What's up with Factorum?

[Empirate]

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.

I don't think this is accurate in every group. "To rage or not to rage" has been a pretty important decision time and again in the group I'm DMing - because quite often, you as a player don't know yet when the fight'll be over.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I don't think this is accurate in every group. "To rage or not to rage" has been a pretty important decision time and again in the group I'm DMing - because quite often, you as a player don't know yet when the fight'll be over.

Yes, exactly. Not only that, but the DM might even purposely have enemies stay back if you fly into rage right away and wait it out., you're really better off waiting a little bit and gauging the situation.

 

[NiteCyper]

This classes tiers list puts Factotum at above average. Here's a Character Diary - Factotum/Swashbuckler/Chameleon that recounts gameplay of said build.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

And Factotum's high placement (along with Beguiler's low placement) is one of the most glaringly wrong things about the "tier system," which bases combat power on how much you can unload in a short time w/ no regards to whether or not you can do it again that day, and the ultimate measure of power is how many different ways your class can break the game, even though in an actual game no one would be trying to break the game lest...there be no more game.

The character diary is about a multiclass Factotum. As I said, it's a great 1, 3, or (at higher levels) 8 level class.

 

[NiteCyper]

Factotum: Good, not bad

And Factotum's high placement (along with Beguiler's low placement) is one of the most glaringly wrong things about the "tier system," which bases combat power on how much you can unload in a short time w/ no regards to whether or not you can do it again that day, and the ultimate measure of power is how many different ways your class can break the game, even though in an actual game no one would be trying to break the game lest...there be no more game.

The character diary is about a multiclass Factotum. As I said, it's a great 1, 3, or (at higher levels) 8 level class.

To be clear with others, the "Factotum's high placement (along with the Beguiler's low placement)" that StreamOfTheSky claims is "one of the most glaringly wrong things about the 'tier system'", is based on SOTS's opinion; the Factotum and the Beguiler are both in tier three, according to the tiers list that I linked to.

Your claim that "one of the most glaringly wrong things about the 'tier system' [is that it] bases combat power on how much you can unload in a short time [with] no regards to whether or not you can do it again in a day", I do not believe because the tiers list does not make any such mention. The tiers list makes multiple hints as to emphasis on all-around power with the mention of options for characters.

The tiers-list host states that class tier-placement is done after including a compilation of fixes to dirty tricks which counters your claim that "the ultimate measure of power is how many different ways your class can break the game". The compilation of fixes to dirty tricks aims to collect and resolve all conflicts with game-breaking machinations.

Re: multiclass: Factotum is a good class to purely stay in. Much of its power draws from Inspiration points which can only be accumulated by levels in the class (save Font of Inspiration) and those same abilities can have the bonus depend on one's Factotum class level. Finally, here is a write-up on Why the Tier 3s are in Tier 3 (Beguiler's here).

 

[Dandu]

I'd personally put the Beguiler as tier 2 myself.