Factorum/Warblade?

[shadow_archmagi]

Is this a good synergy for a gestalt game? I figure one provides great combat power, and the other provides great utility. Character level is starting at 4, with expected level to reach at least 6 before the main campaign starts.

Stats are

18
15
15
15
14
12

but I have no idea about race.

[monty]

Seems pretty good to me. Either one is good by itself, Factotum is a good secondary class (most of their abilities either are passive or don't take actions to activate, not to mention Cunning Surge), and you have decent Int synergy.

[Fax Celestis]

Factotum//Warblade is really, really solid. If you're going to PrC, do it on your Warblade side and go into one of the ToB PrCs. I'm a fan of going into Master of Nine or Bloodclaw Master, but you could do some serious twinkage with Ruby Knight Vindicator's ability to get extra swifts and coupling that with Factotum's powers.

Either way, I'd say take the Font of Inspiration feat in pretty much every slot you can: Warblade's maneuvers should be able to cover you for combat schtick, and Factotum's skills should be able to cover you outside of battle nicely.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Awesome. Any Int-based class is good with Factotem, and Warblade is a great Int-based class. 18 Int, 15 Str, 15 Con, 15 Dex(will be 13 when enlarged, allowing you to keep your feats), 14 Cha, 12 Wis. I won't suggest FoI spam, as you've got so many awesome feats to take otherwise, but it will be awesome.

[Thurbane]

Would it be worth 3 levels of Swashbuckler to get Int bonus damage on finessable weapons? Probably not...

[FMArthur]

Awesome. Any Int-based class is good with Factotem, and Warblade is a great Int-based class. 18 Int, 15 Str, 15 Con, 15 Dex(will be 13 when enlarged, allowing you to keep your feats), 14 Cha, 12 Wis. I won't suggest FoI spam, as you've got so many awesome feats to take otherwise, but it will be awesome.

Well, FoI is ridiculously broken, so I don't see how he could take any awesome feats that are more awesome than FoI. If anything, he should refrain from taking FoI purely out of a sense of decency.

[shadow_archmagi]

Well, FoI is ridiculously broken, so I don't see how he could take any awesome feats that are more awesome than FoI. If anything, he should refrain from taking FoI purely out of a sense of decency.

Wait, so, the first time I take the feat, I get one point, and the second time two, and the third time three, for a total of six points?

And I get these back for every single fight, and they can do anything?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Wait, so, the first time I take the feat, I get one point, and the second time two, and the third time three, for a total of six points?

And I get these back for every single fight, and they can do anything?

Yes. Which would be horrid, but it cost you your 1st, 3rd, and 6th level feats. There's a lot of other stuff you could get for 3 feats.

[shadow_archmagi]

Yes. Which would be horrid, but it cost you your 1st, 3rd, and 6th level feats. There's a lot of other stuff you could get for 3 feats.

Hm. I still need a decent race though.

[sonofzeal]

Hm. I still need a decent race though.

Human or Strongheart both give an extra feat for FoI....

[monty]

When in doubt, choose human. You can never go wrong with more feats and skill points.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Level is also important to race. A Human going FoI is far better than anyone else early on(2 flaws for +10 insp), but later on other build chains have matured and a race with +to Int or Str is much better off. Can you go Kobold with Dragonwrought Desert?

[monty]

Oh yeah, I completely forgot the second rule of race selection:

"Given sufficient optimization, kobolds are the best at everything."

[Eldariel]

Font of Inspiration probably isn't that necessary unless you're going for very high power (and in that case, the whole point of Warblade eludes me). Factotum really wants Fonts to use its abilities constantly. With Warblade as your "dominant" side, you don't need to.

Adding Int to things few times per combat, taking that extra Standard Action and penetrating DR once should all be quite sufficient if you can only do them now and then. Now, of course, you can enjoy your abilities much more by taking Fonts (really, I think the base Factotum has way too little Inspiration...), so it's really down to whether you wanna be really good at what you do or if you wanna do more things.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Font of Inspiration probably isn't that necessary unless you're going for very high power (and in that case, the whole point of Warblade eludes me). Factotum really wants Fonts to use its abilities constantly. With Warblade as your "dominant" side, you don't need to.

Are you honestly saying Warblade isn't high-power? It's tier 2 through its entire life, as is Factotem. It's not one of the big 5, but it's good.

[Keld Denar]

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=952620

Build by CantripN, one of the better optimizers over on CharOp. Its a solid build straight through, and a good starting place if you want to make adjustments from there.

Best of luck!

[Townopolis]

If I'm not mistaken, the main reason to take FoI is that cunning surge + lots of inspiration points allows you to activate every single strike you have and then recover all your expended maneuvers all in the same turn.

[monty]

If I'm not mistaken, the main reason to take FoI is that cunning surge + lots of inspiration points allows you to activate every single strike you have and then recover all your expended maneuvers all in the same turn.

You can only do that once per encounter, though, so it's really only effective against a single enemy, unless you've optimized yourself for group combat.

[Eldariel]

Are you honestly saying Warblade isn't high-power? It's tier 2 through its entire life, as is Factotem. It's not one of the big 5, but it's good.

There's nothing Tier 2 about Warblade. It still hits things, just with a few additional tricks in the bag. You can't bone the reality up the rear as a Warblade like honest Tier 2 classes (such as Sorcerer, Favored Soul and company) can. Warblade is solidly in the Tier 3 zone. Same goes for Factotum. That said, they still kick a ton of ass in gestalt. I was just wondering about the choice if power was his aim - there seems to be more to that

[Sstoopidtallkid]

There's nothing Tier 2 about Warblade. It still hits things, just with a few additional tricks in the bag. You can't bone the reality up the rear as a Warblade like honest Tier 2 classes (such as Sorcerer, Favored Soul and company) can. Warblade is solidly in the Tier 3 zone. Same goes for Factotum. That said, they still kick a ton of ass in gestalt. I was just wondering about the choice if power was his aim - there seems to be more to that

Simplicity? It's a pair of classes whose abilities can fit on one character sheet, rather than some insane Archivist//Wizard/Master Specialist/Incantrix/Archmage combo with more spells and abilities than can fit in anything less than 3 Excel sheets. And I object to the tier 3 remark, they can't make reality their bitch like the Wizards and Clerics, but they have abilities that can seriously hinder/injure/kill enemies at each level, that can be combined in interesting ways, and can do it without being squishy.

[shadow_archmagi]

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=952620

Build by CantripN, one of the better optimizers over on CharOp. Its a solid build straight through, and a good starting place if you want to make adjustments from there.

Best of luck!

Oooooh! That looks ideal. I'm not the best in the world at roleplaying, so I always have to be a high INT character one way or another. Since I've played far too many wizards and sorcerers, I figured I'd try melee.

[Fax Celestis]

There's nothing Tier 2 about Warblade. It still hits things, just with a few additional tricks in the bag. You can't bone the reality up the rear as a Warblade like honest Tier 2 classes (such as Sorcerer, Favored Soul and company) can. Warblade is solidly in the Tier 3 zone. Same goes for Factotum. That said, they still kick a ton of ass in gestalt. I was just wondering about the choice if power was his aim - there seems to be more to that

Uuuuuuuuh... Anything with full spellcasting is Tier 1, no questions asked. It may be a weak Tier 1, but it's Tier 1.

[Draz74]

Uuuuuuuuh... Anything with full spellcasting is Tier 1, no questions asked. It may be a weak Tier 1, but it's Tier 1.

Nah, not Warmage or Healer.

But yeah, "Tier 1" definitely includes more than the Big 5, including (at the very least) the Sorcerer, Beguiler, and Psion.

EDIT: On topic time! I agree with the people saying "avoid Font of Inspiration, unless it's a very high-powered game." I think you can have much more fun taking a greater variety of feats, mostly Warblade-centric.

Potential Warblade build:
Race: Raptoran or Thri-Kreen (huge racial Jump bonuses)
Weapons: Dual kukris, eventually Keen
Skills: Max Jump and Concentration, probably Tumble too

Tiger Claw and Diamond Mind both have lots of ways to give you a ton of attacks. In the Blood in the Water stance, lots of attacks means you'll quickly build up huge bonuses to every attack/damage roll.

[Fax Celestis]

Nah, not Warmage or Healer.

But yeah, "Tier 1" definitely includes more than the Big 5, including (at the very least) the Sorcerer, Beguiler, and Psion.

I don't know what you're talking about, I've never heard of those classes.

[Eldariel]

Uuuuuuuuh... Anything with full spellcasting is Tier 1, no questions asked. It may be a weak Tier 1, but it's Tier 1.

Meh. In JaronK's original system, the very definition of Tier 2 was Tier 1-like power with severe limitations as to how you can wield it. I don't know what system you're using to define class power, but to me it feels logical to use an uniform system so I go with his definitions.

[hamishspence]

Does Spontaneous casting, limited spells known, and 18th instead of 17th level for 9th level spells, and no bonus class features past 1st, move, say, the Sorcerer into Tier 2?

[shadow_archmagi]

Excuse me? This topic is going a bit off topic; I looked and saw a new post and was like "YAY, MORE HELPFUL ADVICE ABOUT WARBLADES AND OR FACTORUM" and here I find out that people are arguing about the quality of sorcerers.

[Fax Celestis]

Race: Raptoran or Thri-Kreen (huge racial Jump bonuses)

And Thri-kreen have four arms with claw attacks and a bite. Forget dual-wielding. Try quintuple-wielding.

[hamishspence]

Mouthblade, or Jaws of The Dragon type item?

[Fax Celestis]

Hunger domain gets you a bite attack, girallon's blessing gets you two extra arms (which have hands, so you can wield with them) and it can be potioned.

If it were up to me, I'd go Thri-Kreen, have a stack of potions of girallon's blessing, and hit Multiattack. Forget weaponry, just have someone drop a magic fang on you (or get potions of that too). Six claws + a bite is nothing to sneeze at, especially with Tiger Claw discipline and Thri-Kreen's +30 to jump checks. I'd put it on your Warblade side (so, Factotum 20//Thri-Kreen 3/LA +1 (nonpsionic, or +2 for psionic)/Warblade 16 (or 15, with psionic).