Factotum/Incarnum/Something

[Sobolev]

Trying to build off of

As for the rest, since you're dipping classes now...

Azurin Expert 9/Incarnate 1

Stats (22 pb): 8 Str, 8 Dex, 14 Con, 14 Int, 8 Wis, 18 Cha
Feats: Bonus Essentia, Imperious Command
Items: Circlet of Persuasion, Fearsome Armor, Stone of Good Luck, Masterwork Diplomacy Tool
Notable Soulmelds: Theft Gloves, Silvertongue Mask, Mage's Spectacles, Riding Bracers

UMD: 12 ranks + 8 max-investment Mage's Spectacles + 3 Circlet of Persuasion + 1 Stone of Good Luck + 4 Charisma = +28, never fail to activate any spell completion or command word item of any level.

Intimidate: 12 ranks + 3 Circlet of Persuasion + 5 Armor + 8 Divine Insight (wand, see above) + 4 Charisma + 2 Synergy= +34, plus they Cower for a round.

Diplomacy: 12 ranks + 3 Circlet of Persuasion + 6 max-investment Silvertongue Mask + 4 Charisma + 6 Synergy + 1 Stone of Good Luck + 2 Masterwork Tool = +34, never fail to turn a Hostile crowd Indifferent as a full-round action.

Handle Animal: 12 ranks + 3 Circlet of Persuasion + 8 max-investment Riding Bracers + 4 Charisma + 1 Stone of Good Luck = +28, rear any 23 HD Animal or any 18 HD Magical Beast, and teach them any/all skill tricks by taking 10.

15 ranks put into Bluff, Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty), and Sense Motive for synergy bonuses, you have more than enough leftover.

Except I'm going to replace Expert with Factotum for what I feel is rather obvious reasons.  What do I do after this?  Chameleon?  Right now I'm building something like:

Factotum 5/Incarnate 1/Chameleon Something/Something.

And then more something of course.

Imperious Command is important to me, Diplomacy, UMD, I don't really know what else.  I don't know if I should go in to Chameleon or what?  His build uses Azurin but I think that incurs multiclass penalties and is up to DM fiat to get it to qualify for Chameleon.

[Sinfire Titan]

Incarnate 2 or 3 is the better cutoff point: Chakra Bind or Expanded Soulmeld Capacity being the draws. And so is Factotum 8. In fact, you can do Factotum 8/Incarnate 12 and be really damn good at everything (provided the DM lets you qualify for Able Learner).

Azurin's favored class is Incarnate IIRC. PrCs don't incur XP Penalties, so as long as the last few levels are not base classes you will be fine. If you go Chameleon, 8 or 10 is a good cut-off. Follow up with either more Incarnate or more Factotum (since neither will incur penalties).

[Sobolev]

Incarnate 2 or 3 is the better cutoff point: Chakra Bind or Expanded Soulmeld Capacity being the draws. And so is Factotum 8. In fact, you can do Factotum 8/Incarnate 12 and be really damn good at everything (provided the DM lets you qualify for Able Learner).

Azurin's favored class is Incarnate IIRC. PrCs don't incur XP Penalties, so as long as the last few levels are not base classes you will be fine. If you go Chameleon, 8 or 10 is a good cut-off. Follow up with either more Incarnate or more Factotum (since neither will incur penalties).

Yeah, I was just going off of the previous build posted.  Increased Incarnate is better for that, but makes me sad with lost skills.  Able Learner will at least let me advance some of my skills.  I was considering cutting off at Chameleon 8.  Also, AFAIK Azurin's favored class is actually the most underwhemling Soulborn.

[X-Codes]

Even with a starting Int of only 16, you'll be getting at least 7 skill points per level by the time you're done with Factotum 8.  When you consider that most skills aren't worth taking beyond 5 ranks (especially with Cunning Knowledge), that should be more than enough to do most everything you'd want.  Even some other skills like UMD don't need that many ranks to be brutally effective (especially when splashing Incarnum).

As for what to do with all those levels, Factotum 8/Incarnate 4 gets all the best goodies of your base classes.  Beyond that, splash something that makes you better at something else, because skills are covered.

[Sobolev]

Thoughts on what that would be?

Also, multiclass penalties are lame.

[Lycanthromancer]

Thoughts on what that would be?

ToB. Very multiclass-friendly.

Also, multiclass penalties are lame.

Excessively so. They encourage you to multiclass out of your favored class, meaning they do the exact opposite of what they were intended to do.

[Sobolev]

Thoughts on what that would be?

ToB. Very multiclass-friendly.

Why do you say ToB?

Also, multiclass penalties are lame.

Excessively so. They encourage you to multiclass out of your favored class, meaning they do the exact opposite of what they were intended to do.

Also, it seems like the answer if I want to be a chameleon is Factotum 8/Incarnate 4/Chameleon 8 or Factotum 8/Incarnate 2/Chameleon 10, however I'm not sure I totally want to be a Chameleon, and I don't know if I could slide it by any DM I play with.  So assuming I start with something like Factotum 8/Incarnate 3 what are logical other directions to go?  Also what is some sort of order to take these levels in?

Also as Feats:
3-4 Font of Inspiration
Bonus Essentia
Imperious Command
??
??
??

Skills as above, plus Autohypnosis and probably Iaijutsu, not sure what else yet.  Never Outnumbered skill trick.

Halp.

[Lycanthromancer]

Thoughts on what that would be?

ToB. Very multiclass-friendly.

Why do you say ToB?

Tome of Battle is extremely nice for both utility and melee-power, and the classes are supremely dip-friendly. A few levels of swordsage, warblade, or crusader (or all three) would be awesome. Then you can use that floating feat from your chameleon levels to get whatever maneuver or stance you want for the day, and use your recovery mechanics for it.

Also, multiclass penalties are lame.

Excessively so. They encourage you to multiclass out of your favored class, meaning they do the exact opposite of what they were intended to do.

Also, it seems like the answer if I want to be a chameleon is Factotum 8/Incarnate 4/Chameleon 8 or Factotum 8/Incarnate 2/Chameleon 10, however I'm not sure I totally want to be a Chameleon, and I don't know if I could slide it by any DM I play with.  So assuming I start with something like Factotum 8/Incarnate 3 what are logical other directions to go?  Also what is some sort of order to take these levels in?

Also as Feats:
3-4 Font of Inspiration
Bonus Essentia
Imperious Command
??
??
??

Skills as above, plus Autohypnosis and probably Iaijutsu, not sure what else yet.  Never Outnumbered skill trick.

Halp.

What is your group looking like, and what kinds of things do you want to do both inside and out of a fight? Also, what sources are allowed, and what tier do you want to play around in? ie, what's the power level you want to play at?

[Sobolev]

Thoughts on what that would be?

ToB. Very multiclass-friendly.

Why do you say ToB?

Tome of Battle is extremely nice for both utility and melee-power, and the classes are supremely dip-friendly. A few levels of swordsage, warblade, or crusader (or all three) would be awesome. Then you can use that floating feat from your chameleon levels to get whatever maneuver or stance you want for the day, and use your recovery mechanics for it.

Also, multiclass penalties are lame.

Excessively so. They encourage you to multiclass out of your favored class, meaning they do the exact opposite of what they were intended to do.

Also, it seems like the answer if I want to be a chameleon is Factotum 8/Incarnate 4/Chameleon 8 or Factotum 8/Incarnate 2/Chameleon 10, however I'm not sure I totally want to be a Chameleon, and I don't know if I could slide it by any DM I play with.  So assuming I start with something like Factotum 8/Incarnate 3 what are logical other directions to go?  Also what is some sort of order to take these levels in?

Also as Feats:
3-4 Font of Inspiration
Bonus Essentia
Imperious Command
??
??
??

Skills as above, plus Autohypnosis and probably Iaijutsu, not sure what else yet.  Never Outnumbered skill trick.

Halp.

What is your group looking like, and what kinds of things do you want to do both inside and out of a fight? Also, what sources are allowed, and what tier do you want to play around in? ie, what's the power level you want to play at?

I'm the first one to make a character so I don't know what the rest of the party will be, I mostly do these for fun anyway.  Inside a fight I want to use Imperious Command, some awesome thing from Handle Animal, maybe a little diplomacy (but I don't want to ruin everyone's day by ending every combat.  Outside of a fight I'd like to have Diplomacy and I don't really know after that.  Tier would preferably be 2 or 3, most people in the party will probably pick something in one of those tiers.

[Lycanthromancer]

I would suggest investing in a number of heavy-hitting animals with the war beast template (they're cheap, and people tend to respect you when you have a roc as a mount). It's in the MMII.

I would suggest looking through the Tome of Battle and see which maneuvers and class(es) you like best, then dipping for what you want. Also, getting a few levels in bard and optimizing your inspire Courage will get you up to +8 to hit and damage pretty easily, though it'll cost a few feats and a few thousand gold. You can even get bard to stack with warblade and crusader, if you like.