Factotums, Eternal Wands, and Staves

[StreamOfTheSky]

Alright, after looking over Factotum a bunch today, I was wondering if these questions have been addressed anywhere or if I'm missing something in the text of Arcane Dilettante.

1.) I understand that a Factotum needs Use Magic Device to use a regular wand, but is he considered an "arcane caster" or an "arcanist"? Eternal Wands are special in that they allow any arcanist to use them, regardless of whether the character knows the spell or it's on his class spell list.

2.) On a related note, while a factotum may need a DC 20 UMD check to actually activate a staff, he does have a caster level. So, can he use his factotum level (ie, his caster level) when activating a staff? Combined with the fact you can use your own ability score (int, I would think, for Factotum), that would certainly make staves much more useful for a high level Factotum.

Some SRD references: Spell-Trigger items: "Anyone with a spell on his or her spell list knows how to use a spell trigger item that stores that spell. (This is the case even for a character who can’t actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin.)"
A Factotum has a spell list, the sorc/wiz one, yet does not particularly know how to cast them. Just putting the idea out there.
Staff information.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

*bump*

So...no one has any idea either?

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

Factotums use their spells as spell-like abilities, not actual spells, so they're not actually arcane casters.

 

[Jhaelen]

Factotums use their spells as spell-like abilities, not actual spells, so they're not actually arcane casters.

Really? Aren't warlocks arcane casters, too?

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

Really? Aren't warlocks arcane casters, too?

Not in this case, no. A character is able to use eternal wands if and only if he can cast arcane spells; the warlock's SLAs suffer from ASF, and there's the clause in CArc that lets them qualify for PrCs requiring an arcane caster level, but as far as eternal wands are concerned they might as well be a fighter.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Factotum SLAs are very different than normal SLAs, though. You pick them each day from the sorc/wiz list, instead o them being fixed spells, which makes them alot more similar to preparing spells than having an SLA, IMO. And the book was probably mistaken, but it mentions being able to modify the SLAs with metamagic feats if you use a higher level slot, something you can never do with a typical SLA.

Eternal Wands aside, what about using a staff, then? It simply says you can use your caster level if it's higher than the one used to create the staff, and you use your own ability score for the DC. It does not specify being an arcane caster or anything like that. Can Factotums at least leverage their class's CL and their high Int with those?

 

[irdeggman]

Not familiar enough with the class to provide any help and not familiar with the peculiarities of the class.

Using Complete Arcane as a source for meeting prerequisites with SLA.

pg 72

Characters or creatures that use spell-like abilities or invocations never learn the arcane circmlocations of logic and mental training necessary for advanced spellcasting. As such, requirements for feats and prestige classes based on specific levels of spells cast ("able to cast 3rd level arcane spells", for example) cannot be met by spell-like abilities or invocations - not even spell-like abilities or invocations that allow a character to use a specific arcane spell fo the appropriate level.

Can the class take the feat empower spell or does it have to take the feat empower spell-like ability? Or the quicken spell/quicken spell-like ability.

How these types of feats are handled should help to clarify whether or not the class can use a magic item that requires spell casting ability.

Also look to the artificer class (from Eberron) for a class that is dependent on UMD for perhaps some gleaning of how to make it work.

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

Factotum SLAs are very different than normal SLAs, though. You pick them each day from the sorc/wiz list, instead o them being fixed spells, which makes them alot more similar to preparing spells than having an SLA, IMO. And the book was probably mistaken, but it mentions being able to modify the SLAs with metamagic feats if you use a higher level slot, something you can never do with a typical SLA.

Regardless of how he gets them, a factotum's spells are in fact SLAs. Being able to use normal metamagic feats is an exception that doesn't change that fact, just like a warlock having an arcane caster level for PrC purposes only despite not actually being able to cast arcane spells.

Eternal Wands aside, what about using a staff, then? It simply says you can use your caster level if it's higher than the one used to create the staff, and you use your own ability score for the DC. It does not specify being an arcane caster or anything like that. Can Factotums at least leverage their class's CL and their high Int with those?

That's slightly more clear. Factotums choose spells from the sor/wiz list and have a defined arcane caster level (equal to their factotum level), so since staffs only require a spell to "be on your class list" and not to actually "cast spells" they can probably use staffs. Now, the factotum doesn't really have its own class list, since it draws on sor/wiz spells, but I'd say it's sufficiently vague to be allowed.