Best "jack of all trades" class or combo?

[McDungeon]

I'd also toss in a vote for psion (gish, ranger/psion/slayer or elocator). You'd be surprised how much they can deal with utility wise as well as tank fairly decently with share pain on themselves and their psicrystal. They also play a great scout with either their psicrystal, themselves in ectoplasmic form for example, or just plain old using the ranger skill set at first level, and have the ability to book it out of there via other powers.

Or place the psicrystal with the scout and have a warning device for the rescue party.

Pesky trapped door? Timehop it out of the way, also leaves no trace of your passage.

Depending on your discipline, telepath for example, can play the face part of your group as well. Not to mention get over the pesky language barrier via mindlink.

 

[Klaus]

Bard.

Warrior Side: With the Battle Caster feat, a bard can wear mithril full plate with no fear of Arcane Spell Failure. Even without it, a Bard with Mithril Breastplate and a decent Dex has AC on par with any non-dedicated warrior type. Plus, the Bard gets the same BAB of a cleric or rogue, and some decent martial weapons.

Priest Side: With several healing spells on their spell list, the Bard can heal up better than a Paladin. Even moreso with wands of cure spells and scrolls of other restorative spells. The healing spells can damage undead, but Turn Undead is the one feature the Bard lacks.

Rogue Side: Hide and Move Silently are class skills, and they have access to Silence and Invisibility. A human Bard with 16 Int can have 10 skills at maximum ranks.

Wizard side: Aside from a couple of sonic spells, the Bard will have to rely on his high Charisma and his Use Magic Device ranks to blasat things up with wands of evocation spells.

 

[DaveMage]

... or rogues with high Cha and maxed ranks in Use Magic Device.

Yep. Played one myself - didn't need a cleric, and sneak attack with any magic ray is a nasty, nasty thing.

 

[Klaus]

Yep. Played one myself - didn't need a cleric, and sneak attack with any magic ray is a nasty, nasty thing.

Yeah, a rogue benefits greatly from a single level of sorcerer. Even a 0-level cantrip like Ray of Frost or Acid Splash can deal 1d3+5d6 cold or acid damage when shot by a Rogue 9/Sorcerer 1.

 

[DaveMage]

Yeah, a rogue benefits greatly from a single level of sorcerer. Even a 0-level cantrip like Ray of Frost or Acid Splash can deal 1d3+5d6 cold or acid damage when shot by a Rogue 9/Sorcerer 1.

My epic gestalt sorcerer/rogue greatly enjoyed using polar ray.

(37d6 takes a lot of time to roll, though.)

 

[Darklone]

My Jack of all Trades: Bbn2, Rog3, BardX, perhaps a level ranger.... Preferably the 3.0 Bard Spelllist.

 

[Driddle]

IMHO a Jack of all Trades is a somewhat irritating character in a ROLEplay game, since his role is to constantly step on someone else's toe or "fill the gaps" in the party at best.

Wow. Interestingly strict interpretation of "roleplaying."

 

[Driddle]

Here's the class on the WotC website

Quick tangent:
Can someone explain the following text for me, please? "Aptitude Focus (Ex): Once per day, you can select one of five areas upon which to focus your ever-shifting talents. After meditating for 1 hour, you gain the chosen abilities for 24 hours or until you change your aptitude focus. An aptitude focus ability is usable once per day at 1st level, twice per day at 5th level, and three times per day at 10th level."

Does that mean my Chameleon character posing as a wizard (or cleric), for example, can tap into his spellcasting abilities in this class once per day???

 

[dog45]

Driddle: That means that he can choose which Focus he is using once per day at 1st level, twice per day at 5th level, and three times per day at 10th level.

It doesnt mean that once you cast a single spell you're tapped out for the day. I think that's what you were implying?

 

[Slife]

Quick tangent:
Can someone explain the following text for me, please? "Aptitude Focus (Ex): Once per day, you can select one of five areas upon which to focus your ever-shifting talents. After meditating for 1 hour, you gain the chosen abilities for 24 hours or until you change your aptitude focus. An aptitude focus ability is usable once per day at 1st level, twice per day at 5th level, and three times per day at 10th level."

Does that mean my Chameleon character posing as a wizard (or cleric), for example, can tap into his spellcasting abilities in this class once per day???

I think you can only change between focuses once/day. That is, the EX ability grants you the use of those powers for 24 hours, but you can only use the EX ability once per day at first level.