Aharon wrote:@Kaelik
But you usually argue that the actions a Factotum can take are mediocre to poor, which spells obviously aren't. So wouldn't it be kind of balanced if the Factotum could take 30 mediocre actions in one round, when the wizard can take 1 good action that fucking kills people?
Obvously, one can discuss at what point it becomes balanced, but I would have expected you to agree that it's a neccessary power-up, given the fact that the only thing the factotum can do right now is that quickdraw gnomish razor combo that does less damage than a TWF rogue.
1) I usually argue that because it is true, but it does not follow that 30 mediocre actions are balanced against a single good one. In many cases, including basically all of them in D&D, 30 mediocre actions is overpowered.
2) Even if, hypothetically, 30 standard actions on a Factotum was actually balanced with Wizards, it would still be hella shitty, and you shouldn't do it. You could argue that hackers in Shadowrun are balanced as long as they just create 999 duplicate programs and make 999 rolls before anyone else gets to do anything. But balanced or not, that is a really shitty way to play the game. Having 30 actions which take a good chunk of time to work out and which are individually weak as shit is a terrible way to balance something. There is a reason Necromancers with armies of weak skeletons are frowned upon even though they are in fact thematically very cool, and it has everything to do with why Factotums shouldn't take 30 actions to every one of other peoples.
3) Even if, hypothetically, 30 standard actions was balanced and actually good game design that didn't shit on everyone else at the table, ect. it would still be a terrible shitty feat.
That is because Wizards have 4 spells of each level per day. They do not have one spell per spell level per day and a feat that grants 3 spells of each spell level per day. If a feat is necessary for the class, and so fucking good that taking it is basically mandatory and is in no way an actual choice for the player, then it shouldn't be a feat. Now, the classic example of what should be a class feature for the dread necro is Tomb Tainted Soul. But at least Tomb Tainted Soul is a feat that other people can take and benefit from. This feat is literally Factotum only, and all Factotums will take it, so in effect, Factotums just have a higher IP pool than is listed in the class, and have a class feature that they have no feats.