Inspector Gadget, would appreciate input

[Aipaca]

Hi playground, first time posting after a lot of lurking.

I am building my campaign world to give my regular DM a break and am getting stuck on a key character. Basically I'm planning to make an inspector gadget type gestalt character as the benevolent head of a spy agency keeping a denocractic nation afloat. The world is E12, and not gestalt aside from this individual.
My current plans involved Warlock 12//Factotum 12 using ranged eldritch blasts and mostly utility invocations, but I'm not super sure where to go from there.
I realise it's not a lot to go on but would love any advice.

Thanks team!

PS. I realise planning out the world in detail is probably not a super good idea but its just how I prefer to roll for now, not being experienced at all in DMing :D

[Waker]

What exactly is it that you need? Advice on how to build a character?
If building Inspector Gadget is your goal, I would suggest going with a reskinned Warforge Artificer. You could use Warforge components and other wondrous items to emulate a lot of Gadgets wacky abilities.

[DMVerdandi]

An alternative could be a Warforged Artificer//Factotum 12.
Skills out the wazoo, and excellent infusions that you can cast on yourself.

This is a fantastic guide for using artificers without being bogged down with crafting stuff all the time.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?427628-Disregard-Money-Acquire-Buff-Spells-Artificers-without-the-Artifice
My suggestion, just so you can use your craft points? Craft minor schema and eternal wands only. Get as many utility spells as you want, and then use spell-storing item for your daily shenanigans. As a matter of fact, whenever possible, craft as many etch schemas of spell storing item, and metamagic item, and concurrent infusion as possible.

This is as go-go gadgety as you can get.

EDIT :ninja'd

[Waker]

EDIT :ninja'd
Are you accusing me of ninjaing you with an hour interval between our post times? Stupid ninjas and their blue boxes that are bigger on the inside.

[DMVerdandi]

Are you accusing me of ninjaing you with an hour interval between our post times? Stupid ninjas and their blue boxes that are bigger on the inside.

I had the reply to thread box open for a while, in between watching shows and eating food, so I didn't see your reply until mine was submitted.:smalltongue:

[prufock]

Inspector Gadget is a doofus who wins by failing and relying on the help of his 8-year-old niece and intelligent dog. So you're going to want Leadership and maybe Wild Cohort that you can later awaken. Having Gadget himself as a class that relies on Intelligence is... thematically questionable, though I guess you're just looking to mimic his abilities.

Gadget also always has the right tool for the job, which makes sense for an artificer. Though he often pulls out the wrong one. There's the robe of useful items in the SRD, which has a random patch generation table. That might make sense. Here (https://www.facebook.com/notes/mc-chris/list-of-all-of-inspector-gadgets-gadgets/423890420387/)'s a list of most of his gadgets.

[Zaq]

I played a character based on Inspector Gadget (though less of a buffoon) several years ago. I was a mid-level warforged Dragonfire Adept. I just ignored all the draconic fluff and described all of my abilities as, y'know, gadgets. (Entangling Exhalation, which is a staple of most DFAs, was described as "go-go-Gadget-hot-glue-cannon.") I definitely had a few useful magic items that helped me with detective-flavored info gathering—I know my Gloves of Object Reading were phenomenally useful, and I think I had something that gave me Clairvoyance. I think I had a few Eberron-style grafts (the Grappling Vine, while not actually useful in combat for a DFA with low BAB and worse STR, is hilariously flavorful as go-go-Gadget-arms), though I don't recall how many of them made it onto the character sheet and how many of them stayed on the wish list. I'm pretty sure I also had a Shadow Sibling symbiont, but I don't remember how I fluffed it.

Overall, this kind of character just comes down to your fluff and your descriptions. The more abilities you can reasonably pretend are "innate" or "built-in," the better, though of course, not everything has to be literally built-in for you to describe it as such. (If you do play a warforged, of course, ECS pg. 268 says that any magic item can be a warforged component, but that shouldn't be truly necessary unless your GM is a total stickler.) But the description is really what matters.

I will mention that you probably don't want to go back and actually watch Inspector Gadget for inspiration. Just use your beloved memories. The show is bloody unwatchable. I couldn't get enough of it as a kid, but it's aged even worse than many kid-centric shows.

[Extra Anchovies]

Perhaps a Warforged Incarnate//Artificer? I've seen both of those classes compared to Inspector Gadget in the past, so they may well be worth a look.

[bekeleven]

Warforged X//Y makes sense if your goal is to make gadgets part of the guy's body. In one game I played a warforged and just declared some of my starting magical items were part of my body (that Everfull Mug? My chest is actually a Mr. Coffee).

But if your goal is the "do everything" part of inspector gadget, well, that's a far different build. Specfically, it's Factotum 12//Anything 5/Chameleon 7. You can get more than 7 chameleon levels with varying levels of cheese, but 7 gets the stuff you need: You can cast 5th level spells (assuming 20 int/wis) and you get double aptitude. I've built superspy Factotum//Chameleons before and let me tell you, the spell access is invaluable. Also, skill points. Skill tricks like assume quirk, second impression, and conceal spellcasting are incredible for infiltration.

I can go further into detail on stealth spells if you like. My other recommendation is to go Int SAD as much as possible. Just make everything use int, preferably multiple times.

To fill up those 5 last levels, I like: Cloistered cleric dip, Human paragon, LA (if you allow LA on just one track), Marshal 1, and Swashbuckler 3.

You also don't gain all that much from the 12th level of factotum, and could swap it for something like Exemplar 1.

[Pyromancer999]

Why not do Renegade Mastermaker instead of Warlock? It's basically the class to turn you into a cyborg, like Inspector Gadget. It also allows you to add Warforged components, as well as progress infusions. The capstone turns you into a living construct, and allows you to count as a Warforged. It's doubly good if your DM lets you retrain your Artificer levels to the Warforged Substitution levels. Select your Battlefist as your weapon familiar if so. Artificer 5/Renegade Mastermaker 7//Factotum 12 should do the trick.