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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Making a "Magician"
« on: December 29, 2011, 07:56:42 AM »
I recently had a concept for a character that I absolutely love, but I really don't have the experience with 3.5 to make the character viable. I figured I'd bring the concept here.
The idea is to make a literal magician character: someone who has a desire to be perceived as magical but possesses no magical ability whatsoever. He'd need to be good at lying as well as slight-of-hand (possibly even pickpocketing). I recall reading about characters that use feats (not the typical d&d meaning of the word here, but the literal definition) to augment their charisma and either intimidate or impress NPCs, though I don't remember how it was accomplished. I figure the typical strategy for this character would be to perform some seemingly-magical act using slight-of-hand (like pulling a coin from behind someone's ear) and doing it so well that the guard agrees to let him through or whatever else needs to be done.
I love the potential game scenarios for a character like this: the fact that I as a player would have to make sure he had all kinds of random things in secret pockets throughout his outfit, and having to improvise magic tricks based on whatever I had prepared and what would be possible in the situation. Not to mention how he'd have to conduct himself in a fight...does he have a knife hidden in his sleeve that he produces, fights with, and then hides and tries to pretend was a psionic blade? I haven't even thought about what he could do with enchanted and magical items: how could he incorporate a haversack into his magic tricks?
That's where the encyclopedic knowledge of 3.5 would be handy: there are probably all kinds of obscure feats or class combinations that would make this character more dynamic, or things that a magician could do that I haven't even considered.
My friends and I play D&D campaigns constantly, and they almost always start at level 3 so I'd like to prepare this character to be at least somewhat viable at that level with a good plan of how to progress throughout his evolution. It's worth mentioning that the group is pretty lax about what books are allowed as long as whatever you're pulling doesn't create a clearly overpowered character. I think in the case of this guy I'd be justified using any ridiculous book because of how hard it might be to make him useful otherwise, and because he's not going to have deific powers...literally the opposite.
Like I said I'm not exactly sure how to put this character together. My instinct is to make him a factotum, but there might be something way better (I played a factotum once when making a Sherlock Holmes inspired character and it worked wonders, but I've never played a rogue or bard or any variant of those).
Any advice?
Edit: I just remembered that this is also a Pathfinder board, so I figured I'd clarify that I'm talking about a character that would be level 3 in a d&d 3.5 game, with all books being allowed (assuming I can make a case for the mechanics I'm including). I'd appreciate any build regardless of level though, since the character is so specific that I'd have a hard time figuring out how to progress level to level.
The idea is to make a literal magician character: someone who has a desire to be perceived as magical but possesses no magical ability whatsoever. He'd need to be good at lying as well as slight-of-hand (possibly even pickpocketing). I recall reading about characters that use feats (not the typical d&d meaning of the word here, but the literal definition) to augment their charisma and either intimidate or impress NPCs, though I don't remember how it was accomplished. I figure the typical strategy for this character would be to perform some seemingly-magical act using slight-of-hand (like pulling a coin from behind someone's ear) and doing it so well that the guard agrees to let him through or whatever else needs to be done.
I love the potential game scenarios for a character like this: the fact that I as a player would have to make sure he had all kinds of random things in secret pockets throughout his outfit, and having to improvise magic tricks based on whatever I had prepared and what would be possible in the situation. Not to mention how he'd have to conduct himself in a fight...does he have a knife hidden in his sleeve that he produces, fights with, and then hides and tries to pretend was a psionic blade? I haven't even thought about what he could do with enchanted and magical items: how could he incorporate a haversack into his magic tricks?
That's where the encyclopedic knowledge of 3.5 would be handy: there are probably all kinds of obscure feats or class combinations that would make this character more dynamic, or things that a magician could do that I haven't even considered.
My friends and I play D&D campaigns constantly, and they almost always start at level 3 so I'd like to prepare this character to be at least somewhat viable at that level with a good plan of how to progress throughout his evolution. It's worth mentioning that the group is pretty lax about what books are allowed as long as whatever you're pulling doesn't create a clearly overpowered character. I think in the case of this guy I'd be justified using any ridiculous book because of how hard it might be to make him useful otherwise, and because he's not going to have deific powers...literally the opposite.
Like I said I'm not exactly sure how to put this character together. My instinct is to make him a factotum, but there might be something way better (I played a factotum once when making a Sherlock Holmes inspired character and it worked wonders, but I've never played a rogue or bard or any variant of those).
Any advice?
Edit: I just remembered that this is also a Pathfinder board, so I figured I'd clarify that I'm talking about a character that would be level 3 in a d&d 3.5 game, with all books being allowed (assuming I can make a case for the mechanics I'm including). I'd appreciate any build regardless of level though, since the character is so specific that I'd have a hard time figuring out how to progress level to level.