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Thread: [3.5e] Factotum (Rebuilt, Base Class)

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    Dwarf in the Playground
     
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    Default Factotum (3.5e Base Class)

    Factotum

    "Oh, I can do that. I can definitely do that." - Justin Case, a factotum

    Some characters prefer the fierce clamor of battle. Others prefer silently moving through a dungeon, clearing the way for their companions as they search for traps. Still others prefer the pursuit of arcane knowledge, and even others might prefer to be champions of their deity’s ideals. Every once in a long while though, there comes a character that prefers to try to follow many paths, and succeeds in doing so. Enter the factotum, the true jack of all trades. Through hours of intense study and practice, a factotum learns to emulate others and adapt on the fly. One day he may be fighting sword and shield to defend his brothers in arms, and the next he might be visiting a god’s temple in search of divine favor. But above all, factotums prefer versatility. They hate being tied to one option or another permanently. They might wander down one path and explore it, but they eventually move on to another interest. Factotums usually try to remain neutral, positing that one way is no better than another, and both are simply two ways of looking at the same issue. They usually also are fiercely supportive of their friends and associates, always looking to lessen any weaknesses that a group may have collectively by adopting abilities to counteract what may be missing.

    Adventures: Factotums enjoy experiencing a wide variety of adventures, preferably never pursuing a single adventure for an extended period of time. Any adventure that helps further their experience and knowledge of various pursuits is welcome to a factotum. In addition, factotums are always looking to challenge and expand their sizeable amount of skills, not only through the studies they pursue while not adventuring, but also through the experiences the gain while adventuring.

    Characteristics: Out of all the classes, factotums are the most versatile. They can choose aspects of other classes to adopt for the day, and can enhance their ability to do certain things at will. As they gain levels, the amount of skill points at their disposal increases rapidly, as does the amount of things they can spend those skill points on. At higher levels, a factotum can rework almost any of their abilities, and might even decide to change various things about their innate self for the sake of exploring a different way of being.

    Alignment: Factotums may be of any alignment, though a large amount of factotums are True Neutral. This is because they usually favor impartiality and balance as opposed to an unyielding moral stance. Thusly, few factotums are at any ‘alignment extreme’, though an experienced factotum may explore adventuring as various alignments over the course of their lives.

    Religion: The deities any given factotum worships often vary as much as their abilities do. They may experiment with worshiping one deity or another at any given time, attempting to gain favor from as many as possible. However, many factotums favor gods of knowledge, experience, and neutrality.

    Background: Most factotums come from backgrounds where they were able to witness or experience many different – often conflicting – things. Rarely do you find a factotum who came from a culture or community that only encouraged one type of activity. In addition to this, many factotums were indecisive when it came time for them to pursue a course in life, and instead elected to attempt to follow all possible courses available to them.

    Races: Humans, more often than any other race, are drawn to the path of the factotum. Their ambition and versatility, as well as their vastly varied backgrounds, make human homelands – especially those that involve many cultures – a breeding ground for skilled factotums. Elven factotums are the least rare of other races to be factotums if simply because of their extended lifespan, which gives them the ability to pursue and explore many different paths over the course of countless years. Halfling and gnomish factotums are sometimes seen, as their cultures display a variety of aspects that a member might find conflicting and incompatible, yet equally intriguing. Dwarven factotums are rarely seen as their culture encourages relatively few ways of thinking.

    Other Classes: Factotums work well with all sorts of people, even if those people are fully committed to a single path in life. The factotum sees being with others as a way to live vicariously, gaining experience secondhand and seeing how another uses their abilities to achieve a certain goal. Often, spending time with a wide variety of others inspires a factotum to try out that way of living, and usually gives the factotum the ability to channel those experiences when a situation arises that requires his help. Because of this, factotums enjoy working with as much a variety of companions as possible.

    Role: Factotums are rarely leaders, though they may sometimes take up that mantle in a group temporarily as they are, if properly prepared, perfectly capable of doing so. Factotums excel at using vast amounts of skills with unmatched ease, but also are very good at adopting any needed role in a party. If a party is missing a melee combatant, a factotum will gladly don armor and wield a weapon. If a group of adventurers needs a healer, a factotum might decide to pray to many gods and adopt a more priestly attitude to better meet their needs.


    Alignment: Any (though most factotums favor True Neutral)

    Hit Die: d4


    Class Skills

    All skills are class skills for the factotum.

    Skill Points: 8 + Int modifier (× 4 at 1st level)


    Class Features

    All of the following are class features of the factotum.

    Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A factotum is proficient with all simple weapons, light armor, and light shields. A factotum can cast arcane spells while wearing light armor without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance. However, like any other arcane spellcaster, a factotum wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure. A multiclass factotum still incurs the normal arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes.

    Spellcasting: A factotum casts arcane and divine spells. He can eventually learn and prepare any arcane or divine spell in scroll form by adding the spell to his spellbook or prayerbook (depending on whether that form of the spell is arcane or divine). Like wizards and archivists and unlike clerics or druids, factotums prepare spells from both a spellbook and prayerbook, a collection of copied arcane and divine spells. To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, a factotum must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level, and must also have a high enough Intelligence to gain a bonus spell per day from that spell level, and must also expend skill points to cast spells from the appropriate spell slot (see Insightful Casting and Table: Factotum Spells Per Day). The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an factotum’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the factotum's Intelligence modifier.

    Unlike other spellcasters, a factotum may only cast his bonus spells per day (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells), and only those if he chooses the ‘Insightful Casting’ Insight and expends the appropriate skill points for each spell. He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by resting and spending time studying his spellbook and/or prayerbook. The factotum decides which spells to prepare while studying.

    Insight: Starting at 1st level, a factotum starts each day with an amount of skill points equal to 8 + his Intelligence modifier (× 4 at 1st level), and gains more skill points as he gains factotum levels, which are added to this total of unspent points. A factotum can allocate his available skill points to various areas of expertise, essentially allowing him to train skills over the course of a day, as needed. He never permanently trains a given skill like members of other classes do, but he might regularly train a certain skill if he so desires. He also has the ability to ‘spend’ skill points on other abilities. Once these skill points have been used, either on training skills or anything else, they cannot be regained until the factotum rests, at which point the benefit he gained from expending the skill points is reset. Immediately after resting, a factotum must choose one of these Insights (an aspect of the character that can be enhanced with skill points as needed) to which this ability applies. A factotum will always have access to his main Insight, Insightful Skills, and it does not count towards his total available Insights he can choose after resting. Any skill points expended and effects gained thereof last until the factotum rests, and can be reset each time a factotum has rested. In order to ‘regain’ the expended skill points, a factotum must rest, thus removing any benefit they gained from any expended skill points.

    Insightful Skills: a factotum may spend 1 skill point to increase his ability to use a given skill by 1 at any time during the day, to a maximum of his factotum level + 3 for any given skill. A factotum always has access to this Insight, and it does not count towards his total Insights he can choose after resting.

    Insightful Health: a factotum may spend 1 skill point to increase his hit points by 2 at any time during the day, to a maximum of 12 hit points per factotum level including his hit points gained from his Hit Dice, but not including his hit points gained from any other effect, including his Constitution modifier.

    Insightful Attack: a factotum may spend 4 skill points to increase his base attack bonus by 1 at any time during the day, to a maximum equal to an equivalent fighter’s base attack bonus (‘full’ base attack bonus) at the factotum’s level. At 6th level, he may gain up to an extra attack (at +6/+1), and again at 11th (at +11/+6/+1), and so on, just like an equivalent level fighter.

    Insightful Defense: a factotum may spend 4 skill points to increase his dodge bonus to Armor Class by 1 at any time during the day, to a maximum equal to his factotum level.

    Insightful Saves: a factotum may spend 4 skill points to increase a given save bonus by 1 at any time during the day, to maximum equal to an equivalent monk’s base save bonus (all ‘good’ saves) at the factotum’s level in any given save.

    Insightful Casting: a factotum may spend skill points to cast a limited number of spells each day. In order to cast a spell, he must a) have access to the desired spell level (see Table: Factotum Spells Per Day), b) have a high enough Intelligence score to gain at least one bonus spell for the desired spell level (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells; in addition to the information listed on this table, the factotum also gains access to bonus cantrips and orisons per day), c) have his desired spell in his spellbook or prayerbook, d) prepare his available bonus spells after resting, e) choose this Insight after resting, at the same time he is preparing his spells, allowing him to expend skill points to cast the desired spell(s), and f) expend the skill points as the spell is cast. The skill point cost for casting a spell is 1 for a 0th level spell, 2 for a 1st level, 4 for 2nd level, 9 for 3rd, 16 for 4th, 25 for 5th, 36 for 6th, 49 for 7th, 64 for 8th, and 81 for 9th. If a factotum does not meet these requirements, or does not have enough unspent skill points at his disposal, he is unable to cast the spell.

    Feat Pool: Starting at 2nd level, the factotum gains access to a ‘pool’ of feats. These feats can be accessed or ‘equipped’ whenever the factotum assigns abilities for the day, after resting. The factotum adds one feat for which they meet the prerequisites to the pool at every level they do not gain a feat normally, but normally gained feats are also added to the pool. However, at the beginning of the day, the factotum can only actually use or equip a number of feats from his feat pool equal to what a character of equal level gains access to. If the factotum gains a racial bonus feat (like a human does), they can use another feat from their pool at a time.

    For example, a 3rd level human factotum has a total of 4 feats in their pool (2 from their normal feats at 1st and 3rd, 1 from being human, and an extra 1 feat at 2nd level when they would not normally gain a feat), but can only add 3 to their useable feats at the start of the day. While these feats can be any 3 from the pool, if he takes a feat that has a feat prerequisite, he must add both feats to his equipped feats for the day. Thus, for example, a factotum cannot add only the feat Great Cleave to their useable feats that day, they must also add Power Attack and Cleave, or none at all, and only if they have added those feats to their Feat Pool.

    While a factotum must meet the feat, ability score or racial requirements for a potential feat, due to their innately flexible nature, they automatically qualify for any skill prerequisites as long as the necessary skill ranks to not exceed their factotum level + 3 (for example, a factotum must be at least 7th level to qualify for the Spellcraft requirement of Aegis of Rime). In addition, their base attack bonus counts as equal to their factotum level for similar requirements, but only for feats. In addition, he may meet any spellcasting requirements as long as it is possible for him to, at any given level, choose his abilities in such a way that allows him to qualify, but he may do this only for the purpose of feats.

    Mimicry: Starting at 3rd level, a factotum can adopt the class features of other classes. He can adopt one class feature per day, but this decision must be made immediately after resting. Starting at 7th level, he can adopt two class features, three at 11th, and so on. A factotum’s level must be at least equal to that of the class that possesses the feature they are adopting. For example, if a factotum chooses to adopt the druid’s Wild Shape ability, they may not do so until they are at least 5th level (the same level the druid itself gains access to the ability), at which point they may only use the ability once a day (the same amount as a 5th level druid). If a class feature involves a progression, a factotum may adopt the class feature as if he were of an equivalent level. For example, if a 15th level factotum chooses the rogue’s Sneak Attack class feature for one of his Mimicries, he may sneak attack with a bonus of 8d6 (the same amount as a rogue of equal level). If a class feature does not involve a progression of any kind, the factotum only gains that one feature, because there are no associated features. If a factotum wishes to adopt a class feature from a specific prestige class, he must first allocate any skill points, feats from his Feat Pool, or make any other changes to his abilities as necessary to qualify for the prestige class itself for the day. This may involve choosing certain Insights to make the necessary changes. If he is unable to make these changes, he may not take the ability from that prestige class for his Mimicry. The class features a factotum has chosen may be reset after he has rested.

    Bonus Feats: Starting at 4th level, and every two levels thereafter, a factotum gains access to a bonus feat. The feat chosen may be any existing feat. In order to gain a bonus feat, a factotum must meet the prerequisite rules for using feats listed under the Feat Pool class feature. These bonus feats are added to the Feat Pool, and also add to the number of feats a factotum can have ‘equipped’ from the Feat Pool at any given time.

    Improved Proficiency (Ex): At 7th level, a factotum's ability to use arms and armor expands. He gains proficiency in all martial weapons, medium armor, and heavy shields.

    Perfect Proficiency (Ex): At 14th level, a factotum can now use any arms or armor he can find. He gains proficiency in all exotic weapons, heavy armor, and tower shields.

    Jack of All Trades (Ex): A 20th level factotum can use his highest ability score in place of any other where an ability score would be used as a bonus to a skill.

    Table: The Factotum
    {table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special
    1st|+0|+0|+0|+0|Insight (1)
    2nd|+1|+0|+0|+0|Feat Pool
    3rd|+1|+1|+1|+1|Mimicry (1)
    4th|+2|+1|+1|+1|Bonus Feat
    5th|+2|+1|+1|+1|Insight (2)
    6th|+3|+2|+2|+2|Bonus Feat
    7th|+3|+2|+2|+2|Mimicry (2), Improved Proficiency
    8th|+4|+2|+2|+2|Bonus Feat
    9th|+4|+3|+3|+3|Insight (3)
    10th|+5|+3|+3|+3|Bonus Feat
    11th|+5|+3|+3|+3|Mimicry (3)
    12th|+6/+1|+4|+4|+4|Bonus Feat
    13th|+6/+1|+4|+4|+4|Insight (4)
    14th|+7/+2|+4|+4|+4|Bonus Feat, Perfect Proficiency
    15th|+7/+2|+5|+5|+5|Mimicry (4)
    16th|+8/+3|+5|+5|+5|Bonus Feat
    17th|+8/+3|+5|+5|+5|Insight (5)
    18th|+9/+4|+6|+6|+6|Bonus Feat
    19th|+9/+4|+6|+6|+6|Mimicry (5)
    20th|+10/+5|+6|+6|+6|Bonus Feat, Jack of All Trades
    [/table]

    Table: Factotum Spells Per Day
    {table=head]Level|0th|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th
    1st|0|0|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
    2nd|0|0|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
    3rd|0|0|0|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
    4th|0|0|0|-|-|-|-|-|-|-
    5th|0|0|0|0|-|-|-|-|-|-
    6th|0|0|0|0|-|-|-|-|-|-
    7th|0|0|0|0|0|-|-|-|-|-
    8th|0|0|0|0|0|-|-|-|-|-
    9th|0|0|0|0|0|0|-|-|-|-
    10th|0|0|0|0|0|0|-|-|-|-
    11th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|-|-|-
    12th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|-|-|-
    13th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|-|-
    14th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|-|-
    15th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|-
    16th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|-
    17th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
    18th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
    19th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
    20th|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0
    [/table]
    Last edited by Everynone; 2014-06-09 at 01:37 PM. Reason: Class changes.