Originally posted by Tempest_Stormwind:
The name’s mostly for legacy at this point, I’m afraid, as this is more likely to be a sporadic thing than a regular feature.
As usual for the showcase, these builds are intended to spur discussion and perhaps inspire a few people in the spirit of the old CO boards. They come from members of my gaming group - me, Radical Taoist, DisposableHero_, Andarious, Sionnis, and Seishi - and I'll always identify who wrote the build at the start, so do not assume I'm the guy behind all of them (because I'm not!).
Unless otherwise noted, showcase builds use 28 point-buy, and have their snapshots evaluated using fractional base attack / saves (because it simplifies the math). None of them actually rely on fractional to be built, though. The format I use showcases their progression at key levels rather than just presenting the build and showing off a few tricks at level 20; most of these are capable of being played 1-20 if you so choose.
With that out of the way, let's get started. This week, we’re pulling out another one of mine. This is not a new idea, but I’ve found myself trying to explain the concept to people in the past, so I figured I should have an example available to reference. I already had the showcase format lying around, so…
NOTE: After I put this together and was doing the proofreading, I realized I forgot that our group ignored the +1 BAB prereq for Exotic Weapon Proficiency here. Rather than rewrite the whole thing, I’ll just note that you swap the first two character levels (starting as warblade 1, then progressing through factotum 8 – note that if you take this route, you can’t get extra Fonts if flaws are allowed) and have the same overall effect, just with a slightly rougher time with starting skill points.
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ASSASSIN'S SPEED
A blade in the crowd
Required Books: Dungeonscape, Tome of Battle, Weapons of Legacy, Complete Scoundrel. One element each from Oriental Adventures, Races of Stone, Complete Champion, and Lords of Madness. Add to this any source you’d like that has low-level (under 3rd) spells (I’ll list a few from the Spell Compendium).
Unearthed Arcana used: None (though you can get two more Fonts if you allow flaws – the feat timing and Int score progression are timed with that in mind, but strictly speaking you don’t need the extra Fonts.).
Background: “Iaijutsu Factotum”. We hear it every so often as a capable route for damage on a speedy, non-brute-type character, but curiously, my searching around for build guides and the like comes up blank. This article is my own iaijutsu factotum, written up using my build format, to explain the rationale and supply a few examples for citation later, and intended to help newer players see the rationale. It helps that, mechanically, there’s a few quirks to this that aren’t exactly commonly brought up in factotum articles, so there’s probably something new here for you as well.
For those joining late, the factotum is a class in Dungeonscape, and the last base class published in 3.5. It’s capable of “standing in” for just about any combat or noncombat role – for a short while, before it loses Inspiration (a per-encounter resource used to fuel its unique abilities; augment this with Font of Inspiration) and becomes a rogue-type character without Sneak Attack. They rely heavily on Intelligence and have every skill as a class skill, and their class features are usually triggered as a free action, which gives them great appeal. When people are trying to build factotums, they’re frequently told to consider the Iaijutsu Focus skill – a very difficult-to-use skill from Oriental Adventures, which adds substantial bonus damage to a melee attack under very tight conditions – but they’re left in the dark as to why it’s a good choice on the factotum (aside from that the class has it as a class skill), let alone how to use the skill (which is far from child’s play). That’s what this build is attempting to explore.
Since this showcase is intended as a how-to for slightly less-experienced optimizers (as the experienced sort probably wouldn’t need a guide to see how to do this), there’s a few helpful hints scattered throughout – moreso than is typical for our showcase articles.
Plus, the character in question is a blatant homage to the Assassin’s Creed series of games, complete with hidden blades and aerial executions, so if nothing else you can use it as an example of how to build an “assassin” in that style for a theme game. (The one I play is themed as an instructor, hence the heavy emphasis on Intelligence and technique rather than speed and strength.) Onward!
The Basics
Skill Notes: You’ll have SP through the ears, but high demand on assorted skills for your chosen tricks and Knowledge Devotion, plus any other skills needed to support your team. Apart from the necessary Iaijutsu Focus, I would suggest maxing Jump, stealth skills, and Use Magic Device. Keep Concentration high (though you won’t need to max it, particularly after Sapphire Nightmare Blade gets crowded out of your readied maneuvers - at this point, remember that you can retrain skill ranks!), and make sure your Tumble check is high enough to avoid AoOs on demand. Sleight of Hand unlocks several good thematic skill tricks, but 8 ranks is all you’ll need for that; similarly, 5 ranks in Balance gives you an edge in certain combat situations against those who don’t have that same investment. Finally, you’ll need 5 ranks of Knowledge: History and 4 ranks of Craft: Armorsmithing for prerequisites. Everything left over goes into Knowledge skills appropriate for the foes you’re facing. It’ll be a tight squeeze, and you won’t be able to do everything (particularly if you’re needing to also serve as a basic trapscout or diplomat), but it is doable. Don’t worry too much about actual check modifiers; you’ll be using Cunning Knowledge when sorely pressed for a good check result.
The skill tricks I recommend are Collector of Stories (especially if it boosts Knowledge Devotion, so check with your DM), Hidden Blade (assumes that EWP Quickrazor meets the quickdraw requirement for the razor itself; this gives you an extra way to flat-foot an opponent), Acrobatic Backstab (an easy way to flat-foot one target, but note its timing – it works best if you use it to tumble through one target on your way to another, then double back next round), and Conceal Spellcasting (mostly because I’m running out of good choices at this point but need a fourth to qualify for Uncanny Trickster). Only Collector of Stories and Acrobatic Backstab are likely to see actual use, so you’re free otherwise.
Basic Equipment: A matching pair of gnome quickrazors (RoS, arguably one of the few exotic weapons to be worth the feat) will be your weapons of choice, although most of the time you’ll only use one and you’ll keep the second one concealed (to employ some of your nastier skill tricks). You won’t need Two-Weapon Fighting or anything, since if you’re only attacking with one weapon, you have no “off-hand”; a right-handed individual making an attack with their left hand doesn’t suffer any special penalties until they use a second weapon. That said, realistically, the second razor will only see use with those skill tricks or Wolf Fang Strike. You’ll probably want a distance weapon of sorts, since you’re not terribly tanky early on. A shortbow will suffice here.
Magical Gear Goals: Curiously, this is entirely open, with one exception. I usually recommend the typical array of Will boosters and mind-affecting immunity options, but unique to this build, consider boosts to Knowledge (Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance are great here: +5 to all Knowledge simply by owning them), as well as skill boosts to Iaijutsu Focus (and possibly Concentration if you’re making use of Sapphire Nightmare Blade). The Gloves of the Balanced Hand might be worth it if you’re enjoying your second quickrazor, though this is not for everyone. As always, initiative boosts are appreciated, though you won’t need the entire Gauntlet of I Go First unless you’re going for overkill. (A +1 warning gauntlet chambered with nerveskitter, Sandals of the Vagabond, and, especially, a Ring of Anticipation should be more than enough - that's 18,850 for +12, roll twice and take highest.)
That exception mentioned earlier? You need a decent legacy item to become a legacy champion. You can design your own, which I recommend in general, but the build here uses one of the pre-packaged ones, Wargird’s Armor (what? A rogue-type using medium armor? You did not read that wrong – it’s actually a surprisingly good defensive item, with abilities that give you alarming resilience (frontline rogue-types will appreciate that), and its penalties aren’t too severe). If you’re making your own, to minimize the penalties, it only needs a least legacy, but here I was going for the whole thing.
The Build.
Build Stub: Factotum 8 / Warblade 4 / Uncanny Trickster 3 / Legacy Champion 5.
Note for newbies: The key to Iaijutsu Focus is to find ways to draw and sheathe the same weapon as a free action (the alternative is carrying many separate weapons and dropping them after you attack, but this is slow and expensive), and to reliably catch opponents flat-footed (not merely denied Dexterity to AC) on demand. There’s also the issue of getting the obscure Iaijutsu Focus skill as a class skill. Look for those keys in this build.
1 – Factotum – (Trapfinding, Inspiration) (Darkstalker, Exotic Weapon (Quickrazor)), (Cunning Insight, Cunning Knowledge)
*
[sblock] This is a pretty typical “Iaijutsu Factotum” opening (they get every skill as a class skill, including Iaijutsu Focus). Quickrazors can be drawn and sheathed as free actions, so the basic technique is “remain undetected, walk up to the target, quickdraw, stab them, and sheathe”. Use Cunning Insight to add your Int bonus to the attack or damage roll as needed; with an average IF check at this level, you’re dealing +1d6 to +2d6 (depends if you consider “average” to be 10 or 11 on the die), and 1d4+2d6+4 (13.5) damage is enough to kill your average level 1 Fighter in one stab.
Although Cunning Knowledge isn’t amazing at level 1, you can use it to boost a critical Iaijutsu Focus, Concentration, or Jump check later on, and it always helps outside of combat. Most of the time your Inspiration will go to Cunning Insight; you can use it to power both your attack and your damage roll if you think combat will end quickly.
In short, you’re playing like a rogue, but with a more technical choice of targets and a stronger reliance on stealth. This only lasts for level 1, though you’ll appreciate Darkstalker at all levels (way too often is a stealthy approach foiled by a simple guard dog at the low levels, or a trickier Tremorsense / Blindsense creature at higher levels. Darkstalker may actually allow you to evade Mindsight, depending on how your DM rules, which is otherwise impossible for thinking beings.). If you don’t like the stealth play, you can exchange Darkstalker for a Font of Inspiration.
[/sblock]2 – Warblade – (Weapon Aptitude, Battle Clarity) (Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Wolf Fang Strike, Sudden Leap) (Punishing Stance)
*
[sblock] Warblade is a natural partner class to Factotum, if you’re wanting to mix it up in melee, since they both rely on Intelligence and several warblade maneuvers dovetail perfectly with factotum cunning abilities. Here, we have Punishing Stance (adding +1d6 on to each knife strike), Sudden Leap (allowing surprise attacks or retreats with your swift action), Wolf Fang Strike (if you’ve caught a target flat-footed already (i.e. you were undetected), this lets you stab with both of your knives at a relatively low penalty, which can get positively ludicrous in terms of damage output), and Sapphire Nightmare Blade (which, interestingly, allows you to catch your opponent flat-footed even in the heat of battle, meaning you can deliver an iaijutsu strike on demand – and yes, it’s actual flat-footing, not denial-of-dex, so SNB is amazing for iaijutsu specialists).
A typical shank at this level would look like 1d4+2d6+1d6+1d6+4 (20.5) from Sapphire Nightmare Blade, which also happens to be exactly the average amount of HP a CR 2 monster has (as well as more HP than your typical 2nd level Fighter). And thanks to SNB, you can perform this on demand. If you retain the stealth tactics from earlier, Wolf Fang Strike has a good chance of hitting an unaware target with both blades, which would deal 26-34 damage, depending on how much Inspiration you want to use on Cunning Insight.
By the way, why here for Warblade? Level 1 is factotum for the better skills and feat synergies, but getting warblade online sooner rather than later opens up not only a dramatic increase in surprise-attack damage, but also gives you increased opportunities to deliver that damage. You’ll be leaning on these basic maneuvers for quite some time and they’ll barely become stale. Plus, if we’re using Wargird’s Armor, this class provides the proficiencies we need. We’ll come back to the warblade later; for now just get used to those particular maneuvers. They’re all you’ll need for some time.
[/sblock]3 – Factotum – (Arcane Dilettante) (Knowledge Devotion)
*
[sblock]Knowledge Devotion is a great feat. It really is. This will put your Int score and Knowledge ranks (and possibly the Collector of Stories trick and Cunning Knowledge) to great in-combat use, compensating for some attack bonus losses and providing just a little more per-hit damage on your quickrazors. At this point, without a good roll, it’s likely to just be a +1, but it will scale as your Knowledge ranks improve.
Arcane Dilettante is mostly used in this build to muddle with opponent movement and senses, creating openings for your surprise strikes. There aren’t many good cantrips for this, but I like Caltrops, mostly because it slows down enemy movement and interrupts enemy chargers. (It also fits the theme, as the spells tend to do what we’d expect a spy’s gadgets to do.)
[/sblock]4 – Factotum – (Brains over Brawn) (Cunning Defense)
*
[sblock] Intelligence to initiative as well as to all your stealth and mobility skills. That’s very nice here (even though, unlike several factotum builds, we’re not building around this ability in particular).
Also, Arcane Dilettante can hold up to 1st level spells now, and our spell of choice is almost certainly Grease – especially if people in the area are considered to be balancing (which isn’t explicit in the spell, but it is a common interpretation). People without 5 ranks in Balance become flat-footed (yes, flat-footed, as opposed to denied Dexterity) while balancing, meaning you can move in (with your Sudden Leap to avoid touching the greased area), knife a flat-footed target with an iaijutsu strike, and remain able to defend yourself due to your 5 ranks in Balance (oh, hey, another skill boosted by Brains over Brawn) by this point.
[/sblock]5 – Factotum – (Cunning Strike)
*
[sblock] If you’ve got inspiration to spare and you’re making an attack that is almost certain to hit (i.e. flat-footed with the attack roll boosted by Cunning Insight / Knowledge Devotion), funnel some of the leftover Inspiration into this ability and you won’t be disappointed. It’s blocked by Fortification, unlike everything else discussed so far, but against crit-vulnerable targets, you can wind up with some pretty impressive killing power this way.
Also worth noting: At this level, Wargird’s Armor starts getting its unique abilities online. Here, it simply doesn’t slow you down. I won’t be discussing its abilities here except where they intersect with your fighting style or a class feature though.
[/sblock]6 – Factotum – (Opportunistic Piety) (Font of Inspiration)
*
[sblock] Access to 2nd level spells via Dilettante now, so you’re probably going to carry Invisibility most of the time. I suggest considering Distract Assailant (SpC) as well in some circumstances, since it’s a swift-action spell and provides you with just the opening you need (though it does allow a saving throw). Whether this is worth replacing Grease or not depends on the foes you’re fighting.
Another interesting spell to consider here is Whirling Blade (SpC); if you remained undetected by everyone in the area, you’re delivering an iaijutsu strike against all of them at once, which can be pretty devastating - and stylish, since you can describe this as a hail of knives. It also automatically benefits from your Int modifier on attack and damage rolls, which can be doubled up with Cunning Insight (at a bargain 1 Inspiration, since Whirling Blade is a single attack).
[/sblock]7 – Factotum – (Wargird’s Armor: Warrior’s Surge 1/day)
*
[sblock] This is basically a dead level, but the armor’s ability is worth bringing up: it’s a contingent Rage-like effect that kicks in should you bite off more than you can chew and fall unconscious. It’s a useful lifeline for a relatively fragile character, though hopefully you won’t ever need to trigger it.[/sblock]8 – Factotum
9 – Factotum – (Font of Inspiration) (Cunning Surge)
*
[sblock] Cunning Surge is the factotum’s ZOMG ability. Though pricey on the Inspiration front, it allows extra standard actions whenever you need them. Like, say, you’re right next to a target you’ve caught by surprise and you need to deliver more iaijutsu strikes. Noteworthy in that Cunning Surge itself is a free action, not a swift, so you can hypothetically keep chaining them up as long as your inspiration holds out, hence the number of Fonts in this build (especially with flaws).
Also, Arcane Dilettante can hit 3rd level spells now, which opens up abilities like Haste, Fly, Heart of Water (SpC, most useful as a panic Freedom of Movement), Alter Fortune (SpC, ludicrously useful but carries an XP cost), or the like.
A typical Dilettante loadout might be Invisibility, Whirling Blade, and Grease, swapping in one of the above 3rd level spells as desired.
[/sblock]10 – Uncanny Trickster – (Bonus Trick, Favorite Trick)
*
[sblock] Use this to get extra uses of Collector of Stories (better Knowledge Devotion bonuses) or Acrobatic Backstab (more chances to catch people flat-footed) in a single combat. The order’s up to you, as is which bonus trick you learn.[/sblock]11 – Uncanny Trickster – (Uncanny Dodge, Bonus Trick, Favorite Trick) (Death from Above)
*
[sblock] We’re using the Legacy Trickster trick to advance Warblade, similar to the Gun Fu(x) build again – this is IL Bootstrapping, used to get higher-level warblade maneuvers than we normally would.
In this case, that maneuver is Death from Above, which, interestingly, also catches its victims flat-footed (based off of Jump vs DC 20 instead of Concentration vs AC, which is as good as guaranteed), meaning it’s another on-demand iaijutsu attack (and as such will likely replace Sapphire Nightmare Blade in your short list of readied maneuvers, unless subtlety is called for). It's also stronger than SNB (+4d6 rather than +3d6) and it may also grant high-ground bonuses (+1 attack, unless something else modifies it) depending on your DM.
[/sblock]12 – Uncanny Trickster – (Battle Ardor, Bonus Trick, Favorite Trick, Tricky Defense) (Martial Study) (Douse the Flames, White Raven Strike) (Wargird’s Armor: Awakened Spirit)
*
[sblock] We use Martial Study to meet the prerequisites for White Raven Strike, which is a nifty maneuver on its own that renders a foe flat-footed until the start of its next turn, no questions asked, and supplies mild bonus damage. Normally, you can’t capitalize on this due to action demands – but we’re a factotum, and have Cunning Surge. If all else fails, hit with White Raven Strike, then use Cunning Surge to follow it up with more attacks (i.e. a Wolf Fang Strike for two consecutive iaijutsu attacks, or (if you started adjacent to the target) using your new standard + your move action to get a full attack off.).
Your armor also now counts as an intelligent item, which gives you a second source of senses (though for some reason the item, as statted, is actually weaker than WoL’s Intelligent Item legacy suggests it should be). Ego conflicts with the armor compel you to fight in melee, something you’re probably already doing (and thanks to moves like Death from Above or the combo discussed above, and the armor’s own defensive abilities, something you’re actually quite good at).
[/sblock]13 – Legacy Champion
14 – Legacy Champion – (Wall of Blades replaces Douse the Flames) (Dancing Blade Form)
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[sblock] Wall of Blades is actually used here as a prerequisite rather than for its actual effect, but it’s still appreciated, since it allows you to block rays. Dancing Blade Form is used to cover for a weakness in the quickrazors, namely the lack of reach.[/sblock]15 – Legacy Champion – (Improved Initiative, Font of Inspiration) (White Raven Tactics) (Extra Least: Warrior’s Surge)
*
[sblock] WRT is a must-have, and you might have noticed the build is surprisingly easy on demands for your swift action. Prior to this level, you may have used that action to trigger your wondrous items; here, you use it to trigger a nearby ally, particularly if you want them to take advantage of an opening you’ve created with White Raven Strike. (If they WRT you back, you can recover your maneuvers with an iaijutsu full attack.) [/sblock]16 – Legacy Champion – (Improved Uncanny Dodge) (Transfer Legacy) (Swift Haste 5/day)
*
[sblock] The only real change to your abilities here (since you aren’t swapping maneuvers) is Transfer Legacy. This lets you give one of your teammates a slotless Swift Haste effect or one of your Warrior’s Surges (this is why you took that Extra Least last level). Not a big thing, but appreciated.[/sblock]17 – Legacy Champion – (Battle Cunning) (Swooping Dragon Strike) (Replace Lesser: Boundless Determination replaces Fast Movement)
*
[sblock] Battle Cunning gives you +Int on all damage rolls against flat-footed targets – i.e. those you’re hitting with iaijutsu strikes. This stacks with Cunning Insight if you wish, as well as all of your other abilities at this point.
Swooping Dragon Strike dishes out respectable damage on its own (on par with a maxed out iaijutsu strike), but can’t benefit from iaijutsu on its own (though it makes an amazing followup from White Raven Strike + Cunning Surge). More to the point, it stuns your target, with a DC based off of your Jump check. Jump is one of the easier skills to pump, particularly when compared to a saving throw.
And what’s that last ability? Well, the legacy champion allows you to replace lesser abilities on one legacy item with a lesser ability from a different legacy item, provided it belongs to the same menu. (A needlessly overcomplex system, but…). Boundless Determination is drawn from Faithful Avenger, the Devoted Spirit legacy weapon in the Tome of Battle – check its timing, it’s from Menu D. This lets you replace the armor’s Fast Movement ability (an enhancement bonus to speed; you’ve probably had that on better items for some time) with the Immortal Fortitude stance, which gives you some rather outstanding staying power, particularly if it’s paired with your Warrior’s Surge. With the kind of damage being thrown around at this level, it helps if you can just no-sell it.
[/sblock]18 – Warblade – (Font of Inspiration) (Lightning Throw replaces Wall of Blades)
*
[sblock] Lightning Throw follows the same logic as Whirling Blade from earlier, except it deals increased damage on its own, can’t miss (but it does allow a save), has a shorter range, and can be used more than once per day. Like Whirling Blade, the attack is technically a melee attack, so it still benefits from all of your usual damage boosters (Iaijutsu Focus, Knowledge Devotion, Cunning Insight, Battle Cunning, Cunning Strike, etc), which, on top of its innate +12d6, can get the damage to a rather impressive level at this point. This works great if you’re catching an entire group flat-footed. If you still NEED Wall of Blades, novice Iron Heart vests are cheap.[/sblock]19 – Warblade – (Run) (Raging Mongoose)
*
[sblock] Run is basically Greater Ability Focus: Swooping Dragon Strike, which is the main reason we’re taking it. I would normally have taken Combat Reflexes here, but our Dexterity is too low (Brains over Brawn won’t work on Combat Reflexes), while my usual second choice, Blind-Fight, is less useful here because of Wargird’s Armor’s darkvision. A passable second choice is Iron Heart Aura, since most of the time you’ll be using an Iron Heart stance, and +2 to all saves isn’t awful.
Curiously, although 9th level maneuvers are now available, we won’t be using them. Neither of the ones we qualify for are terribly useful here.
Feral Death Blow is the “obvious” candidate, since it also catches targets flat-footed (so it has the same guaranteed iaijutsu ability that Death from Above does), but, oddly enough, it’s not a great choice here. With a low Strength, the odds of its instant-kill succeeding (DC 19 and countered by critical hit immunity) are basically nil, so it’s basically just Death from Above with +20d6 instead of +4d6 (an increase of 56, when typical CR 20 targets have about 400 HP, so while not insubstantial, it's still rather low)… but Death from Above initiates faster (a standard action instead of a full-round action; if you want to use Feral Death Blow in a Cunning Surge combo, you’ve got to be next to the target or you spend an extra Cunning Surge and trade the resulting action for a move, since a move+standard gives you the full-round), triggers easier (Jump vs DC 20 instead of vs enemy AC), and includes an optional repositioning effect. I don’t think you’re getting enough to compensate for the tradeoffs.
The other alternative 9th, Mountain Tombstone Strike (which, curiously, has no maneuver prerequisite), is actually significantly more damaging (+20d6 is +70 damage; 2d6 Con damage usually reduces Con modifiers by 3 or 4, so any creature with more than 18-23 HD is going to lose more HP from that than Feral Death Blow can deal. The SRD CR 20 monsters average 29.5 HD), but, since it’s dealing ability damage, can be blocked by certain immunities. It also doesn’t automatically catch targets flat-footed, so you’d need to chain it from White Raven Strike, and, as a Stone Dragon maneuver, must be initiated while standing on the ground (so it can’t be used while flying – although I’m not entirely sure why Feral Death Blow can be used while flying either, since it involves jumping on them).
As such, we’re going with the simple Raging Mongoose. If you’re using Cunning Surge to hit targets with White Raven Strike and following it up with full attacks, this little boost can give you two extra attacks – or four, if you’re using your second quickrazor (with Gloves of the Balanced Hands to offset the penalty). Each of those hits is an iaijutsu strike. At this level you shouldn’t have any difficulty getting a good Iaijutsu Focus check result; even with a trivial DC 45, that’s +8d6 per hit, before you go into your Inspiration for Cunning Surge.
[/sblock]20 – Warblade – (Press the Advantage)
Final maneuvers known
[sblock]Warblade (IL 18, 5 readied):
Strikes: Sapphire Nightmare Blade*, Wolf Fang Strike, Death from Above*, White Raven Strike, Swooping Dragon Strike, Lightning Throw
Boosts: Sudden Leap, Raging Mongoose
Stances: Punishing Stance, Dancing Blade Form, Immortal Fortitude (from armor), Press the Advantage
* = catches target flat-footed on demand without setup (i.e. without White Raven Strike + Cunning Surge
[/sblock]
Snapshot: Let’s put on the standard +6 items for Con, Int, and Cha, and let’s tome Con for 4, Int for 5, and Cha for 4. Finally, let’s factor in legacy item penalties for Wargird’s Armor (notable, since if you're building your own custom legacy item, these penalties will be lower!). This leaves us with 228 HP, +16 base attack (Melee/ranged +18 with legacy penalties, assuming only Greater Magic Weapon, but realistically you have enough other buffs (i.e. +17 from Knowledge Devotion and Cunning Surge) and are seldom targeting full AC), and saves of +15/+21/+3. You finish with 15 Inspiration, 5 readied maneuvers, and 3 Arcane Dilettante spells (up to 3rd level, though only one of them can actually be third level). Wargird’s Armor itself at this point is a +5 Heavy Fortification breastplate that doesn’t slow your movement, has basic intelligent item senses, grants a contingent Rage-like effect if you would fall unconscious (and grants access to Immortal Fortitude if you really need to save your bacon and can’t break away from combat), has a slotless Swift Haste and Stoneskin effect (and you have the ability to donate some of these to teammates if you want), and grants Cold Resist 20.
Impressively, you can leverage your Intelligence (+12 modifier) to many different combat fronts. You’ve got Int to Reflex, Critical Confirmation, Flat-Footed / Flanked Damage, Initiative, and every Strength/Dexterity check (including skills and combat techniques) out there without drawing upon your Inspiration. (This doesn’t count Knowledge Devotion, which improves dramatically based on your Intelligence-based checks, but they all stack with that feat.) By spending Inspiration (15 per encounter), you can add +12 to an attack roll, a damage roll (stacks with Battle Cunning if applicable), or your AC vs one foe for an entire round. Your Inspiration can also provide a Sneak Attack clone (for even more damage, though it’s not terribly efficient and can be blocked), a +8 bonus on a skill check (once per skill per day), and, most importantly, an extra standard action (for 3 Inspiration). Use this after a White Raven Strike to continue to deliver rapid-fire iaijutsu attacks to a now-vulnerable target, among other uses. All your Inspiration-linked abilities are free actions.
Sapphire Nightmare Blade and Death from Above can allow you to deliver iaijutsu strikes on demand, including mid-combat and at the low levels, even if your stealth skills won’t allow you to do it normally. A basic iaijutsu strike, assuming typical results on Knowledge Devotion and Iaijutsu Focus while you’re in Punishing Stance and using Cunning Insight (but not Cunning Strike), will deal 1d4+10d6+34 (71.5), and that’s before any maneuvers or actual weapon special effects kick in. None of that is precision damage, and all it cares about is the Flat-Footed condition (and not denial of Dexterity), so neither Fortification nor Uncanny Dodge can block or reduce this. The total cost for this is just 1 inspiration out of 15, so you can easily afford a Cunning Surge to follow it up with subsequent strikes – and if your opening volley is White Raven Strike, you can start using your other attacks as iaijutsu strikes as well.
Overall Strengths: Great damage output, flexible delivery within the melee paradigm, surprising durability for what feels like a rogue-type, and a remarkably customizable skill list make this approach worth considering. Also, every single one of your buffs is a free action, freeing up your swifts for Sudden Leap, item effects, and potential Arcane Dilettante selections.
Overall Weaknesses: WILL. SAVE. You’ll want Diamond Mind rings (Moment of Perfect Mind) early on, and Mind Blanks and related defenses as best as you can as levels increase. Additionally, an extreme reliance on melee and surprise (when it’s possible, though extremely costly, to obtain a “never flat-footed” effect, which would shut down most of your primary offense) will limit your options somewhat at the lategame.
Variants: If stealth isn’t your thing, consider taking Wild Talent instead of Darkstalker, which would allow taking 15 on Sapphire Nightmare Blade once per encounter. That and a few +Concentration boosts helps alleviate the pressure from that skill – and, with an inexpensive novice Ring of the Diamond Mind, it would also allow taking 15 on will saves, which we’ve already established is a defensive priority. Alternatively, like most factotums, more Fonts of Inspiration are always appreciated – your Int score is high enough to allow two more even from the start, which happens to be what you can grab from flaws.
If stealth is your thing, you can switch your race around a bit and play a Whisper Gnome, which really is about as good as it gets on the stealth department (it puts the G in the Gnowhere Gnome for a reason). Piggy Knowles reminded me that Complete Warrior allows races to switch their weapon familiarity around to other weapons with their name in the title - and it's the gnome quickrazor for a reason. Switching their hooked hammer familiarity to quickrazors keeps the number of feats in the build to a constant, and whisper gnomes don't suffer a penalty to your key Intelligence. However, they also lack the human bonus skill point, so you might feel the pinch in a few places, such as one of your Knowledge skills (or, more realistically, some of your trapscout skills).
There you have it. Now you can see why the iaijutsu factotum is recommended so often. This approach to that goal also does it with style.
Originally posted by piggyknowles:
Very nice to see a benchmark build of a CO staple go up. I've toyed around with Factotum 8 + Legacy Trickster shenanigans to get Cunning Surge and 9th-level maneuvers online a fair bit over on the GitP boards: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?288207-Factotum-Legacy-Tricksters-and-ToB&p=15442970
Note that you can use a whisper gnome's racial weapon familiarity to pick up quickrazor proficiency without needing to spend a feat. It comes up as a wash feat-wise when compared to human, but the whisper gnome's other traits are arguably more useful than the human's bonus skill points. (Of course, that means an XP penalty if for some odd reason you're playing with multiclass penalties.)
I've also been messing around with a build inspired by OMG PONIES on the same GitP boards, although I still haven't come up with a build stub I'm happy with. The basic idea is an iaijutsu factotum/warblade who also takes 8 levels in Justiciar for the Improved Hog-Tie ability. This lets you hog-tie an enemy with a successful grapple check, making them helpless. With Quick Draw and Death Blow, the idea would be to close with an enemy, initiate a grapple, hog-tie them, Quick Draw a scythe, Cunning Surge for an extra standard action, and use Death Blow to coup de grace them as a standard. At other times, it would just play as your standard iaijutsu factotum.
Originally posted by Tempest_Stormwind:
Honestly, the reason I did 8/2/3/7 in the first place was because I was annoyed that the simplicity evoked by 8/12 wasn't able to reach 9ths, so I went with Legacy Trickster for IL bootstrapping. Turns out, though, that I'm not actually using 9th level maneuvers (see level 17 - my original plan for Feral Death Blow turned out to be less than impressive on a character with low strength and a reliance on standard instead of full-round actions) - if 8th level is sufficient, 8/12 would work just peachy.
Mind, if you're looking specifically for 9ths and not "maneuvers that work well with iaijutsu" (i.e. you're using the factotum for something other than iaijutsu, which is perfectly legit) then IL bootstrapping is ideal, since it brings higher level maneuvers online sooner.
EDIT: Looking it up, I can't see exactly how you'd go about doing this. They're familiar with hooked hammers, not quickrazors, and it still takes a feat (Improved Weapon Familiarity) to move other exotic weapons to martial ones. Since familiarity isn't a feat, you can't use Weapon Aptitude to switch it over either.
I also omitted a strategy I like using in open brawls - performing an iaijutsu strike with one of the quickrazors, then not sheathing it - rather, the drawn quickrazor provides a threatened area, something otherwise lacking from this build given the lack of IUS and the constantly-sheathed weapons. (You just sheathe it as a free action on the start of your next turn.) I don't think, strictly speaking, you can draw the other quickrazor and make an AoO with it, but if you actually threaten the area, you can make a case for it, while with no threatened areas, you certainly can't. (This is intended to use the secondary quickrazor for more than just regular attacks; normally it would just languish behind the primary one since you probably don't want to pay to enhance two weapons. I typically keep the secondary one concealed via Sleight of Hand for skill trick purposes, in effect adding an extra readied maneuver for auto-flat-footing, and occasionally busting it out for Wolf Fang Strike.)
The Cunning Surge + Scythe kill trick is a fun one; I'd naturally use a Least Crystal of Return instead to save you a feat (even if it is on the warblade bonus list, there are better ones there), but it should work just fine.
Originally posted by piggyknowles:
"To compensate, consider limiting the number of exotic weapons that a given character of that race can treat as familiar as no more than the number of weapons associated with the race in the Player's Handbook (or in the Monster Manual for orcs). Thus, a given dwarf fighter might be able to treat the dwarven waraxe and the dwarven buckler-axe (a new weapon described here) as martial weapons, but would have to treat the dwarven urgrosh as an exotic weapon. A gnome ranger could treat the gnome hooked hammer or the gnome tortoise blade (a new weapon) as a martial weapon, but not both. An elf fighter can't treat any exotic weapon as martial weapons, since elves don't have weapon familiarity with any exotic weapons according to the Player's Handbook. Characters who wish to master all their race's exotic weapons can select the Improved Weapon Familiarity feat described in Chapter 3 of this book."
Interesting thoughts on building out AoOs instead of holding your breath for Improved Hog-Tie. I'll have to play around with that for a bit. And Least Crystal of Return seems like a no-brainer, especially since my last build stub was pretty feat-starved.
Originally posted by Pheonix042:
Wow, this is some neat stuff. I've heard of the factotum before, and I'm sure I've read through it at least once, but I've never actually seen it used and really had no idea what it was capable of.
Iajutsu focus is rediculous, for being a skill, but I won't begrudge martial classes their sources of damage. It's got real gameplay around it too (getting into position, flat-footing people, etc), so overall, I like it.
When I started describing the factotum and iajutsu focus combo to the player we made the Blood Elf for, her first comment was "wow, what if you could combine that with warblade?"
I had to laugh.
I appreciate all of the additional notes and reference information that you made available specifically for those of us who are new to optimization at this level. I had to look a few things up myself, reread the factotum, uncanny trickster, and skill trick sections of the relevent books, and make a few educated guesses, but I was surprised how well I followed the choices, combos, and numbers as they piled on. So thanks for that!
I'll likely steal liberally from this if I ever try to make an assassin. I really like the combination of leap-strike manuevers and sneak-attack-like damage. It's something that I've always had in my mind as a thing I COULD do with a build (all those manuevers that leave foes flat-footed), but which I never really saw laid out. It's gratifying to see just how effective it really can be, and how well it does the job I'd have aimed for.
The quickrazor thing is a bit silly. Sheathing and drawing blades repeatedly doesn't look very cool in my mind; instead, I would describe the blades getting lost in the wielders cloaks, behind his limbs, etc. before snaking back out to strike from an unexpected direction. It's basically the same thing, but it's easier for me to visualize than actually putting a blade back in a scabberd over and over again, and somehow hitting harder because of it.
Originally posted by Tempest_Stormwind:
(Note that the factotum has only 6 skill points per level, so in a sense the rogue is actually slightly better as a skillmonkey. Mind you, no factotum is going around with less than 16 Intelligence if they can cut it, while we sometimes see rogues with 12 or lower Intelligence, so overall it's comparable.)
However, OA has a 3.5 update by its original WotC author in Dragon Magazine (320, I believe, but don't quote me on that). There were a few tweaks here and there, but nothing about Iaijutsu Focus. So any rule preventing its use in general combat (even given its huge hurdles) is akin to saying "some third party says so", even though they formally hold the license. (There is a separate, non-d20 L5R game as well, which holds about as much influence on OA's version, i.e. none at all, though at least that one's internally consistent.)
Also noteworthy: In the old days, iaijutsu was a popular way of getting damage up there. It was insane, though - people would have one sword sheathed for every attack they could make (yes, it looked ridiculous), and would draw/slice/drop each one of them in turn on the rare occasions flat-footing would occur (which, as of (say) Complete Warrior, was largely done via the Giantbane feat or similar, meaning your character was rewarded for being tiny). A pretty far cry from your iconic samurai, you know?
It's also a great example of why the Tome is actually simpler than non-Tome melee. Such lengths and products of madness were commonplace, and nowadays the Tome is much simpler and more streamlined and, ultimately, more effective. And it often breathes life into old ideas (here, iaijutsu focus through auto-flatfooting maneuvers, but we've also seen it make use of old tactical feats in new ways - the Evasion Tank, Edge of the Light, and Dreamblade builds come to mind, as does any build combining Sun School with swordsage*. All of these tactical feats were in Complete Warrior, and were pretty ancient optimization tech by the time the Tome came out (and almost all of them except Shock Trooper never really saw use)).
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[sblock]Look at the tactical feat's requirements. Now look at its Flash of Sunset ability. Now look at Shadow Hand's teleports. You're the ninja your ninja could be like if he were using the Tome.
If you want to take this to the next level, consider that the requirements can be met with a small monk dip, which also gets you Stunning Fist. Look at Freezing the Lifeblood (CW) and either Death Blow (CAdv) or having enough IL to get Shadow Blink instead of Shadow Stride. Have fun.
If you're learning from my build notes, you can look here(x) to see a build that one of my teammates, Sionnis, has been playing for years that is centered around this trick (though it isn't entirely online yet, and the character is still fully functional). It's tucked away in the spoilerblock at the end. It's also not annotated, so you can test yourself to see if you can see why we made the choices we made - and not all of them are ones that are entirely conventional (i.e. there's actual Monk and CAdv Ninja in there).
[/sblock]
Do check out Piggy's link, too - his builds are simpler than this, and less specifically focused on this specific Assassin's-Creed imagery, so they'd adapt somewhat better (even without Iaijutsu Focus - despite how common you see "iaijutsu factotum", they're much more versatile than this).
(In fact, the first time I looked at a factotum in depth, it was a friend's character that was literally nothing more than one of the +Int elf races, every score except Int was either 8 or 10, Int 18; Factotum 20, every feat being Font of Inspiration (note: even with +Int, this required some age modifiers to work with flaws), armed with an Elvencraft bow of some sort (possibly an elvencraft Energy Bow, I forget exactly - the big thing was it was equally proficient in melee or at range). That's very simple - and yet it can fit just about any role it needs to, adjusting day by day and round by round.)
They also work functionally as Assassin's Creed-style hidden blades, which is what I'm evoking here.
The name’s mostly for legacy at this point, I’m afraid, as this is more likely to be a sporadic thing than a regular feature.
As usual for the showcase, these builds are intended to spur discussion and perhaps inspire a few people in the spirit of the old CO boards. They come from members of my gaming group - me, Radical Taoist, DisposableHero_, Andarious, Sionnis, and Seishi - and I'll always identify who wrote the build at the start, so do not assume I'm the guy behind all of them (because I'm not!).
Unless otherwise noted, showcase builds use 28 point-buy, and have their snapshots evaluated using fractional base attack / saves (because it simplifies the math). None of them actually rely on fractional to be built, though. The format I use showcases their progression at key levels rather than just presenting the build and showing off a few tricks at level 20; most of these are capable of being played 1-20 if you so choose.
With that out of the way, let's get started. This week, we’re pulling out another one of mine. This is not a new idea, but I’ve found myself trying to explain the concept to people in the past, so I figured I should have an example available to reference. I already had the showcase format lying around, so…
NOTE: After I put this together and was doing the proofreading, I realized I forgot that our group ignored the +1 BAB prereq for Exotic Weapon Proficiency here. Rather than rewrite the whole thing, I’ll just note that you swap the first two character levels (starting as warblade 1, then progressing through factotum 8 – note that if you take this route, you can’t get extra Fonts if flaws are allowed) and have the same overall effect, just with a slightly rougher time with starting skill points.
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ASSASSIN'S SPEED
A blade in the crowd
Required Books: Dungeonscape, Tome of Battle, Weapons of Legacy, Complete Scoundrel. One element each from Oriental Adventures, Races of Stone, Complete Champion, and Lords of Madness. Add to this any source you’d like that has low-level (under 3rd) spells (I’ll list a few from the Spell Compendium).
Unearthed Arcana used: None (though you can get two more Fonts if you allow flaws – the feat timing and Int score progression are timed with that in mind, but strictly speaking you don’t need the extra Fonts.).
Background: “Iaijutsu Factotum”. We hear it every so often as a capable route for damage on a speedy, non-brute-type character, but curiously, my searching around for build guides and the like comes up blank. This article is my own iaijutsu factotum, written up using my build format, to explain the rationale and supply a few examples for citation later, and intended to help newer players see the rationale. It helps that, mechanically, there’s a few quirks to this that aren’t exactly commonly brought up in factotum articles, so there’s probably something new here for you as well.
For those joining late, the factotum is a class in Dungeonscape, and the last base class published in 3.5. It’s capable of “standing in” for just about any combat or noncombat role – for a short while, before it loses Inspiration (a per-encounter resource used to fuel its unique abilities; augment this with Font of Inspiration) and becomes a rogue-type character without Sneak Attack. They rely heavily on Intelligence and have every skill as a class skill, and their class features are usually triggered as a free action, which gives them great appeal. When people are trying to build factotums, they’re frequently told to consider the Iaijutsu Focus skill – a very difficult-to-use skill from Oriental Adventures, which adds substantial bonus damage to a melee attack under very tight conditions – but they’re left in the dark as to why it’s a good choice on the factotum (aside from that the class has it as a class skill), let alone how to use the skill (which is far from child’s play). That’s what this build is attempting to explore.
Since this showcase is intended as a how-to for slightly less-experienced optimizers (as the experienced sort probably wouldn’t need a guide to see how to do this), there’s a few helpful hints scattered throughout – moreso than is typical for our showcase articles.
Plus, the character in question is a blatant homage to the Assassin’s Creed series of games, complete with hidden blades and aerial executions, so if nothing else you can use it as an example of how to build an “assassin” in that style for a theme game. (The one I play is themed as an instructor, hence the heavy emphasis on Intelligence and technique rather than speed and strength.) Onward!
The Basics
- Race: Human. This should work with just about any other race too, but the bonus feat is very appealing.
- Ability Scores: 10/10/14/18/8/10 is a good 28 PB distribution here. All your level-up points go into Intelligence, and you’ll want to prioritize Intelligence and Constitution equipment while levelling up.
Skill Notes: You’ll have SP through the ears, but high demand on assorted skills for your chosen tricks and Knowledge Devotion, plus any other skills needed to support your team. Apart from the necessary Iaijutsu Focus, I would suggest maxing Jump, stealth skills, and Use Magic Device. Keep Concentration high (though you won’t need to max it, particularly after Sapphire Nightmare Blade gets crowded out of your readied maneuvers - at this point, remember that you can retrain skill ranks!), and make sure your Tumble check is high enough to avoid AoOs on demand. Sleight of Hand unlocks several good thematic skill tricks, but 8 ranks is all you’ll need for that; similarly, 5 ranks in Balance gives you an edge in certain combat situations against those who don’t have that same investment. Finally, you’ll need 5 ranks of Knowledge: History and 4 ranks of Craft: Armorsmithing for prerequisites. Everything left over goes into Knowledge skills appropriate for the foes you’re facing. It’ll be a tight squeeze, and you won’t be able to do everything (particularly if you’re needing to also serve as a basic trapscout or diplomat), but it is doable. Don’t worry too much about actual check modifiers; you’ll be using Cunning Knowledge when sorely pressed for a good check result.
The skill tricks I recommend are Collector of Stories (especially if it boosts Knowledge Devotion, so check with your DM), Hidden Blade (assumes that EWP Quickrazor meets the quickdraw requirement for the razor itself; this gives you an extra way to flat-foot an opponent), Acrobatic Backstab (an easy way to flat-foot one target, but note its timing – it works best if you use it to tumble through one target on your way to another, then double back next round), and Conceal Spellcasting (mostly because I’m running out of good choices at this point but need a fourth to qualify for Uncanny Trickster). Only Collector of Stories and Acrobatic Backstab are likely to see actual use, so you’re free otherwise.
Basic Equipment: A matching pair of gnome quickrazors (RoS, arguably one of the few exotic weapons to be worth the feat) will be your weapons of choice, although most of the time you’ll only use one and you’ll keep the second one concealed (to employ some of your nastier skill tricks). You won’t need Two-Weapon Fighting or anything, since if you’re only attacking with one weapon, you have no “off-hand”; a right-handed individual making an attack with their left hand doesn’t suffer any special penalties until they use a second weapon. That said, realistically, the second razor will only see use with those skill tricks or Wolf Fang Strike. You’ll probably want a distance weapon of sorts, since you’re not terribly tanky early on. A shortbow will suffice here.
Magical Gear Goals: Curiously, this is entirely open, with one exception. I usually recommend the typical array of Will boosters and mind-affecting immunity options, but unique to this build, consider boosts to Knowledge (Scrolls of Uncertain Provenance are great here: +5 to all Knowledge simply by owning them), as well as skill boosts to Iaijutsu Focus (and possibly Concentration if you’re making use of Sapphire Nightmare Blade). The Gloves of the Balanced Hand might be worth it if you’re enjoying your second quickrazor, though this is not for everyone. As always, initiative boosts are appreciated, though you won’t need the entire Gauntlet of I Go First unless you’re going for overkill. (A +1 warning gauntlet chambered with nerveskitter, Sandals of the Vagabond, and, especially, a Ring of Anticipation should be more than enough - that's 18,850 for +12, roll twice and take highest.)
That exception mentioned earlier? You need a decent legacy item to become a legacy champion. You can design your own, which I recommend in general, but the build here uses one of the pre-packaged ones, Wargird’s Armor (what? A rogue-type using medium armor? You did not read that wrong – it’s actually a surprisingly good defensive item, with abilities that give you alarming resilience (frontline rogue-types will appreciate that), and its penalties aren’t too severe). If you’re making your own, to minimize the penalties, it only needs a least legacy, but here I was going for the whole thing.
The Build.
Build Stub: Factotum 8 / Warblade 4 / Uncanny Trickster 3 / Legacy Champion 5.
Note for newbies: The key to Iaijutsu Focus is to find ways to draw and sheathe the same weapon as a free action (the alternative is carrying many separate weapons and dropping them after you attack, but this is slow and expensive), and to reliably catch opponents flat-footed (not merely denied Dexterity to AC) on demand. There’s also the issue of getting the obscure Iaijutsu Focus skill as a class skill. Look for those keys in this build.
1 – Factotum – (Trapfinding, Inspiration) (Darkstalker, Exotic Weapon (Quickrazor)), (Cunning Insight, Cunning Knowledge)
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[sblock] This is a pretty typical “Iaijutsu Factotum” opening (they get every skill as a class skill, including Iaijutsu Focus). Quickrazors can be drawn and sheathed as free actions, so the basic technique is “remain undetected, walk up to the target, quickdraw, stab them, and sheathe”. Use Cunning Insight to add your Int bonus to the attack or damage roll as needed; with an average IF check at this level, you’re dealing +1d6 to +2d6 (depends if you consider “average” to be 10 or 11 on the die), and 1d4+2d6+4 (13.5) damage is enough to kill your average level 1 Fighter in one stab.
Although Cunning Knowledge isn’t amazing at level 1, you can use it to boost a critical Iaijutsu Focus, Concentration, or Jump check later on, and it always helps outside of combat. Most of the time your Inspiration will go to Cunning Insight; you can use it to power both your attack and your damage roll if you think combat will end quickly.
In short, you’re playing like a rogue, but with a more technical choice of targets and a stronger reliance on stealth. This only lasts for level 1, though you’ll appreciate Darkstalker at all levels (way too often is a stealthy approach foiled by a simple guard dog at the low levels, or a trickier Tremorsense / Blindsense creature at higher levels. Darkstalker may actually allow you to evade Mindsight, depending on how your DM rules, which is otherwise impossible for thinking beings.). If you don’t like the stealth play, you can exchange Darkstalker for a Font of Inspiration.
[/sblock]2 – Warblade – (Weapon Aptitude, Battle Clarity) (Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Wolf Fang Strike, Sudden Leap) (Punishing Stance)
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[sblock] Warblade is a natural partner class to Factotum, if you’re wanting to mix it up in melee, since they both rely on Intelligence and several warblade maneuvers dovetail perfectly with factotum cunning abilities. Here, we have Punishing Stance (adding +1d6 on to each knife strike), Sudden Leap (allowing surprise attacks or retreats with your swift action), Wolf Fang Strike (if you’ve caught a target flat-footed already (i.e. you were undetected), this lets you stab with both of your knives at a relatively low penalty, which can get positively ludicrous in terms of damage output), and Sapphire Nightmare Blade (which, interestingly, allows you to catch your opponent flat-footed even in the heat of battle, meaning you can deliver an iaijutsu strike on demand – and yes, it’s actual flat-footing, not denial-of-dex, so SNB is amazing for iaijutsu specialists).
A typical shank at this level would look like 1d4+2d6+1d6+1d6+4 (20.5) from Sapphire Nightmare Blade, which also happens to be exactly the average amount of HP a CR 2 monster has (as well as more HP than your typical 2nd level Fighter). And thanks to SNB, you can perform this on demand. If you retain the stealth tactics from earlier, Wolf Fang Strike has a good chance of hitting an unaware target with both blades, which would deal 26-34 damage, depending on how much Inspiration you want to use on Cunning Insight.
By the way, why here for Warblade? Level 1 is factotum for the better skills and feat synergies, but getting warblade online sooner rather than later opens up not only a dramatic increase in surprise-attack damage, but also gives you increased opportunities to deliver that damage. You’ll be leaning on these basic maneuvers for quite some time and they’ll barely become stale. Plus, if we’re using Wargird’s Armor, this class provides the proficiencies we need. We’ll come back to the warblade later; for now just get used to those particular maneuvers. They’re all you’ll need for some time.
[/sblock]3 – Factotum – (Arcane Dilettante) (Knowledge Devotion)
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[sblock]Knowledge Devotion is a great feat. It really is. This will put your Int score and Knowledge ranks (and possibly the Collector of Stories trick and Cunning Knowledge) to great in-combat use, compensating for some attack bonus losses and providing just a little more per-hit damage on your quickrazors. At this point, without a good roll, it’s likely to just be a +1, but it will scale as your Knowledge ranks improve.
Arcane Dilettante is mostly used in this build to muddle with opponent movement and senses, creating openings for your surprise strikes. There aren’t many good cantrips for this, but I like Caltrops, mostly because it slows down enemy movement and interrupts enemy chargers. (It also fits the theme, as the spells tend to do what we’d expect a spy’s gadgets to do.)
[/sblock]4 – Factotum – (Brains over Brawn) (Cunning Defense)
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[sblock] Intelligence to initiative as well as to all your stealth and mobility skills. That’s very nice here (even though, unlike several factotum builds, we’re not building around this ability in particular).
Also, Arcane Dilettante can hold up to 1st level spells now, and our spell of choice is almost certainly Grease – especially if people in the area are considered to be balancing (which isn’t explicit in the spell, but it is a common interpretation). People without 5 ranks in Balance become flat-footed (yes, flat-footed, as opposed to denied Dexterity) while balancing, meaning you can move in (with your Sudden Leap to avoid touching the greased area), knife a flat-footed target with an iaijutsu strike, and remain able to defend yourself due to your 5 ranks in Balance (oh, hey, another skill boosted by Brains over Brawn) by this point.
[/sblock]5 – Factotum – (Cunning Strike)
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[sblock] If you’ve got inspiration to spare and you’re making an attack that is almost certain to hit (i.e. flat-footed with the attack roll boosted by Cunning Insight / Knowledge Devotion), funnel some of the leftover Inspiration into this ability and you won’t be disappointed. It’s blocked by Fortification, unlike everything else discussed so far, but against crit-vulnerable targets, you can wind up with some pretty impressive killing power this way.
Also worth noting: At this level, Wargird’s Armor starts getting its unique abilities online. Here, it simply doesn’t slow you down. I won’t be discussing its abilities here except where they intersect with your fighting style or a class feature though.
[/sblock]6 – Factotum – (Opportunistic Piety) (Font of Inspiration)
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[sblock] Access to 2nd level spells via Dilettante now, so you’re probably going to carry Invisibility most of the time. I suggest considering Distract Assailant (SpC) as well in some circumstances, since it’s a swift-action spell and provides you with just the opening you need (though it does allow a saving throw). Whether this is worth replacing Grease or not depends on the foes you’re fighting.
Another interesting spell to consider here is Whirling Blade (SpC); if you remained undetected by everyone in the area, you’re delivering an iaijutsu strike against all of them at once, which can be pretty devastating - and stylish, since you can describe this as a hail of knives. It also automatically benefits from your Int modifier on attack and damage rolls, which can be doubled up with Cunning Insight (at a bargain 1 Inspiration, since Whirling Blade is a single attack).
[/sblock]7 – Factotum – (Wargird’s Armor: Warrior’s Surge 1/day)
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[sblock] This is basically a dead level, but the armor’s ability is worth bringing up: it’s a contingent Rage-like effect that kicks in should you bite off more than you can chew and fall unconscious. It’s a useful lifeline for a relatively fragile character, though hopefully you won’t ever need to trigger it.[/sblock]8 – Factotum
9 – Factotum – (Font of Inspiration) (Cunning Surge)
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[sblock] Cunning Surge is the factotum’s ZOMG ability. Though pricey on the Inspiration front, it allows extra standard actions whenever you need them. Like, say, you’re right next to a target you’ve caught by surprise and you need to deliver more iaijutsu strikes. Noteworthy in that Cunning Surge itself is a free action, not a swift, so you can hypothetically keep chaining them up as long as your inspiration holds out, hence the number of Fonts in this build (especially with flaws).
Also, Arcane Dilettante can hit 3rd level spells now, which opens up abilities like Haste, Fly, Heart of Water (SpC, most useful as a panic Freedom of Movement), Alter Fortune (SpC, ludicrously useful but carries an XP cost), or the like.
A typical Dilettante loadout might be Invisibility, Whirling Blade, and Grease, swapping in one of the above 3rd level spells as desired.
[/sblock]10 – Uncanny Trickster – (Bonus Trick, Favorite Trick)
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[sblock] Use this to get extra uses of Collector of Stories (better Knowledge Devotion bonuses) or Acrobatic Backstab (more chances to catch people flat-footed) in a single combat. The order’s up to you, as is which bonus trick you learn.[/sblock]11 – Uncanny Trickster – (Uncanny Dodge, Bonus Trick, Favorite Trick) (Death from Above)
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[sblock] We’re using the Legacy Trickster trick to advance Warblade, similar to the Gun Fu(x) build again – this is IL Bootstrapping, used to get higher-level warblade maneuvers than we normally would.
In this case, that maneuver is Death from Above, which, interestingly, also catches its victims flat-footed (based off of Jump vs DC 20 instead of Concentration vs AC, which is as good as guaranteed), meaning it’s another on-demand iaijutsu attack (and as such will likely replace Sapphire Nightmare Blade in your short list of readied maneuvers, unless subtlety is called for). It's also stronger than SNB (+4d6 rather than +3d6) and it may also grant high-ground bonuses (+1 attack, unless something else modifies it) depending on your DM.
[/sblock]12 – Uncanny Trickster – (Battle Ardor, Bonus Trick, Favorite Trick, Tricky Defense) (Martial Study) (Douse the Flames, White Raven Strike) (Wargird’s Armor: Awakened Spirit)
*
[sblock] We use Martial Study to meet the prerequisites for White Raven Strike, which is a nifty maneuver on its own that renders a foe flat-footed until the start of its next turn, no questions asked, and supplies mild bonus damage. Normally, you can’t capitalize on this due to action demands – but we’re a factotum, and have Cunning Surge. If all else fails, hit with White Raven Strike, then use Cunning Surge to follow it up with more attacks (i.e. a Wolf Fang Strike for two consecutive iaijutsu attacks, or (if you started adjacent to the target) using your new standard + your move action to get a full attack off.).
Your armor also now counts as an intelligent item, which gives you a second source of senses (though for some reason the item, as statted, is actually weaker than WoL’s Intelligent Item legacy suggests it should be). Ego conflicts with the armor compel you to fight in melee, something you’re probably already doing (and thanks to moves like Death from Above or the combo discussed above, and the armor’s own defensive abilities, something you’re actually quite good at).
[/sblock]13 – Legacy Champion
14 – Legacy Champion – (Wall of Blades replaces Douse the Flames) (Dancing Blade Form)
*
[sblock] Wall of Blades is actually used here as a prerequisite rather than for its actual effect, but it’s still appreciated, since it allows you to block rays. Dancing Blade Form is used to cover for a weakness in the quickrazors, namely the lack of reach.[/sblock]15 – Legacy Champion – (Improved Initiative, Font of Inspiration) (White Raven Tactics) (Extra Least: Warrior’s Surge)
*
[sblock] WRT is a must-have, and you might have noticed the build is surprisingly easy on demands for your swift action. Prior to this level, you may have used that action to trigger your wondrous items; here, you use it to trigger a nearby ally, particularly if you want them to take advantage of an opening you’ve created with White Raven Strike. (If they WRT you back, you can recover your maneuvers with an iaijutsu full attack.) [/sblock]16 – Legacy Champion – (Improved Uncanny Dodge) (Transfer Legacy) (Swift Haste 5/day)
*
[sblock] The only real change to your abilities here (since you aren’t swapping maneuvers) is Transfer Legacy. This lets you give one of your teammates a slotless Swift Haste effect or one of your Warrior’s Surges (this is why you took that Extra Least last level). Not a big thing, but appreciated.[/sblock]17 – Legacy Champion – (Battle Cunning) (Swooping Dragon Strike) (Replace Lesser: Boundless Determination replaces Fast Movement)
*
[sblock] Battle Cunning gives you +Int on all damage rolls against flat-footed targets – i.e. those you’re hitting with iaijutsu strikes. This stacks with Cunning Insight if you wish, as well as all of your other abilities at this point.
Swooping Dragon Strike dishes out respectable damage on its own (on par with a maxed out iaijutsu strike), but can’t benefit from iaijutsu on its own (though it makes an amazing followup from White Raven Strike + Cunning Surge). More to the point, it stuns your target, with a DC based off of your Jump check. Jump is one of the easier skills to pump, particularly when compared to a saving throw.
And what’s that last ability? Well, the legacy champion allows you to replace lesser abilities on one legacy item with a lesser ability from a different legacy item, provided it belongs to the same menu. (A needlessly overcomplex system, but…). Boundless Determination is drawn from Faithful Avenger, the Devoted Spirit legacy weapon in the Tome of Battle – check its timing, it’s from Menu D. This lets you replace the armor’s Fast Movement ability (an enhancement bonus to speed; you’ve probably had that on better items for some time) with the Immortal Fortitude stance, which gives you some rather outstanding staying power, particularly if it’s paired with your Warrior’s Surge. With the kind of damage being thrown around at this level, it helps if you can just no-sell it.
[/sblock]18 – Warblade – (Font of Inspiration) (Lightning Throw replaces Wall of Blades)
*
[sblock] Lightning Throw follows the same logic as Whirling Blade from earlier, except it deals increased damage on its own, can’t miss (but it does allow a save), has a shorter range, and can be used more than once per day. Like Whirling Blade, the attack is technically a melee attack, so it still benefits from all of your usual damage boosters (Iaijutsu Focus, Knowledge Devotion, Cunning Insight, Battle Cunning, Cunning Strike, etc), which, on top of its innate +12d6, can get the damage to a rather impressive level at this point. This works great if you’re catching an entire group flat-footed. If you still NEED Wall of Blades, novice Iron Heart vests are cheap.[/sblock]19 – Warblade – (Run) (Raging Mongoose)
*
[sblock] Run is basically Greater Ability Focus: Swooping Dragon Strike, which is the main reason we’re taking it. I would normally have taken Combat Reflexes here, but our Dexterity is too low (Brains over Brawn won’t work on Combat Reflexes), while my usual second choice, Blind-Fight, is less useful here because of Wargird’s Armor’s darkvision. A passable second choice is Iron Heart Aura, since most of the time you’ll be using an Iron Heart stance, and +2 to all saves isn’t awful.
Curiously, although 9th level maneuvers are now available, we won’t be using them. Neither of the ones we qualify for are terribly useful here.
Feral Death Blow is the “obvious” candidate, since it also catches targets flat-footed (so it has the same guaranteed iaijutsu ability that Death from Above does), but, oddly enough, it’s not a great choice here. With a low Strength, the odds of its instant-kill succeeding (DC 19 and countered by critical hit immunity) are basically nil, so it’s basically just Death from Above with +20d6 instead of +4d6 (an increase of 56, when typical CR 20 targets have about 400 HP, so while not insubstantial, it's still rather low)… but Death from Above initiates faster (a standard action instead of a full-round action; if you want to use Feral Death Blow in a Cunning Surge combo, you’ve got to be next to the target or you spend an extra Cunning Surge and trade the resulting action for a move, since a move+standard gives you the full-round), triggers easier (Jump vs DC 20 instead of vs enemy AC), and includes an optional repositioning effect. I don’t think you’re getting enough to compensate for the tradeoffs.
The other alternative 9th, Mountain Tombstone Strike (which, curiously, has no maneuver prerequisite), is actually significantly more damaging (+20d6 is +70 damage; 2d6 Con damage usually reduces Con modifiers by 3 or 4, so any creature with more than 18-23 HD is going to lose more HP from that than Feral Death Blow can deal. The SRD CR 20 monsters average 29.5 HD), but, since it’s dealing ability damage, can be blocked by certain immunities. It also doesn’t automatically catch targets flat-footed, so you’d need to chain it from White Raven Strike, and, as a Stone Dragon maneuver, must be initiated while standing on the ground (so it can’t be used while flying – although I’m not entirely sure why Feral Death Blow can be used while flying either, since it involves jumping on them).
As such, we’re going with the simple Raging Mongoose. If you’re using Cunning Surge to hit targets with White Raven Strike and following it up with full attacks, this little boost can give you two extra attacks – or four, if you’re using your second quickrazor (with Gloves of the Balanced Hands to offset the penalty). Each of those hits is an iaijutsu strike. At this level you shouldn’t have any difficulty getting a good Iaijutsu Focus check result; even with a trivial DC 45, that’s +8d6 per hit, before you go into your Inspiration for Cunning Surge.
[/sblock]20 – Warblade – (Press the Advantage)
Final maneuvers known
[sblock]Warblade (IL 18, 5 readied):
Strikes: Sapphire Nightmare Blade*, Wolf Fang Strike, Death from Above*, White Raven Strike, Swooping Dragon Strike, Lightning Throw
Boosts: Sudden Leap, Raging Mongoose
Stances: Punishing Stance, Dancing Blade Form, Immortal Fortitude (from armor), Press the Advantage
* = catches target flat-footed on demand without setup (i.e. without White Raven Strike + Cunning Surge
[/sblock]
Snapshot: Let’s put on the standard +6 items for Con, Int, and Cha, and let’s tome Con for 4, Int for 5, and Cha for 4. Finally, let’s factor in legacy item penalties for Wargird’s Armor (notable, since if you're building your own custom legacy item, these penalties will be lower!). This leaves us with 228 HP, +16 base attack (Melee/ranged +18 with legacy penalties, assuming only Greater Magic Weapon, but realistically you have enough other buffs (i.e. +17 from Knowledge Devotion and Cunning Surge) and are seldom targeting full AC), and saves of +15/+21/+3. You finish with 15 Inspiration, 5 readied maneuvers, and 3 Arcane Dilettante spells (up to 3rd level, though only one of them can actually be third level). Wargird’s Armor itself at this point is a +5 Heavy Fortification breastplate that doesn’t slow your movement, has basic intelligent item senses, grants a contingent Rage-like effect if you would fall unconscious (and grants access to Immortal Fortitude if you really need to save your bacon and can’t break away from combat), has a slotless Swift Haste and Stoneskin effect (and you have the ability to donate some of these to teammates if you want), and grants Cold Resist 20.
Impressively, you can leverage your Intelligence (+12 modifier) to many different combat fronts. You’ve got Int to Reflex, Critical Confirmation, Flat-Footed / Flanked Damage, Initiative, and every Strength/Dexterity check (including skills and combat techniques) out there without drawing upon your Inspiration. (This doesn’t count Knowledge Devotion, which improves dramatically based on your Intelligence-based checks, but they all stack with that feat.) By spending Inspiration (15 per encounter), you can add +12 to an attack roll, a damage roll (stacks with Battle Cunning if applicable), or your AC vs one foe for an entire round. Your Inspiration can also provide a Sneak Attack clone (for even more damage, though it’s not terribly efficient and can be blocked), a +8 bonus on a skill check (once per skill per day), and, most importantly, an extra standard action (for 3 Inspiration). Use this after a White Raven Strike to continue to deliver rapid-fire iaijutsu attacks to a now-vulnerable target, among other uses. All your Inspiration-linked abilities are free actions.
Sapphire Nightmare Blade and Death from Above can allow you to deliver iaijutsu strikes on demand, including mid-combat and at the low levels, even if your stealth skills won’t allow you to do it normally. A basic iaijutsu strike, assuming typical results on Knowledge Devotion and Iaijutsu Focus while you’re in Punishing Stance and using Cunning Insight (but not Cunning Strike), will deal 1d4+10d6+34 (71.5), and that’s before any maneuvers or actual weapon special effects kick in. None of that is precision damage, and all it cares about is the Flat-Footed condition (and not denial of Dexterity), so neither Fortification nor Uncanny Dodge can block or reduce this. The total cost for this is just 1 inspiration out of 15, so you can easily afford a Cunning Surge to follow it up with subsequent strikes – and if your opening volley is White Raven Strike, you can start using your other attacks as iaijutsu strikes as well.
Overall Strengths: Great damage output, flexible delivery within the melee paradigm, surprising durability for what feels like a rogue-type, and a remarkably customizable skill list make this approach worth considering. Also, every single one of your buffs is a free action, freeing up your swifts for Sudden Leap, item effects, and potential Arcane Dilettante selections.
Overall Weaknesses: WILL. SAVE. You’ll want Diamond Mind rings (Moment of Perfect Mind) early on, and Mind Blanks and related defenses as best as you can as levels increase. Additionally, an extreme reliance on melee and surprise (when it’s possible, though extremely costly, to obtain a “never flat-footed” effect, which would shut down most of your primary offense) will limit your options somewhat at the lategame.
Variants: If stealth isn’t your thing, consider taking Wild Talent instead of Darkstalker, which would allow taking 15 on Sapphire Nightmare Blade once per encounter. That and a few +Concentration boosts helps alleviate the pressure from that skill – and, with an inexpensive novice Ring of the Diamond Mind, it would also allow taking 15 on will saves, which we’ve already established is a defensive priority. Alternatively, like most factotums, more Fonts of Inspiration are always appreciated – your Int score is high enough to allow two more even from the start, which happens to be what you can grab from flaws.
If stealth is your thing, you can switch your race around a bit and play a Whisper Gnome, which really is about as good as it gets on the stealth department (it puts the G in the Gnowhere Gnome for a reason). Piggy Knowles reminded me that Complete Warrior allows races to switch their weapon familiarity around to other weapons with their name in the title - and it's the gnome quickrazor for a reason. Switching their hooked hammer familiarity to quickrazors keeps the number of feats in the build to a constant, and whisper gnomes don't suffer a penalty to your key Intelligence. However, they also lack the human bonus skill point, so you might feel the pinch in a few places, such as one of your Knowledge skills (or, more realistically, some of your trapscout skills).
There you have it. Now you can see why the iaijutsu factotum is recommended so often. This approach to that goal also does it with style.
Originally posted by piggyknowles:
Very nice to see a benchmark build of a CO staple go up. I've toyed around with Factotum 8 + Legacy Trickster shenanigans to get Cunning Surge and 9th-level maneuvers online a fair bit over on the GitP boards: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?288207-Factotum-Legacy-Tricksters-and-ToB&p=15442970
Note that you can use a whisper gnome's racial weapon familiarity to pick up quickrazor proficiency without needing to spend a feat. It comes up as a wash feat-wise when compared to human, but the whisper gnome's other traits are arguably more useful than the human's bonus skill points. (Of course, that means an XP penalty if for some odd reason you're playing with multiclass penalties.)
I've also been messing around with a build inspired by OMG PONIES on the same GitP boards, although I still haven't come up with a build stub I'm happy with. The basic idea is an iaijutsu factotum/warblade who also takes 8 levels in Justiciar for the Improved Hog-Tie ability. This lets you hog-tie an enemy with a successful grapple check, making them helpless. With Quick Draw and Death Blow, the idea would be to close with an enemy, initiate a grapple, hog-tie them, Quick Draw a scythe, Cunning Surge for an extra standard action, and use Death Blow to coup de grace them as a standard. At other times, it would just play as your standard iaijutsu factotum.
Originally posted by Tempest_Stormwind:
Interesting! That's actually around the same time this character was created. I just delayed doing the writeup for quite some time.
Honestly, the reason I did 8/2/3/7 in the first place was because I was annoyed that the simplicity evoked by 8/12 wasn't able to reach 9ths, so I went with Legacy Trickster for IL bootstrapping. Turns out, though, that I'm not actually using 9th level maneuvers (see level 17 - my original plan for Feral Death Blow turned out to be less than impressive on a character with low strength and a reliance on standard instead of full-round actions) - if 8th level is sufficient, 8/12 would work just peachy.
Mind, if you're looking specifically for 9ths and not "maneuvers that work well with iaijutsu" (i.e. you're using the factotum for something other than iaijutsu, which is perfectly legit) then IL bootstrapping is ideal, since it brings higher level maneuvers online sooner.
...I did not know this. That's actually a really important point to know. I'll include it in the variants. (I do think human works better with Knowledge Devotion - which is a surprisingly big part of this build's efficacy, even though it doesn't look like it - and because of the higher speed (especially when performing a Sudden Leap), but in a game favoring stealth over up-front combat, you can't beat the whisper gnome.)
EDIT: Looking it up, I can't see exactly how you'd go about doing this. They're familiar with hooked hammers, not quickrazors, and it still takes a feat (Improved Weapon Familiarity) to move other exotic weapons to martial ones. Since familiarity isn't a feat, you can't use Weapon Aptitude to switch it over either.
I also omitted a strategy I like using in open brawls - performing an iaijutsu strike with one of the quickrazors, then not sheathing it - rather, the drawn quickrazor provides a threatened area, something otherwise lacking from this build given the lack of IUS and the constantly-sheathed weapons. (You just sheathe it as a free action on the start of your next turn.) I don't think, strictly speaking, you can draw the other quickrazor and make an AoO with it, but if you actually threaten the area, you can make a case for it, while with no threatened areas, you certainly can't. (This is intended to use the secondary quickrazor for more than just regular attacks; normally it would just languish behind the primary one since you probably don't want to pay to enhance two weapons. I typically keep the secondary one concealed via Sleight of Hand for skill trick purposes, in effect adding an extra readied maneuver for auto-flat-footing, and occasionally busting it out for Wolf Fang Strike.)
Oddly enough I had a newbie here asking about Justiciar(x) a few months back, so the class is still fresher in my mind. It seems to me that the key to Hog-Tie is not actually Improved Hog-Tie (which, while an improvement, is too late in the class to have an impact - thanks to the class' prerequisites, regular old Hog-Tie comes online four levels after equal-level casters got Freedom of Movement). Rather, it's using regular Hog-Tie following a grapple performed as an attack of opportunity:
Viewed this way, it becomes an exercise in optimizing AoOs, which is well-understood territory, rather than an exercise in specifically building your actions around grappling and Hog-Tie. The only adjustment to consider is if you're wanting to use a Mancatcher (exotic weapon from the back of CW, it's a reach weapon that can grapple an opponent) or not - and even then this is less of an adjustment than normal, since most iaijutsu factotums will have an EWP feat for quickrazors anyway, and warblades have Weapon Aptitude to let them switch it over for the mancatcher if you want to try it out (and switch back to the quickrazors as needed).
The Cunning Surge + Scythe kill trick is a fun one; I'd naturally use a Least Crystal of Return instead to save you a feat (even if it is on the warblade bonus list, there are better ones there), but it should work just fine.
Originally posted by piggyknowles:
Complete Warrior, page 154 (under "Weapon Familiarity") discusses new race-associated weapons, and recommends allowing races with weapon familiarity to pick and choose which weapons they are familiar with, as long as the total number of weapons stays the same:
"To compensate, consider limiting the number of exotic weapons that a given character of that race can treat as familiar as no more than the number of weapons associated with the race in the Player's Handbook (or in the Monster Manual for orcs). Thus, a given dwarf fighter might be able to treat the dwarven waraxe and the dwarven buckler-axe (a new weapon described here) as martial weapons, but would have to treat the dwarven urgrosh as an exotic weapon. A gnome ranger could treat the gnome hooked hammer or the gnome tortoise blade (a new weapon) as a martial weapon, but not both. An elf fighter can't treat any exotic weapon as martial weapons, since elves don't have weapon familiarity with any exotic weapons according to the Player's Handbook. Characters who wish to master all their race's exotic weapons can select the Improved Weapon Familiarity feat described in Chapter 3 of this book."
Interesting thoughts on building out AoOs instead of holding your breath for Improved Hog-Tie. I'll have to play around with that for a bit. And Least Crystal of Return seems like a no-brainer, especially since my last build stub was pretty feat-starved.
Originally posted by Pheonix042:
Wow, this is some neat stuff. I've heard of the factotum before, and I'm sure I've read through it at least once, but I've never actually seen it used and really had no idea what it was capable of.
Iajutsu focus is rediculous, for being a skill, but I won't begrudge martial classes their sources of damage. It's got real gameplay around it too (getting into position, flat-footing people, etc), so overall, I like it.
When I started describing the factotum and iajutsu focus combo to the player we made the Blood Elf for, her first comment was "wow, what if you could combine that with warblade?"
I had to laugh.
I appreciate all of the additional notes and reference information that you made available specifically for those of us who are new to optimization at this level. I had to look a few things up myself, reread the factotum, uncanny trickster, and skill trick sections of the relevent books, and make a few educated guesses, but I was surprised how well I followed the choices, combos, and numbers as they piled on. So thanks for that!
I'll likely steal liberally from this if I ever try to make an assassin. I really like the combination of leap-strike manuevers and sneak-attack-like damage. It's something that I've always had in my mind as a thing I COULD do with a build (all those manuevers that leave foes flat-footed), but which I never really saw laid out. It's gratifying to see just how effective it really can be, and how well it does the job I'd have aimed for.
The quickrazor thing is a bit silly. Sheathing and drawing blades repeatedly doesn't look very cool in my mind; instead, I would describe the blades getting lost in the wielders cloaks, behind his limbs, etc. before snaking back out to strike from an unexpected direction. It's basically the same thing, but it's easier for me to visualize than actually putting a blade back in a scabberd over and over again, and somehow hitting harder because of it.
Originally posted by Tempest_Stormwind:
Damn, I'm rusty. I remembered that text the instant you mentioned which book it was in. Adding it in!
If you do finish it off, I'd love to see it; this has kind of been on my mind since that thread, but has never really manifested in a build (because, as mentioned, the justiciar is kind of... meh, and the requirements are unusual (i.e. urban ranger can't do it, but a wild ranger with City Slicker can).)
The factotum is, as a class, actually capable of quite a lot, and (appropriately enough) will usually surprise DMs and players at the table in a manner similar to how the scoundrel of a character would be surprising your fellow characters in the world. The thing is, it's also very capable of using some of the wizard's broken stuff and also pulling it out of nowhere (a common example is that it can cast Alter Self, which puts it several steps ahead of the "rogue" it's supposed to be compared to), so this often leaves a bad impression on the DM.
(Note that the factotum has only 6 skill points per level, so in a sense the rogue is actually slightly better as a skillmonkey. Mind you, no factotum is going around with less than 16 Intelligence if they can cut it, while we sometimes see rogues with 12 or lower Intelligence, so overall it's comparable.)
Also of note: Oriental Adventures includes Rokugan as its featured setting. Rokugan is the main setting for the Legend of the Five Rings games (and it's actually rather nifty, which is unusual for WotC's single-book settings. Compare to Ghostwalk.), which was created by and licensed from Alderac Entertainment (AEG) for Oriental Adventures. AEG published several expansions under the OGL after this, but AEG is notoriously not a good d20 designer - you'll find things like feats that turn PCs into NPCs with a single Diplomacy check, or ways of learning an enemy's exact AC after a single attack roll, or thirty pages of text on Perform (Tea Ceremony) that amount to "you gain an extra action point after an hour". They're noteworthy in that they limit Iaijutsu Focus to being used only in formal Iaijutsu Duels.
However, OA has a 3.5 update by its original WotC author in Dragon Magazine (320, I believe, but don't quote me on that). There were a few tweaks here and there, but nothing about Iaijutsu Focus. So any rule preventing its use in general combat (even given its huge hurdles) is akin to saying "some third party says so", even though they formally hold the license. (There is a separate, non-d20 L5R game as well, which holds about as much influence on OA's version, i.e. none at all, though at least that one's internally consistent.)
Also noteworthy: In the old days, iaijutsu was a popular way of getting damage up there. It was insane, though - people would have one sword sheathed for every attack they could make (yes, it looked ridiculous), and would draw/slice/drop each one of them in turn on the rare occasions flat-footing would occur (which, as of (say) Complete Warrior, was largely done via the Giantbane feat or similar, meaning your character was rewarded for being tiny). A pretty far cry from your iconic samurai, you know?
It's also a great example of why the Tome is actually simpler than non-Tome melee. Such lengths and products of madness were commonplace, and nowadays the Tome is much simpler and more streamlined and, ultimately, more effective. And it often breathes life into old ideas (here, iaijutsu focus through auto-flatfooting maneuvers, but we've also seen it make use of old tactical feats in new ways - the Evasion Tank, Edge of the Light, and Dreamblade builds come to mind, as does any build combining Sun School with swordsage*. All of these tactical feats were in Complete Warrior, and were pretty ancient optimization tech by the time the Tome came out (and almost all of them except Shock Trooper never really saw use)).
*
[sblock]Look at the tactical feat's requirements. Now look at its Flash of Sunset ability. Now look at Shadow Hand's teleports. You're the ninja your ninja could be like if he were using the Tome.
If you want to take this to the next level, consider that the requirements can be met with a small monk dip, which also gets you Stunning Fist. Look at Freezing the Lifeblood (CW) and either Death Blow (CAdv) or having enough IL to get Shadow Blink instead of Shadow Stride. Have fun.
If you're learning from my build notes, you can look here(x) to see a build that one of my teammates, Sionnis, has been playing for years that is centered around this trick (though it isn't entirely online yet, and the character is still fully functional). It's tucked away in the spoilerblock at the end. It's also not annotated, so you can test yourself to see if you can see why we made the choices we made - and not all of them are ones that are entirely conventional (i.e. there's actual Monk and CAdv Ninja in there).
[/sblock]
You're welcome - it means I'm doing my job right! It's also telling - and rewarding! - that your blood elf player is getting enough of an optimization instinct on her own to notice that independently.
Do check out Piggy's link, too - his builds are simpler than this, and less specifically focused on this specific Assassin's-Creed imagery, so they'd adapt somewhat better (even without Iaijutsu Focus - despite how common you see "iaijutsu factotum", they're much more versatile than this).
(In fact, the first time I looked at a factotum in depth, it was a friend's character that was literally nothing more than one of the +Int elf races, every score except Int was either 8 or 10, Int 18; Factotum 20, every feat being Font of Inspiration (note: even with +Int, this required some age modifiers to work with flaws), armed with an Elvencraft bow of some sort (possibly an elvencraft Energy Bow, I forget exactly - the big thing was it was equally proficient in melee or at range). That's very simple - and yet it can fit just about any role it needs to, adjusting day by day and round by round.)
That's actually what they're supposed to do, more or less - they're broad, triangular blades with an ample handle (including a specialized grip that works between the knuckles, and a spherical pommel, which would easily allow them to be spun or rotated) and a specialized sheath. You don't "draw" them so much as snap your wrist and they fly out so you can catch them and stab or slash in one continuous motion; the exact motion is left to the imagination, but clearly requires specialized training to perform.
They also work functionally as Assassin's Creed-style hidden blades, which is what I'm evoking here.
