[3.5] Classes with All Day Abilities

[Thurbane]

So, recent thread on ToB got me thinking, I really like classes who have "all day" abilities, since you don't need to micromanage things like spells or uses of Rage.

By "all day" I'm not talking about basic things like swinging a weapon or using a skill/feat. Take it as read, every class can do that to some degree or another. I'm talking about interesting or useful class features that don't have a daily use limitation.

I'm going to start a little list, and add to it as we go:



Factotum: various uses of Inspiration Points
Warlock: Eldritch Blast and other Invocations
Dragonfire Adept: Breath Weapon and Invocations
Dragon Shaman: Breath Weapon, Auras
Binder: Vestige Powers
Warblade: Maneuvers
Crusader: Maneuvers
Swordsage: Maneuvers
Icanate: Soul Binds
Totemist: Soul Binds
Soulborn: Soul Binds
Truenamer: Utterances
Marshal: Auras


Special mentions:

Casters using reserve feats
Barbarian - Berserker Strength ACF
Druid - Shifter ACF


Cheers - T

[BowStreetRunner]

You need to add the Incarnum classes: Incarnate, Totemist, and Soulborn.

[Rubik]

Do psionic feats count? Expend or retain your focus to get the benefit of a feat when you choose to use it. Whether it's +Xd6 damage on an attack or +10' to movement speed when wearing light or no armor or the ability to run on walls or the multifaceted use of a psicrystal, those feats are usable until you no longer have a psionic focus available for it, and you can regain said focus with a Concentration check unless you run out of power points or fall unconscious.

[INoKnowNames]

What about the Marshal, or the Dragon Shaman, and their Auras?

Actually, how far does this go? Do Rogues and their Sneak Attack count? Sneak Attack has several useful variants limited only on the Rogue's hit points remaining. What is meant by an "interesting" ability?

[ben-zayb]

The Barbarian ACF, Berserker Strength (PHB2), removes the Rage per day, and instead enables Rage whenever your HP falls below 5 x barbarian level.
The Druid ACF, Shifter (PHB2), removes Wild Shape per day, and instead allows you to transform into a few kinds of forms (generic stats + thematic cosmetic) at will.

[Thurbane]

Yeah, kind of hard to define I guess.

Auras, definitely yes. Sneak attack? Not so sure...

[Venger]

Don't forget truenamer. There's no upper bound on how many times you can utter/day (even if the dc will eventually make it impossible to succeed)

[Thurbane]

Do psionic feats count? Expend or retain your focus to get the benefit of a feat when you choose to use it. Whether it's +Xd6 damage on an attack or +10' to movement speed when wearing light or no armor or the ability to run on walls or the multifaceted use of a psicrystal, those feats are usable until you no longer have a psionic focus available for it, and you can regain said focus with a Concentration check unless you run out of power points or fall unconscious.

Hmm, I don't think so. There are a lot of feats (in fact, most that don't just give flat bonuses) that give you an ability (or abilities) to use all day long. Things like COmbat Vigor, for example, that give limited Fast Healing, and can be "refreshed" every encounter.

I'm focusing on class features for now, but maybe I'll expand it to feats as well (I've already got reserve feats listed).

I'm also almost totally unfamiliar with all things Psionic.

[Deophaun]

While the Bard's bardic music ability has a limit as to how many times you can activate it a day, there is nothing preventing you from starting it and never stopping, which makes it effectively all-day.

[Troacctid]

While the Bard's bardic music ability has a limit as to how many times you can activate it a day, there is nothing preventing you from starting it and never stopping, which makes it effectively all-day.

But it's also just a small bonus to attack and damage rolls, which isn't really very interesting.

[Rubik]

But it's also just a small bonus to attack and damage rolls, which isn't really very interesting.It is for interesting or useful abilities.

[Deophaun]

But it's also just a small bonus to attack and damage rolls, which isn't really very interesting.
At level 1 you can add 2d6 energy damage to each and every attack of you and your allies. You can get that to 13d6 or higher by the end without much difficulty. I hardly consider that small.

[Telonius]

Dread Necromancer gets Charnel Touch at will (though only once a round).

Paladin's Detect Evil, though I'm not sure that counts as "interesting."

[INoKnowNames]

Don't forget truenamer. There's no upper bound on how many times you can utter/day (even if the dc will eventually make it impossible to succeed)

Given that it is bound by the DC eventually, you can't really say that it's all day, since there is a point in time during that day when you physically can't do it anymore by choice. I mean, that's physically not all day.

[tiercel]

If you are including PrCs, there are probably a number (some of which advance abilities already in the OP).

It is probably worth mentioning Hellreaver (Fiendish Codex II), which give melee folks at-will encounter-long pools of points to spend on hit/damage boosts, swift action healing, and more.

[nedz]

What about things like Fighter:Sword or Ranger:Track ?
Or skills usage - anyone can do these ?

Or are you only interested in non-mundane stuff ?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Psionic classes using Midnight Augmentation to recharge power points deserve an honorable mention, perhaps.

[mabriss lethe]

Technically, the soulknife falls into this category.

[Jeff the Green]

Well, there's the PP recharge tricks for psionics.

Also there's a whole bunch of psion (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070411a) ACFs (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070314a) that give you at-will abilities. I like the egoist's change shape, nomad's temporal grace, and the telepath's telepathic communication.

Paladins have their aura in addition to detect evil

Spirit Shaman gets detect spirits (like detect evil), blessing of the spirits (protection from evil, but spirits), follow the guide (like slippery mind), ghost warrior (weapons get ghost touch, uses normal AC for incorporeal touch attacks), warding of the spirits (circle against evil, but spirits), guide magic (don't have to concentrate on a spell to keep it going), and exorcism (what it sounds like).

If we're doing PrCs, Mindbenders get telepathy.

[Thurbane]

What about things like Fighter:Sword or Ranger:Track ?
Or skills usage - anyone can do these ?

Or are you only interested in non-mundane stuff ?

By "all day" I'm not talking about basic things like swinging a weapon or using a skill/feat. Take it as read, every class can do that to some degree or another.

...I guess more focusing on Su or SP abilities, but yes, not just basic things like attacking, skill use or feats.

I get that it's pretty hard to define what I'm driving at with the gist of the thread.

[Rubik]

Commoners can produce all the chickens, all the time.

[The Viscount]

Divine Mind has class features that function all day, they're just bad.