Advenure and planning ahead. Help me with a factotum build.

[Coplantor]

Hello playgrounders. I'm starting a campaign next weekrnd as a player. I want to play a factotum, I really like the class, so I was wondering if there's any specific build to improve the already wonderfull abilities of the factotum. I read somewhere about the Chameleon PrC and I would like to know how many levels of it shoul I take, if I should take anyone. Also, feat selection? I guess I'll go for Font of inspiration everytime I can, buy if tehre's any other usefull feat I should take I would like to know about it.

This are my stats, 18, 17, 16, 16, 15, 13. The 18 is reserved for intelligence, I dont plan anything for the other ones yet do feel free to place them wherever you want.

Thanks!

[KKL]

Jesus christ your stats.

Anywyas, the 18 in Int's a given. shove 17 into Con, both 16 in Cha and Wis, 15 in Dex, and 13 Str. Or do whatever you want with the stats. A better alternative would be to switch Wis and Str.

As for feats, get as much Font of Inspiration as you can, but don't skimp on Able Learner. If you want, you can sac an FoI so you can qualify for some sort of Crafting Feat for your Chameleon Bonus Feat for hilarity.

As for Chameleon, it's in Races of Destiny, and you should aim to take it at 9th level so you get the Factotum's Cunning Surge. And take all levels of Chameleon, no questions.

[Coplantor]

Jesus christ your stats...

yeah, I know, I got lucky, but I dont know if the DM will believe those stats.

Anyway, I was thinking about putting the 13 in str, and if you also recommend it then its done. As for chameleon goes I checked different sites and half of them recommend taking two levels while the other half says full 10 levels.

I've never seen a factotum inb action so what do I miss if I take ten levels of chameleon?

EDIT: What is FoI?

[Emperor Tippy]

What sources do you have access to? Because Grey Elf with Faerie Mysteries Initiate will net you Int to HP (instead of con) and 3 extra FoI's.

[The Glyphstone]

things you lose:
Unimportant stuff: More uses of Opportunistic Piety. A 4 IP get out of death free card 1/day.

Semi-important stuff: More Arcane Dilletante SLA's, and higher-level ones. A constantly applicable Cunning Defense Int-to-AC. Ignoring spell resistance by spending 3 IP.

Cool Stuff: Ability to mimic 3 different extraordinary class features each day.

Font of Inspiration is a web-enhancement feat. It gives you extra Inspiration points, the amount increasing each time you take the feat.

[KKL]

I've never seen a factotum inb action so what do I miss if I take ten levels of chameleon?

IIRC, not so much that you wouldn't want to take Chameleon all the way through.

EDIT: What is FoI?

Sont of Inspiration. I just shortened it.

[The Glyphstone]

Tippy, Grey Elf means no Chameleon - unless you're going to suggest he get his Chaos Shuffle done at Level 9, then PaO into a human before taking Chameleon levels...which I don't even think is legal.

[Emperor Tippy]

Tippy, Grey Elf means no Chameleon - unless you're going to suggest he get his Chaos Shuffle done at Level 9, then PaO into a human before taking Chameleon levels...which I don't even think is legal.

Actually go with True Mind Switch. That way you get too keep your racial feats.

[The Glyphstone]

Assuming you can find a 17th level human Psion willing to permanently give up his body to you.

[monty]

Font of Inspiration follows the pattern n(n+1)/2 for the total, where n is the number of times you've taken the feat.

[Aquillion]

Also, when someone asks for a build they intend to use in an actual game, isn't it a bit odd to recommend extra feats via chaos shuffle? Especially for a Factotum, who has among the most broken methods there is for abusing a source of feats beyond what players are normally intended to have?

[Emperor Tippy]

Assuming you can find a 17th level human Psion willing to permanently give up his body to you.

That's why you buy a power stone.

Also, when someone asks for a build they intend to use in an actual game, isn't it a bit odd to recommend extra feats via chaos shuffle? Especially for a Factotum, who has among the most broken methods there is for abusing a source of feats beyond what players are normally intended to have?

Not really. He just said Factotum build. My default assumption is to optimize it as much as possible. It's much easier to remove abilities that are too powerful than it is too rebuild an entire character that is too weak.

[BRC]

I have a few questions concerning Factotums.
1) If I don't use all my inspiration points for an encounter, do I keep them. The rules merely say I gain X inspiration points at the start of each encounter, they don't say anything about losing those points in any way besides using my abilities.
2) Does Font of Inspiration merely give me another inspiration point to spend? or does it increase the number I gain at the beginning of each encounter.

[monty]

I have a few questions concerning Factotums.
1) If I don't use all my inspiration points for an encounter, do I keep them. The rules merely say I gain X inspiration points at the start of each encounter, they don't say anything about losing those points in any way besides using my abilities.
2) Does Font of Inspiration merely give me another inspiration point to spend? or does it increase the number I gain at the beginning of each encounter.

1) The rules are ambiguous, but the only reasonable interpretation is they reset after every encounter (i.e. you lose all current ones and gain the indicated number).
2) It increases the number per encounter.

[Emperor Tippy]

1) No, you don't get too gain that many at the beginning of every encounter.
2) It increases the number you gain at the beginning of each encounter.

[Prak]

from what I've heard of the Factotum, the optimal build is a high Int, maxed out ranks in UMD, as much FoI as possible, and a bandoleir of wands with no save, or SR.

[Coplantor]

What sources do you have access to? Because Grey Elf with Faerie Mysteries Initiate will net you Int to HP (instead of con) and 3 extra FoI's.

OK, in wich book is the FMI?

[RMS Oceanic]

A (relatively) quick way of calculating the benefits of Font of Inspiration: When you have N occurrences of FoI, you gain (N^2 + N)/2 extra inspiration points in total.

1 - 1
2 - 3
3 - 6
4 - 10
5 - 15
6 - 21
7 - 28
8 - 36
9 - 45
10 - 55

And so on.

[monty]

A (relatively) quick way of calculating the benefits of Font of Inspiration: When you have N occurrences of FoI, you gain (N^2 + N)/2 extra inspiration points in total.

1 - 1
2 - 3
3 - 6
4 - 10
5 - 15
6 - 21
7 - 28
8 - 36
9 - 45
10 - 55

And so on.

Font of Inspiration follows the pattern n(n+1)/2 for the total, where n is the number of times you've taken the feat.

Beat you to it.

[Coplantor]

Well, I need a second favor from the playground. A friend of mine asked me to create a build for her. She likes fighting classes and gray elves. I thought of the swashbuckler because of the dex and int bonus of the race. As for PrC, I considered either the duelist or the bladesinger, due to the int bonus to AC and in case of the Badesinger because of the minor casting capabilities.

[Emperor Tippy]

Factotum using Faerie Mysteries Initiate and the rest of your feats on FoI and Craven.

Spend 2 IP per attack for Int to attack and damage. Spend an IP to use Arcane Dilettante for Wraithstirke. Once you have Cunning Strike start spending IP on it. At level 8 start spending them for an extra standard action.

A well built Factotum can easily keep up with most other builds for damage and has lot's of extras to use. Warblade also works but that doesn't have as much fun. You want FMI though, it let's you dump con without your HP taking a hit.

[Coplantor]

I was thinking of a more straight forward kind of build for her. She ussually plays barbarians and fighters. When she played a cleric the other players had to tell her when and what to cast. The factotum might be a little complicated for her, specially since she isnt familiar yet with most of the game rules.

[Aquillion]

How optimized is your game? What levels will it be at? If she's playing a generic fighter or barbarian and everyone else is playing the levels of optimization that people suggested for your Factotum, then she's likely to find herself overshadowed.

If you think she'd like a fighter-caster, the Duskblade is decent enough. There are spells to contend with, but with Sorcerer casting and a relatively limited spell selection, the other players can just give her advice when she levels up, and she should usually be able to take it from there.

Alternatively, you could see if she's interested in playing a combat Druid focused in wild shape. You'll have to give her a list of good things to turn into, but beyond that she should be able to do fine. Not the most optimal use for a druid, but who needs to optimize a druid, anyway? Part of the advantage here is that it's all right if she doesn't know her spell list or whatever (just remind her to buff occasionally when you have free time), because the Druid is just that good. Another advantage here is that she'll be able to expand and use her other capabilities as she learns the game, if she wants.

Frenzied Berserker is another option for a decent pure-melee class that's relatively easy to play... although for obvious reasons, you want to run that by the rest of your team and make sure they're ok with it first. It also has stronger RP implications than most classes (because you have to be someone who might flip out and kill your teammates if you stub your toe; it's not like a Barbarian where you can fluff your rage as whatever you want.)

[Prak]

just optimize her a barbarian, they're fairly easy to optimize and even when optimized, fairly easy to play.

[Coplantor]

Our party is composed of 5 members, we are all first level. Two of us like to optimize our characters (Those two being myself and Lord Rod, you probably know him), then we have another member who optimizes a little, probably because he doesnt care a lot about optimization, another friend of us likes to believe that he optimizes his character, but he ussually ends up with terrible builds, that's because he chooses PrC based on the drawing (no kidding) or on some flashy ability, for this campaign he doesnt know if to play a Ranger 5/ Rogue 5/ Arcane archer 10 or a scout 10/ Arcane archer 10. We, as friends, as fellow party members, heck, as human beings try to persuade him from ruining his character. And then there's this friend who wants to be a fighting class and likes elves, specially gray elves, I might convince her to play a human barbarian, she likes that also, but we shouldn force her to play something she doesnt like. With a friend we thought about something involving three levels of swashbuckler, the Faerie Mysteries Initiate feat, and then see what can we do to take advantage of her intelligence score, maybe duellist. I like the Swsh 3/ Asassin 5/ Bladesinger 10 build, Int is used for damage, AC, casting and HP, dex is also used for AC and atack bonus, you get to cast like a tenh level assassin and some pretty skills too.

[Keld Denar]

Tippy, FMI would only really be worth the feat if his stats wern't so good. But they are. He should have at least a 16 in Con, and while it won't get the +level boosts, it would still be recommended to buy a +6 Con item before level 20 to have a 22 Con, which is more than respectable for a quasi-melee character. Better spend that feat on something else, like MORE FONTS!

Coplantor, have you ever heard of a Daring Outlaw build? Your friends could go Rogue4/Swashbuckler16, get all the sneak attack of a level 20 Rogue, all the Grace of a level 20 Swash, and keep almost full BAB. This is a pretty strong character, fairly simple to build and play, and works well with Grey Elf. Go TWF with a pair of short swords and grab the Craven feat (Champions of Ruin) and go to town.

Oh, and the lynchpin feat of the build, Daring Outlaw at level 6. Its from Complete Scoundrel.