Talk:Master of Everything (3.5e Class)

it´s a fool-

how can someone walk a adventuresday if he can´t use arms for a long time?

"Oh a danger - please help me to get into my fullplate - no wait, I can only use it about 30 sec...."

He can wear full plate all the time. Not having proficiency is just a -6 penalty to everything. Nothing harsh. --Foxwarrior 03:11, September 26, 2010 (UTC)

Making this class more viable

At low levels, this class is extremely weak. Especially at level 1. Here are some suggestions to improve it:

• Make the imitate class ability last 1 minute per level.
  • Alternatively, 5 rounds + 1 round per level.
  • At low levels, you will actually be able to contribute for a whole combat.
• Allow imitate class ability to be used even when there are no usages left, but each additional usage takes an additional round to activate the ability. Make the per day uses a swift action.
  • For example: At 1st level, you can become a Sorcerer for a single combat as a swift action, a Barbarian by spending 1 round, and then a Psion by spending 2 rounds.
  • You may want to make the ability a spell-like ability so that it can be interrupted and provoke attacks of opportunity.
• Why not have the imitation come in as if they had prepared spells/abilities? That way a totemist could be a viable class to imitate, for example.

Cheers! --Andrew Arnott (talk, email) 11:16, September 23, 2010 (UTC)

At low levels, you already can contribute for a whole combat. You're just like a Fighter with 1 less feat, 1 less attack bonus, and 2 less health.

• Having no uses per day limitation would mean that the Master of Everything could easily become a god (and not just an overpowered character) with 30 seconds of buffing time. --Foxwarrior 18:05, September 23, 2010 (UTC)

• No offense but this class sounds completely ridiculous. The whole reason for even having classes in DnD is so that players & characters can't do everything. It makes them work as a team. I'd like to look it over before I make anymore judgments about it. Can someone put a link on this page? I can't find it anywhere else. I would really like to see this class. -Anton Spohn

The Master of Everything can't do everything all the time.

Click on the Article button. --Foxwarrior 18:05, September 23, 2010 (UTC)

This class is not weak in anyway, it's just another brand of overpowered. I'd use Imitate Bullshit ability to imitate a spell-to-power Erudite and ruin the game... anything that allows this is a bad class. And don't even get me started on the lack of a level or redundancy cap...

It is definitely another brand of overpowered. That said, it's quite possible that you'd be better off playing a spell-to-power Erudite than a Master of Everything. --Foxwarrior 03:11, September 26, 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps you should turn to Factotum for your balacing issues, as the Factotum is this in spirit. Mind you they get their mimic class feature much much later, and with more limits, but have been gaining fragments of classs since (sneak attack, spellcasting, ability to hit in melee, etc). Why not take the factotum features, make it more-so, and spread it out over the levels. -- 24.125.209.121 11:46, September 26, 2010 (UTC)

Personally? I think it's fine as is. It's overpowered enough to be in a Wizard-level campaign, with only one problem; every time you level once, you must do everything; cleric spells, wizard spells, sorcerer spells, soulmelds, manouevres, stances etc etc... That's a lot of work. Besides, it spreads out the feats you gain every three levels so it makes a slightly weaker version of certain classes. But meh, it's the power to adapt on the fly that makes this so powerful. Metamagic feats after all can be applied at all types of spells and so do weapon feats. So what if you go mage and can also wield a sword effectively? Only problem I'd see is a party filled with Masters Of Everything... That would either be boring (everyone goes sorcrer/wizard) or extremely fun (switching combat roles every fight)...

Not just one problem. Two problems. The Master of Everything has to spend an entire standard action to get the benefits of a class. That's almost an entire extra round of buffing time that the character he's imitating doesn't need. --Foxwarrior 19:58, September 26, 2010 (UTC)

You can also look at the Chameleon prestige class in Races of Destiny. You also probably want to create a limited list of spells that can be used as a spellcaster. --Havvy 02:18, September 27, 2010 (UTC)

If you want a class that's bogged down in tiny restrictions and balance tweaks to make it more fair, talk to Cidolfas. This is not about that; It's (almost) the most straightforward imitator class one can get, with a duration limitation so that the normal optimized Wizard-level characters don't feel constantly outgunned.

Also, I really don't like making limited lists of spells, so there is no chance that I want to. --Foxwarrior 02:41, September 27, 2010 (UTC)

The problem with this class is simply that Wizards have no point in this one, except if you plan to spam meta's. Going Sorcerer allows you to fire spell after spell every round, without worrying about saving that nifty little 9th level spell for something else, no point Power-wording kobolds now is it? And as soon as your imitation or spells run out, stop imitating the Sorcerer and go for Wizard/Druid/Cleric/even Sorcerer again to automatically refresh your spells. Mayhap, it would be better to add a clause that a spell cast is removed from all classes that use the same magic system? A Sorcerer would be for improvised spells, Wizard for arcane prepared spells, Cleric/Druid for Divine etc etc etc. Otherwise, nothing prevents you from re-imitating Sorcerer all the time and simply blasting stuff all the time... By the way, can you mimic Prestige Classes? Combination of classes (like Wiz5/Archmage2)?

As written, if you want to combine classes or get prestige classes, you'll have to stack the Imitate Class ability. Removing spells from all classes that use the same magic system would just mean that you would have to learn 2-8 different magic systems; it wouldn't solve the problem, just make it even harder to build a Master of Everything character than it already is. Sure, at high levels you can easily cast dozens of maximum level spells, but people say that having extra spells per day is not very helpful.

Hmm... Dozens of level 9 spells does still seem like a lot, though. It occurs to me that this class is actually more exponential than the Wizard. Perhaps I should tone that down a bit. --Foxwarrior 10:23, September 27, 2010 (UTC)

You see, that's one of the problems. If you level as a sorcerer, you have to take the not-so-good spells at low levels. As a Master of Everything, you have no such problem. Make a homebrew spell of second level that gives a +1 to the DC of your next spell or something. Then, just spend the low-level casts to use metas (there's at least one PrC that does that btw, which was why I asked about using PrC). You could even imitate any character build on this site, most of which are focused and therefore sometimes useless. But, if you can switch between these classes, then their niche goes away and it becomes full-blow god-mode. Y'see, the way it is now, low level spells can be delegated to buffs and debuffs (dispels, shield, armor, energy reduction) and what not, while keeping the top-tier spells for damage. And when you level, you just choose the newest top tier for damage and keep all other levels for everything else.

If a build is focused and therefore sometimes useless, it's not very Wizard-level, now is it? I don't see how the Master of Everything can delegate low-level spells to buffs and debuffs; He doesn't have enough time to cast them. That said, I'm taking away the exponentiality from Imitate Class now. --Foxwarrior 21:00, September 27, 2010 (UTC)