool further, and it's the main thing I'm looking to change. Can anyone, off the top of their head, suggest a different progression?

[JKTrickster]

Yeah let's work with this! After all that's what the community is for right? And this is an interesting idea: kinda being Master of All Trades, but not all the time. Let's see how we can scale it down okay?

I recommend the Psychic Warrior's power point progression.

But I also want to make it more interesting. Let's figure it out like this:

1. Limited access to classes, that expands with level:

he can't just grab all the classes at once. It takes him time to develop the necessary skills. Say melee classes first (fighter, barbarian, knight, swashbuckler), then some skill monkey classes (rogue, scout, ninja, factotum), gishes + half casting classes (duskblade, paladin, bard, ranger), and caster + psionic classes.

2. Limited access to PrC's, after say....level 11?

3. I'm thinking you can spend PP for "different parts" of classes. With this you can change it to last multiple rounds, or even entire combat:

The Chasis: BaB, HD, Saves, Weapon Proficiencies, etc.

Class Features: not ALL of them at once, but one at a time, including their logical progressions.

E.g. Get the entire monk's unarmed strike progression, their speed bonus, and fighter bonus feats for X PP. Or Rage becomes Mighty Rage, etc.

Spell/Powers: In "Tiers". Tier 1 is levels 1-3. Tier 2 is 4-6. Tier 3 is 7-9.

All of these can cost different PP, with the chasis being the cheapest and Spell/Powers being the most expensive. For Spell/Powers, I would scale the Tiers to be different costs, and limit the number of rounds. The Class Features would depend on how "high" of a level you "purchase up to".

I was thinking everything that is below 1/2 of the total Psychofactotum level could be "entire combat". After all a level 10 class feature isn't as important at level 20.

After that you can scale them to certain rounds, with level 20 being 2-4.

This is just a rough sketch, but I really think this class can be molded into something unique and fun! This is just my random quick 5 minute suggestions. They may be in fact terrible, but I hope it helps.

There's no need to bash him out of the gate! Homebrewing is not easy, and should be nurtured in everyone! If we help out, I'm sure this can turn into something classy!

EDIT: Also use a table to scale the number of powerpoints that they can spend at once. Not just equal to class level - I think they should rightly stop at 19 for ANY class, kind of the prove they can't reach the "Ultimate" peak of other classes.

[Welknair]

I don't see how it can be more powerful than the Mary Sue, since it can't do everything at once the way that can. I think that the concept can be balanced by lowering the powerpoint pool further, and it's the main thing I'm looking to change. Can anyone, off the top of their head, suggest a different progression?

The entire concept of the class is that it can do anything anyone else can. Why would anyone want to be anything but this? It's a Tier 0. It has access to every Tier 1 ever. It can rearrange it's feats to use any broken combo it can think of. It's Pun-Pun in a can.

[Fable Wright]

I don't see how it can be more powerful than the Mary Sue, since it can't do everything at once the way that can.

I can. It just copies all of the Mary Sue's class features, and then Ruby Knight Windicator's infinite swift actions, getting Quicken Power to use each of them to use Bestow Power on itself, transferring the infinite power points into it's normal stash, and then getting more class features than the mary sue each round. Plus every wizard spell ever. At once.

Yes, I believe this can be better than Mary Sue.

One recommendation I have for this class: For the love of god, do not make it pp based. There are many, many ways to abuse PP, and it honestly doesn't fit thematically. Why should your skill with psionics make you a better barbarian who can also use wizard spells and healbot? It makes no sense. Also, this class burns up too many power points in a round trying to be useful that it won't really do well at higher levels of play. You need to burn 1/2 your level in pp each round to be able to try to hit anything, plus you can't expand your skills well, given that you need to always burn power points to expand feat chains, even if you already have half the feats in the chain already taken. Plus, at level 1, according to the wording you can have be treated as having one level in any Epic prestige class... not good. Finally, any wizard spell at any time ever makes it more powerful by itself than all batman builds ever...

First bit of advice: Take cues from the chameleon class. Using some class ability x/day, for a certain number of power points, filling different archetypes at different times (so, no putting your barbarian rage on hold (not spend pp on it), casting a wizard spell, and then resuming rage), and not being as good as the people you mimic all contribute to the balance of the class.

[Darthteej]

I don't even think this monster can be called tier 0, because it copies A LOT more than just spellcasting.

Congratulations, sengmeng, you have officially created Tier -1.

[Trekkin]

For what this is trying to do, it succeeds handily: it is, indeed, the only base class anyone would ever play. That said, that's why there are different classes, and why jack-of-all-trades classes tend to be weaker at everything than classes that offer specific mastery.

As DMofDarkness said, making it based on pp opens it up to all sorts of exploits that revolve around pp specifically. I'd recommend that even if you want a pool of allocatable points that you call it something else to avoid infinite pp shenanigans and the like.

Apart from that, a blanket "emulate all of this class's features" is going to cause a ton of problems, as indeed would anything so worded. I'd try limiting it to specific class features, perhaps at cost proportional to the level at which they are attained, and even that would be difficult to balance and end up with a rather blank class, if you will.

What you're trying to do certainly has its place, and I applaud trying to make a psychic factotum, but I'd recommend keeping in mind that the factotum was designed to be a dungeon delver, in fluff and to some degree in practice, which both limited its abilities to something reasonable and gave people some idea of how to play it enjoyably. Perhaps the psychofactotum could be a psychic version of the Savant class instead?

[sengmeng]

How would everyone feel about restricting it to only emulating PHB base classes and giving it the ability to manifest powers on its own? Then it can't break the action economy via crazy prestige classes. I'm also thinking of making it choose arcane or divine as its "primary" spellcasting type and restricting the other type.