Best "jack of all trades" class or combo?

[Klaus]

Precisely. You can change your focus once per day, so if you choose a Wizard focus, you're stuck with it for the rest of the day, unless you're 5th level or higher.

 

[Driddle]

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?

Well, that's what you'd think, except that it doesn't jive with the rest of the full text:

"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.

At 5th level, you can change your aptitude focus one time per day, and at 10th level you can change your aptitude focus two times per day. If you change to the arcane focus or divine focus ability, you must still obey the normal rules for preparing spells (including any rest required)."

My confusion lies in the fact that immediately after the text says you can USE an ability a certain number of times a day, it then specifies that you can also CHANGE the focus a certain number of times a day. That implies (or I infer) that the USE is different from the CHANGE.

So where is my brain stepping off the path?
Or are they being redundant by saying the same thing twice, with different wording?

 

[Aus_Snow]

[. . .] 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.

Well, there's Shadow Evocation, and. . . and. . . yeah well. OK.

[tangent] Personally, I've never understood why a jack of all trades is ever judged alongside any specialist in terms of the latter's speciality. They is jack of ALL trades, masta of NONE, y'all. [/tangent] -- This tangent was not in response to your post by the way, Klaus. Just a pet peeve, in general.

 

[Klaus]

Well, there's Shadow Evocation, and. . . and. . . yeah well. OK.

[tangent] Personally, I've never understood why a jack of all trades is ever judged alongside any specialist in terms of the latter's speciality. They is jack of ALL trades, masta of NONE, y'all. [/tangent] -- This tangent was not in response to your post by the way, Klaus. Just a pet peeve, in general.

Yeah, I agree. A bard *can* fill in for any of the 4 core roles (warrior/divine/arcane/adventurer) in a slightly reduced capacity, specially if geared towards a specific role. But they really shine when they have more than one roll to fill. So your party only has a fighter and a cleric? Get a bard to fill out the wizard and rogue roles.

 

[MerricB]

The Incarnate can come close. They can make a good fighter, rogue or healer, and have some limited blasting abilities. The Incarnate/Wizard prestige class allows them to cover the other hole.

As an example from my game, the group is without a Cleric or a Rogue. The Incarnate has recently filling in for both. Despite not having restoration or similar magics, he can heal 29 points of damage to each PC per hour (and then uses a wand of cure light wounds to heal 1d8+12 to himself!) With the proper binds, he has trapfinding, and reasonable skills in Search, Disable Device and Open Locks.

His main attack is an acid spit - 5d6 acid damage as a ranged touch attack, every round (these are level 8-9 PCs). His skill bonuses are +10 or +12, IIRC, analogous to the ranks of a rogue. And, if he wants, he can have a similar bonus for Use Magic Device...

Cheers!

 

[Aus_Snow]

Hm, good call. I thought there was a class in MoI that might qualify, but I'm not at all familiar with the book, so wasn't sure which one.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Use Bard/Druid/Rogue to qualify for Sublime Chord 1 and then Fochlucan Lyrist X. You need Rogue 2 to get evasion, but it also gives you Trapfinding. As long as you're using Fractional Progression, you're on Medium BAB until your Lyrist levels-- which is decent with Druid and Bard buffs-- and then you can wear light metal armors.

Fochlucan Lyrist can contribute arcane levels to Sublime Chord, giving you access to higher level spells and the Sorcerer's evocations.

Similarly, Rogue 3/Warlock 6 qualifies for Ur-Priest as long as you take an illogical feat choice. Warlock 6/Ur-Priest 2 qualifies for Eldritch Disciple. You're no tank, but with the right Invocations (and Use Magic Device) you can be a very effective Rogue and Wizard, and Ur-Priest functions as a Cleric all on its own.

With the right combination of battlefield control and eldritch sniping, you don't need a tank.

 

[Imruphel]

Druid.

Out-fight the fighter, out-blast the wizard and out-scout the rogue. OK, so your healing is not as good as a cleric and you can't turn undead but, hey, that's a good excuse to keep a cleric in the party.

 

[brehobit]

Best 5th man Jack-of-all-trades: Bard
Best 1 man Jack-of-all-trades: Warlock.

The bard's abilities lend themselves to the 5th-man role perfectly.

For the warlock as a solo PC:
* By 4th to 7th level the warlock can use _any_ wand without a chance of failure (Depends on CHR and feat choices).
* Is a solid ranged blaster who can keep it up all day.
* With Fey feats from complete mage and hideous blow is a pretty good melee build.
* Can do some self-healing without items.
* Probably worst at the rogue side...

 

[Numion]

At least in 3.0E that would be the cleric. Most of the buffs last long enough that the cleric is pretty invulnerable to traps (finding and defusing traps by walking into them - rogue), be almost equal to fighter in combat (with short time buffs even surpassing him) and some of the blast / utility spells let the cleric step on wizards shoes.