Factotum / x : the character who DISABLES enemies

[Torvon]

Hey folks.

I imagine the factotum an insanely funny class to play, and was thinking of building a character based upon DISABLING enemies in combat. Stun, Trip, Disarm, Stop, Sicken, Demoralize, force them to make balance checks etc. pp. -- so that my buddies can finish em' off.

With the factotum, a couple of things come to my mind instantly:

• Trip (+INT on trip attempts is nice, with a level of marshal also add +CHA on trip attempts)
• Spellcasting (Caltrops, Grease, etc)
• High CHA, intimidation, never outnumbered [skill trick] + imperious command [feat]
• One could also go ranged (Master Thrower) and take the trick that enables ranged trip attempts; unfortunately, this requires very high DEX and 3 ranged feats. Although the idea to ranged trip a couple of enemies each round sounds awesome.
• Staggering Strike is nice to disable bossmonsters, but I have a rogue/swordsage already and don't really plan on going for SA

You get the idea. I was also considering going psion as second class, but I read the "telepathy" section and find the spells rather lame.

Ok, start collecting ideas. What classes and PrC would you recommend? What stat array?

Thanks!

ta-ta
Torvon

[Havok4]

Poisens are the answer. Factotems make excellent use of poison especially at low levels, you can make your own very easily with magic and skills, take master of poisons to use them in combat easily, and use strength/dex damaging poisons that you can add your Int to the ability damage to render your enemies helpless. There are other useful poisons that inflict status effects but you will need to find some way to boost their DCs.

[Rymosrac]

The factotum can fulfill a BFCx roll decently in a low-optimization game, but he's really just spread too thin to do it really well by himself.

INT to the opposed checks for assorted tricks is handy, but it's nowhere near as significant as a massive STR combined with size modifiers. Granted a factotum can get that too, but he's not THE ideal platform for it by any means.

As a BFC caster, his spells just go by too quickly to manage this role in more than one or two encounters a day - PrCing out to a class with real spell progression (chameleon is always popular with factotum) is your best bet in that direction.

[Lycanthromancer]

This works best in gestalt. For uber-controllage, a psychic warrior//factotum/ToBer would be about the best you could possibly hope for. Depending on what levels you take and when, you could do pretty much anything you care to as a martial BFC, and you'll be mostly Wis and Int-based (not too bad for something not SAD). Str and Con help, of course, but you can buff those in other ways.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Knowledge Affiliation (complete Champion)

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