Jack's of all trades classes: extinct? and "to bard or not to bard?"

[invokethehojo]

My favorite characters have always the jack-of-all-trades (joats) types. The bard was the first class of this type and, while I enjoyed the concept, I never liked playing one. His spells weren't useful enough and I hated the songs, both in practice and in feel. There were other classes that tried to better fill this niche (spell thief, factotum, etc), and I liked them all on paper, but never quite was happy with any of them. Multiclassing came as close as I could get to finding my happy medium, though I always felt silly playing a character that had 1 or 2 levels in several different classes.

My question is this: with 4e having clearly defined roles are jaot characters going to be extinct, or mearly a blend of two or three roles that focuses moslty on one? (I can think of many combinations and examples on this) Is multiclassing going to be the way to go to get a good joat? Will 4e mechanics be more joat friendly?

My second question: is the bard really the way to go for a core joat class? With retooling I can see the bard being very cool, but does it deserve to be the first joat class, or should another class hold that title? Maybe a reworked factotum or spell thief is more appropriate, I'm not sure.

 

[Gargazon]

I have a question to your question: What do you define a Jack-of-all-trades as?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

They determined Jack of All Trade classes aren't good at anything in the long run.

The Bard is a leader, just like the cleric and the warlord now.

 

[Stalker0]

In some ways, higher level characters are all jack of all trades classes. Since 4e classes gain +1 to all skills per 2 levels, everyone has a bit of competency in everything.

Further, while we don't know how skill training works exactly yet, it is likely you could take skill training multiple times in different skills to get a nice broad horizon.

 

[stripes]

They determined Jack of All Trade classes aren't good at anything in the long run.

The Bard is a leader, just like the cleric and the warlord now.

I think the listed the (uncompleted) Druid as a multi-role hybread - but it won't be in the Players Handbook. Donno if that means PH2 or a splatbook.

 

[invokethehojo]

I have a question to your question: What do you define a Jack-of-all-trades as?

I guy who has class features from several other classes, but only one or two unique features. A guy who focuses on doing a lot of different things.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drdd/20070831a

Mentions the bard in regards to class roles. It has the following quote.

When the bard enters the 4th Edition stage, she’ll have class features and powers that help her fill what we call the Leader role. As a character whose songs help allies fight better and recover hit points, the bard is most likely to fit into a player character group that doesn’t have a cleric, the quintessential divine leader.

In fact that article has a bunch of reasons why they won't try for jack-of-all-trades classes again. They may try hybrids, since that's sort of like multi-classing in that a hybrid class can only do one thing or another from round to round.

 

[invokethehojo]

I should explain, part of the reason I like Jack's so much is that my group is small, usually 2 - 3 players. With that size of party you need characters that fill multiple roles. Also, while a jack may not focus in any one thing, a small party means characters that are higher level than the CR (or whatever) of the enemies and tasks they face. In that kind of situation they have more of an ability to fill multiple roles.

 

[Storminator]

I guy who has class features from several other classes, but only one or two unique features. A guy who focuses on doing a lot of different things.

Like the old joke about the management consultant "let's concentrate our resources across the board!"

PS

 

[Celebrim]

'Jack-of-all-Trades' is dead. I think everyone took his stuff.

See also 'skill monkey'.