D&D 3E/3.5 Help me create "Fantasy Sherlock Holmes" in 3.5

I need to clarify something for everyone. While its true that the Bard class is a little too free spirited for Sherlock, I believe he would have at least two levels in this class for a few reasons:

• The knowledge he has from years of study in every conceivable field of study.
• Holmes played a violin!
• Holmes was charismatic enough to justify having some low level bard abilities. He could inspire anyone around him; his abilities were intoxicating to those that came for his services.

Not all Bard are required to be free spirits after all. Its all in the personality of the character.

Factotum with the Jack of All Trades feat fits that aspect of Homes as well. This combo has probably been brought up before.

Bard isn't really necessary.

Wizards treat all KS as class skills.

Even though Perform would be a cross-class skill, there's no reason he couldn't take it: while skilled at the instrument, AFAIK, there is no indication in the fiction as to how skilled he actually is. IOW, there's no reason he has to be great at it.

I admit, the very first class I thought of to fit Holmes was Factotum. He seems to have at least some skill in just about everything, so with Factotum having all skills as class skills, he'd be golden.

A few things to note about Factotums that jives well with Holmes:

Cunning Insight: Gain a competence bonus to an attack, damage, or saving throw roll. Holmes was most definitely competent.

Cunning Knowledge: Gain an untyped bonus on a skill check equal to Factotum level. Holmes had a way of pulling off feats of skill that simply surpass standard Skills Ranks.

Trapfinding: Holmes was intelligent and skillful enough to find and bypass traps as I recall.

Arcane Dilettante: Here's where we notice the constraints of the real world versus D&D. My thought? If Holmes was in D&D he'd be intelligent enough to gain some form of on-demand magic.

Brains Over Brawn: Holmes exemplifies this. He used his head to aid his physical endeavors.

Cunning Defense: Holmes knew how to carry himself in a fight and would use knowledge of his foes to his advantage in both offense and defense.

Cunning Strike: Holmes had no quarrels sneaking up on people and disabling them. I could definitely see him getting Sneak Attack.

I realize I've somewhat sugar-coated it, but I believe a Factotum exemplifies Sherlock Holmes. My thought is he'd be at least level 4 and have the Jack of all Trades, Improved Unarmed Strike, and Font of Inspiration feats, or perhaps Knowledge Devotion instead of Font of Inspiration.

Wow, Necro. Is the OP still around to read this?

Well, I need not say anything about Factotum.

I'd also like to suggest Archivist, for the knowledge checks applied to life. I know the OP said low magic, I'd imagine one could intentionally select Divine spells for utility rather than damage and reality-altering power to fit the character.

Also, how about Artificer? Making use of a bag of tricks to draw from. Not as much the strict SH template character, but could do some of the things Holmes did in a creative manner.

I know the OP asked for a 10th level build, but the Exemplar PrC with it's 5th level ability to treat skill checks as Diplomacy sounds very Holmes-ish. Impressing people with his skill is what SH did.

This looks like a perfect opportunity to use Jordain Vizier (shining South). A very strange PrC that basically revolves around knowing stuff, having perfect eidetic memory, and obtaining flashes of insight into complex situations, with only very little combat potential, but some interesting defensive abilities - looks like a good basis for a Holmes character. Getting around the prereqs without giving up too much usefulness (i.e. without taking Monk levels) is the hard part.

Empirate said:

This looks like a perfect opportunity to use Jordain Vizier (shining South). A very strange PrC that basically revolves around knowing stuff, having perfect eidetic memory, and obtaining flashes of insight into complex situations, with only very little combat potential, but some interesting defensive abilities - looks like a good basis for a Holmes character. Getting around the prereqs without giving up too much usefulness (i.e. without taking Monk levels) is the hard part.

Click to expand...

Well, you made me look it up.

Man, the fluff sure fits. "They collect knowledge from all disciplines and can process it in a deductive way that defies explanation."

Someone should rework this PrC so Holmes can go into it from Factotum.