Chameleon (and the Factotum)

[AstralFire]

...I don't get these classes, I really don't. Someone suggested I create that kind of generalist for my own stuff, and it's not that I think they're broken so much as they just don't... make any sense to me.

How are you so good at faking it that you can temporarily fake something you don't even really know how to do in a combat situation? Something like the Master of Many Masks (only unnerfed) sure, there's plain magic behind it... but the Chameleon (and what I know of the Factotum) really just bother me since I really don't see how they don't make more sense as an Expert/Rogue/Bard.

[Riffington]

Chameleon rests on one particular piece of suspension of disbelief: that acting is a source of power. That if you method act, you can gain a piece of what you study.

This is the conceit behind Pretender, which was a pretty good show. Jared would typically solve problems each week with the toolset of what/who he was acting as, not with the toolset of what he'd been last week.

It's partly true too: uniforms have power. Obviously, the class takes it to an extreme, but it's less silly than Bards.

[Arbitrarity]

Chameleon can't switch abilities mid combat. 1 hour to focus, down to 10 minutes for a master. Perhaps some bizzare self-hypnosis?

Factotum simply has a variety of abilities it understands. It knows how to cast a couple (actually, it seems like any, which is weird) spells by rote. It knows how to channel positive energy, and can get a few lucky hits in and dodge, resist, and endure with willpower, luck, or random flashes of inspiration.

[AstralFire]

Chameleon rests on one particular piece of suspension of disbelief: that acting is a source of power. That if you method act, you can gain a piece of what you study.

This is the conceit behind Pretender, which was a pretty good show. Jared would typically solve problems each week with the toolset of what/who he was acting as, not with the toolset of what he'd been last week.

It's partly true too: uniforms have power. Obviously, the class takes it to an extreme, but it's less silly than Bards.

I can kind of see the conceit, but to the extreme the class takes it, it feels like everything should be supernatural/a use of Epic Bluff/Autohypnosis.

[The_Snark]

Actually, I tend to dislike the Chameleon for the same reason; just doesn't make sense to me. Of course, there's always the explanation that it's magical, but in that case, it falls into the realm of magic that strains my suspension of disbelief, a realm that it shares with totemists and the occasional binder and incarnate.

(Incidentally, I like incarnum as a ruleset; it's just that whenever I try to imagine a character growing claws or three heads in the morning, I can't imagine what life would be like for that character, or why they would learn those skills. It's just too strange. Same for some binders, although not if they're well played. I generally like to put my own fluff spin on incarnum-users for that reason.)

Incidentally, the factotum doesn't really do this; they just have a very versatile set of class features, skills, and abilities. Lots of skills, a bit of arcane magic you can get to work, and a bit of divine magic-esque stuff, but you've always got it; you don't have to choose between options each day. (There's one class feature like that at level 19, but it's Extraordinary features only and isn't that obtrusive in play.)

[AstralFire]

I always hear Factotums mentioned with some ability that lets them change everything they can do ever.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Factotems are Indiana Jones in a world with common magic. They're smart enough to do a lot, even if they never trained for it, and one of the things they can sort of fool their way into doing is a bit of casting.

[streakster]

Factotums are know-it-alls, dilettantes. They can learn any skill in the game, they pick up the basics of a warrior, a priest, a spell-caster, a rogue - they're the original Jack of all trades. They aren't good at anything - but blend all the stuff they know together, and you get a potent whole.

The Chameleon just can't focus. He's a Renaissance man (polymath) - you know, like Da Vinci? He was a master painter, sculptor, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, biologist, geologist, physicist, architect, philosopher, actor, singer, musician, inventor, and humanist. The chameleon's a wizard, trained in woodcraft, knows kung-fu, studied at the chapel, etc. He knows it all, all the time - you just pick a field to focus on for a while - "I think I shall use the sword today" and then practice for a little bit get in the groove, and there you go.

No magic required. That work?

[The_Snark]

I always hear Factotums mentioned with some ability that lets them change everything they can do ever.

That's... odd, because as I said, they have only one class feature that's really like that. As a quick summing-up of the class:

-All class skills, which obviously gives you lots of options.
-Can prepare a few arcane spells each day; they never get above 7th-level spells, and never get more than 8 spells per day total, so this is best used for occasional buffs and utility than combat. Still gives them a fair bit of versatility, though, since they prepare off the wizard spell list but don't need a spellbook.
-Can call on divine energy a few times per day, using it either to turn undead or heal a little bit.
-Inspiration points and a variety of abilities that work off them; you get a given number of inspiration points to use in each encounter, and can use them to boost skills, attack rolls, make a sneak attack, and eventually do things like bypass damage reduction/spell resistance and take extra actions. Also used to power the previous two features.
-And then that last feature, which is the one you're talking about. It lets you pick 3 extraordinary class features (limited to base class features, and only those achievable below level 15) at the start of the day; for the rest of the day, you can spend inspiration points to gain one of the abilities for 1 minute, after which you can't use the ability again that day.

It only comes into play at level 19, and while it's good it really isn't their defining feature or even their most powerful feature. It might be bandied about a lot when discussing how to really optimize a factotum on the forums, but in a real game it won't see that much use.

Streakster- As justifications go, it works pretty well; the problems come when you start casting spells and when you switch around a lot. If you know how to prepare spells, why didn't you? Did you forget? And if you were fighting well yesterday, did it really take you only a day to lose your touch?

[AstralFire]

Ehhh... Chameleon's just not selling me. So what's the deal with the Factotums and this Font of Inspiration, then, if they're regular dabblers like rogues and bards? *has never actually read the class, only picked up context*

^ EDIT: Ahh, okay. Thanks Snark, that makes it all much clearer.

[streakster]

Streakster- As justifications go, it works pretty well; the problems come when you start casting spells and when you switch around a lot. If you know how to prepare spells, why didn't you? Did you forget? And if you were fighting well yesterday, did it really take you only a day to lose your touch?

Meh, yeah. It sorta works if you give your disbelief a quick slap upside the head and trust in it while it isn't looking, though.

The fluff for Chameleon says that you use it for infiltration. That makes somewhat more sense, I guess - if you're posing as Bob the rogue, casting spells is a bad idea. Don't break cover.

[JaxGaret]

Change the fluff to whatever you think fits your character.

[Arbitrarity]

Ehhh... Chameleon's just not selling me. So what's the deal with the Factotums and this Font of Inspiration, then, if they're regular dabblers like rogues and bards? *has never actually read the class, only picked up context*

FoI is a feat that scales quadratically or so with the number of times you take it. Take it twice, it's three times as good as taking it once. 3 times, 6 times as good as taking it once. It gives you inspiration points, which power almost all factotum abilities. Cunning surge is the common use, because Inspiration restore between encounters, and cunning surge lets you gain extra standard actions. If you take FoI with all 10 feats or however many you manage to get, you can action nova (10 + 9 +8... +1)/3 + IP from factotum/3 standard actions in a fight. That's possibly dozens of actions, the most valuable resource in the game. Combine with wands, staves, scrolls, and you can destroy enemies by taking more actions than enemies with Time Stop.