Need help selecting feats for a Factotum.

[qwertyu63]

I am making a Factotum 5, and need help selecting feats for it. No, I'm not allowed to use Font of Inspiration. Here is what I have so far:


Nicholas, Factotum
Chaotic Good Human
Factotum 5

Str: 12 (+1)
Dex: 14 (+2)
Con: 12 (+1)
Int: 16 (+3)
Wis: 10 (+0)
Cha: 10 (+0)

HP: 31/31
AC: 10+2+5
Initiative: +5
Inspiration: 4/4

Attack 1: +1 Longbow, +6, 1d6+1
Attack 2: Short Sword, +3, 1d6
Armor: +1 Chain Shirt, +5 AC

Saves:
Fort: +2
Ref: +6
Will: +1

Skills: 38 spent, not done.
Tumble: +13 (8 ranks +2 Dex +3 Int)
Jump: +6 (1 rank +1 Str +2 Tumble +3 Int)
Move Silently: +13 (8 ranks +2 Dex +3 Int)
Hide: +13 (8 ranks +2 Dex +3 Int)
Use Magic Device: +1 (1 rank)
Disable Device: +4 (1 rank +3 Int)
Open Lock: +6 (1 rank +2 Dex +3 Int)
Search: +4 (1 rank +3 Int)
Diplomacy: +1 (1 rank)
Disguise: +1 (1 rank)
Sense Motive: +1 (1 rank)
Climb: +6 (1 rank +1 Str +2 Tumble +3 Int)
Balance: +6 (1 ranks +2 Dex +3 Int)
Knowledge (Dungeoneering): +4 (1 rank +3 Int)
Knowledge (Arcana): +4 (1 rank +3 Int)
Knowledge (Local): +4 (1 rank +3 Int)
Knowledge (Nature): +4 (1 rank +3 Int)

Class Features:
Inspiration (4 points)
-Cunning Insight
-Cunning Knowledge
Trapfinding
-Arcane Dilettante (2 spells)
Brains over Brawn
-Cunning Defence
-Cunning Strike
-Opportunistic Piety (5/day)

Feats:
Human- Knowledge Devotion
1-
3-

[Draz74]

Ick. I'm a fan of not using Font of Inspiration, and even of avoiding cheese like Flaws or obscure stuff like Iaijutsu focus. But what I'm not a fan of is such lackluster ability scores (25 point-buy, and not even allocated optimally). That's going to present something of a challenge.

OK, first of all, you seem to have forgotten Brains over Brawn, which is probably your niftiest class feature at this level. Go ahead and add +3 (INT) to your Tumble, Jump, Move Silently, Hide, and Open Lock skills, as well as your initiative.

Second, Factotums don't need max ranks in many skills in order to do well at them. They are better off selecting a number of skills that they only need to use occasionally, and putting 1 rank in each of those skills, so they can use them with Cunning Knowledge. You probably want to keep max ranks in e.g. Hide and Move Silently, but Jump or Open Lock? You might be ok with just being awesome at them 1/day.

I don't suppose you can switch that short sword to a longbow and go archer? An archer with Knowledge Devotion is widely considered one of the best builds for non-Font'ing Factotums, and your Dex is at least a trifle less poor than your Strength.

If you switch to archery, I'd say go for Point Blank Shot (prereq of all prereqs), Rapid Shot, and Knowledge Devotion.

If you stick with melee ... Factotums are also known for being decent poison experts (using the Master of Poisons feat), but that doesn't really come online until Level 10 (when you get the Minor Creation spell; and even then, some DMs don't allow creating poison with that spell since it can break the gp economy pretty easily). Hmmm ...

You could decide to be an ok tripping specialist, although that doesn't especially synergize with the short sword. Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, and Martial Study (Mighty Throw) could work ok. This is all based around the fact that you get to add INT to all trip attempts.

You're not high enough level to pick Martial Study (Cloak of Deception) until Level 6. You could go with some generally very handy feats that aren't so great in combat, such as Darkstalker or Shape Soulmeld (Blink Shirt).

[FMArthur]

I'll try and help but I don't have advice for every one of your feats.

If you took Knowledge (Local) or Knowledge (Nature), the Knowledge Devotion feat from Complete Champion would be worthwhile for you and would pump you up in direct combat versus a variety of creatures, which you otherwise could not engage with those ability scores (gives +2~3 scaling to +5 on both attack and damage). Its benefits are based on the Knowledge checks used for each creature type (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/knowledge.htm) (there are six that affect it and you'd have four).

The Jump ranks are pretty painless to sacrifice to grab one of those knowledges since it turns redundant with spells and magic items not too far ahead. I would try to lose another skill to get both of those, since the humanoids covered by Local and creature types covered by Nature are both plentiful. Open Lock can probably go if you grab an adamantine weapon sometime, since it'll cut through most locks like butter (you have the Knock spell and UMD for wands of it as well).

And of course the Knowledges themselves are just useful to have for information. Knowledge Devotion with Knowledge investment is a popular choice for factotums.[br]

Iaijutsu Focus is a skill from Oriental Adventures that is frequently suggested for factotums, but since it's 3E and for far-off lands it's unlikely to get by a DM who won't let FoI past. I'll explain it anyway for completeness:

It's basically skill-based Sneak Attack dice added to attacks made immediately following a weapon draw against flat-footed creatures, which is usually difficult to manage except before a target's first turn in combat. People take exotic weapon proficiency in the gnome quickrazor from Races of Stone to draw weapons repeatedly in a full attack and get the bonus damage on all. The Grease and Distract Assailant spells are useful for flat-footing opponents.[br]

Judging by the total, I'm guessing you're not doing point-buy for those stats. Still, Wisdom is not really that important for a factotum and you wouldn't feel its loss if you reassigned one of those 12s to Con. A +1 Con modifier is still somewhat low to be going around adventuring, let alone going into melee with average hit die. Constitution is the only mandatory stat. Be careful and buy a +2 Constitution item when you can.

You might want to have a longbow to stay out of melee for the first round of combat so that you don't get smashed. It would make use of your Dexterity as well. The precise weapon enhancement in Magic Item Compendium could be useful later if you plan to stay out of melee indefinitely, which lets you act as though you had the Precise Shot (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#preciseShot) feat without having to piss two feats away.

[CheeseMerchant]

Hello,

It might help us answer your question if you gave us some insight into where you see this character going. The feat selection for a Factorum 20 will be much different than the feat selection for someone attempting to get into the Chameleon prestige class.

Thank you.

[qwertyu63]

[list] If you took Knowledge (Local) or Knowledge (Nature), the Knowledge Devotion feat from Complete Champion would be worthwhile for you and would pump you up in direct combat versus a variety of creatures, which you otherwise could not engage with those ability scores (gives +2~3 scaling to +5 on both attack and damage). Its benefits are based on the Knowledge checks used for each creature type (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/knowledge.htm) (there are six that affect it and you'd have four).

The Jump ranks are pretty painless to sacrifice to grab one of those knowledges since it turns redundant with spells and magic items not too far ahead. I would try to lose another skill to get both of those, since the humanoids covered by Local and creature types covered by Nature are both plentiful. Open Lock can probably go if you grab an adamantine weapon sometime, since it'll cut through most locks like butter (you have the Knock spell and UMD for wands of it as well).

And of course the Knowledges themselves are just useful to have for information. Knowledge Devotion with Knowledge investment is a popular choice for factotums.<br />

Now that should be very useful.


Iaijutsu Focus is a skill from Oriental Adventures that is frequently suggested for factotums, but since it's 3E and for far-off lands it's unlikely to get by a DM who won't let FoI past. I'll explain it anyway for completeness:

It's basically skill-based Sneak Attack dice added to attacks made immediately following a weapon draw against flat-footed creatures, which is usually difficult to manage except before a target's first turn in combat. People take exotic weapon proficiency in the gnome quickrazor from Races of Stone to draw weapons repeatedly in a full attack and get the bonus damage on all. The Grease and Distract Assailant spells are useful for flat-footing opponents.<br />

None of my group has that book, so no way I could use that.


Judging by the total, I'm guessing you're not doing point-buy for those stats. Still, Wisdom is not really that important for a factotum and you wouldn't feel its loss if you reassigned one of those 12s to Con. A +1 Con modifier is still somewhat low to be going around adventuring, let alone going into melee with average hit die. Constitution is the only mandatory stat. Be careful and buy a +2 Constitution item when you can.

I managed to talk my way into rerolling those, and the new numbers are assigned up in the first post.


Hello,

It might help us answer your question if you gave us some insight into where you see this character going. The feat selection for a Factorum 20 will be much different than the feat selection for someone attempting to get into the Chameleon prestige class.

Thank you.

I have no idea. This is the first time I've done a Factotum, so I don't know where I'm going just yet. Now I have to go look up this Chameleon prestige class.

[Draz74]

I managed to talk my way into rerolling those, and the new numbers are assigned up in the first post.
Oh good. Those still aren't amazing, but they're significantly more playable.


I have no idea. This is the first time I've done a Factotum, so I don't know where I'm going just yet. Now I have to go look up this Chameleon prestige class.

Here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041210b&page=1). (Races of Destiny.) You clearly weren't aiming for this PrC, since you don't have the skills it requires as prereqs.

[FMArthur]

It's in Races of Destiny. I've played a factotum/chameleon often and found the combination not quite as perfect as touted. The factotum abilities are generally weaker but always-on while the chameleon's make it into one kind of specialist at a time (two later); you choose to be a wizard or cleric or ranger or barbarian, but are not all of them and it takes time to change. So one's the quintessential generalist while the other's a specialist that changes specialization.

But factotum spellcasting keeps decent pace on its own (fewer spells per day but higher spell levels) while still improving your other always-on features and great skillmonkeying at the same time. The mundane roles that the chameleon prestige class offers are so poor that it's essentially just a spellcasting class, and it really cannot offer a skillmonkey role at all. The combination of the two doesn't really help support one another. Binder and totemist (base classes who change specializations daily like chameleons) fit better and offer some benefits that don't fade out of usefulness or turn redundant for chameleons.

If your intent is to play a factotum I recommend sticking with it (or dipping a little ToB later). They are great on their own and a chameleon is something else entirely.

[qwertyu63]

Here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041210b&page=1). (Races of Destiny.) You clearly weren't aiming for this PrC, since you don't have the skills it requires as prereqs.

Ah, thank you for pointing to the book. I wasn't done spending all the skill ranks I have, but you right in that I had no intention to fit the prereqs. As the post just after yours says, it's not a really great mix, and I couldn't ever see myself using any focus but Arcane or Divine, so pure Factotum it shall be.

So, I should go with Knowledge Devotion, Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot?

[stack]

Doesn't knowledge devotion require 5 ranks in a knowledge skill? Which would bar you from taking it at level 1.

I like combat expertise/improved trip on a factotum, but it depends what you want to do.

[Gavinfoxx]

Knowledge Devotion requires 2nd level. 3rd for a pure Factotum.

Feats of interest:

Improved Trip
Craft Wondrous Item
Master of Poisons
Obtain Familiar
Item Familiar
Manyshot
Darkstalker
EWP: Gnomish Quickrazor (with Grease or marbles or whatever and Iaijustu Focus)
Mindsight (with mindbender)

[Bloodgruve]

Travel Devotion is always nice too. Move as a swift action 1/day for 1 minute, burn 2 turn undead for more daily uses. My DM allows Opportunistic Piety to work towards this.

Collector of Stories skill trick from Complete Scoundrel is great if your DM lets it work with Knowledge Devotion.

Item Familiar is great.

Acrobatic Strike isn't bad if you have tumble and Travel Devotion.

Factotum works so well with Iaijutsu Focus sucks that you can't use it. You may want to look at a 2h build with Power Attack>Leap Attack>Improved Bullrush>Shock Trooper route for some damage. This would work well with Travel Devotion and Knowledge Devotion. Or a trip build as stated earlier.

You could even dip Spellthief1 with Master Spellthief and Craven feats. TWF would help here too.

GL,

Blood~