I will be starting at lvl 3 and going to epic.
I can use any 3.0 or 3.5 book with the
Dungeons
and
Dragons
symbol.... no dragon mag tho...
any help?
I mean for
's sake, you could at least describe the character A LITTLE.5'10" 165 dark hair and eyes gambler, ladies man, brilliant military strategist, and more or less lady lucks secret lover, his luck never runs out, if he flips a dozen coins there is a 50/50 chance every one of them will land on edge. if he is in a fight on a roof top and falls off he will somehow land unharmed while his assailent would land on his own knife. I guess a toon with a large amount of luck rerolls would be the best fit.
You could have at least given us a build stub, though.
I was thinking factotum instead of rogue, thinking his way out of bad situations seems more like him then stabbing his way out. and class skills like brains over brawn and cunning defense seems to fit him well. maybe use the factotums spell like ability to emulate appropriate spells.... like cheat.
how does this look..(we get a very generous amount of points)
human factotum11/ marshal1/ X8
str 11
dex 16
con 16
int 18
wis 10
cha 18
this seems like it would get him most of the sexiest parts of factotum, marshall for flavor and synergy and the last 8 lvls I cannot decide on, maybe warblade for fighting ability, or maybe chameleon for more jack of all trades goodness. or should I take 8 lvls of rogue for the luck style abilities and feats. any thoughts?
P.S. for attributes every att starts at 10 and we have 29 more points we can add as we wish.
Lots and lots of fonts of inspiration.
For people who haven't read WOT (you lucky bastards, I want those hours of my life back.)
This man doesn't use magic, has way too much luck, and has memories of a thousand past lives in his head, allowing him to recall exactly what he needs at a moments notice. He is one of a few people who bend fate/reality unintentionally (and some times intentionally) making him extremely lucky in things requiring games of chance.
He screams Factotum. No if or buts about it.
- Luck (his defining trait)
- His military genius (maximum ranks in knowledge (history) + sizeable bonus
- His ashandarei [unbreakable polearm/quarterstaff]
- Excellent fighting skills (w/ashandarei/quarterstaff and daggers)
- Gambling (potentially using the rules in Star Wars Saga)
- Foxhead pendant (potentially a continuously active globe of invulnerability)
- ta'veren (he weaves fate around himself, or fate uses him to weave the pattern appropriately-- hard to mirror in the rules)
Factotum 8/Warblade 6/Marshal 2/Legendary Leader 4 possibly? Font of Inspiration is probably a better method of mimicing his luck than the luck feats out of Complete Scoundrel.
Eternal Hero seems like it might be fitting from here once you get to epic levels. Matt's abilities come in large part from his knowledge of past lives and the old blood. There is no doubt that he has an epic destiny as a ta'veran though and this might be one way of mirroring that.
I was thinking that maybe a 2 lvl dip into crusader later on in the build would be great. the ability to take 11 on all d20 rolls would be a good way to imitate his... if not perfect luck, his at least lack of bad luck.
That probably wouldn't be a bad idea at all. In fact, it might be interesting if you picked up both Aura of Chaos and Aura of Order. Both could essentially be used to mirror different types of luck-- and the delayed damage pool from Crusader could do a good job of mirroring close calls that Mat escapes through luck.
Mat has a number of things that should be mirrored:
- Luck (his defining trait)
- His military genius (maximum ranks in knowledge (history) + sizeable bonus
- His ashandarei [unbreakable polearm/quarterstaff]
- Excellent fighting skills (w/ashandarei/quarterstaff and daggers)
- Gambling (potentially using the rules in Star Wars Saga)
- Foxhead pendant (potentially a continuously active globe of invulnerability)
- ta'veren (he weaves fate around himself, or fate uses him to weave the pattern appropriately-- hard to mirror in the rules)
Factotum 8/Warblade 6/Marshal 2/Legendary Leader 4 possibly? Font of Inspiration is probably a better method of mimicing his luck than the luck feats out of Complete Scoundrel.
Eternal Hero seems like it might be fitting from here once you get to epic levels. Matt's abilities come in large part from his knowledge of past lives and the old blood. There is no doubt that he has an epic destiny as a ta'veran though and this might be one way of mirroring that.
I think you just about nailed him, I might go
Factotum 10/Warblade 6/Marshal 3/Legendary Leader 1
or even a few levels of rogue, but you're pretty much right on it
I think you just about nailed him, I might go
Factotum 10/Warblade 6/Marshal 3/Legendary Leader 1
or even a few levels of rogue, but you're pretty much right on it
Why stop Factotum at 10... 11 and 8 are 2 of the best stopping points, I would either go factotum 8 and add 2 crusader lvls for the above mentioned auras or go factotum 11 and drop 1 lvl of marshal or warblade.
what do you think?
if he is wearing...
Boots of Sidestepping (Dungeonscape) and a... Starmantle Cloak (BoED) would he be able to sidestep away from most attacks?
another question. I will be playing with a LARGE group(between 6 and 9 people plus a surprisingly good DM) do to fairly well enforced time limits on turn and to keep things simpler we almost never use pets/summons/cohorts/followers ect. so I guess I will be buildind Matrim pre Band of the Red Hand. would this change your suggested builds?
lastly, if you could add a free +1 template to this guy, what would it be?
Factotum 19/Marshal 1.
Lots and lots of fonts of inspiration.
For people who haven't read WOT (you lucky bastards, I want those hours of my life back.)
This man doesn't use magic, has way too much luck, and has memories of a thousand past lives in his head, allowing him to recall exactly what he needs at a moments notice. He is one of a few people who bend fate/reality unintentionally (and some times intentionally) making him extremely lucky in things requiring games of chance.
He screams Factotum. No if or buts about it.
The voices in his head Scream ETERNAL BLADE to me, but sadly he's not an elf.
And yeah, definitely factotum with a bunch of luck feats. And maybe knowledge devotion.
I would dump the marshall. Mat is all bluff, not Diplo.
EDIT:
His Foxhead pendant is clearly an amulet of Spell resistance, which can also be used as a Cold-Iron (it bypasses the DR of the terminator knockoff) Light Flail.
Boots of Sidestepping (Dungeonscape) and a... Starmantle Cloak (BoED) would he be able to sidestep away from most attacks?
another question. I will be playing with a LARGE group(between 6 and 9 people plus a surprisingly good DM) do to fairly well enforced time limits on turn and to keep things simpler we almost never use pets/summons/cohorts/followers ect. so I guess I will be buildind Matrim pre Band of the Red Hand. would this change your suggested builds?
lastly, if you could add a free +1 template to this guy, what would it be?
Starmantle Cloak doesn't make physical attacks into a spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural attack, so Boots of Sidestepping wouldn't come into effect. Those are pretty nice on their own though.
With a group that large, presumably with its fair share of melee oriented characters, I would probably take the legendary leader out of the mix and add in some bard for inspire courage. (Or if your DM will allow it with something other than poetry and a bit of reflavoring, Warrior Skald out of Races of Faerun.) If you pick up the Song of the White Raven feat, you could have fairly decent Bardic Music without hurting your BAB much. With the ranks of perform that Matt picked up from Thom early on in the books, this even makes sense, oddly enough.
I would also definitely concentrate on White Raven maneuvers-- not only is it going to push the military commander feel for the character but with a group that large it is going to be incredibly effective.
For the build, I would change it to something along the lines of Factotum 8/Warrior Skald 1/Marshal 1 or 2/Warblade 7 or 8/Crusader 2
The staff is described as rare and interesting enough to probably be an exotic weapon, any good exotic pole arms out there? His fighting style seems to be high-dex/combat reflexes fueled... maybe with some 'short haft' action to switch from reach to not on the fly.
The voices in his head give him big bonuses on knowledge checks in general, particularly history... and maxes out profession: military strategist (or whatever it is called, used in the mini-HB to pull off stuff). Maybe even other skills here and there, like the 'bardic knack' sub ability.
Other than that... his long term planning is good, but his spur of the moment 'leadership' doesn't seem to be spectacular enough to warrant marshal or the like. He does have a high charisma and the 'leadership' feat though. Seems like he is marrying his monk-type cohort :P
The 'dice in the head' effect is some sort of danger sense/fate manipulation type effect... or a plot hammer, but either way... he doesn't seem to be the spell slinging type, and he isn't prone to study, but maybe those head-voices unlocked some psionic (wilder or ardent) potential that could simulate these effects.
His luck really is his defining feature... too bad the fortune's friend PRC is less than impressive mechanically, it really does fit him flavor wise.
The voices in his head Scream ETERNAL BLADE to me, but sadly he's not an elf.
And yeah, definitely factotum with a bunch of luck feats. And maybe knowledge devotion.
I would dump the marshall. Mat is all bluff, not Diplo.
Mat doesn't have voices in his head, he has memories that are more or less indistinguishable from his own. (Rand on the other hand...) Marshal is more for the auras and general leadership traits, though dropping it would actually allow for 8th level maneuvers.
The staff is described as rare and interesting enough to probably be an exotic weapon, any good exotic pole arms out there? His fighting style seems to be high-dex/combat reflexes fueled... maybe with some 'short haft' action to switch from reach to not on the fly.
The voices in his head give him big bonuses on knowledge checks in general, particularly history... and maxes out profession: military strategist (or whatever it is called, used in the mini-HB to pull off stuff). Maybe even other skills here and there, like the 'bardic knack' sub ability.
The 'dice in the head' effect is some sort of danger sense/fate manipulation type effect... or a plot hammer, but either way... he doesn't seem to be the spell slinging type, and he isn't prone to study, but maybe those head-voices unlocked some psionic (wilder or ardent) potential that could simulate these effects.
The Wheel of Time RPG actually had ashandarei as an exotic double weapon, 1d6/1d8 (19-20 x2) bludgeoning and slashing.
Knowledge (history) is actually described as being knowledge of tactics and war in the PHB, so that is all he really needs for that. He might have picked up some Profession (soldier) ranks along with it, but I'm not sure if that's really necessary. He has enough other talents to spend ranks on.
The dice rolling in his head to presage important moments in his life could probably be mimic'd using the spell-like abilities that factotum picks up. Using those for divination spells of some kind might work-- this one is fairly difficult to pull off though and it's hard to really get the right feeling.
I definitely agree on the white raven manuevers being good for him, and the factotem abilities allow him to approximate the abilities granted by the Old Blood feat. Throw in some Luck rerolls, and I'd say you're good.
He *is* dexterous and charismatic, and he came back a bit 'different' after visiting what seem to best amount to the powerful fey of his world...
Lets not forget that good ol' Mat is also bound to a horn artifact, which may have some effects mechanically as well (who knows what lesser effects that horn had in addition to its 'mass summon' effect)
Previous versions of Matrim seemed to be exploiting vile feats, tainted rules, and similar effects under the effect of a certain evil dagger.
The dice rolling in his head to presage important moments in his life could probably be mimic'd using the spell-like abilities that factotum picks up. Using those for divination spells of some kind might work-- this one is fairly difficult to pull off though and it's hard to really get the right feeling.
Maybe, they seemed more psionic than spell-like to me, but I suppose behind the scenes mechanics are not that important to differentiate. They seemed to do more than predict important moments, they bothered him until he made the 'right' choices... more re-roll action though 'destiny' spell line?
Where were all those feats that granted luck re-rolls? They might have been in Complete Scoundrel, but I'm not sure.
Races of Destiny has 3 human-only feats that would be good for him:
Heroic Destiny (+1d6 to d20 roll 1/day)
Fearless Destiny (any effect that would kill you drops you instead to -9 hp's and stable, 1/day)
Protected Destiny (Reroll a natural 1 on a save, 1/day)
Some way to get him the Luck domain granted power would be good too...
If you could fit in swash 4 with that dead levels sub for the suduction ability, that may help, unless you can copy it with the 19th lvl factotum ability then, factotum 19/marshal 1 is probably your best bet. with a lot of fonts of inspirationa and luck feats. (maybe factotum 19/cleric 1 and grab the pride domain for the ability to reroll ones [i think it was pride]).
Factotum 19 doesn't really have the martial skill that is needed for Mat--he's taken on some of the most skilled fighters in the Wheel of Time (Galad and Gawyn simultaneously, Couladin) and come out ahead. The scene with him, Galad, and Gawyn is actually one of my favorites for Mat-- that was really where he started coming into his own.
Similarly, I think concentrating too heavily on 1/day luck rerolls would be a mistake too, primarily because it is going to be sacrificing other aspects of the character. (Though Fearless Destiny does sound appropriate-- that would explain him walking away from a house falling on him in Ebou Dar nicely.
)Going back to Leadership briefly, another aspect of that to consider is that the cohort and followers gained through the feat do not need to stay with the party. In the books, I would probably say that Talmanas is Mat's cohort and he pretty much operates independently for the better part of two or three books, running his army.
An absolute must have. Beyond that... I'd go with some mix of fighter/rogue/marshall/warblade and maybe that Heroes of Battle Legendary Leader (or whatever it's called) prestige class.
HELLO?!?! BASE CLASS OF BARD??! Did you guys forget Thom teaching him to juggle? Jeez...
20th lvl Matrim Cauthon
Bard 5/Factorum 10/Marshal 3/Legendary Leader 2
Knowledge History maxed out, aswell as Diplomacy.
A lot of you seem to love sticking Matrim with the rogue class, but what does that focus on? Trapfinding and sneak attack, neither of which Mat has.
You mean like when he stole the magic dagger from Shadar Logoth and sorta backstabbed a person with it?
More importantly, he uses stealth and trickery, which are rogue-ish traits.
I'd say:
Ranger 1 (He grew up with wilderness tracking)
Fighter (or Warblade or Pious Templar) 4 (He's quite skilled with the quarterstaff -- enough to beat the best swordmaster in the White Tower, while still disabled, so we'll give him weapon specialization at a minimum)
Rogue 3 (He's a tricksy guy)
Marshal 2 (Innate leadership based on his charisma)
Bard 1 (Trained a bit with Thom)
Fortune's Fool 5 (Luck is his primary characteristic)
Legendary Leader 5 (Luck and Leadership based PrC)
I don't think Factotum suits him that well, since he doesn't cast arcane spells or even pretend to be different things. He is basically a person with the Dark One's own luck who is a superb staff fighter, can sneak around, and possesses epic leadership qualities. Hence I made him 21 so he can take Epic Leadership.
factum5/chameleon7/iaijstu master5/pally2/Monk1
stats
str 10(+6 belt, +4 Buffs) 20
dex 14(+6 belt, +4 Buffs) 24
con 12(+6 belt, +4 Buffs) 22
int 16(+6 belt, +4 Buffs) 26
wis 10(+6 belt, +4 Buffs) 20
cha 18(+6 belt, +4 Buffs, + 5 lvling + 5 inherent + 6 chameleon class feature) 44
saves F32 R36 W28
has the feat so monk abilities work of CHA instead of wis
AC = 10 + 7 dex + 8 int + 8 int + 17 Cha = 50
inish mod = 36
iaijstu focus skill = 40 (23 ranks + 17 cha mod)
ok so here is how I see his damage on his opening strike...
1d10 + 5(str) + 4(chameleon combat focus) + 9d6(iaijstu focus dice) + 153(strike from the void damage) average of 199 a hit( not bad )
how would you improve him I figure during combat he can imp fiegn + iaijstu strike once a round..... how would you improve this.
I was thinking since you don't have to use a katana.... just a melee weapon, you could drop the monk lvl for throwing weapon master1 and draw 2 daggers per hand then hit for ~ 400 a round (195 per dagger)
I tried to make him have good saves good AC and good damage... did I fail at all three?
how would you make this guy better?