MacGyver/The Doctor

[koboldish]

Alirght! I know I don't contribut much to the forum, but I have come to ask the playgrounders a question: How would you build either The Doctor or MacGyver in D&d? Preferably without being a spellcaster or a factotum. Thanks! :smallbiggrin:

3.5, not Pathfinder.

[Chilingsworth]

Well, I suppose you could make a MacGyver-ish character with a rogue/expert. Take basically ALL the knowledge and craft skills, plus search and disable device. Prioritize int above all else.

The doctor, I have no idea.

[White_Drake]

The doctor is a homebrew outsider with lots of neat tricks/laughably obsolete technology.

[Phelix-Mu]

Well, the Doctor pretty much has to be some kind of skills monkey.

If we go with the old show flavor, we could even give him some nonlethal combat skills.

I'd give him Skill Mastery and some kind of skill ticks or ACF to allow him to quickly infiltrate locks and bypass traps. There is a feat of some kind in BoED that allows one to deal nonlethal damage better. Giving him Vow of Nonviolence might not be out of line, but sadly it has totally miserable effects for anyone that isn't a spellcaster.

Really, rogue is looking pretty golden. He needs access to all Knowledge, though, so this might call for some kind of dip. Factotum is really good for him, but Jack of All Trades may work alright too. Regardless, Int is his key stat by a wide margin. I'd follow by Dex/Wis, Con, Cha, then Str. You pretty much have to ignore all of his racial traits.

So, Rogue headed for Exemplar. If you want non-magical inspirational coolness, Exemplar PrC from Complete Adventurer is the way to go. Look for ACF and feats that switch rogue stuff from dex to int. There was a feat called Keen that lets interaction skills key off Int, I believe.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Don't forget the social skills for the Doctor-- the new regenerations, at least, tend to be pretty good at talking to people.

[Phelix-Mu]

Don't forget the social skills for the Doctor-- the new regenerations, at least, tend to be pretty good at talking to people.

Exemplar and Skill Artistry (talk to DM about making it something other than competence bonus, maybe insight, since as written it just ends up duplicating magic item effects) can go a long way to the social skills being top notch. As I mentioned, there is some kind of Dragon Mag stuff to alter rogue to be Intelligence based. You could still give him a good Charisma, of course, but he has racial traits that bump his Intelligence way, way, way more than any of his other stats. The higher level benefits of Exemplar are pretty awesome, too, not to mention over 10 levels this nets an int-based character a crazy number of skill points, probably in the range of 150-180.

Also look into PrC that grant permanent bonuses to stats. Mythic Exemplar from Complete Champion comes to mind. Flush all the fluff, and the int-character, Ktolemagne IIRC, has some cool benefits. Pretty much a caster, though. The Doctor might benefit from some of the stuff granted to other paragon paths, though.

Some of the old shows actually went into describing the way that the brains of Time Lords (not sure if it was only Time Lords or all Gallifreyans) were different from those of humans. Pretty cool stuff. It would be all but impossible to make a time lord race, though. Way too much coolness to quantify, but I guess one could try to narrow it down some. Still, the LA stands to be quite high.

[koboldish]

Awesome! Thanks! What book is vow of nonviolence in? I still haven't decided on class.

Edit: Nevermind, I messaged a friend and vow of nonviolence is not for me :)

[Phelix-Mu]

Awesome! Thanks! What book is vow of nonviolence in? I still haven't decided on class.

Edit: Nevermind, I messaged a friend and vow of nonviolence is not for me :)

Great flavor for the Doctor, but it throws a major wrench in the typical D&D game. Not to mention, the benefit of Vow of Nonviolence is not as cool or as useful as it should be, like most of the Sacred Vows apart from Vow of Poverty. Here's to inconsistent writing.:smalltongue:

[koboldish]

Aww... Hmmm.... How about psychich rogue or lurk? Would those be absolutely terrible?

[Phelix-Mu]

Aww... Hmmm.... How about psychich rogue or lurk? Would those be absolutely terrible?

Don't know a lot about psychic rogue, but there is precedent for the Doctor having quasi-psychic abilities. I'd aim for telepathy, mainly hypnosis (charm), and ones that boost his interaction skills.

Lurk is pretty dark in flavor, but if you could keep the elaborate-murder flavor out of their powers and class stuff, then I'd say fine.

I went with rogue off the bat because of the more urban flavor and the high skill points. Scout wouldn't be 100% out of line either, just the new Doctor isn't in the countryside half as much as he once was. There is evidence that he might have access to Track as well, and Scout bonus feats might be nice. The bigger HD for Scout is also good, as the Doctor is stupidly difficult to kill. Consider feats like Endurance and such.

If I were to custom make his race, Endurance would be free, and they'd probably have some kind of cool use of Autohypnosis to ignore pain and damage for 1 round. Kind of a Mad Foam Rager racial ability. Hehe, there is just too much material from 50 years of the show to replicate even a portion of their abilities in a balanced fashion. That said, I'm sure many people have made a 3.5 Time Lord race, especially since the new show is very popular across much of the world.

[searlefm]

Rule 1 on death immediate reincarnation to a time lord moving on.

listen to the Tom Baker radio shows of doctor who.
as his states in that are
STR 10
DEX 10
CON 10
INT 75
WIS over nine thousand (he knows the whole of the earths and humans history and a around the grand total of everyone everything)
CHA 20

and craft skill are all of the charts as he once fixed a spaceship with only a pair of stocking wile suffering from the time lord equivalent of senile denture from a 900 year exile


move onto the Sylvester McCoy the 7th doctor
he is an epic level fighter who has taken vow of peace,
and happily beats well trained SS lunar future Nazis with only an umbrella in hand and his tardis stolen by a Bloody SS nuclear weapon scientist who rewrote history to mack Nazis a space faring empire by 1991,
but i digress the doctor is an epic level planes shifting, chronomancer, skill money, with enoth feats making it so he can do enoth to make MacGyver look like an armless child playing with lego, who is around a with fist level character and solving ALLLLL problems he runs into regardless of where people want his help of not.

so yer play MacGyver that's easy in comparison in every way, and slightly better play wise as silly shenanigans and abusing jury rigging is much more rewarding then macing the DM look in informed and the enemy incompetent.
so in my opinion enjoy MacGyver as is is fun relay relay fun but I'm not sure how to pull that of tho.

Edit:i forgot to mention the doctor refuses to use any special powers he has is he has an alternative.

[RagnaroksChosen]

MacGyver I'm not sure...

But the doctor... well the doctor in my mind is a human bard 1. Taking the jack of all trades feat and taking bardic knack... Then maybe a level of artificer to explain the gadgets. I don't know about the regeneration stuff but thats what I would play if I was making the doctor.

[Ellrin]

I kind of like the cerebrex for this, but I kind of like the cerebrex in general. Rogue's skill progression, half spell progression, gets a bonus equal to his level on Int checks in order to solve any puzzle, code, enigma, or riddle, Craft, access to all Knowledge skills, Speak Language. We see Doctor 10 frequently using senses other than sight, and Cerebrex gets scent, blindsense, and eventually blindsight. He can send other creatures into a rage (and for any non-barbarians, this rage is largely futile). He's got such great control over his brain that he can boost his own Dex score. Immune to telepathy, clairaudience/clairvoyance at will. Can wipe prepared spells from his opponent's brains. Insight bonuses to AC and all the social skills based on knowing what his opponent's going to do before his opponent does, and gets bonuses against illusions, mind-affecting, sleep, and fear effects. And he has an eidetic memory as a class feature.

Beguiler or bard might be a good way to prepare for getting into the class, though I'm gonna lean beguiler because I love beguilers. Super versatile, almost entirely nonlethal, lots of misdirection and manipulation.

[Piggy Knowles]

Great flavor for the Doctor, but it throws a major wrench in the typical D&D game. Not to mention, the benefit of Vow of Nonviolence is not as cool or as useful as it should be, like most of the Sacred Vows apart from Vow of Poverty. Here's to inconsistent writing.:smalltongue:

Vow of Nonviolence isn't too bad - that one's a personal vow, so you don't have to be the party nanny. You just personally can't deal lethal damage or ability damage to humanoids. It's actually quite nice for a lot of builds, if they can stomach being Exalted. It's Vow of Peace that I think should be anathema to any party.

I always think the half-elf bard substitution level granting Soothing Voice would be excellent for the Doctor, if you can handle making the Doctor a half-elf. (There were a couple of the older stories that implied the Doctor was half-human, so you could treat elves as Time Lords maybe? But that thread was never really followed up on, because it was kind of silly.)

[Psyren]

Preferably without being a spellcaster or a factotum.

Why not Factotum? It's not like you have to use the magical bits.

[doko239]

Steal the Anytool from Pathfinder's Ultimate Equipment book. Cheap magic item, with a command word it becomes any nonmagical tool you require. Seems like a pretty reasonable facsimile of the Screwdriver.

[Norin]

Why not Factotum? It's not like you have to use the magical bits.

exactly what i was about to post.
Factotum IS macgyver! ;)

Able to sort any situation with a vast selection of skills, crafts and knowledges.

[koboldish]

Thanks for all the help everyone! I'll look into some stuff, probably beguiler (and a slightly psychich paper), as I have decided to build The Doctor. Keep up all of the good work!

Edit: Poked around on Google, and it looks like I need to buy Dragon 317, because Cerebrex is perfect and exactly what I'm looking for. Anyone have unconventional uses for intelligence besides spells?

[Psyren]

Well, Cerebrex gets 60 ft. Blindsight and a boatload of skill points, but that's all it really has going for it if you ask me. And it really should have been psionic as far as I'm concerned.

If you're interested in it, it's also in Dragon Compendium if you have access to that.

[koboldish]

Alright. What do you think would work better than cerebrex, then?

[doko239]

Alright. What do you think would work better than cerebrex, then?

Epic levels of Expert? :smallbiggrin:

[koboldish]

So, like 500 to make it on par with a 20th level wizard, right :smallwink:.

[doko239]

Thing is, The Doctor, as awesome as he is, has no real powers outside of the Screwdriver, the Tardis, the psychic paper, Regeneration/reincarnation and massive intellect. Regeneration can be granted by a template, race or magic item; the paper, Screwdriver and Tardis are obviously magic items or artifacts. That leaves the intellect, which Expert emulates just fine.

Going Wizard gives him a bunch of other stuff that The Doctor has no business having. When has The Doctor ever thrown a fireball at someone, or teleported himself around? And personally, I think he'd probably avoid using anything called "Time Stop" :smallbiggrin:

[koboldish]

Thing is, The Doctor, as awesome as he is, has no real powers outside of the Screwdriver, the Tardis, the psychic paper, Regeneration/reincarnation and massive intellect. Regeneration can be granted by a template, race or magic item; the paper, Screwdriver and Tardis are obviously magic items or artifacts. That leaves the intellect, which Expert emulates just fine.

Going Wizard gives him a bunch of other stuff that The Doctor has no business having. When has The Doctor ever thrown a fireball at someone, or teleported himself around? And personally, I think he'd probably avoid using anything called "Time Stop" :smallbiggrin:

Summed up perfectly. That was a wonderful explanation. So how would you go about doing what you mentioned in your wonderful speech?

That was really epic.

[doko239]

Summed up perfectly. That was a wonderful explanation. So how would you go about doing what you mentioned in your wonderful speech?

That was really epic.

Thank you :smallcool:

I've already mentioned my suggestion of using the Anytool cribbed from Pathfinder Ultimate Equipment as a sort of substitute for the Screwdriver. It can basically be any piece of mundane equipment you may need all at once, which is more or less what the Screwdriver is anyway.

Tardis is more difficult, and basically requires some homebrew. I'd imagine an adamantine box with a door, that has a permanent Rope Trick cast inside, can fly at will, and can cast Plane Shift and Greater Teleport on command.

Psychic Paper is the most difficult of all, because it has no real analogue mechanically. Some sort of permanent illusion/mindreading type magic item is all I could really come up with.

For regeneration, I don't have any books with me, but I'm sure there exists some template with Regeneration on it. If not, the Ring of Regeneration exists.

For The Doctor himself, like I said, 20+ levels of Expert and huge Int Wis and Cha scores is all you really need.

[koboldish]

Most campaigns I play in start at level 1. How would you suggest doing this at low levels? I'll ask my DM if I can have a higher point buy for playing an NPC class :smalltongue:.

[doko239]

Most campaigns I play in start at level 1. How would you suggest doing this at low levels? I'll ask my DM if I can have a higher point buy for playing an NPC class :smalltongue:.

Only way I could see to emulate the Doctor from level 1 on would be an Artificer, since you'd have to make all his fancy stuff yourself.

[koboldish]

Very true. Would it be possible to make a something of knock at level 1?

[Phelix-Mu]

Thing is, The Doctor, as awesome as he is, has no real powers outside of the Screwdriver, the Tardis, the psychic paper, Regeneration/reincarnation and massive intellect. Regeneration can be granted by a template, race or magic item; the paper, Screwdriver and Tardis are obviously magic items or artifacts. That leaves the intellect, which Expert emulates just fine.


Actually, you've overlooked quite a lot. Even focusing on the new doctor, he's shown to have some strange ability to redirect energy that he absorbs, as well as having some kind of racial energy resistance . Ability to metabolize poisons also came up in that episode with Agatha Christie.

The old doctor used powerful hypnosis on numerous occasions. Low-level telepathy. Ability to meditatively slow and virtually stop his metabolic functions. Ability to stop both of his hearts (feign death). Ability to stop breathing for prolonged periods of time. One of his regenerations had access to some pretty extreme barehanded combat ability, and it's later implied that he could still use it, just that the personalities of his later bodies all had an even greater distaste for violence. He should also have crossbow proficiency, possibly also bow proficiency, and mad fencing skills. He knows a lot about combat, just he intentionally never uses it.

Now, as I said before, actually modeling everything that he is capable of doing is quite hard. Skills-based should be the go-to flavor, since the Doctor pretty much laughs at AMF. He is way, way more dependent on his screwdriver in the new show. It was around a lot before, but even without it he routinely escapes bonds, picks locks, bypasses security systems, and such. The screwdriver is a great asset, but it's hardly a crutch. He also had a sonic lance at one point, like a screwdriver but more focused on building things than taking them apart, as far as I could tell.

[koboldish]

Actually, you've overlooked quite a lot. Even focusing on the new doctor, he's shown to have some strange ability to redirect energy that he absorbs, as well as having some kind of racial energy resistance . Ability to metabolize poisons also came up in that episode with Agatha Christie.

The old doctor used powerful hypnosis on numerous occasions. Low-level telepathy. Ability to meditatively slow and virtually stop his metabolic functions. Ability to stop both of his hearts (feign death). Ability to stop breathing for prolonged periods of time. One of his regenerations had access to some pretty extreme barehanded combat ability, and it's later implied that he could still use it, just that the personalities of his later bodies all had an even greater distaste for violence. He should also have crossbow proficiency, possibly also bow proficiency, and mad fencing skills. He knows a lot about combat, just he intentionally never uses it.

Now, as I said before, actually modeling everything that he is capable of doing is quite hard. Skills-based should be the go-to flavor, since the Doctor pretty much laughs at AMF. He is way, way more dependent on his screwdriver in the new show. It was around a lot before, but even without it he routinely escapes bonds, picks locks, bypasses security systems, and such. The screwdriver is a great asset, but it's hardly a crutch. He also had a sonic lance at one point, like a screwdriver but more focused on building things than taking them apart, as far as I could tell.

Also a wonderful explanation! Thanks! Still looking for something slightly more specific though.

[searlefm]

unlikely but Artificer abuse is a good bet but the doctor is an empath has a boat load of psycic abilities and thats putting it lightly

othere than giving him vow of peace and non vilonce and then every non magic skill in all the books

[Piggy Knowles]

OK, here's my thought:

Half-elf (human heritage per Races of Destiny sidebar), Bard 1/Artificer 2/Factotum 3/Death Delver 10/Ardent Dilettante 4

Flaw: Noncombatant, (any other)

1. Factotum1- Able Learner, Wedded to History, Nymph's Kiss
Inspiration, cunning insight, cunning knowledge, trapfinding
2. Bard1-
Bardic music, bardic knowledge, soothing voice, inspire awe, fascinate
3. Artificer1- Scribe Scroll, Item Familiar
Artificer knowledge, artisan bonus, disable trap, item creation, craft reserve 20
4. Artificer2- Brew Potion
Craft reserve 40
5. Factotum2-
Arcane dilettante (1 spell)
6. Factotum3- Heroic Destiny
Brains over brawn, cunning defense
7. Death Delver1-
Deathsense, rebuke undead
8. Death Delver2-
Deadened soul, spontaneous casting
9. Death Delver3- Fearless Destiny
Death ward 1/day
10. Death Delver4- Diehard
11. Death Delver5-
Fear aura
12. Death Delver6- Healing Devotion
Death ward 2/day
13. Death Delver7-
Cheat death
14. Death Delver8-
Mantle of life
15. Death Delver9- Run
Death ward 3/day
16. Death Delver10-
Nine lives
17. Ardent Dilettante1-
Heightened senses, lore
18. Ardent Dilettante2- Font of Inspiration
Enthrall
19. Ardent Dilettante3-
Joie de vivre
20. Ardent Dilettante4- Font of Inspiration
Sense Link

Item Familiar:
"Sonic Screwdriver" - Heavily invest UMD and maybe Open Lock into this. Enchant it with knock, some fun detection-style spells and possibly mage hand and prestidigitation.

For your own skill ranks, Diplomacy, Bluff, UMD, Perform (technobabble), Perform (stirring speech about the nature of humanity), and a lot of knowledge skills. Maybe some craft here and there, but a permanent item of magecraft would do just as well.

For some interesting abilities...

"No, seriously, stop trying to kill me while I talk at you for a while." - Soothing Voice. Make a diplomacy check to instill calm emotions on an enemy. Because the doctor needs to have room to talk, dangit.

"I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up." - Inspire Awe, fear aura. Suddenly the enemies realized you're actually a terrible Time Lord and that you're about to do something unspeakable to them. A fear aura you can turn on, and you can more or less extend it as long as you keep talking by combining it with Inspire Awe.

Immortal - Wedded to History. You're not only immortal, you're one of a kind. You could have a starring role in every history book ever written...

Sonic Screwdriver - You've got a screwdriver that can open just about anything, operate any magical technological device, move things from afar, cause sparks, etc.

Brains Over Brawn - OK, you're not big and strong. But dang you're smart, and Brains over brawn means you add your Intelligence bonus to all Strength, Dex or Con checks.

Hard to Kill - Dang, you're pretty hard to kill. Death Ward means a lot of things simply don't effect you. Your inspiration points and Heroic Destiny give you even more defenses. And once each day when something DOES actually reduce you to -10 or below HP, Fearless Destiny kicks in and you instead are set at -9 HP. Oh yeah, and then Healing Devotion gives you fast healing.

Many Regenerations - OK, Fearless Destiny has been used for the day, or someone zaps you with a death ray. What now, big man? Oh, nothing much, just scratch off a life from the Doctor's Nine Lives ability. Combine with a Hat of Disguise and a funny accent for a total change. Maybe this time you've got a North accent - plenty of planets have a North!

"Aren't mind melds a Vulcan thing?" - Clairaudience/clairvoyance, sense link and various other spells let you see into the minds, and through the eyes, of others.

Absorbing Damage, Drinking Poison, etc. - Death Delver spells. They're not flashy, but rather are all defensive in nature and let you gain protection from energy, or neutralize poison, or whatever.

Juryrigging - Sometimes the Doctor needs to make items do things they were never intended to do. No problem for you, just use your artificer infusions and your pimped out UMD scores to do just that. Bonus points for the Spell Storing Item infusion to give things really silly powers.

Superhuman Sensation - You've got scent, and all your other senses are heightened.

Joie de vivre - Sometimes you can be down about all the things you've done in your long and storied past, but your lust for life inspires such hope in others. No, seriously, it does - you inspire others as though by a good hope spell.

Run - Trust me. Run.

[Phelix-Mu]

@Piggy: Wow, masterfully done for not making it a custom race. Kind of sucks that he will start out fairly normal, but then so does every 1st level character. The Death Delver stuff is genius. And Ardent Dilettante is one of my favorite PrC of all time. This is probably a more powerful version of my Exemplar suggestion, with added flexibility and covering a few more examples of the Doctor's strange abilities. In higher levels, the Ardent Dilettante just gets better, more and more skill points.

Interestingly, as I recall the Doctor actually doesn't start adventuring until a fairly long ways along his chronological lifespan. It's unclear to me exactly how he managed to spend so much time in his first body, as he was over 700 as far back as generation 4, now on 11 or so and 900, showing significant depreciation in the length of his cycling through a regeneration. Not sure how Wedded to History works, but this might be some precedent for boosting his age category. Certainly the mental stat bonuses could only help.

[Squirrel_Dude]

You could also try a factotum. The ability to have ALL SKILLS as class skills might be helpful. They also have some really interesting ways to mess around with them, but you said you didn't want spell-casting so they may not be for you.

[Talionis]

MacGyver -- Rogue (expert) into Combat Trapsmith at the fifth level Trapsmith allows you to make the traps out of nothing. Factotum is much better as a base class, but it's been banned.

Then I'd suggest Uncanny Trickster to further increased the DC's of the traps. Plus skill tricks work for McGyver.

If ever a pocket knife could be called thieves tools...

[Spoilers Below]

Vow of Non-violence? :smallconfused:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAab89iINM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yueXCauSZL4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsSKm2HPYXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idEcvdL_zHA&t=0m45s

Factotum or Artificer is about as close as you're going to get. Simply refluff his "magic" as science your mere mortals don't understand yet. The build Piggy Knowles posted up there looks lovely.

[searlefm]

yer the fist thing the doctor dose is a diplomacy check in every situation,
after every peaceful or intellectual solution is exhausted and no alternative (or at least not a morally adaptable alternative to him) he responds in the same way i do in real life superior level violence to a point where you feel guilty and wish there had been another choice (although i do enjoy the fight as long as its happening just not before or after it).

[Gavinfoxx]

I wrote this as a reinterpretation of him for a FR campaign...

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

But yea, he has Jack of All Trades, and maxxed Int/Cha.

[Spoilers Below]

yer the fist thing the doctor dose is a diplomacy check in every situation,
after every peaceful or intellectual solution is exhausted and no alternative (or at least not a morally adaptable alternative to him) he responds in the same way i do in real life superior level violence to a point where you feel guilty and wish there had been another choice (although i do enjoy the fight as long as its happening just not before or after it).

Absolutely with the diplomacy, and while he's more or less violent depending on regeneration, but he's quite far from the pacifistic and never-killing-without-atonement level guilt that the feat suggests. In the very first adventure he was willing to bludgeon a caveman to death with a rock to allow himself and his companions to escape. The eleventh recently killed a man by redirecting a ton of missiles to blow up his ship. The morality of these actions is certainly worth discussion or debate, but if he did possess that feat, he lost it a long time ago...

[Psyren]

Eccleston wasn't afraid to kick arse either, and lets not forget torturing a Dalek or killing Slevines.

He's Good overall but certainly not enough to be Exalted Good, in any incarnation I'd say.

[Petrocorus]

Don't forget the social skills for the Doctor-- the new regenerations, at least, tend to be pretty good at talking to people.

He should have the Bavarian Fire Drill (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BavarianFireDrill) feats. He use and abuse this a lot.



Thing is, The Doctor, as awesome as he is, has no real powers outside of the Screwdriver, the Tardis, the psychic paper, Regeneration/reincarnation and massive intellect. Regeneration can be granted by a template, race or magic item; the paper, Screwdriver and Tardis are obviously magic items or artifacts. That leaves the intellect, which Expert emulates just fine.

Going Wizard gives him a bunch of other stuff that The Doctor has no business having. When has The Doctor ever thrown a fireball at someone, or teleported himself around? And personally, I think he'd probably avoid using anything called "Time Stop" :smallbiggrin:


I always seen him as an artificer, that would perfectly fit the Doctor.

And as a race, he's probably a native outsider, with a huge Int.

[koboldish]

Thanks so much! That is by far one of the most awesome builds I have ever seen. I hereby award all of you who have contributed an award of awardly awesomeness. Twice. I now have lots of stuff to work with! Just in case, keep the ideas coming :smallbiggrin:.

[koboldish]

Sorry for the double post, but I statted out the screwdriver. Wondrous item of knock, mending, and horizikauls caugh. I'm working on the Tardis at the moment.

[Gavinfoxx]

The Doctor has at least a 22 int, Int to several things:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125732

and the feat Jack of All Trades, and a WHOLE TON of skill points...

Also, remember that as far as the 'do any skill whatsoever' classes go, it is:

Expert < Savant < Factotum

If you can't be a Factotum, look into Savant from Dragon Compendium.

[Sception]

Agree with artificer as a good call. A lot of the technology the Doctor works with is basically magic, and in a magic setting like D&D he'd be an expert in magical effects - or at least have a tinkerer's familiarity.

Same with McGuyver, actually. In D&D worlds magic is simply another law of nature, another scientific field to study, another aspect of engineering to familiarize oneself with.

Artificer has the skill set, the focus in items and tools, and the dabbler's thematic feel to work with these characters.

[koboldish]

I think artificer is the only way to make it work at low levels though. Phooey. I only have 20 hp at level 5 though :(. I figure if I get craft contingent spell at level 11, I can have regeneration (sort of). Nice suggestion though. I know what I'm doing doesn't quite fit the concept, but it seems like the only way to make it work later. I will probably try to make my DM let me use factotum, then go into that after artificer. Mabye a level of ninja for good measure :smallbiggrin:. Thanks.

[Gavinfoxx]

You want to be Factotum at Level 1... for the skills. That with Able Learner means 'All skills are class skills for you, always.'

[koboldish]

True... I would have a bigger craft reserve to have built my screwdriver if I started as an artificer though. That's a very good point though.




Edit: I have statted out the Tardis, and it will cost about 1,200,000 gp and 50,000 xp to build. Not available at low levels. :smallbiggrin:

[Sception]

You want to be Factotum at Level 1... for the skills. That with Able Learner means 'All skills are class skills for you, always.'

How important this is, however, will depend on how many skill points you gain when leveling, and what skills you might want to spend points on that aren't class skills for your other classes.

[Waker]

Good suggestions made thus far, I especially like the one with Death Delver and Ardent Dilletante. Another potential race/class combo to remember is the Changeling Rogue acf. Ton of skill points, able to take 10 on several social skills (because the Doctor never rolls a 1) and for added sillyness you can use your Change Shape ability whenever you need to "Regenerate". Alternatively you could try the Elan race for something that looks human, but is distinctly different. The built-in psionic flavor is a bonus.

[koboldish]

The Elan would be very nice. Psychic rogue, perhaps? I like the psychich abilities, but the sneak attack doesn't seem to fit. And it needs more skills. Mabye like an Elan Factotum/Psion/Artificer/Expert?


Edit: I have finally been converted to Factotum, because I still have the spells for crafting. And the skills. And everything else. I'm looking at Dictum Mortum's handbook right now, and it seems pretty epic. So, lots of knowledge skills, and random points in random things!

[Waker]

It's not quite magic, but you could also take a look at Incarnate from Magic of Incarnum. Makes a decent skillmonkey with all-day buffs, including some stuff that gives you defense against some of the more common dangers that adventurers face, like ability damage or energy attacks. If you liked the Elan race, there is also a theurge PrC for Incarnum and Psionics. You'd have a decent bit of versatility between the two meldshaping and psionics, but since it's a theurge you wouldn't run the risk of overshadowing the rest of the party.
Can't give too much specific build advice since I don't have my books with me though.

[koboldish]

My friend has a copy of Magic of Incarnum. It is really interesting, but I don't think it quite fits. I just read the XP is a river thread, and thought about Factotum crafting.... Muhuhuhahaha....

[Talionis]

True... I would have a bigger craft reserve to have built my screwdriver if I started as an artificer though. That's a very good point though.




Edit: I have statted out the Tardis, and it will cost about 1,200,000 gp and 50,000 xp to build. Not available at low levels. :smallbiggrin:

I think The Tardis is stolen. I think the Tardis says she found The Doctor. The Tardis is almost a mount. I've also thought of her as item familiar.

Additionally, we have never seen a low level The Doctor. It would not surprise me that even the earliest regeneration a were level 20.

MacGuyver is different than the Dr. Mack is much lower level. Does smaller things. I still very much like Expert into Combat Trapsmith for Mack.

[Zonugal]

MacGuyver is different than the Dr. Mack is much lower level. Does smaller things. I still very much like Expert into Combat Trapsmith for Mack.

You have to remember that MacGuyver is basically a secret agent. He gets sent on rogue-equivalent missions.

I'd honestly, using a reductionist 6-level scale, put him at Riklan Rogue 2/Artificer 3/Rogue 1. He has trapfinding, bardic knowledge, great skills, expertise with magical items (read: dnd technology) and via the Spell Storing infusion he can basically "macguyver" his way out of a problem with whatever items are nearby.

[The Viscount]

One class that might be worth considering for MacGyver is Shade Hunter. It has the ability to pull any mundane item worth at most 10 gp per class level from its bag, provided it subtracts the cost from its savings once per day.

[koboldish]

Macgyver is pretty easy, you just need to have a ton of skills and think things through with improvised stuff. Nice build. The Tardis was a wondourus item when I made it, and it was just for fun. It had, like, a ninth level, two or three 6th level, and way more stuff at will. As for being stolen... If it exists in the world already, I don' have to buy it! Item familier sounds cool as well. How would you do it as a mount? If you could post that, it would be amazing! Thanks.

[Malroth]

Human Paragon 1 with able learner, Bardic sage 8, Exemplar10

Psycic paper is precicely duplicated by the 3rd lv spell "illusionary script", The doctors low level telepathy effects work well with appropiate spells from the bards list. Plus the doctor especially the recent incarnations are very good at making ordinary mortals overcome their limitations.

[koboldish]

Well, The Doctor doesn't seem to have as much musicy stuff though. Can you think of a way to re-fluff it? I'll have to look into human paragon as well.

[Waker]

Well, The Doctor doesn't seem to have as much musicy stuff though. Can you think of a way to re-fluff it? I'll have to look into human paragon as well.
Perform (Oratory) works perfectly fine for that. The Doctor just needs the time to talk to work his magic.

Here is a list of acfs for all the 3.5 classes
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872054/Alternative_Class_Features_III
Stuff that fits the Doctor; Half-Elf Bard with Soothing Voice, Bardic Sage and maybe grab a bit of Planar Bard for flavor.

[koboldish]

Does that still work with all of the bardic music and stuff? And thank you for your wonderful input!