Ultimate Generalist Character builds

[Crel]

I've been trying to put together a "ultimate generalist" build that can do everything, but better than a bard. I'm basing it off of the Generalist description in Complete Mage, but I am also including factors such as BAB, skills, and general versatility. So far, I have sorcerer 6/paladin 2/abjurant champion 5/ eldritch knight 7, for a total BAB of +17, and a 17 caster level. It would be using Draconic heritage + Draconic Breath to get its blaster spells, plus a few good other ones, aka Magic Missile and Fireball, while filling the rest of the spell slots in with basic utility spells in the vein of Batman. Ability score importance would be Cha, Dex, Int, Con, Str, Wis. I know that this build would prolly just turn into a blaster, but its what i have. I would also plan on using Weapon Finesse from the bonus fighter feat, and maybe Two-Weapon Fighting if room. Any suggestions, especially on trying to make more of a skill monkey?

[Keld Denar]

How about Factotum19/MasterofMasks1. Person_Man's Haberdasher build. Factotum is just about everything you could ask for in a generalist.

An alternative build might be Factotum13/Chameleon7. Thats more like "gee Brain, what character do I feel like being to try to take over the world today? NARF"

Seriously...got some down time? Use your floating feat to craft something with an Arcane/Divine Focus on your Chameleon side. Feel like kickin butt? Covered, with a little bit of Factotum inpiration spamming + Chameleon combat or caster focus. Basically, if you play this build, bring a half dozen character sheets, because whatever you want to do that day, you can pretty much do.

[Crel]

Hm... Doubt that my DM will allow Factotum. What book is it from? If I remember correctly, Its one of those classes that ends up being better than every other class at doing their own thing. Or maybe thats just because Al was a ****ty rogue... I'll ask.

[sonofzeal]

Hm... Doubt that my DM will allow Factotum. What book is it from? If I remember correctly, Its one of those classes that ends up being better than every other class at doing their own thing. Or maybe thats just because Al was a ****ty rogue... I'll ask.

Naw, the "better than everyone at everything" class is Artificer. Factotum's actually considered totally balanced by most standards. It can fight (not as well as ToB or Barbarian), use skills (but only 6+int skillpoints), heal (not as well as a Cleric), and cast some arcane magic (not nearly as well as a Wizard). Still, it's entirely competent in each of those areas.


And it's from Dungeonscape.

[Crel]

ah, thanks. Goes to figure, its from a book I've never heard of. Well, lets change the subject to a generalist build not using factotum, for the sake of interest, cause... this flopped due to my lack of book-savvy-ness.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

First off, get Dungeonscape. It's awesome, written by the Giant, and half the stuff in it wouldn't be out of place in an Indiana Jones movie.

Second, Chameleon is pretty versatile. Stick it on the back end of any JoaT build to give it the ability to fill any party role as-needed. I recommend going Barb with Bardic Knack and the feat to give you one rank in all skills.

[Chronos]

Factotum is better than Rogue at everything, but compared to other classes, it's mostly just in the range of "can fake it well enough to be within shouting distance of". A factotum can be a half-decent tripper, but not as good at is as a fighter, he can use a smattering of wizard spells, but not nearly as many as an actual wizard or sorcerer, and can even heal a little, but not nearly as well as any divine class.

A cloistered cleric has to be up there as a good choice, or possibly a ninja 1/cloistered cleric X with the Able Learner feat. You've got divine casting covered, of course, and depending on your domains, you can handle at least some of the work of an arcane caster. You've got trapfinding, 6 skills per level, and thanks to Able Learner, effectively a good skill list for your entire career. You don't have much in the way of armor proficiency, but that's made up for by getting your (hopefully high) Wis mod to AC, or you could spend a feat on armor and still not suffer any spell failure. And if you ever really need to melee, you just need a shot of Divine Power and Righteous Might.

Alternately, for a pure-core game, you could just go with straight Druid. The druid spell list doesn't have very many spells, but they cover a surprisingly large amount of ground, and you can wildshape into a big bear or something to eat peoples' faces. Skills aren't really enough for you to do a skillmonkey's job, but they are enough that it's at least very difficult for a skillmonkey to do anything to you. Even at low levels, when almost everyone sucks, you can just hide behind your pet wolf that's almost as good as a 1st-level fighter, and if he dies, no big deal, you just get a new one tomorrow.

[Flickerdart]

A Beguiler is an excellent class for doing lots of things, with 6 skill points (and INT as primary stat), Trapfinding, and excellent spells (plus no ASF in light armour) with a decent number of them per day. It can't fight though (low BAB and mostly Illusion/Enchantment spells can do that to you). You should use ToB with whatever class gives spellcasting and initiator level progression to maximize your melee ability. Alternately, you might want to consider Bard or Psychic Warrior, since they get 3/4 BAB and either skill points or feats aplenty.

[streakster]

A Beguiler is an excellent class for doing lots of things, with 6 skill points (and INT as primary stat), Trapfinding, and excellent spells (plus no ASF in light armour) with a decent number of them per day. It can't fight though (low BAB and mostly Illusion/Enchantment spells can do that to you). You should use ToB with whatever class gives spellcasting and initiator level progression to maximize your melee ability. Alternately, you might want to consider Bard or Psychic Warrior, since they get 3/4 BAB and either skill points or feats aplenty.

Jade Phoenix Mage! Yeah, a beguiler with able learner who goes into Jade Phoenix Mage can cast, skillmonkey, fight, and even heal some. Best of all, everything works together - You can spend spells to boost strikes, use strikes to boost spells, take a stance to allow yourself to take 11 on skills, etc. Very much fun.

[Chronos]

Jade Phoenix Mage! Yeah, a beguiler with able learner who goes into Jade Phoenix Mage can cast, skillmonkey, fight, and even heal some.

Beguilers are hard to PrC, though, since almost no PrC will give you the six skill points per level. You'll have a couple of skills you can use well enough, but not enough to really fill the skillmonkey role. And although their spell list is pretty nice, there's some glaring holes in it: You don't get any Fort or Ref save spells, no damage spells, and very few battlefield control or area-effect spells.

Now, if you have two characters, or are playing gestalt, then Beguiler and Druid together pretty much cover all the bases. Their spell lists are almost perfectly complementary, letting you beguile, blast, heal, instakill, or control, and straight Beguiler is a fully-functional skillmonkey, while straight druid can fight better than the fighter.

[streakster]

Beguilers are hard to PrC, though, since almost no PrC will give you the six skill points per level. You'll have a couple of skills you can use well enough, but not enough to really fill the skillmonkey role. And although their spell list is pretty nice, there's some glaring holes in it: You don't get any Fort or Ref save spells, no damage spells, and very few battlefield control or area-effect spells.

Now, if you have two characters, or are playing gestalt, then Beguiler and Druid together pretty much cover all the bases. Their spell lists are almost perfectly complementary, letting you beguile, blast, heal, instakill, or control, and straight Beguiler is a fully-functional skillmonkey, while straight druid can fight better than the fighter.

No, no, sorry, didn't mean that he could fill all those roles. A Beguiler/JPM can just do things in all those categories.

And you're quite right a Beguiler/Druid teamup something to witness. Lots of synergy there.

[Eldariel]

Druid is probably the way to go. It has decent skillpoints, melee ability, casting ability, mobility, free companion...well, everything. Ninja 1/Druid 19 with Able Learner if you wanna handle traps with actual Trapfinding. Gets you a nice skill list extension too, and of course Wis to AC as Druid dips are wont to.

As a bonus, Druids screw the point buy with Wildshape (you can make a decent Druid on 15pb - it'll have Con 14 and Wis 15, one point wherever), so you can actually have the stats to pull all the roles off (although low Dex makes levels 1-5 a pain - I'd strive for 14 Dex on those levels).