What's up with Factorum?

[domino]

I see it mentioned all over the place, usually when talking about multiclassing or gestalt, or to make another class just better somehow.

But why? I don't have the book it's in, and I don't see people talking about why it's so great for a few level dip, or as a second half of a gestalt, or whatever people use it for.

 

[Ahnehnois]

I believe you are referring to the Factotum. The Factotum is in Dungeonscape. It is intended to be a jack-of-all trades class, and has some very flexible and unusual class abilities that find their way into various builds. Check out the handbook for some explanation on how it works.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I'm glad you asked. It's my favorite class.

Factotum is a base class in Dungeonscape, starting on page 14.
Perks about the Factotum class include:

-ALL skills are class skills. All of them, which means if you wanted to push this, additional skills not contained in the Player Handbook like Iaijitsu Focus, Autohypnosis, Psycraft, Use Psionic Device and Lucid Dreaming can be on their class list.

-The Factotum relies heavily upon only one Stat, Intelligence, for most of the class abilities. This allows for a pretty powerful character compared to other classes that are more dependent upon multiple Stats to be decent.

-The Factotum can cast Arcane spells, eventually learning the spells up to level 7, off of the Sorcerer/Wizard list. The number of spells the Factotum can cast are Weaksauce compared to a straight arcane caster, but the fact that they have access to these spells at all make them very useful and potentially strong.

-The class abilities for the Factotum can do things uniquely that no other class can do:
*At level 1 you may add your INT mod. to any attack, damage or Save.
*At level 1, you may add your Factotum level to any skill you have at least 1 rank in.
*At level 3 you gain your INT mod. to all STR and DEX checks, and skills that work off of STR and DEX.
*At level 5 you gain a Lay on Hands healing ability that also can Turn Undead.
*At level 8 you gain the ability to take an additional Standard Action on your turn.
*At level 11 you gain the ability to Ignore Spell Resistance and Damage Resistance for one round on a single target.
*At level 13, if a single attack would reduce you to 0 or fewer hitpoints, you can choose to ignore it, once per day. You can just look at death and say, "Um... nope".

-There are more useful class abilities such as granting yourself Sneak attack damage, adding your INT mod. to AC, or using 3 of any extraordinary ability from any other base class per day for 10 rounds, but those aren't as significant as the ones I listed above, IMHO.

THE DRAWBACK to Factotum is it requires a very limited mechanic called "Inspiration Points" to pull off most of it's class abilities. Without the use of a feat to get extra, you have 2 IP at level one and 10 IP at level twenty. These IP replenish after every encounter.

So, in summary, Factotum can do a bunch of very awesome things, a very limited number of times per battle and other encounters. A player who uses the Factotum intelligently can do some powerful things.

Factotum in a Gestalt build allows all skills and the ability to do any of the abilities (such as 2 standard actions) to any other class. Imagine a Wizard that could cast 2 powerful spells back to back in a single round or other similar creative things and you can see the use of a Factotum on the other side of a Gestalt.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Factotum is IMO weak as a straight class, all it can really do is nova (unload a lot of per day or per encounter resources really fast to end an encounter quickly), and if that's what you want to do, you may as well be a caster. Other than their few (and I do mean few) spells per day, they have almost no ability to kill enemies at all, and their inspiration points are abysmally limited, too much IMO. Yeah, you end up with 10 at level 20, but that's really misleading. You have a max of 8 up to level 19 and then at 20 it suddenly bumps up by 2. Before then, you're getting +1 point every several levels. With abilities that cost 2, 3, even 4 points in one case. The 1 point abilities are usually only for 1 roll, which is worth it for saves, not worth it for almost anything else in combat. Out of combat it's fine, since they basically just refresh every 5 minutes or so.

So yeah, dipping. Factotum is an amazing dip, as Rumble explained.

- All skills as class skills means just one level + the Able Learner feat means you have all skills as class skills with any class (if a skill is a class skill for even one level, your max ranks becomes the class skill limit of HD + 3; Able Learner feat makes cross class rank purchasing only cost 1 point per rank)

- The level 3 ability to add Int to all str and dex checks and skill checks all the time is great for combat maneuver-using builds like trippers.

- The level 8 ability to spend 2 inspiration points for an extra standard action is strong for anyone, but especially casters. Of course, it's not worth losing 8 caster levels, which is why Factotum is popular to pair with a caster in a gestalt game. I mean, 3.0 haste was nerfed precisely because it gave you extra standard actions, and as broken as the 9th level spell Shapechange is, the most widely accepted way to get the most out of it is to turn into a Choker or similar monster, a low HD weak creature with no abilities of note...except the ability to get an extra standard action each round. So...Factotum gives you this 8 levels in...

 

[Empirate]

The relative lack of inspiration points is indeed the limiting factor in most situations. However, that's what the (official, but online-only) feat Font of Inspiration comes in. It's a feat that can be taken multiple times, and each time you take it, you gain inspiration points equal to the number of Font feats you have. Meaning, the first Font gives you one additional inspiration point, the second Font gives you another two, the third gives you another three (for a total of six now), and so on.
Basically, Factotums barely need any other feats to function well.

 

[halfcore]

I like the idea of the Factotum, but I would never allow one in my game. Not because it's a game breaking class, but because it's yet another base class that has been added some years after the core base classes, and the extended base classes, and the variant classes, and the class feature variants, etc etc... For me it has lost its feel with the base classes in much the same way as the ToB classes did. Suddenly you have these classes that have not a number of ability uses per day, but per encounter. Were they already phasing into 4E when they thought of this? Using different mechanics for character classes is okay,... but needs to be done in moderation, I think. Also, I'd rather not confuse my players too much. I have a hard time keeping them invested in the rules as it is, haha.

 

[kitcik]

I like the idea of the Factotum, but I would never allow one in my game. Not because it's a game breaking class, but because it's yet another base class that has been added some years after the core base classes, and the extended base classes, and the variant classes, and the class feature variants, etc etc... For me it has lost its feel with the base classes in much the same way as the ToB classes did. Suddenly you have these classes that have not a number of ability uses per day, but per encounter. Were they already phasing into 4E when they thought of this? Using different mechanics for character classes is okay,... but needs to be done in moderation, I think. Also, I'd rather not confuse my players too much. I have a hard time keeping them invested in the rules as it is, haha.

Although I like the classes, that's a fair criticism. I wish they had not used "per encounter" at all in 3/3.5. They could have said once / 10 rounds with virtually the same effect. You could change it to that and it would fit more in 3.5.

 

[Dandu]

I like the idea of the Factotum, but I would never allow one in my game. Not because it's a game breaking class, but because it's yet another base class that has been added some years after the core base classes, and the extended base classes, and the variant classes, and the class feature variants, etc etc... For me it has lost its feel with the base classes in much the same way as the ToB classes did. Suddenly you have these classes that have not a number of ability uses per day, but per encounter. Were they already phasing into 4E when they thought of this? Using different mechanics for character classes is okay,... but needs to be done in moderation, I think. Also, I'd rather not confuse my players too much. I have a hard time keeping them invested in the rules as it is, haha.

I hate classes with per-encounter abilities as well - in fact, you might say that I rage at the thought. The same goes for classes with daily abilities. They are turning my D&D into WOW.

 

[Buugipopuu]

Even most of the 4e haters don't have a problem with dailies. A 'day' is a well-defined unit of time.

The Barbarian's Rage ability's 1/encounter limit is pretty much a non-limit. Even with a modest normal Con modifier (say, +2), 7 rounds is typically longer than most combats, and a combat so lengthy that 7 rounds can expire and the fight not being in a mop-up stage where one side's clearly won and an extra rage isn't worth it is even rarer. I don't like it, but it's not a fundamental part of the class, because it very rarely, if ever comes into play. It would have been more elegant to specify something like "a fatigued Barbarian may not rage", since raging causes fatigue, and there's no need to refer to the game-only concept of an encounter. Sure, this means that by 17th level a Barbarian can rage immediately after raging, but 17th level is the NINTH LEVEL SPELLS level, so anything melee types can do will never be overpowered.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Yes, I was very angry that even w/ Tireless Rage, a Barbarian still couldn't rage again if the DM decides to string together several waves of enemies as one "encounter."

Actually experiencing the same frustration right now with my 17th level Dervish. She has Tireless Dance, but just as with Rage, once you use it, you're outta luck till the victory music plays. We're rushing through an enemy fortress trying to retrieve something, fighting hordes of foes through the hallways along the way. Sure, it's cool, but since new enemies just keep barging in or being found as we run through, the DM's been running it as a singular encounter. We're on round ~18 or so now, and still not even on the right floor level, with no end of the enemies in sight. My dance wore off after round 10.

I do like per encounter abilities, though. If you would prefer a cooldown system like the above poster who would rather it be wait 10 rounds before using again, they actually did try that, too (not exactly, but close). It's in Tome of Magic. The Binder at least (not familiar at all with the other 2 classes) has a lot of abilities that can be used once, and then must wait 5 rounds before using it again, but otherwise infinite use.