Playing The "Kirby" or "Megaman" Archetype - The Copy Master?

[Deth Muncher]

I've been playing a lot of oldschool platformers lately, and I was wondering - is there any way to truly emulate a "copycat" kind of character in 3.5? I know of the Chameleon class, as well as the Factotum, but both of those are based around already having said powers - whereas Megaman and Kirby focus on getting their powers from enemies they defeat. Is there a mechanical way to do this? Or is it easier to just fluff it as some kind of Factotum/Spellthief/Chameleon kind of person who just doesn't use the powers they have until they kill someone with a similar power?

[Retech]

Well, I think that fluffing it would be much easier. Although in a way, I'm pretty sure a wizard needs to know about a creature in order to polymorph or alter-self into one, so it's kinda like copying abilities.

After defeating old foes, using their forms to defeat new ones.

[vampire2948]

There is an Illithid-only prestige class that lets you gain feats, skills and SLAs from things you kill (and subsequently devour the brain of). In Lords of Madness.

[Redshirt Army]

Unfortunately, the "Copy Master" is perhaps the archetype least supported by D&D rules, because the system already assumes an implicit reward given for defeating a foe (EXP). The only class that does provide "copy mechanics", Illithid Savant (Savage Species), is widely regarded as broken in half, but you could look at it and adapt some of it's mechanics for yourself, or just have a peace treaty with your DM promising not to break his campaign.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Totemist.

Takes on aspects of various beasts as the class's primary shtick. Sounds like it would be just about perfect for this.

I've also seen Megaman done via Warlock, and various Blast Essence and Blast Shape invocations to represent the various different powers...

[Qwertystop]

I'd say just pick one or more classes that can do an enormous variety of stuff, and only use the powers when you kill something with similar powers. There's a Chameleon base class on here somewhere, which could help.

[vampire2948]

You could be a Psion (Egoist) and focus on dominating enemies, then casting Fusion on them, thus gaining their abilities for a short time.

Wouldn't come online till pretty late, though. Psionic Artificer could do it sooner.

[Little Brother]

There is an Illithid-only prestige class that lets you gain feats, skills and SLAs from things you kill (and subsequently devour the brain of). In Lords of Madness.Pretty sure it's Savage Species.

[Hand_of_Vecna]

Play an artificer and make sure the DM understands and appreciates what your trying to do then ask for a gp value and appropriate crafting uses of various monsters. Better yet propose some uses yourself and ask how much crafting gold credit you can get.

[Zaq]

In a high-psionics campaign, Erudite. You can learn powers from the brains of unconscious foes. Just do nonlethal damage to the folks you fight, suck the powers out of their brains, and strike a Megaman pose. (You can kill them afterwards, if you like.) You can even make an argument that an StP Erudite could suck spells out of the brains of their foes, but I'm not sure how RAW that is. StP Erudites are weird.

[Elfinor]

Unfortunately, I don't know of anything else official. However, there's a homebrew class that you may be interested in: The Blue Mage (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=8721), of Final Fantasy fame. It's very well done, with its own FAQ. Not sure how you/your DM would react to homebrews, though.

[flumphy]

Well, there's the spellthief. It's not very flashy and you're not exactly morphing into your opponent, but you are, in a sense, stealing their powers.

[Morph Bark]

Unfortunately, I don't know of anything else official. However, there's a homebrew class that you may be interested in: The Blue Mage (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=8721), of Final Fantasy fame. It's very well done, with its own FAQ. Not sure how you/your DM would react to homebrews, though.

With homebrew, everything becomes easier. The Blue Mage is one of the more famous and pure examples in its various incarnations. (I have seen another version that copied Su abilities from monsters, for instance.)

Not as famous or pure, but perhaps workable for the purposes described here: the Hemoscribe (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176746).
[/shamelessplug] :P

[The Succubus]

Hmmm, don't think a character like that would be much fun to party with:

"Foolish mortals, you have penetrated the Dark Sanctum and now you are do-"

*whirrrrrrrNOM*

DM: "Dammit Kirby, how many times have we warned you about eating people mid-speech?!"

[Deth Muncher]

With homebrew, everything becomes easier. The Blue Mage is one of the more famous and pure examples in its various incarnations. (I have seen another version that copied Su abilities from monsters, for instance.)

Not as famous or pure, but perhaps workable for the purposes described here: the Hemoscribe (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176746).
[/shamelessplug] :P

The Blue Mage sort of works, ish. And the Hemoscribe has a similar idea, at least. I may just have to homebrew it and call it a day, though when I have the time for that is anybody's guess.

In the meantime, can we make a list of all the classes that strive to emulate abilities of other classes/creatures? In my mind, there's:
-Factotum, for emulating class features.
-Chameleon, for the same.
-Druids and/or casters with Polymorph and/or Warshapers, for emulating creatures.
-A melee-type, using the Chaos Shuffle (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142754) tactic somehow (perhaps he cross-classed UMD and bought some partially charged wands) in order to gain proficiency with any weapon they want. Or really, just the Chaos Shuffle tactic in general.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Again: Totemist from MoI does this almost perfectly. You even get to wear the critter's body parts while you're doing it.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Spellthief does this with spells, and eventually SLA's IIRC.

Ur-Priest is somewhat as it can Steal Outsider SLA's IIRC.

[Piggy Knowles]

The Blue Mage sort of works, ish. And the Hemoscribe has a similar idea, at least. I may just have to homebrew it and call it a day, though when I have the time for that is anybody's guess.

In the meantime, can we make a list of all the classes that strive to emulate abilities of other classes/creatures? In my mind, there's:
-Factotum, for emulating class features.
-Chameleon, for the same.
-Druids and/or casters with Polymorph and/or Warshapers, for emulating creatures.
-A melee-type, using the Chaos Shuffle (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=142754) tactic somehow (perhaps he cross-classed UMD and bought some partially charged wands) in order to gain proficiency with any weapon they want. Or really, just the Chaos Shuffle tactic in general.

Master of Masks (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070105a&page=3) has a gladiator mask which gives you proficiency in all exotic weapons, so you wouldn't have to worry about the Dark Chaos feat shuffle.

Also, a psionic character with Psychic Reformation can "re-write" himself after every encounter to take on abilities similar to the previous enemies he has fought.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Master of Masks (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070105a&page=3) has a gladiator mask which gives you proficiency in all exotic weapons, so you wouldn't have to worry about the Dark Chaos feat shuffle.

Also, a psionic character with Psychic Reformation can "re-write" himself after every encounter to take on abilities similar to the previous enemies he has fought.

I can see having Psychic Reformation being an automatic PLA that activates automatically after an encounter, at DM's discretation, to mimic the encounter. Flavorful and the character's abilities are almost completly in control of the DM.

[qwert-chan]

Try Master of Many forms(via Divine Minion entry) with a lot of UMD-Illusion spellls.

[Deth Muncher]

Okay. I homebrewed a class (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12155938#post12155938). It's still in progress, though it's almost done, I'd say. Whatcha think?

[Tokuhara]

Hmmm, don't think a character like that would be much fun to party with:

"Foolish mortals, you have penetrated the Dark Sanctum and now you are do-"

*whirrrrrrrNOM*

DM: "Dammit Kirby, how many times have we warned you about eating people mid-speech?!"

That. Is. Funny.

Now granted, there are chumps that can be done that way, but bosses must be defeated first before Kirby can absorb them