non-iaijutsu factotum build

[Ethernil]

As a mental exercise and potential future character i want to build a factotum with at least 16 lvls of factotum for cunning defence or even 18 for 7th lvl spell and the ability to slot the other 6 daily spells per day at lvl 6 ones. So we re talking 1-4 levels of dips in either clases or prestige classes from any oficial wotc book except psionics. Online stuff like font of inspiration are out too.

The dm has offered to houserule bonus spells per day from high inteligence score by himself, like a wizad gets, but i duno if i m ok with that as it sounds more op than the things he has banned.

I am mostly at a loss when it comes to picking feats and maxing skills as too many are usefull. I want to create a character like the red mage from final fantasy, i like this jack of all trades type of character in most rpgs. If you are unfamiliar it is a lightly armored light weapon wielding class(not always the case about his weapons) that can cast offensive and defensive/healing spells and has usually an exotic air about him.

I considered bard but i only found fun the fochulcan lyrist prestige build and it seems that a character who has to take lvls in 3 classes by lvl 10 is gona be really weak for at least half of his career.

My main reason for not going straight factotum 20 is to add to his combat ability either via spellcasting or melee. So either some class that will help me persist some really good buff(s) or that will bost my bab into 4 attacks per round would be more than welcome.

[Waddacku]

You want to get some Warblade in there. Full BAB, d12 HD, and maneuvers. Plus a little bit of Int synergy. Crusader is slightly less obvious but would also work, and it doesn't eat any actions to refresh maneuvers. No Int synergy and the maneuver selection isn't quite as cool, though it gets most of it.

[Gildedragon]

Bonus spells as per wizard is very good... Far better than IF.
Warblade is pretty good.
A dip in binder at a feat gaining level is pretty handy, giving you access to a handful of abilities.
Swordsage, though lacking in int synergy, has a lot of great maneuver options that allow you to fight a bit more underhandedly: you want to take your second level of swordsage at or after 6th level to get assassins stance.
Monk is a not bad idea, with the kung-fu genius feat: int to AC, for example.
If pathfinder material is allowed: you want a
Master of many styles sohei that is focused on Kirin Style feats: there is some good int synergy there.
Swashbuckler is a three level dip but has a few handy abilities, notably int to damage

[GrayDeath]

Depending on the Roles/Styles you like, a Warder might be very helpful too.
Full Int Synergy, Maneuvers and mucho HP.

[AnachroNinja]

Chameleon is always full of win

[Mr Adventurer]

"Bonus spells as a Wizard" would mean, if you had an Int of 24, at max Factotum spell level casting you'd have 2 level 7 spells and one additional level 6 spell. Hardly game breaking any more than the Factotum getting them in the first place.

EDIT: given what you say above, I'd personally be looking at Warblade 4 as others have mentioned. There's nothing I'm aware of that really synergises and builds upon the Factotum spell ability.

[bahamut920]

OP said at least 16 factotum levels. Now, I won't deny that even 4 chameleon levels are useful (you get one aptitude focus, the floating bonus feat, evasion 1/day, and a +2 ability boon), especially if you pick one of the non-spellcasting focuses, but full-on chameleon 10 is out.

[Demidos]

The binder feats:
Bind Vestige, Improved Bind Vestige, and Practiced Binder will give you a large array of moderately useful powers that can be swapped in or out at will, appropriate for a jack-of-all-trades character.

Levels in Chameleon (PRC) can give you a floating feat which is also very flexible -- have a month of downtime? Craft items! Need expendable minions? Take fell animate! Need a manuveur like mountain hammer? Take martial study! Need a variety of other wacky abilities? Shape soulmeld!
etc etc.

If you play with LA buyoff (or really like templates), the Phrenic template offers solid stat boosts along with a host of useful SLAs.

P.S. Judging by your original Jack-of-all-trades request, just out of curiousity, is there a reason you aren't choosing a bard or druid? They are both lightly armed combatants with a mix of self healing and offensive spells, and the abilities are easily customizable to power levels or flavor with ACFs, etc.

[Gildedragon]

If LA buyoff is in play a Deep Athasian Human is GREAT
+4 int -2 Str +2 to any non-int score, scaling psi abilities, and a handful of useful SLAs, and human abilities (bonus feat and skillpoints)
Or divine minion athasian human which gives up the SLAs and a +2 to int for free wildshape
You might want to check the guide. It has some tips on non IF fighting

[Ethernil]

The dm doesn't accept level adjustment buyoff or retraining. I think Dark Whisper Gnome would be fun.*Also no pathfinder, only wotc dnd 3.5 official printed material and maybe some 3d eddition that didnt get updated.

I have tried a factotum chameleon in an older game, by the time factotum was starting to get some power (spell advancement is reall slow till lvl 10) i went into chameleon which set me back even further, i felt really weak. The fact that i screwed up the stats when building the character didn't help either. Also chameleon induces MAD, if you plan on focusing into arcane spells it seems that plain factotum is far better, if you wana go divine you re gona need some wisdom on top of intelligence being your main stat, some constitution is also needed and you need either strength or dexterity for mundane combat.

A 2 lvl chameleon dip gives further options but doesn't really help with combat.

The 4 lvl warblade seems to be the best case, 3 lvls of swashbuckler do give finesse and into to damage but it's precision damage so a lot of enemies are immune to it and i would need another 1 lvl class with bab to hit the 16 benchmark by lvl 20, i find none to be worth mentioning. 2 lvls of monk with acf and the feat that uses intelligence instead of wisdom for armor looks kinda nice, for a tripper factotum build. The other 2 lvls could be plain old fighter for more feats and maybe dungeon crusher?

4 lvls of warlock give take 10 on use magic device which is nice but low lvl lock abilities are generally weak.

A single binder dip is nice but taking more doesnt offer much.

Swordsage gives a feat tax for dumping strength alltogether for dexterity, i believe it's not worth it with so few feats.

A lvl of cloistered cleric offers a lot but i doubt that will be allowed in our games, and even if it is, divine metamagic doesn't work on arcane spells.
There was a prestige class i read about somewhere that pays for metamagic spells with perform(dance) checks. That would be interesting.
*The prestige class is spell dancer, it also grants evasion at lvl 2 and advances spellcasting. It's from magic of faaerun and can be accessed at lvl 9 (need to be able to cast lvl 3 spells and it takes some no so useful feats to join the club: Combat Casting , Dodge , Endurance , Mobility plus extend and persist spell, but it's possible to persist 2 spells per day with some constitution boost.

Warshaper 4 isnt too bad, factotum qualifies by lvl 10 by being able to cast polymorph.

Pure druidis very strong but i like the character to me a smart fighter, with a touch of mcguyverism. I m not very familiar with bards, the plain class seems kinda boring, going for sublime chord kinda makes you a sorcerer and i want to be fighting mostly melee, gish-like. Fochlucan Lyrist seems to be the most fun build but as with most theurge classes it has a weak start, and in this specific case the start is the first 10 lvls....

[Gildedragon]

Remember the factotum doesn't cast spells. They cast SLAs that can be affected by metamagic

[Ethernil]

I just realised, i can use spelldancer to get the evasion Fochlucan Lyrist needs instead of rogue or monk and thus not lose caster lvls. So bard 3 druid 5 spelldancer 2 easily qualifies for Fochlucan Lyrist by lvl 10, with 16 bab by 20 lvl, 9th lvl druid spells and 5th lvl bard spells. Though the character needs wisdom charisma constitution and possibly dex or str.

[Seppo87]

I am mostly at a loss when it comes to picking feats and maxing skills as too many are usefull. I want to create a character like the red mage from final fantasy, i like this jack of all trades type of character in most rpgs. If you are unfamiliar it is a lightly armored light weapon wielding class(not always the case about his weapons) that can cast offensive and defensive/healing spells and has usually an exotic air about him.

Knowledge Devotion. UMD. Arcane Strike (may be applicable given the houser rule on bonus "spells") Arxane Disciple (same story, it WILL give your charcater a red mage feeling witrh the right domain)

[Ethernil]

Kjowledge devotion fits perfectly. Arcane strike would burn my per day spells too fast and arcane disciple adds MAD problems, if i wanted to deal with them i d makea chameleon instead.

Since we mentioned templates, i find 3 as potentially good if they are accepted: dark, feral and necropolitan. As for base race i suppose human is king.

[Gildedragon]

Kjowledge devotion fits perfectly. Arcane strike would burn my per day spells too fast and arcane disciple adds MAD problems, if i wanted to deal with them i d makea chameleon instead.

Since we mentioned templates, i find 3 as potentially good if they are accepted: dark, feral and necropolitan. As for base race i suppose human is king.

Alethian Deep Dwarves have boosts in all the good spots and psi powers
Nevermind saw the antipsi restriction: DM enforced or personal preference?
Beguilers (if you don't mind playing a small oposum sorta critter) have always on true seeing which is -amazing-
Dragonwrought Kobold costs a feat, but it is a pretty good chasis: start venerable and you have the best mental stat bonus.
Lesser Cansin
Changeling is great for one reason: Changeling Rogue at level 1 gives you the most skillpoints. but if you want your four iteratives you make your 4 non factotum levels full BABers* **
Gnomes are very good (despite how little I like the race: credit where credit's due) mostly because they synergize very nicely with Knowledge Devotion, letting you roll 2d20s with the "Trivial Knowledge" feat

Good templates: Dragonborn is great for a number of things (if you aren't taking Divine Minion it is one of the nicest ways to get flight and a bonus to your con) and Unseelie Fae is stupid strong, ghost (from ghostwalk) is... interesting; you're incorporeal so a lot of ordinary challenges aren't.
Primordial on a Half Giant is good if you want to be doing things with bigger weapons as you get Powerful Build

Featwise:
Nymph's Kiss. A boost to Cha, bonus skillpoints. it is great.
if you go necropolitan: Faerie Mysteries Initiate is a must
if your wisdom isn't too shot: Ancestral Whispers, it is like skill mastery but better: you can assign it to ANY skill at the drop of a hat, and gives you a nice bonus. You gotta worship a secretive cabal of good deathless elf ancestors but you might be in an intimate kissy relationship with fae-ish sorts already so... :smallbiggrin:

*1 level in Exoticist Fighter could be handy to get a few weapons that you'd not have access to: spiked chain and three others...
**Don't forget that by level 20 you can 'cast' tenser's transformation to buff yourself up; and for multiple uses in a day you can get a staff that has the spell in, or some scrolls. I'd relax on the hitting BAB 16, instead gun for classes that give you options or improve your attacks beyond bonus BAB

[Ethernil]

Exoticist fighter is from online source or dragon magazine so it's out. I don't really like kobolds, they re like lame gimped dragons.
As for gnome maybe the whisper variant as the phb ones are too jovial for my taste.
Divine minion seems to be broken beyond words so it won't be accepted.
I like changeling a lot, after reading the mark of death trilogy from the eberon campaign setting I loved a rogue cabinet trickster that was an antihero, named Teoma, though I wouldn't mix rogue and factotum.
Maybe a changeling 2, swashbuckler 3, chameleon 10 and night song enforcer ? To cap. But that's a different character.

Ugh I hadn't seen that tenser's transformation grants bab.

[Ethernil]

I start thinking that 16 Factotum might not be worth it. 8 Factotum 2 Warblade 10 chameleon seems to be much stronger (or 8 factotum 2 monk for int to AC and 10 cham). Or even rogue/swashbuckler chameleon, although that has no caster lvl so you can't pick up magic item creation feats. Assassin might be a good addition to the Factotum but only as a full comitment and not just a dip.

[Sahleb]

If you do the fochulan lyrist, you should really consider getting a level of sublime chord in there. It'll cost you a point of BAB and get you ninth level sorcerer spells.

Although if you want to keep your ninth level druid spells you'll need alternative spell source to enter it, as it needs third level arcane spells.

Bard 2/ druid 5 / spelldancer 2/ druid 1 / sublime chord 1 / fochwhatever lyrist 9 has dual 9th level spells and 15bab, 16 with the partial base attack variant, if you're into that sort of thing.

Spelldance + persist is still incredibly overpowered.

[Gildedragon]

I start thinking that 16 Factotum might not be worth it. 8 Factotum 2 Warblade 10 chameleon seems to be much stronger (or 8 factotum 2 monk for int to AC and 10 cham). Or even rogue/swashbuckler chameleon, although that has no caster lvl so you can't pick up magic item creation feats. Assassin might be a good addition to the Factotum but only as a full comitment and not just a dip.

Not stronger; different. If you want chameleon then yes, definitely do all 10 levels of it.
At 16 Factotum adding: Rogue 1, Monk 2, Binder 1 isnt a bad boost. Use the rogue level for either poison-use or changeling-rogue and get some bonafide sneak attack for Craven.
Monk 2 to boost your AC and nab a couple feats and evasion or if PF is allowed Int-to-damage feats, and Binder gives you a smattering of at-will abilities. Naberius is probably the one that gets bound because of healing ability damage and boosting your speechcraft.
Of Monk 1/Rogue 1 Swashbuckler 3
Int to AC or Bonus damage + all the swashy goodies.
Cloistered Cleric 1 is also great. Gets you access to item creation feats, gets you knowledge devotion for free and if you go magic and luck as your domains to have much fewer UMD woes.

Also note that since Factotums have no spellcasting ability the Transformation has no downside for you

[bahamut920]

I start thinking that 16 Factotum might not be worth it. 8 Factotum 2 Warblade 10 chameleon seems to be much stronger (or 8 factotum 2 monk for int to AC and 10 cham). Or even rogue/swashbuckler chameleon, although that has no caster lvl so you can't pick up magic item creation feats. Assassin might be a good addition to the Factotum but only as a full comitment and not just a dip.
I'm actually playing factotum 12/chameleon 10/warblade 4 in my current RL game. Granted, I've also played factotum 16 and enjoyed it. Really, factotum is one of my favorite classes in 3.5. There's just so many things it can do.

[Fizban]

Your mistake was indeed going Factotum->Chameleon. People suggest that a lot but it's actually pretty terrible. As you've already noticed, the Factotum is highly dependent upon staying single-classed. I don't know how you "screwed up" the ability scores, but it was probably by focusing on Factotum: a Chameleon just wants a nice even spread and maybe a Belt of Magnificence. What levels are you actually playing at? Having a 20 level build is all well and good, but when you're actually playing you need to get abilities at the proper levels, and that means hitting your PrC on time and maxing it out before doing anything else. Chameleon in particular is terrible if delayed, since it relies on stuff that's already underleveled to begin with and doesn't get Double Aptitude and Ability Boom +4 until 7th.

The best entry for Chameleon is a bunch of dips depending on what you want to have besides Chameleon. It's hard to cram in the skills without at least Rogue 1 (though it can be done), but that still leaves you with at least 4 levels of whatever you want. Fighter 2 for feats. Barb 2 for rage and uncanny dodge, Monk 2 for feats and unarmed and skills, Warblade 2 for basic maneuvers and uncanny dodge, Ranger 2 for still other feats and skills, Warlock 2 for detect magic and a couple invocations, Ninja 2 for ghost step, Paladin (variant?) 2 for save and divine feat options, Swash 3 if you absolutely must have int to damage, even Hexblade 2-4 can work (cha to saves, mettle, and Dark Companion).

You say your DM wouldn't allow Cloistered Cleric, you should check on other common variants also from Unearthed Arcana (a printed first party book that also happens to be available on srd.org, same as the XPH). Fractional BAB and saves are a no-brainer that have no compelling argument against as far as I'm concerned (3/4 BAB classes entering 3/4 BAB PrCs just lose BAB for no reason, fractional fixes this). Red Mages don't sneak attack but Rogue is the easiest way to get the skills: Feat Rogue (link (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#rogue)) lets you cram feats and skills in the same levels so you can fit more classes before Chameleon time.

Finally, if by Red Mage you mean black and white magic, you're best off using Warmage and then hacking on whatever divine spells you can. You can qualify for Abjurant Champion with the Fire Trap spell even though you can't use most of the features, just for extra BAB and hp, then on into whatever other gish PrC floats your boat.

Chameleon doesn't get it's second aptitude focus until ECL 10/Double Aptitude at ECL12, and even once you've got casting you still need to use it to power up your entry build rather than on it's own. The entire class is about not having a class: lacking any actual class features at full strength it's harder to use, requiring you to make use of efficient combos of lower level stuff and your entry build rather than just do a thing. Most Red Mages just want to do the thing, which is why I generally recommend just using a Red Mage homebrew.

[Ethernil]

Fizban nailed it. Factotum needs levels on it's own to be effective. Chameleon needs a strong base to cover for the weakness of the prc during the first lvls.
I had rolled 2x15,14,13,12,11 on my factotum, put 15 in int and con, 14 in dex, 13 in str(big mistake), 12 in cha and 11 in wisdom. I couldnt get chameleon at lvl 6 because we were in a big dungeon and we couldn't take new classes just lvl up our old before leaving, and i would end up nearly 3 lvls behind the rest of the party and prolly die if i waited to lvl up afterwards. So i went factotum 7.... chameleon 3 ... and the dm aknowledged the whole thing sucked too much and offered me to reroll a plain rogue. Which i then got into a rather useless prc called temple raider.

Warlock-cleric-eldritch disciple could fill the red mage theme rather well but since the group has a dedicated cleric i don't want to overlap.
2 lvls of warlock give 2 invocations (prolly gona use them for day long buff ones) at will detect magic and a caster lvl for crafting feats, warlock 4 also adds take 10 on umd and a lesser invocation but that's still weak. This build would probably start with rogue 1 then warlock 4 into chameleon.

We don't use fractional bab so diping in too many 3/4 classes is punishing.

To be frank for a pure skill monkey (what the team is lacking) the strongest option would be rogue or spellthief 1 - wizard 4 - unseen seer. But thats not what i want to play, i want the character to be more melee friendly.

I really liked the flavor that goes with warlock but it seems to get the shaft even by factotum... I wish i could find a warlock spec that i like.

Most likely i ll scrap the factotum or chameleon idea and go with a fochlucan lyrist, starting bard 1, druid 5, bard 2, spelldancer 2(advancing druid casting), bard 3 to avoid having to spent cross class points and then 11-20 lvl will be the prc. Or i could ask if i can get sublime chord at 11 and advance that as the arcane side, i dunno if want to make the build so complex. Since druid is only gona be 6 lvls i ll get acfs for animal companion and wild shape (most likely druidic avenger and deadly hunter).

It's a pitty cause i like the style of factotum and chameleon, but when you got a group of tier 1s it sucks playing the role of the gimp.

[Gildedragon]

If they're all tier 1s even bard is going to lag behind. Not really much point for a skill-monkey in a party of tier 1s... Spells can replicate them quite well for the most part.

[Fizban]

Huh, never thought of that, Eldritch Disciple could pull some Red Magey feels.

I say again that you should be using fractional BAB. I highly doubt that your DM has considered the penalties of the default truncated BAB and there is no good reason to refuse fractions, nothing is depending upon those rounding errors for balance. Especially if the rest of the party is playing single classed higher tier classes, refusing fractional BAB is just penalizing you for volunteering to multiclass your build to squeeze in the skills the rest of the party won't take, making it blatantly unfair.

Fochlucan Lyrist build is going to have the same problems as before: dual spellcasting progression doesn't come online until after 10th, bard spellcasting is slowed to begin with, and you've spent an extra level on bard which should be in druid. Better to focus on spelldancing abuse, except it's useless in combat so it can't compete with DMM on anything except persist-but Spelldancer requires four feats so you've barely got any room to cram in Extend+Persist and it can't be used until 7th at minimum. FL only has any real power when combined with Sublime Chord, so if you can't get that I'd suggest something else.

Druid/Spelldancer 2 would be great on it's own aside from the massive feat cost, but there's just too much.

Let's go back to Races of Destiny: Illumians. Take the Naenkrau power word for better than Divine Metamagic: it works with any metamagic feat you have, costs slightly fewer turning attempts, and can be used with any spell not just divine, at the cost of a 2 spell/day max. You can "DMM" arcane spells (Anima Mage has similar abilities). Free metamagic is worth a level of spellcasting so dip cleric, or you could just wait until Sacred Exorcist to avoid losing caster levels. You can use it starting at level 1 with Empower, or go straight for Persist at 3rd. You can go sorcerer or battle sorcerer for cha synergy, or wizard for bonus feats, or bard/Lyric Thaumaturge for bard+sonic blasting+extra wizard spells (there are some hilarious combos you can do there with Persist).

Or, consider some Psionics: the main gish class Illithid Slayer (or agnostic SRD Slayer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/slayer.htm)) is 2nd only to Abjurant Champion in it's perfect gishiness. Complete Psionic has some powers which let you heal others, inefficient but good enough that you can get "white magic" with a couple feats and you won't be restricted to those stupid 1/day limits you get when adding domains to an arcanist.

You'll notice I'm not making a big deal about skill points either: as Guicari said, if the whole party is casters you don't have nearly as much need for skills and prioritizing skills will only make you weaker. And I'll beat the dead horse again: hey look, Bard/Lyric Thaumaturge is the only "skill focused" suggestion I made, and hey look it loses BAB for no reason thanks to rounding.

And while I'm making points about game balance and fairness: rolling stats is terrible because it screws the people playing the weaker builds (that'd be you right now unless you actually go for double 9's). If you're rolling stats you'll really need to wait until you see your rolls before deciding on a build, because you really can't make a do-everything build without good enough stats. That was the whole point in the old editions: reward high stat rolls with special overpowered classes, penalize bad stat rolls with plain fighter. Now you can try any build you want, and then later realize you just didn't have the stats for it and be screwed a different way.

Edit: oh, also this:

I couldnt get chameleon at lvl 6 because we were in a big dungeon and we couldn't take new classes just lvl up our old before leaving, and i would end up nearly 3 lvls behind the rest of the party and prolly die if i waited to lvl up afterwards.
Is bull. There is absolutely nothing in Chameleon's prerequisites that requires to you deal with someone else, nor is there any restriction on choosing classes while in the field except that of the DM arbitrarily limiting you. The DM made that up and then sent you to a place where your obviously planned character would become impossible, making it 100% his fault.

[Ethernil]

The guys playing cleric and wizard are not optimizers, the wizard will go into archmage for some at will spellike abilities that it has and the cleric will just bash stuff with his hammer or whatever and he seems to like a spell that creates a wall of blades.

When i said i want to play a skill monkey it wasn't just for the group. I like playing an Indiana Jones - Mcguyver kind of character that pulls solutions out of his uhm, backpocket.

The closest thing to that, which i got accepted by the dm, and which is at least on par with the other tier 1s is the artificer, i like the class but it's gona induce some headache with all the paperwork. The dm just ruled me that i need to prepare outside sessions so that i don't delay the game browsing through my notes.
It can trapmonkey, blast, melee, craft better than anybody else.
I figure it's best to stay in the class for the whole 20 lvls and pick a specialization through feats.
As for race prolly human, if not then strongheart halfling or hisper gnome, we play in faerun.
Oh and i had found in some book that there has been a secret place on Toril, the planet on who faerun is located, where artificers actually existed, though i can't remember where i found that.

[Gildedragon]

Yeah artificer sounds great.
If staying human: Canith Wand Adept might not be a bad choice; wands are fairly handy things which you can lend to the party and you get to dualwield wands and drain their powers for bonus dice to your d20 rolls (for example your skills). The feat requisite maybe can be turned into a favored in guild sort of deal? and if it is a guild sort of deal... maybe open to warforged, I mean a self aware golem

Warforged is good too because all the nights become your spare crafting time. Fluff it as a self-determining golem; also you can be as faithful or faithless as you like.

Also cute boost if doing faerun artificer: gems
in magic of faerun gems can boost your wands

[Ethernil]

Dm doesn't really like war forged, which is a pity as they can craft components for their body parts which are cool. Also I would have negative attitude by most npcs cause that's how he plays the game.
Human is fine, wands are expensive and cost reduction cheese won't be accepted. I like runestaves and spellstoring rings etc. I definitely like eternal wands, scrolls and schemas.
Mundane crafting and alchemy seem fun but skill points are limited.

Main drawback of the artificer is that he isn't good party face material. Social skills is one of the reasons I wanted the earlier mentioned classes.

[Fizban]

Artificer really doesn't involve what I'd call paperwork: having/memorizing notes isn't paperwork, tracking inventory is paperwork. You need to track the components for your Weapon/Armor Augmentations, which are all the same thing just so it's just Xgp worth in your pouch. You should probably have a few low-level scrolls to take the stress of your infusion slots, but you don't need pages of them. You only need one blasting wand. You might want a shortlist of good effects for Weapon/Armor Augmentation since it can pull up some surprising long duration buffs and immunities, but you can also just brute force everything with Bane/Holy/Collision. There's no reason it should take any longer for you to pick what you're casting than it takes the cleric to pick what they're preparing: in fact, your "spellbook" can be found mostly in the index of the Magic Item Compendium pre-sorted by level.

The not-so-secret that lets Artificers pull anything out of their pocket is the Spell Storing Item infusion, which just lets you pick any spell of 4th level or lower (within your caster level) and boom you have it. The only reason to have a bag of bookeeping is to save on infusion slots. Artificers are actually the kings of spontaneousness: they use all infusions spontaneously and choose what effects they apply spontaneously, no paperwork required.

Artificers have no use for Runestaves aside from selling, they can't use them. Cannith Wand Adept is terrible at dual-wielding wands (the Dual Wand Wielder feat is better) and it's skill boost ability is far worse than just using a wand that makes skill checks better (the many +tons buffs or a reroller), it's a waste of money. The reason to take CWA is for even more caster level with wands. The downside is that you lose three levels of Infusions, which are friggen sweet, so you only take CWA if you want to blast more than anything else. There's an infusion that gives you wand charges (and another that lets you metamagic them without burning extra charges) if you're worried about running out, but unless you're trying to fight with nothing but wands your old wands should be obsolete before you burn them down anyway. I don't know what "cost reduction cheese" people go slinging around but you don't need any: crafting is at 1/2 and you can drop that to 3/8 with a standard feat out of ECS (actually I know the cheese: they stack multiple versions of the same feat from different settings and some PrCs, entirely unnecessary). Don't forget to check the errata: Craft Wand and Metamagic Spell Trigger got switched so they make sense.

As for skills, just take Able Learner at 1st and find a casting PrC to dip which brings them in-class. Ruathar is the usual suspect (stupid elves), with both Diplomacy and Sense Motive for free entry and no casting loss. And/or, Apprentice (Criminal) from DMG2 can get you Bluff and Gather Information, also 1st level only.

Oh, and here's a link (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=20451) to an artificer I made a while back. It's got all sorts of houserules and gestalt on but the part you might find useful is that since you can cast any infusion at any time, I wrote in the entire list up through 3rd (barring one or two from some splat that weren't any good) in compact form.

[Ethernil]

I think i ve found a way to fix skills without losing as much of the artificer. 3 lvls of uncanny trickster offer 8+ skills per level from a list that pretty much covers my needs, advances the base class 2/3 and gives some skill tricks as a bonus. Qualifying just takes having already 4 skill tricks which is payed back by the extra skills you get from the prc.

How does an artificer fight? I mean i get that enchanting your weapon with the apropriate bane effect depending on your oponent. Are there specific spell wands or staves worth using? and how do you decide the caster lvl of those?

Something irrelevant to the artificer but that i haven't found a real answer to. Does chameleon double aptitude offer ability boon twice?

[Gildedragon]

I think i ve found a way to fix skills without losing as much of the artificer. 3 lvls of uncanny trickster offer 8+ skills per level from a list that pretty much covers my needs, advances the base class 2/3 and gives some skill tricks as a bonus. Qualifying just takes having already 4 skill tricks which is payed back by the extra skills you get from the prc.

How does an artificer fight? I mean i get that enchanting your weapon with the apropriate bane effect depending on your oponent. Are there specific spell wands or staves worth using? and how do you decide the caster lvl of those?

Something irrelevant to the artificer but that i haven't found a real answer to. Does chameleon double aptitude offer ability boon twice?

In reverse order: Double aptitude explicitly states you can't take the same focus twice.

You use your artificer level.

Buffing creatures you make or your friends summon (or your friends) is a viable option too. Or setting up traps and the like.

[Ethernil]

You can't get the same aptitude focus, but ability boon says you get the stat boost every time you pick a focus. And you can get 2 different foci, so does that mean that you can end up getting +6 to 2 different stats?

I m getting way out of theme here but i ve been reading magic of incarnum today, fun classes, totemist seems to be able to throw 2 buckets of damage dice per round and incarnate could actually be a good skill monkey. Soulborn is like the paladin and a tier 7 class had a child.

[Fizban]

An artificer buffs themselves and/or the party and plinks away with their weapon of choice. There are more magical items you can try to use (Storm Gauntlets are the best available), but the daily limits will always be a huge limiting factor and they don't scale well. Against powerful targets they might use a charge off their combat wand, and against boss level targets they'll boost it with one of the wand boosting effects they can use (Metamagic Spell Trigger is automatic and requires no warning but costs extra charges, the Metamagic Item infusion takes a buff round but makes every charge better, the Power Surge infusion also takes a buff round to get one or more free charges, Dragon Prophesier+Prophecy's Artifex lets you quicken for free). You could also pack a wand of some ridiculous 1st or 2nd level battlefield control like Web if it suits you.

Your DM should also be aware that WBL does not mean "treasure found," and if they're running it that way they're doing it wrong. The treasure values sidebar on DMG pg54 specifically calls out that you should actually be getting a good 10% more than what is required to reach your next WBL tier, in order to account for consumables like your infusion components and wand. Buffs that you cast on party members should be paid for out of their share (if they don't want the good stuff then they can settle for less). Between your consumable allotment, crafting at half cost, and conserving uses, you shouldn't have any serious trouble keeping a good wand handy.

The artificer's ability to "cast spells" in combat is extremely limited. The majority of infusions have 1 minute casting time, and while in Eberron they can speed that up with an action point (a limited resource), your game probably doesn't have those. For an artificer in other settings they should probably be allowed to do that 1/day. Like all characters, this is where the preparation comes in: the more prepared you are with consumable items on any character, the more ways you can react to things other than just attacking. You can also cast Spell Storing Item for a certain spell you want to use in combat, but you have a limited number of infusions and the xp cost, while low, makes it unsuitable to replace spellcasting.

And uh, three levels of anything else is going to wreck your artificing, and burning skill points on skill tricks to enter Uncanny Trickster just for more skill points is completely counter-intuitive. If you absolutely must then start with Rogue 1 or Bard 1 or something and Able Learner.

[Kelb_Panthera]

You can't get the same aptitude focus, but ability boon says you get the stat boost every time you pick a focus. And you can get 2 different foci, so does that mean that you can end up getting +6 to 2 different stats?

You can get two boons but same-source overlap keeps you from adding them both to the same stat.

An artificer can be spec'ed to use whatever combat method his player prefers but he's at his best when he's spreading his power to his allies and trouble-shooting, like a wizard. Whip up a few wands of buffing spells, BFC, an maybe a few atttack spells and/or debuffs; then use your infusion for the usual troubleshooting stuff; providing minor buffs (bull's str and the like), using spell-storing item to pop-off stuff like creat food or goodberry or the like, and; if you've got the time or action points; use some of those artificer-only buffs to get real crazy like the weapon and armor augmentation lines.

[Ethernil]

I kinda thought that the main idea is to use a couple of persistable buffs through wands to get through the day, buff up your gear through infusions and maybe a couple of spellstoring casts prior to a fight you expect, like a dungeon or enemy hideout and on bosses bringing out an expensive wand or two. There is a feat that quickens 1 infusion which is probably mainly good for bane weapon enchantment when you get caught with your pants down, i don't actually remember it's name. Also keeping a handfull of wands ready for different needs (blasting, control, cure, utility like mount). I get it that relying on homunculi for combat won't cut it past lvl 8 or so but maybe keeping a single iron defender and updating it' s hit dice isn't that bad, and you get your robo doggy to boot.

Thx for the ability boon clarification.

[Ethernil]

Can i use shape soulmeld and open least-greater chakra to bind soulmelds on a non incarnum class? Would be handy in many cases, like gaining evasion from it.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Can i use shape soulmeld and open least-greater chakra to bind soulmelds on a non incarnum class? Would be handy in many cases, like gaining evasion from it.

There's more than a bit of debate over that. I'd go with 'yes' as a DM but YMMV.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

There's more than a bit of debate over that. I'd go with 'yes' as a DM but YMMV.What "debate"? The feat flat-out says: "When this feat is selected, choose one of the following chakras: crown, feet, or hands. You can now bind a soulmeld or a magic item to that chakra." You bind a soulmeld to the chakra in question. There's no debate, just people not reading the very clear text.

[Kelb_Panthera]

What "debate"? The feat flat-out says: "When this feat is selected, choose one of the following chakras: crown, feet, or hands. You can now bind a soulmeld or a magic item to that chakra." You bind a soulmeld to the chakra in question. There's no debate, just people not reading the very clear text.

The argument goes (not that I agree with it) that it opens the chakra, making it available for binding but doesn't actually grant you a chakra bind with which to do so. Getting a chakrka bind, if you take that reading, requires taking a few levels in a meldshaper class.

I agree that's its a bad reading but I can't say that it's 100% definitely incorrect.

[Troacctid]

The argument goes (not that I agree with it) that it opens the chakra, making it available for binding but doesn't actually grant you a chakra bind with which to do so. Getting a chakrka bind, if you take that reading, requires taking a few levels in a meldshaper class.

I agree that's its a bad reading but I can't say that it's 100% definitely incorrect.
No, it explicitly says you can bind a soulmeld to that chakra. Generally the rules do what they say.

The ambiguity only arises when you have meldshaper levels already granting chakra binds. In that situation, it's unclear if it gives you an "extra" bind or if it's redundant with the ability you already have. But that's not the scenario we're worried about here.

As for evasion, one good way to get it is with the Shadow template.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

The argument goes (not that I agree with it) that it opens the chakra, making it available for binding but doesn't actually grant you a chakra bind with which to do so. Getting a chakrka bind, if you take that reading, requires taking a few levels in a meldshaper class.

I agree that's its a bad reading but I can't say that it's 100% definitely incorrect.So those people say that the feat doesn't allow you to do what it says you can do until you can already do what it says you can do through another source, thereby being pointless, since you could do it anyway.

Whut.

[Ethernil]

Shadow template, despite being really interesting is la +2 and the dm doesn't allow buyoffs. If the entire party plays la races i guess it's ok but being 2 lvls behind is gona be harsh, especially at low levels and vs antimook spells.

Browsing through MIC i found a 2 lvl totemist dip to be very useful, which a couple of incarnum feats and a 2 lvl chameleon dip you can use the flating feat to bind a different soulmeld each day, like adding stuff on your leatherman xD.
Considering factotum 16/totemist 2/ chameleon 2.

Also 3 lvls of umbral disciple, a prc in that book, give some roguey goodness, 1d6 sneak attack(if you take more lvls it starts bleeding dice as it only advances it 3/10 lvls) and most imortantly 30% chance to avoid attacks and permanent hips.
It only needs skill points you d probably get anyway on a rogue and point of essentia which you can get either by picking one of the mic races(azurin is human with 1 essentia in place of the 1 skill point per lvl) or by a small dip in one of the clases. The latter sounds like the better chois.

[Ethernil]

Since iaijutsu focus has been allowed for the factotum (team really wanted a trapfinder in the group so they upvoted me) the build is as follows:

Factotum 5-uncanny trickster 3-factotum 8-exemplar 1-factotum 16.

This grants a metric fkton of skill points and skill tricks and at lvl 12 with an upgraded intelligence score i dare say at least 5 skills in which i can always take 10.

Since we got skills covered lets talk combat:
The main idea is iaijutsu hits which will probably be triggered by a number of daggers and quick draw. And knowledge devotion for something that works vs everything including crit immune enemies.

I can't decide the race though. Pondering between human and whisper gnome or strongheart halfling.
Also i m trying to figure which feat path is the most optimal:
1)Twf light weapons with finesse. That takes 3-4 feats. Or with feycraft weapons and a certain magic bracers only 1, no greater twf but through my experience that rarely hits anything.
2)2handed spiked chain, though if i want to trip, dumping str would be a bad idea, which would probably push dex lower than str in terms of importance and maybe pick up power attack. That takes ewp spiked chain, combat expertise, improved trip, cobat reflexes and posibly power attack. 5 freaking feats and since knowledge devotion is staple it only leaves 1 feat to play around unless gaining another from race. Also tripping with a small race is suboptimal at least with this build which probably means human. Which might or might not make jotunbrud a good idea.
3)confound the big folk, titan fighting, underfoot combat which will probably be compined with option 1 and a small race.
4)As for spells only metamagic i see to be quite usefull is extend spell.

To sum all this up the class lvls have been decided. Now considering race and feat options.Also the title is now kinda ironic...

[Gildedragon]

how many levels is that?

if you're using daggers: get feycraft and shadowblade feat instead of finesse, grab some shadowhand gloves and go to town

Though for Iaijutsu Focus: the gnomish quickrazor is probably best (gnome makes the build make a lot of sense then)

Tripping is good, but if you are IFing then you needn't spend so many resources on tripping (what is the party composition? there's other fightery-ypes, yes?)

if you have the money, check about buying feats: tactile trapsmith is equivalent to 3000gp and it BOOSTS your trapfinding (keys search and disable device to dex, which means you also get Int to it)

With your focus on martial feats, i'd look for a class that helps you offload that; drop the 3rd level of uncanny trickster for something helpful: Exoticist Fighter 1, for example (gain four EWPs and a bonus feat) or Cleric 1 (Kn dev, War (pick a god that gets your weapon needs), something else)

[Ethernil]

Thats 20 lvls, i guess i didnt type it very clearly, i meant to show when i ll be getting the prc lvls. If we reach epic i ll prolly get another 2 factotum lvls for the capstone and then master thrower or something.

Can i swap gnomish hooked hammer proficency for quickrazor?

There will be a dwarf cleric and a human wizard and an undecided so far player. The cleric favors frontline combat and i think between him and the wizard summons we ll have fightery covered.

Magic item market is a bit limited in our games. We can find easily common items like protection rings, bags of holding etc but ability manuals and the like are considered rare. I was considering geting gloves of the balanced hand and later enchanting them with dexterity when i can afford them.

Exoticist fighter is from dragon mag if i m not mistaken and both dragon and dungeon mag material is not accepted. Plus if i wanted a pure mundane sneaky skillmonkey i think id go with rogue fighter blade bravo or something.

I want to make a functional factotum, the class build i chose covers me on that regard. And whisper gnome with feycraft weapons, gloves of the balanced hand and titan fighting chain pretty much covers me entirely. I just want the spells as backup, always nice to have invisibility, fly and other utility stuff for backup. Tenser's transformation or body of war for when **** really hits the fan with bonus points for watching the miniature gnome turn into a huge war machine.

[Troacctid]

Can i swap gnomish hooked hammer proficency for quickrazor?

According to Complete Warrior, yes, you can.

[heavyfuel]

Depending on the Roles/Styles you like, a Warder might be very helpful too.
Full Int Synergy, Maneuvers and mucho HP.

A... Warder? Where's this class from?

[Yael]

A... Warder? Where's this class from?

Welcome to Giant in the Playground Forums, where "3.5" is actually read as: "If your DM allow Pathfinder..."

It's a Path of War class from Pathfinder (PoW would be like Tome of Battle).

[Ethernil]

Wouldn't illumian be thematically apropriate for a factotum whose main shtick is knowledge? Also with the right sigils and 3 feats(extend + persist spell + extra turning) the factotum can persist 1-2 spells per day by lvl 6 depending on his wisdom score.