BowStreetRunner
2013-01-07, 04:31 PM
I was considering just how best to assign attributes for a skill monkey character planning on taking Factotum 3 in order to gain Brains Over Brawn. So I put together this table to compare the differences and thought others in the playground might find this interesting.
This assumes a 28-point buy with no racial attribute modifiers applied. For this exercise, the objective was to maximize bonuses to skills - attribute bonuses combined with skill points. For each attribute on the left, the second column provides the number of skills that benefit from the attribute bonus. Note that skills like Craft, Knowledge, Perform and Profession were each only counted once. In reality, anyone using this method to evaluate a skill-monkey build should only count skills that the character actually intends to use. (So if Concentration is not going to be part of the build, the number for CON would be 0 instead of 1.)
In each of the four attribute distributions shown the attribute modifier (bonus) is multiplied by the number of skills to determine the net bonus gained. This is totalled (along with the bonus skill points gained for high INT in a 20-level build) in the SubTotal.
The points gained from Brains Over Brawn is the INT bonus multiplied by the total number of DEX plus STR skills and is then added into the Total.
28 Point-buy Skill Bonus Values
{table=head]Attribute|Skills*||Score|Bonus|Total ||Score|Bonus|Total ||Score|Bonus|Total ||Score|Bonus|Total
STR|
3||
12|
(+1)|
3 ||
10|
(+0)|
0 ||
10|
(+0)|
0 ||
10|
(+0)|
0
DEX|
9||
14|
(+2)|
18 ||
14|
(+2)|
18 ||
14|
(+2)|
18 ||
12|
(+1)|
9
CON|
1||
12|
(+1)|
1 ||
10|
(+0)|
0 ||
10|
(+0)|
0 ||
10|
(+0)|
0
INT|
8||
14|
(+2)|
16 ||
14|
(+2)|
16 ||
16|
(+3)|
24 ||
18|
(+4)|
32
WIS|
6||
12|
(+1)|
6 ||
14|
(+2)|
12 ||
10|
(+0)|
0 ||
10|
(+0)|
0
CHA|
8||
12|
(+1)|
8 ||
14|
(+2)|
16 ||
14|
(+2)|
16 ||
10|
(+0)|
0
Skill Points || | ||
46||||
46||||
69||||
92
SubTotal || | ||
98||||
108||||
127||||
133
Factotum 3 || | ||
24||||
24||||
36||||
48
Total || | ||
122||||
132||||
163||||
181
[/table]
*Treats Craft, Knowledge, Perform, and Profession as 1 skill each.
Note that despite the higher cost of attribute points above 14 in the point-buy method, putting 18 points into INT still yields the highest total skill bonus for a skill-monkey character. Taking Factotum 3 for Brains Over Brawn just amplifies this effect.
(If you treat each Knowledge skill as a separate skill, the result favors maxing out INT even more.)
This assumes a 28-point buy with no racial attribute modifiers applied. For this exercise, the objective was to maximize bonuses to skills - attribute bonuses combined with skill points. For each attribute on the left, the second column provides the number of skills that benefit from the attribute bonus. Note that skills like Craft, Knowledge, Perform and Profession were each only counted once. In reality, anyone using this method to evaluate a skill-monkey build should only count skills that the character actually intends to use. (So if Concentration is not going to be part of the build, the number for CON would be 0 instead of 1.)
In each of the four attribute distributions shown the attribute modifier (bonus) is multiplied by the number of skills to determine the net bonus gained. This is totalled (along with the bonus skill points gained for high INT in a 20-level build) in the SubTotal.
The points gained from Brains Over Brawn is the INT bonus multiplied by the total number of DEX plus STR skills and is then added into the Total.
28 Point-buy Skill Bonus Values
{table=head]Attribute|Skills*||Score|Bonus|Total ||Score|Bonus|Total ||Score|Bonus|Total ||Score|Bonus|Total
STR|
3||
12|
(+1)|
3 ||
10|
(+0)|
0 ||
10|
(+0)|
0 ||
10|
(+0)|
0
DEX|
9||
14|
(+2)|
18 ||
14|
(+2)|
18 ||
14|
(+2)|
18 ||
12|
(+1)|
9
CON|
1||
12|
(+1)|
1 ||
10|
(+0)|
0 ||
10|
(+0)|
0 ||
10|
(+0)|
0
INT|
8||
14|
(+2)|
16 ||
14|
(+2)|
16 ||
16|
(+3)|
24 ||
18|
(+4)|
32
WIS|
6||
12|
(+1)|
6 ||
14|
(+2)|
12 ||
10|
(+0)|
0 ||
10|
(+0)|
0
CHA|
8||
12|
(+1)|
8 ||
14|
(+2)|
16 ||
14|
(+2)|
16 ||
10|
(+0)|
0
Skill Points || | ||
46||||
46||||
69||||
92
SubTotal || | ||
98||||
108||||
127||||
133
Factotum 3 || | ||
24||||
24||||
36||||
48
Total || | ||
122||||
132||||
163||||
181
[/table]
*Treats Craft, Knowledge, Perform, and Profession as 1 skill each.
Note that despite the higher cost of attribute points above 14 in the point-buy method, putting 18 points into INT still yields the highest total skill bonus for a skill-monkey character. Taking Factotum 3 for Brains Over Brawn just amplifies this effect.
(If you treat each Knowledge skill as a separate skill, the result favors maxing out INT even more.)