Need Help Making...The Doctor (3.5)

[AzazelSephiroth]

Hey All!

I was not able to find anything like this with the search function, either due to its non-existence or my lack of ability:smallwink:

But for a game coming up I would like to build The Doctor from Doctor Who. The game will be starting at 10-12 level (some change may occur) and all books are allowed (subject to DM approval... and no super cheesy-ness).

I happen to be away from my books at the moment and as my building skills are somewhat lacking I thought I would turn to the Forum`s mighty minds for assistance! My personal idea is that he is not a full caster as he rarely exhibits full on magical abilities, but he has incredible luck, ingenuity and ridiculously high intellect so maybe a factotum or combination rogue/something? Anyway I would love to see what you can come up with!

Stats: 18, 16, 16, 14, 14, 12 (rolled stats are so wonderful) and build up playable from level 10 up to ~. Thanks in advance!

[Madcrafter]

I've seen at least two threads on this before, you might want to try google.

IIRC usually factotum was suggested to some degree, or something similar (bard?). The only thing that was usually unanimously agreed on was that any such character must have the run feat. Also there are some feats in one of the books (LoM? maybe?) that seem to be explicitly written to mimic some of the time lord's abilities. Also, you need a sonic screwdriver and/or TARDIS, but that is about as good a help as I'll be, since I've only seen one episode of the show (but have a friend who loves it).

[legomaster00156]

Well, if you don't mind homebrew material, I saw a 3.5 Epic Destiny that was quite literally a Time Lord. Lemme dig it up... Here we go. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4673929)

[Quietus]

Factotum is a good one, with heavy investment in the social skills - Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate at the very least. Sonic screwdriver can be represented in many ways; I'd probably use eternal wands, myself, and convince the DM to fold each of them into one item. Make it so that changing "settings" (active spells) is a move action, as though you were drawing a new wand, and you should be good. I'd definitely include Shatter and/or Knock in it.

[Gavinfoxx]

Archivist is also good for him. I found Lesser Cansin to be a good race (he's quite chaotic).

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=350664

Check the Planetouched Handbook:

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=6992.0

[Zombulian]

I'm gonna go ahead and immediately recommend Zerth Cenobite. It isn't really that good, but it really captures the whole master of time feeling. If you can get it cool with your DM to make all of the Psi like abilities they have be able to be used 3/day instead of 1/day and for the activation for such abilities to be a swift action (makes sense for someone who controls time does it not?) then it could be a really good choice. Oooootherwise it is pretty much the suck.

[The-Mage-King]

Elan Factotum, I say.


Note that for "Human, but not quite human" characters, I often use elan as the race.

[Zonugal]

Looking at your stats if you went with a venerable Elan Factotum you could have something like this:

Str 10, Dex 10, Con 8, Int 21, Wis 15, Cha 19.

The weaker constitution score could simply be said to the Doctor having a weaker form as a result of his constant regeneration (or alien biology). But what this does allow is reasonable stats for an eternal alien character.

[The-Mage-King]

Elan gets -2 Cha, not Wis. So it's more like 23 Int, 19 Wis, 17 Cha, counting the obvious +2 from levels into Int.

[Jeff the Green]

The Wedded to History feat (Dragon 354) with the Elder of Legend, Golden Ager, or Wanderer background is a must.

Also, lots and lots of UMD and UPD.

Edit: Also, if you really want to play the doctor, check this (http://shop.cubicle7store.com/epages/es113347.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es113347_shop/Products/CB71100) out.

[Golden Ladybug]

Okay, lets tick off the check-list:

-Factotum and Bard as Classes? Check
-Elan as race? Check
-Wedded to History Feat? Check
-Sonic Screwdriver? hmm...

Sonic Screwdriver then! My favourite way of pulling this off is by using Sovereign Glue to cobble together an Eternal Wand of Knock, an Eternal Wand of Arcane Lock, an Eternal Wand of Prestidigitation, an Eternal Wand of Comprehend Languages, an Eternal Wand of Locate Object and an Eternal Wand of Dispel Magic. All of this together may look slightly clunky, but I think that fits the persona of a Medieval Stasis Doctor quite well, and if fulfills the main functions of the Sonic Screwdriver quite well.

Plus, its dead handy.

[Czin]

An int of 14 isn't going to cut it if you're going to make the doctor. He wasn't just smart, he was superhumanly intelligent to the point that he could prove to be the mental equal if not superior of a Culture Mind expy.

That said, if you really want to be the Doctor, invest heavily in Knowledge skills, ridiculously heavily at that. So that like the Doctor, it is very rare for your character to ever come across something he doesn't know at least some things about. Having an highly optimized int score helps a lot with this.

[Nizaris]

Elan Factotum? Using that right now in one of my games. For the sonic screwdriver I talked the DM into letting me make my own magic item. Craft Wondrous item to make Crystals of insert spell here and inserted them into transmitter device (also magic item). Gotta love my Universal Tool of Identify, Open/Close, Arcane Lock, Knock, Prestidigitation, Dispel Magic, Deathwatch, Detect (poison, weapon, Magic) and Shatter. XP and Gold cost sucks but dear lord is it useful when I make my UMD check.

[Zonugal]

The sonic screwdriver almost seems like it could be done via the Spell Storing infusion off the Artificer's list.

[Czin]

The sonic screwdriver almost seems like it could be done via the Spell Storing infusion off the Artificer's list.

But we have to find some way to make sure that it can't do wood.

[Manateee]

There's a PF Druid Archetype (Reincarnated Druid (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/druid/archetypes/paizo---druid-archetypes/reincarnated-druid)) that's eerily similar to a lot of the Doctor's schtick. The downside there being that it's pretty specifically on a Druid.

I'd probably go with a bard, though. Even over Factotum. The Doctor talks about himself being so clever, but his real defining abilities are his charisma - talking people into doing things for him, bluffing his way out of being shot over and over and over and over, etc. - his abilities are basically just a rundown of the Bard's skill list. Add the Bardic Knowledge, Inspire Courage/Greatness and the built-in ability to stall aggressively hostile enemies by talking at them, and I think you have a pretty solid fit. And UMD is clearly a must.



Going into third party supplements, I'd probably go with Dreamscarred Press's Thoughtsinger (basically a psionic Bard), prestige classing into the Chronomancer from Bruce Cordell's Hyperconscious supplement. Basically for the same reasons as I'd use the Bard, but with the Chronomancer's abilities to manipulate time tacked in (in case a TARDIS just never shows).

[AzazelSephiroth]

Wow that is a ton of ideas, suggestions and concepts! Thanks all! I think I will fiddle a bit on the Sonic Screwdriver but looking at the way the party is leaning, I may be taking Factotum over bard... but his Cha will still be quite impressive! Maybe one level for fun:smallbiggrin:

Thanks again all!!

[gkathellar]

You'll probably want the Run and Leadership feats.

[NikitaDarkstar]

You'll probably want the Run and Leadership feats.

And all the knowledge and social skills you can get. And some of the luck feats from complete scoundrel and possibly improved initiative (or just some way of boosting your initiative) and/or Diehard. (The Doctor does have the uncanny ability to keep going long, long after he has any right to keep going.. downside is it requires endurance, but if you can convince the DM to hand-wave that requirement it could be worth it.)

[Gavinfoxx]

Not just Run, the quickness trait, and a few other running and initiative boosting things...

[Flickerdart]

Wedded to History is superfluous if you take Elan, since they both offer the same thing (eternal life). Elan is better for this, since you also get a handful of neat abilities, and your life doesn't depend on a trinket.

[Manateee]

Abuse the "Talking is a free action" rule. Hard.

[kardar233]

Talk incessantly in-character whenever making a skill check. Especially a Disable Device or Knowledge check.

[Strormer]

I always thought having some kinda of birthmark that I can use as a tattoo of contingency reincarnate seemed very doctor.

[NikitaDarkstar]

Abuse the "Talking is a free action" rule. Hard.

Lol so very true. Just watch out so the DM doesn't house rule that no, no it isn't.

You also need to get a custom spell, Power Word: Confuse ;)

[Telonius]

The TARDIS might count as an Item Familiar...?

One of the various ways to get "speak with practically everything" would be nice.

Max ranks in Use magic/psionic Device.
Max ranks in all Craft skills (cobbling together gizmos on a moment's notice).
Ranks in Sense Motive, but not ridiculously high. (It is possible to fool him).
Luck feats in CScoundrel. (He has an incredible amount of lucky breaks).

Regarding the Knowledge skills ... I'm really not sure how I'd handle them. He obviously has knowledge that far exceeds a normal human being's, but his test scores at the Prydon Academy were abysmal (barely graduating with a Double Gamma). Bardic Knowledge (or some variant of it) might be the better way to go here.

[Gavinfoxx]

The reason I don't like Elan is the Charisma penalty, and seeming otherworldly in a bad way.

Whereas a Lesser Cansin has +2 int and +2 cha, and is chaotic, which fits him very, very, very well..

Anyway, you can get several of his abilities by making him a Wedded to History Lesser Cansin, no need to go Elan at all!

[NikitaDarkstar]

Regarding the Knowledge skills ... I'm really not sure how I'd handle them. He obviously has knowledge that far exceeds a normal human being's, but his test scores at the Prydon Academy were abysmal (barely graduating with a Double Gamma). Bardic Knowledge (or some variant of it) might be the better way to go here.

I'd go with normal, high knowledge checks. I mean really they are compared to human knowledge, and compared to a human he knows way, way, way more than he has any right to. He just kind of failed "Quasi-god school."

As for the speak any language thing? Permanent Tounges spell? I'm sure there's an equivalent for reading languages.

[TheGeckoKing]

The reason I don't like Elan is the Charisma penalty, and seeming otherworldly in a bad way.

Considering Time Lords as a whole were a bunch of stuffy, dusty old introverts, I think The Doctor (and The Master and a few others) was an exception to the rule of a Time Lord's charisma.

[HunterOfJello]

Considering Time Lords as a whole were a bunch of stuffy, dusty old introverts, I think The Doctor (and The Master and a few others) was an exception to the rule of a Time Lord's charisma.

Definitely a lower charisma race.

Even the Doctor didn't become more charismatic until he got much older. If you think the Doctor is a highly charismatic person, go watch his first two incarnations.

The same applies for The Master. He only became charismatic when regenerating into his current incarnation.

Time Lords would need a special game mechanic for random slight readjustment of stats and things upon regenerating.

[NikitaDarkstar]

The same applies for The Master. He only became charismatic when regenerating into his current incarnation.


I beg to differ. He had a period of non-charisma-ness when he was sort of between regenerations but he's always been the suave, charismatic bad guy. Heck even before he became the Master he was like that. (Don't believe me? Go read the Dark Path, while written later it is considered cannon and takes place before the Master took that title.)

Yes the Doctor had Charisma issues early on. The Master? Not so much. We could also argue that Rassilon while clearly a tad bit nutty does have a pretty strong force of personality which is what DnD considers charisma.

But in the end I agree that they're exceptions from the rule, as a whole Time Lords aren't the most charismatic people out there.

[Madcrafter]

Time Lords would need a special game mechanic for random slight readjustment of stats and things upon regenerating.

Just use the reincarnate tables and refluff to whatever you want him to look like.

[deuxhero]

Honestly, The Doctor could be an Expert. All his power comes from racial abilities, items and being clever. He has never demonstrated any "class features" as far as I know.

[HunterOfJello]

Honestly, The Doctor could be an Expert. All his power comes from racial abilities, items and being clever. He has never demonstrated any "class features" as far as I know.

Learning how to pilot a TARDIS properly, stay alive, and not completely screw over the whole time line of the entire Universe is probably worthy of it's own class. You could call it Time Bandit! He's gotten better at these things over time (for the most part). Though I loathe to mention it, River Song likely has a level or 2 in that class. God I hate River Song.




Notice: If it had no other class features but gave you a TARDIS and improved running speed after taking 10 levels in it, Time Bandit would still be the most awesome class ever.