[3.5 Base Class] The Genius

[ArcaneJazz]

This is still a work in progress. I'd like any input, I just prefer criticism to be constructive  

*Things it may still need*
   ~Wider Bonus Feat List
   ~Improved fluff
   ~Possibly find a better name (once it was called Brainiac *shrug*)
   ~Make it more powerful (I've been told its underpowered)

THE GENIUS

Combat, magic, and stealth only get one so far. Swords dull with time, and some doors should be left un-kicked in. Magic can only be used so many times each day, and when you're out of spells, then what? The rogue may be sneaky, but if he's discovered, he may be as good as dead.  

MAKING A CLASS NAME
 Quick generalization of what you should focus on when making the class.
 Abilities: Intelligence! No other ability is as important to this class. Skill points, Skill secrets, and other abilities all rely on Intelligence. Other abilities depend on what else the genius chooses to focus on. One genius may also have a high strength for combat, another may have higher dexterity for getting around, and yet another might have higher charisma for interaction.
 Races: Humans make up the majority of Geniuses. Humans are well known for their adaptability, and drive to succeed. Elves come in a close second, as the scholarly life is well suited to them, and their long lifespans are often filled with scholastic and martial pursuits.
 Alignment: “True Genius Knows No Allegiance,” is a common phrase used by various Geniuses across the world. As such, a Genius may be of any alignment. Some may be pillars of good, always helping, teaching, and working to spread the value of intellect. Some geniuses may be purely sadistic, even insane, and bottle up their incredible minds from the world. Some Geniuses see the world as a finely tuned machine, with an infinite array of clockwork parts, and others may see it as absolute disorder, pure chaos that only a genius can comprehend.
 Religion: Faith is unimportant to a majority of Geniuses. Some may not even believe in the deities of the realms, while others may know more about the nature of deities, and thereby, the entire workings of the cosmos, than any average cleric.
 Other Classes: Though the Genius understands the importance of other classes in the world, he is often put at odds with them, as his skills are often underestimated, or even completely overlooked. He most closely relates to the Bard, who has experienced virtually everything the world has to offer, and the two often share knowledge with one another. Rogues are also clearly an ally of the Genius, and often contest of skill may take place between members of the two classes. However, when a Fighter needs a lock picked, and a Wizard can’t work within an anti-magic field, they couldn’t be happier to have a Genius with them to help them get through safe.
 Starting Gold: 5d4 x 10 gp
 Starting Age: As Wizard.

Class Skills
 The Genius's class skills include all skills, and is considered trained for all skill checks. The only exception are barred skills such as Speak Language (Druidic).
Skills Per Day at 1st Level : (8 + int)x4
Skills Per Day at Each Additional Level : 8 + int

Hit Dice: d6

  BAB  Fort    Ref    Will         Abilities      
1. +0    +0     +0     +2       1st Favored Skill, Gathered Knowledge, Bonus Feat
2. +1    +0     +0     +3       Bonus Feat
3. +1    +1     +1     +3       Skill Secret
4. +2    +1     +1     +4       Bonus Feat
5. +2    +1     +1     +4       2nd Favored Skill, Skill Secret
6. +3    +2     +2     +5       Bonus Feat
7. +3    +2     +2     +5       Skill Secret
8. +4    +2     +2     +6       Bonus Feat
9. +4    +3     +3     +6       Skill Secret
10.+5    +3     +3     +7       3rd Favored Skill,    Bonus Feat
11.+5    +3     +3     +7       Skill Secret, Brain Surge
12.+6    +4     +4     +8       Bonus Feat
13.+6    +4     +4     +8       Skill Secret
14.+7    +4     +4     +9       Bonus Feat
15.+7    +5     +5     +9       4th Favored Skill, Skill Secret
16.+8    +5     +5     +10      Bonus Feat
17.+8    +5     +5     +10       Skill Secret
18.+9    +6     +6     +11       Bonus Feat
19.+9    +6     +6     +11       Skill Secret
20.+10   +6     +6     +12      5th Favored Skill, Bonus Feat

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Genius is proficient with all simple weapons, plus one melee weapon of their choice. Braniacs are proficient with light armor and medium, but not shields.
 
Favored Skill: At 1st level, a Genius may select any skill they are capable of knowing (which is just about every single one). The Genius gains a +6 bonus on all checks when using this skill. At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th level), the Genius may select an additional favored skill from those he knows, and gains the same +6 bonus to this skill. In addition, at each such interval, the bonus for previous favored skill checks increases by 2 (+14 to their first favored skill at 20th level).

Gathered Knowledge: Geniuses pick up lots of random tidbits of information during their studies and travels. A Genius may make a special Gathered Knowledge check with a bonus equal to his Genius level + his Intelligence modifier to see whether he knows some relevant information about local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places. (If the Genius has 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (history), he gains a +2 bonus on this check.)

A successful Gathered Knowledge check will not reveal the powers of a magic item but may give a hint as to its general function. A Genius may not take 10 or take 20 on this check; this sort of knowledge is essentially random.

DC Type of Knowledge
10 Common, known by at least a substantial minority drinking; common legends of the local population.
20 Uncommon but available, known by only a few people legends.
25 Obscure, known by few, hard to come by.
30 Extremely obscure, known by very few, possibly forgotten by most who once knew it, possibly known only by those who don’t understand the significance of the knowledge.

Bonus Feats: At 2nd level, the Genius gets a bonus skill-oriented. The Genius gains an additional bonus feat at 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 11th level. These bonus feats must be drawn from the following list (see below). A Genius must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat.

These bonus feats are in addition to the feat that a character of any class gets from advancing levels. A Genius is not limited to the list of Genius bonus feats when choosing these feats.

Genius Bonus Feat List: Acrobatic, Agile, Alertness, Animal Affinity, Athletic, Deceitful, Deft Hands, Diligent, Investigator, Magical Aptitude, Negotiator, Nimble Fingers, Open Minded, Persuasive, Self Sufficient, Skill Focus, Stealthy.

Skill Secret: The Genius realizes that his great skill is much more adaptable than anyone knows. At 4th, 7th, 8th, 13th, and 17th level, the Genius chooses one secret from the table below. His level plus Intelligence modifier determines the total number of secrets he can choose. He can’t choose the same secret twice.

(Lvl + INT). Secret: Effect
1. Instant mastery: 4 ranks of a skill in which the character has no ranks
2. Secret health: +3 hit points
3. Secrets of inner strength: +2 bonus on Will saves
4. The lore of true stamina: +2 bonus on Fortitude saves
5. Secret knowledge of avoidance: +2 bonus on Reflex saves
6. Weapon trick: +1 bonus on attack rolls
7. Dodge trick: +1 dodge bonus to AC
8. Applicable knowledge: Any one feat
9. Newfound arcana: 1 bonus 1st-level spell*
10. More newfound arcana: 1 bonus 2nd-level spell*

**Bonus Spells must be from the Sor/Wiz list, and can be used a number of times per day equal to his intelligence modifier.

Brain Surge: At 11th level, the Genius can wrack his brain to call up every bit of useful information he can. After 1 full round of concentration, he thusly gains a +4 bonus to all skill checks, which lasts for 1 minute per class level. Brain Surge is useable a number of times perday equal to the genius' intelligence modifier.[/QUOTE]

[Midnight_v]

Are you familiar with the "factotum"?

  On first glance it seems like a poor-mans Factotum...
which ironically is the class I use for non-magical "genius builds" I've was making one today which brought me to check out your class.
Interesting stuff though, really.

[archangel.arcanis]

you still have Brainiac listed in there some, at least in the prof. section.

I'm not really sure what this class is supposed to do besides have a shit ton of skills. What is their combat role? The only way i see this class in combat is using Iajitsu Focus and jacking that skill into the stratosphere then proceeding to quickdraw daggers cutting people in half.

[Midnight_v]

you still have Brainiac listed in there some, at least in the prof. section.

I'm not really sure what this class is supposed to do besides have a shit ton of skills. What is their combat role? The only way i see this class in combat is using Iajitsu Focus and jacking that skill into the stratosphere then proceeding to quickdraw daggers cutting people in half.

Yeah I think thats why I kept being reminded of factotum also, I couldn't see this class being anything but an iujust master in combat.

[ArcaneJazz]

~Improved Fluff

That is why you still see the Brainiac name. I was just posting the current mechanics, to work them out first.

I am not familiar with the factotum. What book is it in? I thought I had just about every e-book from 3.0 onward at this point...

About its combat role, well... Not every class needs to be devastating in combat, does it? If you wanna smash stuff, be a barbarian.

It does appear to be a skill whore, and that was honestly the reason it even came to be. I made it for a strange player in a game I used to be in, who was OBSESSED with skill checks. Like... Hed rather abandon combat scenes to go do something else skill related, and I had to set up situations where he could use skills to help people out in combat, since he was practically unwilling to swing a sword or cast a spell. So... I made him a brainiac, so that no one else would even need to make skill checks in the group again. His loremaster spell gain thing was, in his mind, "So skilled that the things he could do seemed like magic."

So... Thats the idea of this class. I wanted it to be unparalleled in skills, but to have enough other abilities for it to not be under powered but still have flavor. But if this Factotum does all that already, well... Egh. At least I tried? 

[Midnight_v]

           Stop that. There no use in abusing yourself. Hell theres 50+base classes its understandable that you might miss a few if you've not been on the forums for very long.

It was a damn good try, and for the record it's from dungeonscape one of the relatively later books in 3.5

here's a link to the handbook Factotum handbook So you kinda see what we mean.
Don't give up though I look forward to seeing more of your work.

[bkdubs123]

Hed rather abandon combat scenes to go do something else skill related, and I had to set up situations where he could use skills to help people out in combat, since he was practically unwilling to swing a sword or cast a spell. So... I made him a brainiac, so that no one else would even need to make skill checks in the group again.

I see this as a problem, but if it works for your group, then I guess it's okay.

So... Thats the idea of this class. I wanted it to be unparalleled in skills, but to have enough other abilities for it to not be under powered but still have flavor. But if this Factotum does all that already, well... Egh. At least I tried? 

The Factotum doesn't do exactly what this class does, which really is just OMG I CAN'T FAIL SKILL CHECKS. The Factotum has a lot of the same flavor of your class, but has a much more expanded combat role.

I have some problems with the design of the Genius, which I'll explain in further detail below. Again, if the class works for your group, great, I am merely expressing my concerns.

1) Skill bonuses get pushed off the chart.
----What I mean by this is that at 1st level you're getting (counting synergy bonuses) +10 to the skill of your choice before Skill Focus and before any ability modifiers. +2 from synergy, +2 from the bonus skill feat, and a whopping +6 from Favored Skill. With a +4 ability modifier, 4 ranks, and the ability to Take 10, that's 28 straightaway. As you gain levels it only gets worse. The class' skill checks are going to pretty much auto-succeed, and on some occasions will be able to pull some absurd numbers out of the hat. Epic level skill checks are probably possible in the level 10-14 range without even getting into much magical enhancement cheese. Of course, spells have been doing the same thing, even better, as Epic level skill checks for many levels by then, so I suppose it hardly matters.

2) Skill Secrets are worthless.
----You know how people say that the Fighter's bonus feats are worthless? They say that because the benefits at higher levels simply aren't on par with the benefits of high level class features, or high level spells. The Skill Secret feature of the Genius is even more worthless than a Fighter's bonus feats, for a few reasons. There are only ten different options, which actually seems like a lot until you consider that you can't take the same option more than once. That really sucks considering you get the feature 9 times over 20 levels, which means you're going to get all but the crappiest one, and at 19th level when you get the last one, it's not any more powerful or useful than the one you got at 3rd level. Along the same lines is getting yet another bonus skill feat at 20th level. Who cares about getting +2 to a couple skills at 20th level?

3) The class has no use in combat. At all. Unless of course you count Iaijutsu Focus and Use Magic Device, but considering the reasons you built this class, it doesn't seem like your group would make much use of either. Of course, if you do count Iaijutsu Focus and Use Magic Device, this class almost becomes OVERpowered, which is crazy. Iaijutsu Focus is a bit harder to get crazy at lower levels due to no synergy bonuses, but Use Magic Device, at 1st level, with 16 Cha, 4 ranks, Magical Aptitude, synergy from Spellcraft AND Knowledge (Arcane), and Favored Skill boosts the check to +19. Wow. With that Favored Skill bonus scaling as he gains levels, he'll have no problem whatsoever pretending to be a Wizard, holding a fistfull of scrolls and wands. He'll even be able to "cast" higher level spells than any Wizard of equal level as long as he has the money to do so.

Without taking Iaijutsu Focus or Use Magic Device into account, you literally don't do anything in combat. You ARE better off, as you said your player would do, simply escaping from combat and trying to do something else entirely. Standing around firing a crossbow at your enemies is a waste of your time, and your party's time.

~~~~~

Okay, so that was a lot of criticism, I understand. But I do have a couple important suggestions:

1) You want the class to be focused on skills. This is pretty clear. But skills don't really help combat in much of a capacity. However, there is a system called Skill Tricks outlined in Complete Scoundrel. Look into those, they offer a bit more of an expanded combat utility to skills. BUT, for a class so focused on skills, they do not do enough. My advice would be to look into how Skill Tricks work, and come up with a more detailed, more rich system to use with the Genius. Come up with combat worthy abilities tied to skills, skill ranks, and skill checks. This would keep the Genius focused on skill use, but give it a unique combat utility.

2) Instead of focusing the class features on simply improving the numbers on the Genius' skill checks, focus the class features on improving the uses of the Genius' skill checks. What I mean is, instead of improving skill use vertically (which is what increasing the bonus is), improve skill use horizontally, which is to say, expand the versatility, and capability of skills. By improving skill use vertically all you are doing is making it hard, if not impossible, for the Genius to fail his Spot check. However, by improving skill use horizontally, you'd introduce unique mechanics that only the Genius is even capable of producing with his Spot check, such as increasing the damage of a ranged attack perhaps (just off the top of my head).

[ArcaneJazz]

Long post is long. 

Hed rather abandon combat scenes to go do something else skill related, and I had to set up situations where he could use skills to help people out in combat, since he was practically unwilling to swing a sword or cast a spell. So... I made him a brainiac, so that no one else would even need to make skill checks in the group again.

I see this as a problem, but if it works for your group, then I guess it's okay.

Well, I saw it as kind of a problem too, but we couldn't play without him really, kinda complicated. The point is that I wanna try to use this concept and make a truly effective class out of it.

The Factotum doesn't do exactly what this class does, which really is just OMG I CAN'T FAIL SKILL CHECKS. The Factotum has a lot of the same flavor of your class, but has a much more expanded combat role.

Well I am trying to get Dungeonscape now. If it winds up doing what I want, better than I planned, then I guess I will call this one quits.

1) Skill bonuses get pushed off the chart.

That was the plan. It was all I could think of to make it not complete garbage.

2) Skill Secrets are worthless.

I understand that now. I think what I want to do is just develop class abilities derived from the skill secret menu, but expanded and more useful. Maybe more spell-like ability access? I dunno.

3) The class has no use in combat. At all. Unless of course you count Iaijutsu Focus and Use Magic Device

I was afraid of what adding iaijutsu focus would do to the class, but the idea did cross my mind. I'm aware its not combat useful (seeing as it has practically no combat related abilities), I guess I'm just weird for running games with minimal combat lol. I tend to run encounters geared for specific characters to shine. But thats off topic.

1) You want the class to be focused on skills. This is pretty clear. But skills don't really help combat in much of a capacity. However, there is a system called Skill Tricks outlined in Complete Scoundrel. Look into those, they offer a bit more of an expanded combat utility to skills. BUT, for a class so focused on skills, they do not do enough. My advice would be to look into how Skill Tricks work, and come up with a more detailed, more rich system to use with the Genius. Come up with combat worthy abilities tied to skills, skill ranks, and skill checks. This would keep the Genius focused on skill use, but give it a unique combat utility.

You seem to keep talking about combat. Honestly, why even acknowledge this class if you're looking for combat prowess? That was not the goal of the character, really. Even in the final product, hes not going to be an awesome warrior. However, I do like the idea of skill tricks. I never looked into them in great depth, but I definitely will now that you've reminded me of them.

2) Instead of focusing the class features on simply improving the numbers on the Genius' skill checks, focus the class features on improving the uses of the Genius' skill checks. What I mean is, instead of improving skill use vertically (which is what increasing the bonus is), improve skill use horizontally, which is to say, expand the versatility, and capability of skills. By improving skill use vertically all you are doing is making it hard, if not impossible, for the Genius to fail his Spot check. However, by improving skill use horizontally, you'd introduce unique mechanics that only the Genius is even capable of producing with his Spot check, such as increasing the damage of a ranged attack perhaps (just off the top of my head).

This is the best advice you've given, and I am definitely going to try to do that.

[bkdubs123]

Long post is long.  

Indeed.  

That was the plan. It was all I could think of to make it not complete garbage.

Which is where my last bit of advice, waaay later comes in. Of course, you acknowledge that already, but I'm not there yet.

I think what I want to do is just develop class abilities derived from the skill secret menu, but expanded and more useful. Maybe more spell-like ability access? I dunno.

I would try to stay away from spell-like ability access, unless you are doing it from "mundane" skill checks. I think you'll want to provide unique skill abilities so that the player feels like they are so awesome, skilled, and ingenious, that they can produce their own super-neato effects without using (or needing) magic.

You seem to keep talking about combat. Honestly, why even acknowledge this class if you're looking for combat prowess? That was not the goal of the character, really. Even in the final product, hes not going to be an awesome warrior. However, I do like the idea of skill tricks. I never looked into them in great depth, but I definitely will now that you've reminded me of them.

There's a difference between having combat prowess/being an awesome warrior and being useful in combat. A Wizard who specializes in Abjurations has no combat prowess and is a sucky warrior, but is quite useful in combat. When I first saw the Skill Secret class feature in the table I thought, "Ooo, this could be interesting, I wonder what he's done with skills like Balance or Diplomacy to make them useful in combat..." The thing is all classes need to be useful in combat, even if they aren't the ones reducing enemies' HP to 0. If a class literally does nothing but fire a crossbow at Poor BAB, then they are useless in combat, and as I mentioned, might as well not even participate, which isn't good class design because that's one major aspect of DnD that your class literally doesn't do properly.

This is the best advice you've given, and I am definitely going to try to do that.

Yeah, and this'll be kind of tricky, but I'll see what I can do to help. Definitely go back and look at Skill Tricks to get you in the right mindset, but I have a post buried in here somewhere that starts in this very direction. I'll try and find it and link you.

EDIT: Found it - http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3547.msg111187#msg111187. The whole thread might actually be worthwhile for you to take a look at, though it is focused on "artistic" skills. It shouldn't be too hard to adapt Arts Powers into Skill Powers, and work out different Powers for "non-artsy" skills.

[ArcaneJazz]

Ok, so... I got Dungeonscape last night. I now know about the Factotums abilities...

It pretty much accomplishes exactly what I wanted this class to >__<

Intelligence bonus on str-dex checks, the "inspiration point" system to mimic other class features is just... genius. Pun truly not intended.

So... I think I give up on my endeavor. My Genius class was going to become the Factotum in the end, which wouldve been redundant.

If anyone else is inspired to make something else similar off my ideas, feel free, but this is officially out of my hands xD