Factotum Cunning Brilliance Choice

[Alokue]

So, here's the deal Playground. My DM has ruled that all Extraordinary Abilities are explicitly labeled so. That means that fighter bonus feats and casting are straight out. The problem is, all of the factotum handbooks/guides/advice I can find says you should just take those. Or maybe sneak attack or animal companion if that's how I roll, but they're sub-par choices. I was really hoping to get something powerful, and worth the 4 inspiration points with this ability. I didn't find anything worthwhile looking through the classes myself, so I'm coming to you -- otherwise I'm going to feel like advancing the class to 20 was mostly a waste. I have

Dimensional Skip: This simple trick moves you between worlds, and you end up up to your move speed away from where you started. It can only take you to a point to which you have line of sight. This trick costs 1 point of inspiration, but it can be activated as an immediate action for 2 points of inspiration instead.

available to me from dungeonjammer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14381511#post14381511). So that one abjurant wizard ability isn't worth taking. (10 ft for 4 points<70ft for 2 points.)

tl;dr -- I need suggestions for good Ex abilities lv 15 and under from base classes! Hit me up!

[Urpriest]

What about abilities that, while listed under a single entry, have multiple sub-entries some of which are Ex and some of which are Su? Knight's Challenge is gained at level 1 and is untyped, but most of the sub-abilities are Ex, including Loyal Beyond Death, which can be useful in the right circumstances.

[Humble Master]

Wait, I forgot are PrC abilities allowed?
If that is the case here are some ideas from Tome of Battle, Complete Warrior and Complete Divine.

Island in Time (Eternal Blade): Take your turn as an immediate action :smallcool:
Song of Celerity (4th) (Bladesinger): Any spell 4th level or below can be quickened for free.
A Thousand Cuts (Dervish): Double the number of attacks in a Full Attack
Blank Thoughts (Occult Slayer): Basically gives you a free, constant Mind Blank.
Immune to Surprise (Divine Oracle): You always get the surprise round.

[BowStreetRunner]

Cunning Brilliance allows you to choose 3 class abilities but has some pretty limiting restricions:

Must be Extraordinary class abilities - so no Supernatural or Spell-Like abilities, and per your DM nothing not explicitly labelled Extraordinary.
Must be available to a standard character class - so no Prestige Class abilities or Monster Classes.
Must be available at 15th level or lower - so no abilities appearing at 16th-20th levels.
Must appear on the advancement table or in the text description for that class - so no Alternate Class Features.

Ugh! That doesn't leave you with nearly as many options as it originally may have appeared. (It's a TRAP!!!)

So, let's take a look at what we can get from this.


Barbarian: Fast Movement, Rage, Uncanny Dodge, Trap Sense, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Damage Reduction, Greater Rage, Indomitable Will
Cleric: Aura
Druid: Animal Companion, Nature Sense, Wild Empathy, Woodland Stride, Trackless Step, Resist Nature's Lure, Venom Immunity, Timeless Body
Monk: AC Bonus, Flurry of Blows, Evasion, Fast Movement, Still Mind, Slow Fall, Purity of Body, Improved Evasion, Diamond Soul
Paladin: Aura of Good, Divine Health
Ranger: Favored Enemy, Wild Empathy, Combat Style, Animal Companion, Improved Combat Style, Woodland Stride, Swift Tracker, Evasion, Combat Style Mastery, Camouflage
Rogue: Evasion, Trap Sense, Uncanny Dodge, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Crippling Strike, Defensive Roll, Improved Evasion, Opportunist, Slippery Mind
Beguiler: Armored Mage, Cloaked Casting, Surprise Casting, Advanced Learning
Dragon Shaman: Draconic Adaptation (Water Breathing, Treasure Seeker, or Icewalker), Draconic Resolve, Natural Armor, Energy Immunity
Duskblade: Armored Mage, Spell Power
Knight: Knight's Challenge (Fighting Challenge, Test of Mettle, Call to Battle, Daunting Challenge), Shield Block, Bulwark of Defense, Armor Mastery, Vigilant Defender, Shield Ally, Improved Shield Ally
Ninja: AC Bonus, Sudden Strike, Trapfinding, Poison Use, Acrobatics, Speed Climb, Improved Poison Use, Evasion
Scout: Skirmish, Trapfinding, Battle Fortitude, Uncanny Dodge, Fast Movement, Trackless Step, Evasion, Flawless Stride, Camouflage, Blindsense, Hide in Plain Sight
Spellthief: Sneak Attack, Trapfinding, Discover Spells
Warlock: Deceive Item
Warmage: Armored Mage, Warmage Edge, Advanced Learning
Favored Soul: Energy Resistance
Spirit Shaman: Wild Empathy
Divine Mind: Mantle, Change Aura
Lurk: Lurk Augment, Psionic Sneak Attack, Initiative Boost, Evasion, Slippery Mind
Hexblade: Mettle
Samurai: Daisho Proficiency, Two Swords as One, Kiai Smite, Iaijutsu Master, Staredown, Improved Initiative, Mass Staredown, Improved Two Swords as One, Improved Staredown
Swashbuckler: Weapon Finesse, Grace, Insightful Strike, Dodge Bonus, Acrobatic Charge, Improved Flanking, Lucky, Acrobatic Skill Mastery, Weakening Critical
Dragonfire Adept: Scales, Dragonkin, Damage Reduction, Immunity to Paralysis and Sleep
Archivist: Still Mind
Dread Necromancer: Advanced Learning
Incarnate: Aura, Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
Soulborn: Aura
Totemist: Wild Empathy, Totem's Protection
Healer: Healing Hands, Effortless Healing, Unicorn Companion
Marshal: Auras, Grant Move Action
Crusader: Steely Resolve, Furious Counterstrike, Indomitable Soul, Zealous Surge, Smite, Die Hard, Mettle
Swordsage: Discipline Focus, Quick to Act, Evasion
Warblade: Battle Clarity, Weapon Aptitude, Uncanny Dodge, Battle Ardor, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Battle Cunning, Battle Skill, Battle Mastery
Binder: Suppress Sign
Shadowcaster: Sustaining Shadow
Truenamer: Knowledge Focus

Keep in mind that while some of these are utterly useless without the other class features of the originating class (and some are utterly useless even with those features), those that do work with your Factotum function as if your level in the relevant class were equal to your Factotum level.

[The Viscount]

From that list above, here's what I think are noteworthy abilities

You can copy Healers companion and get a unicorn, lammasu, gynosphinx, or water naga.

Marshal auras are all ex, you get 7 minor, 4 major, though you likely won't get much use out of the minor, unless you have points in cha. Grant move action's not bad.

Barbarian rage is ok I suppose, but you'll unfortunately be getting 4 uses at the beginning power level.

A druid's animal companion is Ex, so you can get a pretty beefy, say, wolf, or a Tyrannosaurus with less boosts. Your choice.

You can get SR 29 from monk, but it's weak for when you get it.

Knight's Bulwark of Defense is good, but requires some investment, such as using a Duom. Put a little into it and you'll get a lot back.

Warmage Edge maaaaaaay work, but you'll need to check with your DM on whether you're allowed to treat SLAs as the spells for this.

Deceive Item is good, but you've likely put all the points into UMD you need at this point.

Scout can give you Blindsense 30 feet or HIPS in natural terrain.

Dragon Shaman can give water breathing, but you likely have that this late.

Swordsage's Quick to Act is nice if a little dull.

Warblade offers some neat things. Battle Clarity: Decent. Battle Ardor: Decent, better for critfishers. Battle Cunning: Good. Battle Mastery: Good, especially if you're an AoO build. Battle Skill: Situational.

I'll mention the Dragon Compendium Base Classes on the off chance your DM allows them.

Battle Dancer gives improved speed and Improved AC, like monk, except Cha based. Uninteresting.

Death Master, Jester, Mountebank, and Savant give you nothing, the last mostly due to a failure to tag anything.

Sha'ir can give you Craft Wondrous Item, but only to create genie prisons, which it says functions like iron flasks, but only on genies.

Urban Druid has also has an animal companion, but it's got a weird list, and can give you stuff like a Gargantuan Animated Object or Monstrous Spider, and Otyugh, a carrion crawler, or a Huge Monstrous Scorpion. Couple other things, but nothing interesting.

[Gildedragon]

oookay, so I'll have to crib these into the handbook.

[Alokue]

thanks for the thorough reply. I guess this means it's like I thought, nothing stellar. I'll probably just do animal companion and zealous surge, if I do it at all.

[Chronos]

The animal companion-like abilities aren't usable, due to the short duration of Cunning Brilliance: Calling a companion requires a one-day ceremony, and Cunning Brilliance only lasts 1 minute.

Initiative-boosting abilities are unlikely to be effective, for the same reason, though you might be able to get use out of them in a kick-down-the-door situation. If you do want an initiative boost, the Lurk's ability (+int) is almost certainly going to be far better for you than the Swordsage's (+4).

To The Viscount's list, add that you can get immunity to one energy type from Dragon Shaman, and immunity to both poisons and nonmagical diseases from Shadowcaster (you could alternately get immunity to all diseases, including magical, from paladin, but magical diseases are a bit of a niche use). And Camouflage, from ranger or scout, isn't bad either (and pairs well with Hide in Plain Sight), but you're likely to have some other source of concealment by this point anyway.

[The Viscount]

Good catch on the poisons, all the other ones are Su. I did forget to mention Camouflage, didn't I?

I'd be careful with dragon shaman energy immunity. The immunity to sleep, paralysis, and draconic presence is kosher, as is the water breathing, which also allows you to freely use spells and other abilities. Situational, but potentially useful. As for the energy immunity, it is of the same type as the breath weapon you gained at 4. You cannot gain this breath weapon, so by a conservative reading you may be incapable of gaining this.