Factotum build help

[Dude_Here]

I'm rolling a Factotum for an upcoming campaign and have a few questions.
Race is Human with these stats:
Str:14
Dex:12
Con: 14
Int: 18
Wis: 11
Chr: 14

I was wondering If going 15 Chr 10 Dex would be better because I was planning on making a tripper/imperious command build. And if putting points into Iaijutsu Focus was worth it if I'm going to be using a Guisarme.

I have been reading that one of the main sources of a Factotum's damage
output is the use of manufactured poisons. I would like to know what specific poisons are mainly used and their costs. This also brings up the touchy subject of poison use. I don't know if my DM will allow a good character to use poison but I'm playing a chaotic neutral aligned character so I think I should be ok.

[rockdeworld]

The main source of a factotum's damage is not poison, it's usually Iajutsu Focus, which almost requires Gnomish Quickrazors. If you're using a Guisarme instead, don't put ranks in Iajutsu Focus, because you'll probably never use it.

The best way to get poison as a Factotum is to cast Major Creation for Devastation Spider (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/monsters/devastationVermin.htm#devastationSpider) poison, but that requires Factotum level 13 (and enemies might be immune to poison at this level). You can use Minor Creation for Black Lotus Extract at level 10, and before that consult the Poison Handbook (http://www.brilliantgameologists.com/boards/?topic=4854.0).

[Kennisiou]

You can use psionic tatoos of psionic minor creation at any level. They cost 50 gold each and can be used to manufacture poisons just like the spell minor creation, another good way to get poisons. Generally, poisons are a thing that archer factotums do, since they can use their multiple standard actions + the many shot feat to fire several poisoned arrows in a single standard action multiple times in a turn. If you're going IC/Tripper, I'd not bother using poisons except at early levels if you can get the psionic tattoos easily, since at early levels poisons can be quite strong even if you aren't heavily spec'd into them.

If you can, try to have someone with the master of poisons feat apply your poisons for you if you go with this strategy (find an NPC with it, maybe?) since factotums are feat starved already and as a melee factotum you really can't spare the feat to take master of poisons yourself. Otherwise, you're stuck with the problem of occasionally poisoning yourself when trying to apply it to your weapon (and as a melee factotum you'll do this a lot -- every time you hit with the weapon the poison is removed from it and will need to be reapplied). If you're worried about poison use coming off as "evil" there are several poisons that don't deal ability damage that many people look upon as the "good" poisons. Ones that merely cause nausea, blindness, dazing, stunning, and immobilization can all have legitimate, non-lethal uses, whereas the only uses of ability damage poisons are generally either killing or total paralysis.

Don't lose 2 dex for 1 cha. Remember, you can always spend a level-up point getting 1 cha. You can't spend it gaining 2 dex. You shouldn't be too worried about making sure you qualify for imperious command before level 4 anyways, since you'll need 8 ranks of intimidate which you only have at level 5 or higher.

In general, your damage will be based on using a standard action to intimidate either an enemy you threaten or once an encounter doing it to intimidate every enemy within ten feet of you. You then follow that by taking an extra standard action to iaijutsu focus the person you intimidated by attacking with your gnomish quickrazor (every attack with the quickrazor is made while drawing the weapon, making it the only weapon that can iaijutsu focus every time you attack with it). Heck, you can even spend two standard actions (one to move, one to intimidate) and then make a full-attack action with your remaining move and standard action and have every hit of it be Iaiutsu Focused if that would get you more attacks.

Having high Iaijutsu Focus and Intimidate are both going to be important on your build. Other skills depend on your party's structure -- bluff, diplomacy, and sense motive if you need to be party face; disguise, hide, move silently, spot, and listen if you need to be a scout/infiltrator type (party face skills again become important if you're using disguise to infiltrate), disable device and open lock if you're needed for dungeon delving... If you have the int try to pick up ranks in all of them, although not necessarily max on any. Also, you're going to want to make sure you have at least five ranks in balance, as your other means of making sure enemies are Iaijutsu Focusable are via spells to make them flatfooted, and one of the earliest of those you have access to is grease -- if you have 5 ranks of balance and your enemy does not, you can walk on grease without being flat-footed but they can't, allowing you to Iaijutsu them.