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jqavins
2014-07-26, 11:26 AM
JACK OF ALL TRADES

“Sure, I can do that.” – Henry Sanderson, Jack of All Trades
“’Jack’ not name; ‘Jack’ job!” – Sweetums (who is not a JOAT, but I couldn’t resist)

He’s not a warrior, and he’s not a spell caster. She can’t deal extra damage when attacking with surprise, or fly into a killing rage. There’s nothing magical about them, and there doesn’t seem to be anything remarkable at all at first glance. So what can they do? Well, just about anything else.
The Jack of All Trades (“JOAT” for short) is a master of skills. He usually has a few ranks in darn near everything, and he has enough points for high bonuses in a few of them. Maybe he specializes in craft or knowledge skills, or maybe social skills or obscure skills, but he is also a competent dabbler in, well, everything.

Adventurers: A JOAT can be very useful to have around, and she likes to make herself useful. Thus she is welcome in parties of adventurers, and as a result gets to see the world. Most JOATs are born problem solvers, and adventuring provides no end of problems to solve.

Characteristics: JOATs are generally intelligent, inventive, and curious. Most of all, they love to be really good at the things they do, and spend a lot of time and energy honing their skills. Though they do not excel in combat, they do their best not to be liabilities. A JOAT may contribute by knowing the best way to kill a certain monster, by finding the healing herbs that are needed in the aftermath, or by turning a couple of rabbits into a gourmet meal.

At high levels, a JOAT can perform these functions under stressful conditions better than most people can with peace and quiet.

Alignment: While JOATS can be of any alignment, many have a desire to be helpful with their skills, which gives them a slight tendency toward good.

Religion: Religion is as important to a JOAT as to the next guy, not generally more or less so. Since a JOAT usually specializes in a certain type of skills, she likely worships a deity appropriate to that type. That is, a JOAT that has a particular love of knowledge skills probably worships a knowledge deity, and so on.

Background: Any.

Races: JOATs rarely come from races that have a negative Int adjustment.

Other Classes: JOATs know that they are ill equipped for solo adventuring and need to attach themselves to strong parties with members of other classes. They feel especially useful around clerics, fighters, paladins, sorcerers, and wizards, whom they see as barely able to take care of themselves; great cleaving and throwing fireballs are all well and good, but how are you going to feed yourself?

Table: The Jack of All Trades

Level
Base
Attack
Bonus
Fort
Save
Ref
Save
Will
Save
Special


1st
+0
0
0
+2
Highly Skilled, Willful Focus


2nd
+1
0
0
+3
Skill Feat


3rd
+2
+1
+1
+3



4th
+3
+1
+1
+4



5th
+3
+1
+1
+4
Greater Synergy


6th
+4
+2
+2
+5



7th
+5
+2
+2
+5



8th
+6/+1
+2
+2
+6
Skill Feat


9th
+6/+1
+3
+3
+6



10th
+7/+2
+3
+3
+7



11th
+8/+3
+3
+3
+7
Hyper Focused


12th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8



13th
+9/+4
+4
+4
+8



14th
+10/+5
+4
+4
+9
Skill Feat


15th
+11/+6/+1
+5
+5
+9



16th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10



17th
+12/+7/+2
+5
+5
+10
Cool Under Fire


18th
+13/+8/+3
+6
+6
+11



19th
+14/+9/+4
+6
+6
+11



20th
+15/+10/+5
+6
+6
+12
Skill Feat; Shut Out the World



GAME RULE INFORMATION

Jacks of all trades have the following game statistics.

Abilities: Intelligence is by far the most important ability score for a JOAT, as it gives him more skill points. As a great many skills have dexterity as the key ability, this can also be very important, though all abilities are the key ability for something, so the player creating a JOAT should consider his eventual specialty.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Dice: d6.

Starting Gold: 4d4×10 (100 gp)

Class Skills

All skills are class skills for the jack of all trades.

Skill Points at 1st Level: (10 + 1.5×Int modifier)×4 (Round down)

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 10 + 1.5×Int modifier (Round down)
Because the Int modifier is itself rounded down from (Int score)÷2, rounding down again can deprive the JOAT of skill points one might think she deserves. At the GM’s discretion, use the following table instead of the formulae above.


Intelligence
Score
JOAT Skill
Points per
Level
Intelligence
Score
JOAT Skill
Points per
Level


3
4
13
12


4
5
14
13


5
6
15
13


6
7
16
14


7
7
17
15


8
8
18
16


9
9
19
16


10
10
20
17


11
10
21
18


12
11
22
19



Class Features

All of the following are class features of the jack of all trades.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: JOATs are proficient with all simple weapons and light armor and shields.

Highly Skilled (Ex): A JOAT’s maximum number of ranks in a skill is double that of other characters, 6 + 2×Level

Willful Focus (Ex): A JOAT focusses so intently on her task that she can shut out such distractions as severe weather and taking hits. A JOAT may use her Wis modifier in place of her Con modifier for Concentration checks. Alternatively, she may make a Will save in place of a Concentration check.

Skill Feat: At 2nd, 8th, 14th, and 20th levels, a JOAT chooses any one of the following feats as a bonus feat: Skill Focus, Acrobatic, Agile, Alertness, Animal Affinity, Athletic, Deceitful, Deft Hands, Diligent, Investigator, Magical Aptitude*, Negotiator, Nimble Fingers, Persuasive, Self Sufficient, Stealthy. Other feats that similarly give a bonus to skills are also allowed.

Greater Synergy: Starting at 5th level, any time a JOAT benefits from a synergy bonus, that bonus is +4.

Hyper Focused: Starting at 11th level, a JOAT can shut out distractions sufficiently to take 10 even in high pressure situations, such as the heat of battle, on skills for which she has taken the Skill Focus feat. A Concentration check may still be required as appropriate.

Cool Under Fire: Starting at 17th level, the JOAT may even take 20 in high pressure situations on skills for which she has taken the Skill Focus feat. Taking 20 still requires extra time, and a Concentration check may still be required as appropriate.

Shut Out the World: Upon reaching 20th level, the JOAT may take 10 or take 20 on any skill check under any conditions. Taking 20 still requires extra time, and a Concentration check may still be required as appropriate.

* If the JOAT takes this feat, it merely represents study of magical phenomena, not any actual aptitude for magic.

Epsilon Rose
2014-07-26, 12:01 PM
Well, I'll just reiterate my previous point: outside of abusing 2 or 3 of the more powerful and broken skills (umd to pretend to be a caster, dip to break encounters, and maybe iajutsu focus for some extra damage) this class will often struggle to find something to do in combat and will often be eclipsed out of combat anyways. If you really want skills to be their main class feature, you really need to give them the ability to do more things with them and the ability to actually take advantage of those things.

For example, using bluff to feint in combat takes a standard action (meaning you're giving up all attacks in that round, and only slightly increases the chance you'll hit with 1 attack next round, which is nowhere near worth it. However, even if you fixed that, Jack's don't have any ability for dealing decent damage, so they still wouldn't be able to take advantage of feinting.

Also, keep in mind, by doubling their skill caps you've made it so a Jack's points only go half as far. With 10 points per level, they can only max 5 skills. At the same time, this opens up potentially unbalancing interactions where enemies defenses can't keep up with checks and high-level spells can be accessed early.

bekeleven
2014-07-26, 02:15 PM
At 5th level, The text mentions Greater Synergy while the table has succeed on 1. Note that skills already don't autofail on 1.

You may wish to clarify what happens if the JOAT multiclasses. As is, it's basically the best level-1 dip in existence, for 1.5xint skill points and doubled skill ranks. From there on in, I'd just go into a prestige class at level 2 that required 8 skill points to enter, and never look back. Maybe in 1 or 2 levels I'd get into a prestige class that requires 13 ranks. I'd rewrite it as: "Each level in JOAT raises max skill ranks by 1 additional point", so 5 ranks at first level, 7 at 2nd level, etc.

This class is int-focused, yet moves concentration to wisdom for some reason. Also, it has a d6 HD and bad fort save. If anything, it needs more constitution than wisdom. Note that if I went into this class I'd take Keen Intellect for int to will saves, spot, survival, heal, and sense motive. Then just ditch wisdom (and listen checks) entirely.

This is the same thing I do when I take factotum. In my opinion, this class is similar to factotum, but with overflowing skill points instead of real versatility, and falls off the wagon between 4th and 8th level somewhere.

jqavins
2014-07-26, 04:47 PM
At 5th level, The text mentions Greater Synergy while the table has succeed on 1. Note that skills already don't autofail on 1.
Oops. That's why I changed Succeed on 1 to Greater Synergy. I thought I'd fixed the text. I'll do that now.