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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 3320203" data-attributes="member: 3051">Well, the first thing I'd ask after seeing that class is, Why Play One?Here's the main drawbacks, as I see it:1> All of the class abilities are only useful during the downtime between adventures.  Boosts to Craft checks, etc.2> The class' other stats (BAB, saves, HP) are mediocre for an adventuring class; only the arcane casters are worse.  While it's comparable to a Rogue or Bard, there are no offsetting benefits; Rogues get Sneak Attack, Evasion, etc., while Bards get songs and spells.Put 1 and 2 together, and you get the fundamental weakness: there's simply no benefit to playing this class in an adventuring group.  You'd be worthless in a fight, and your only benefit would come if the DM plays out the time period that most groups gloss over.  It's a problem that Shadowrun players run into with their Deckers (pre-4th edition, when they were merged with Riggers); when the rest of the group is sitting around waiting while one player does his thing, it gets boring REALLY fast, and this is even worse.3> Class skills.  The only things they get that Rogues don't are Spellcraft, Concentration (although what they'd need Concentration for, I'm not sure, since they can't cast) and the Knowledge skills.  The Knowledges are useful, but not so much that it's worth sacrificing the rest of the Rogue's bonuses.Also, you list "research" as a class skill; are you mixing some other game system in here, or did you rename Decipher Script or something?4> Requiring a scroll to make an item is pointless, since the player could just create a Wizard or Cleric instead, and create the items without the need of a scroll, for cheaper.  So the question is, if you want to be an item-creating player, why play this instead of a Wizard?Personally, my first instinct would be to rework it as a Rogue-based PrC, not a core class.  Once upon a time, I made an Artificer 5-level PrC for casters that gave only minimal spellcasting abilities; sure, it got a bunch of Craft-related and magical item crafting skills, but I also threw in a few things that made it stronger in combat.  You need that sort of thing, or else it's not a player class, it's a Cohort class.For instance, you could give the class some abilities like:> The ability to make Use Magic Device checks in ways other classes can't.  For instance, Taking 10 under duress, or Taking 20 even if there's a drawback, that sort of thing.> The ability to modify the effects of spells cast from items as if they were metamagicked.  For instance, they could Empower a wand's spell by burning two extra charges (using three charges at once), Maximize with three extra charges, etc.  Probably limit the per-day uses of this.> The ability to use their own class level instead of the caster level of a wand/staff/whatever.> The ability to activate magic items as a Move Action instead of a Standard Action, once per round.  (So you can Wand+Attack or Wand+Wand instead of just Wand+Move)> Total immunity to the negative effects of a spell from any item you activate (fireball at point-blank range, for instance)... this sounds like a lot, but the rest of your group won't be immune, so you won't use it much.> The ability to use GP (gems) instead of XP when making an item, and the ability to recharge wands/staves by spending the appropriate amount of GP.That sort of thing.  There needs to be something that the class can do that others can't, something distinctly BETTER, not just a series of bonus skill ranks.</blockquote>

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