Factotum suggestions?

[loopy]

I'm currently looking at starting a Factotum for my next campaign (bought Dungeonscape and fell in love with the class), and I was wondering if there are any "must have" feats for the class? Any good suggestions as far as feats go?

Also, what magical items should I aim to get? Obviously anything that boosts int is a plus, but are there any excellent items that you guys could think of?

Finally, I read that Factotums can use one inspiration point to get a D6 of sneak attack damage. Can you use multiple points to get 2D6, 3D6 etc?

Thanks all.
loopy

[Temp]

If you plan on Multiclassing, Able Learner.

If you don't, fill every feat slot you can with Font of Inspiration.


The Factotum class doesn't have any set role, so adjust items according to your preferance. Intelligence is a neccessity, though.

[Dark Tira]

If you have access to Complete Champion, Knowledge Devotion is a must. Otherwise, go with what Temp said.

[brian c]

1) Font of Inspiration
1 human) Font of Inspiration
3) Font of Inspiration
6) Font of Inspiration
9) Font of Inspiration
12) Font of Inspiration
15) Font of Inspiration
18) Font of Inspiration

and if you can take flaws, take two random flaws and get Font of Inspiration two more times. That's basically how you make a Factotum

[UserClone]

I do not have access to Dungeonscape. Can someone explain (without violating copyright law) a bit about how the Factotum does what it does? I'm gathering that it gets "inspiration points," but, well, what do those do, exactly?

[Gralamin]

Font of Inspiration can be found here

Spoiler

Show

Font of Inspiration

You have unearthed of well of inspiration from within your soul.

Prerequisite: Int 15, Must have Inspiration as a class feature.

Benefits: When you take this feat for the first time, you gain 1 inspiration point.

Special: You can take this multiple times. Each time you take this feat after the first time, the number of inspiration points you gain increases by 1 (for example, you gain 2 inspiration points if you take the feat a second time). The maximum number of times you can take this feat is equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Assuming you start with 18 INT, You can get up to 34 INT (+5 From levels, +5 from Book, +6 from Item), For a modifier of +12, Thus you can have the feat up to 12 times for 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12=78 + The amount from factotum. You however drop down to 45 if your headband of intellect is taken off. This amount however is assuming you get enough feats.

Assuming Human:
18 INT Feat 1: Font of Inspiration (+1)
18 INT Feat H: Font of Inspiration (+2)
18 INT Feat 3: Font of Inspiration (+3)
19 INT Feat 6: Font of Inspiration (+4)
20 INT Feat 9: Font of Inspiration (+5)
27 INT (Item) Feat 12: Font of Inspiration (+6)
27 INT Feat 15: Font of Inspiration (+7)
33 INT (Book) Feat 18: Font of Inspiration (+8)
Total: 46 at Factotum 20

I do not have access to Dungeonscape. Can someone explain (without violating copyright law) a bit about how the Factotum does what it does? I'm gathering that it gets "inspiration points," but, well, what do those do, exactly?

Inspiration points power most of the factotums abilities, allowing him to do better on skill checks, attack rolls, give him sneak attack (and yes multiple points can be put into that, as far as I know), and some other things. They are quite an interesting class.

[BardicDuelist]

I do not have access to Dungeonscape. Can someone explain (without violating copyright law) a bit about how the Factotum does what it does? I'm gathering that it gets "inspiration points," but, well, what do those do, exactly?

Ultimate Jack-of-All-Trades who spends IP (generated per encounter) to add their Int to nearly everything, get bonuses equal to class level on skills, and other things.

As a factotum, one thing you may lack (until 19th level), is Uncanny Dodge and Evasion. These are horribly useful, and if you have extra feats (which I usually do if I play a human and take flaws), Magic of Incarnum has two which, when taken in succession, grant these: Shape Soulmeld (Impulse Boots) grants UD (retain Dex when flat-footed) and Bind Least Chakra (Impulse Boots) grants Evasion. You must have a Con of at least 13 for the first and be of 6th level for the second.

You want an Int as high as possible, and to spend as many feats on Font of Inspiration as possible, as this grants more IP (and scales with everytime you take the feat), and thus takes away your only real limit.

Yes, Cunning Strike lets you spend as many IP to grant SA dice equal to the number of IP you spend. If you "blow you wad" it lets you out SA a rogue.

Some spells I always prepare: Grease (to allow SA more often), True Strike (because when you have free standard actions, you can garuntee a hit pretty well), and Lesser Celerity (warning CHEESE. This is my last "save my groups ass" resort when combined with Cunning Surge).

Feats: (assuming 18 Int if your Int is lower because you're not using point buy or somthing, remember that you can only take FoI as many times as you have and Int bonus)
Human: FoI, Flaw: FoI, Flaw: FoI, 1: FoI, 3: Shape Soulmeld (Impulse Boots), 6: Bind Least Chakra, 9: FoI, etc.

For multiclassing: A one level dip into Bard will grant fascinate (and perform is a class skill for you) with a DC equal to your perform check. This can be very useful, as your perform check can concievably be higher than a bard's. Other than that, nothing is worth it. The only PrC I recomend is the Chameleon.

For races: If you plan on going Chameleon, human is your best bet. Otherwise, consider Gray Elf, Sun Elf (FRCS), or Lesser Tiefling (PGtF). They all have Int bonuses and no LA. Your IP will be less initially (assuming you're taking FoI as much as you can), but your bonuses will be greater, as will your IP in the long run.

[Callos_DeTerran]

I do not have access to Dungeonscape. Can someone explain (without violating copyright law) a bit about how the Factotum does what it does? I'm gathering that it gets "inspiration points," but, well, what do those do, exactly?

Well....practically anything. No joke. Can't do it as well as some of the base classes some of the time, but a factotum can potenially fill any party role for the day which is of course the point.

[BardicDuelist]

Oh, if you have access to Oriental Adventures, Ijatsu (sp?) Focus is a Samurai only skill which you can take that adds extra damage to attacks after drawing a weapon on flat-footed opponents. Bluff and Slight of Hand are wonderful in combination with this (SoH lets you draw a light weapon, bluff lets you feint), or just cast grease (get a wand of this) and consider Quick Draw (not necessary, but if you have feats, which you probably won't).

[Gralamin]

Oh, if you have access to Oriental Adventures, Ijatsu (sp?) Focus is a Samurai only skill which you can take that adds extra damage to attacks after drawing a weapon on flat-footed opponents. Bluff and Slight of Hand are wonderful in combination with this (SoH lets you draw a light weapon, bluff lets you feint), or just cast grease (get a wand of this) and consider Quick Draw (not necessary, but if you have feats, which you probably won't).

Other Fun Skills that you have access to include Autohypnosis

[Theodoxus]

Most broken class ever. And that was before I just learned about the Font of Inspiration reading this thread.

I brought a copy to my DM the other day and he just laughed and laughed.

But hey, if you hate multiclassing, hate not having some healing, hate only having a few skills, hate not having your pet arcane spells at your fingertips, and want to be a better rogue than the rogue class, Factotum is for you.

Personally, I wouldn't have much problem with it if it was d4 HD. But d8? come on, why play rogue? for the extra base 2 skill points? The Factotum's Int bonus will quickly outstrip anyone other than a rogue who was completely skill focused, and really, he should of just been a factotum too.

There is a definite reason this class is on everyone's tongue. Sure, it isn't CoDZilla or a wizard... and if this is a preview of the 4th ed rogue, cool. But as a base class, in 3.5 - it's freakin' borked.

Theo

[Temp]

Most broken class ever.

Not at all.

It does get a source of extra actions at level 8, but the Factotum doesn't have anything to use them for. Usually you'll have a few tricks up your sleeve, but without Font of Inspiration, you'll be lucky to have enough IP to last more than a couple rounds of an encounter. The Rogue's Sneak Attack and class abilities (beside Defensive Roll) are always available

The class has a couple tricks, yes.

It is however, nowhere near the power of a Cleric or other full spellcaster and these are the relevant comparisons when you make a statement like that quote.

[Draz74]

Most broken class ever.

Without Font of Inspiration? Nah. Not broken at all, just a decent skill monkey class, about as powerful as a Psychic Rogue or Warblade or something.

With Font of Inspiration? Yeah, slightly broken IMHO. Though still not as bad as Wizard/Druid/Cleric/Artificer/Archivist.

[Thinker]

Broken? I don't think you really know what you're talking about. It is the best skill-monkey available, but that doesn't make it broken. I'm sorry that its better than you're precious rogue, but a lot of things are. Skills become less and less worthwhile as class levels go up and spell-casters gain access to more and more spells that invalidate them so the factotum gets ways to continue to be competitive at higher levels. It will never do as much damage as a well-built melee character, it will never buff as well as an arcanist or divine caster, it will never control the battlefield as well as any spell-caster. It is far from broken, it is just better than the rogue at being a skill-monkey, but I'd argue it may not even be as good at combat as one.

[Azerian Kelimon]

Until you unleash 8 different wand attacks in one fight, one round. Then, you, of course, gain some respect, particularly if ALL those wand strikes avoid SR.

[BardicDuelist]

The thing that people find broken about factotums is all fine and dandy. They can do a lot of crazy stuff in one round, etc. The problem with this is that once you do that, you have less at your disposal than an equal level warrior, in most cases. It isn't until higher levels that you have the IP to do multiple things like this, and even then, you can hardly compete with a wizard/cleric/etc.

[Azerian Kelimon]

Tellat to a level 6 Factotum with 4 Fonts of inspiration. Lesse, I cast a save or lose on my first turn, proceed to sneak attack things on the second, third, and fourth if something lasts that long, or resort to classic attacks, or diplocheese one of my encounters, etc.


Being a Factotum is amazing. People tend to underrrate or overrate them, unfortunately.

[MeklorIlavator]

You should also watch out for Wizard//factotums in gestalt. Especially if they learn about Font of Inspiration.

The only reason the one in my campaign isn't a problem is he seems to have trouble picking and using spells intelligently(well, except polymorph, but how hard is it to use that spell effectively).

[brian c]

The thing that people find broken about factotums is all fine and dandy. They can do a lot of crazy stuff in one round, etc. The problem with this is that once you do that, you have less at your disposal than an equal level warrior, in most cases. It isn't until higher levels that you have the IP to do multiple things like this, and even then, you can hardly compete with a wizard/cleric/etc.

A Human Factotum who takes two flaws can get Font of Inspiration 4 times at first level (assuming 18 Int). That's 1+2+3+4 = 10 extra IP, so you have 12 instead of 2. It's probably impossible to actually take FoI every feat, since it's limited by your Int modifier, but the more you take it the more it helps.

[Armads]

Factotum/Cleric/Ur-Priest?

Spend all your feats on Font of Inspiration, except for the Spell focus (evil) you need for Ur-Priest. Now use your huge amounts of standard actions to blast away with high level spells.

Factotums are pretty balanced without Font of Inspiration. With it, they're possible the most broken class in the game (if you multiclass after level 8).

[tsuyoshikentsu]

It's probably impossible to actually take FoI every feat, since it's limited by your Int modifier, but the more you take it the more it helps.

Assuming no flaws and INT 18, Humans (and Strongheart Halflings) are about the only race without an INT penalty that has trouble with this. Observe a Gnome, INT 18. At level nine, he'd have run out of INT... except that he just got the level 8 ability increase and now his INT's 20. You do need a +2 book to nab FoI at 15, and you do have to get it before 15 if you don't want to buy two books, but by then 55,000 is well within your buying power. A Grey Elf or any other race with +2 INT has nothing to worry about there and can pull the same thing off with one flaw. +4 INT can do it with two, although you're getting into LA there and that has its own problems.

Humans, with their extra feat, have it a bit tougher, but there are other feats (such as the soulmeld feats mentioned above) that you might want to take so as not to make this an issue.

[Rex Blunder]

Huh. I always thought the feat was saying, in the most confusing possible way, that every time you take the feat, you get +1 IP, but it does look like it's this weird triangular number series. What's the design purpose for this? It seems like it discourages the factotum from dabbling in other feats. Doesn't seem to go with the class purpose.

[brian c]

Huh. I always thought the feat was saying, in the most confusing possible way, that every time you take the feat, you get +1 IP, but it does look like it's this weird triangular number series. What's the design purpose for this? It seems like it discourages the factotum from dabbling in other feats. Doesn't seem to go with the class purpose.

Yeah, it's pretty freaking broken. It would help if they capped it at say 5 times total

[Ryshan Ynrith]

As a slightly tangential point, if you are ever annoyed at summing power points or inspiration points gained from repeated feats (or anything else where you get a benefit equal to the number of times you've taken the feat), the equation to calculate the total is (x^2+x)/2. Thus, if you have taken 7 Font of Inspirations, you will have 28 extra inspiration points.

Also useful for finding Creeping Cold damage, particularly the Extended Greater version.

[UserClone]

As a slightly tangential point, if you are ever annoyed at summing power points or inspiration points gained from repeated feats (or anything else where you get a benefit equal to the number of times you've taken the feat), the equation to calculate the total is (x^2+x)/2. Thus, if you have taken 7 Font of Inspirations, you will have 28 extra inspiration points.

Also useful for finding Creeping Cold damage, particularly the Extended Greater version.

Heh. I knew there was a formula for that. just couldn't remember it. BTW, does that still count as a Fibbonaci sequence if it doesn't repeat the first 1?

[Mewtarthio]

Let's see, the Fibonacci sequence is

1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21

and this pattern goes

1 3 6 10 15 21 28 36

so no. The next number in the Fibonacci sequence is the sum of the two previous numbers.

[Kaelik]

Yeah, it's pretty freaking broken. It would help if they capped it at say 5 times total

If they did that it might as well not exist, since it'd be a huge waste of feats for almost no gain. The only reason you take Font of Inspiration at all is if you are going to take it with every feat.

[BardicDuelist]

If they did that it might as well not exist, since it'd be a huge waste of feats for almost no gain. The only reason you take Font of Inspiration at all is if you are going to take it with every feat.

Actually, I'd say that 15 IP is pretty darn good, since you only get 10 WITH 20 CLASS LEVELS.

We limit FoI to your starting INT bonus (which is usually 5), and it can be taken no more than twice at any level. This seems to work well.

[Azerian Kelimon]

S'long as it adds 1+the amount you got the last time you took the feat, I'd be fine.

[Rex Blunder]

Actually, I'd say that 15 IP is pretty darn good, since you only get 10 WITH 20 CLASS LEVELS.

I think 1 IP per feat would actually be balanced - ie, the feat would be a reasonable but not overpoweringly-good choice. When there's only one rational feat choice, there's something way off. As it is now, this feat seems "good" in a "i want to be overpowered" way, not a "good for game balance" way.