Factotum from Dungeonscape

[hong]

Blue mage

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Good idea. Meh mechanics. Lousy name.

 

[Justin Cray]

Good idea. Meh mechanics. Lousy name.

Ding! And I'm not even that big of a Planescape grognard.

 

[Henry]

I hate the name "Factotum" (it just falls flat on my ear) but I have to admit it fits...

I like the general idea of the class, and they did tone it down to the point where it works without being a "do everything better" class (the sparseness of inspiration points helps that). The only thing is more of that darned "per encounter" stuff! All in all, well balanced, to me; the only thing better than him are the Martial Adepts and Clerics, so he's not in bad company. He runs circles around the Rogues' shtick -- the only thing Rogues are better at is Sneak attack. This is the new Adventurable "Expert" class that people will want instead of levels of Expert to fill a certain role.

 

[jameswilliamogle]

I think they need to gain more Inspiration Points, for one. They just don't seem to possess enough at any of their levels.

They also should've been given an ability to recharge 1 or some of their inspiration points as, say, a full-round action.

Notice that it never says they lose their inspiration points after the encounter. Hoarding could work. Even then, the class is just so-so. It looks like another dipping class to me.

 

[Mercule]

I give 'em props for trying something different

Ditto. It's just something that doesn't interest me and I hope doesn't have legs.

 

[Nightfall]

I got Dungeonscape. It's a silly name to be sure, but honestly when I look at it and then at Savant...neither are silly. But I think Savant is a tad cooler.

 

[Evil Monkey]

From reading the class, I like what I see, but I haven't had one in a game yet on either side of the screen. However, there is one thing that jumps out at me as completely nonsensical.

Rather than train in a given field, he masters all the basics and manages to pull out something useful when the situation is desperate enough.

At the start of each day, choose a number of spells from the sorcerer/wizard spell list...

Those two sentences are completely counter-intuitive to me. So, this jack-of-all-trades pulls these abilities out of his hat because the situation is desperate and he needs a spell to save his bacon, but he has to prepare his spells ahead of time? I must have missed the class ability that lets him know exactly what kind of desperate situations he's going to be in that day so he knows which spells to prepare.

I think the alternative - just letting them pick any spell of the appropriate level from the Sor/Wiz list as the situation dictated, keeping the restrictions on casting any particular spell only once per 8 hours and only one spell of highest-available level - is not as unbalancing as it may seem at first glance and also fits better with the flavor of the class. Especially if you keep it PH-only spells, which could be seen as the basics of magic that virtually all wizards know about.

Speaking from my own experience, of course.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I would instead want to see them not prepare spells, but to have a small spell list with a handful of spells from each type of spellcaster. If a given factotum wants more spell choices, that's what the extra spell feat from Complete Arcane is for.

 

[Nightfall]

I agree with Whiz here. Having a small spell list (both for arcane and possibly divine spells) wouldn't be out of the question if you ask me. It would certainly be a way for keeping the factotum's ability to hobble together spells.