MacGyver/The Doctor

[searlefm]

unlikely but Artificer abuse is a good bet but the doctor is an empath has a boat load of psycic abilities and thats putting it lightly

othere than giving him vow of peace and non vilonce and then every non magic skill in all the books

[Piggy Knowles]

OK, here's my thought:

Half-elf (human heritage per Races of Destiny sidebar), Bard 1/Artificer 2/Factotum 3/Death Delver 10/Ardent Dilettante 4

Flaw: Noncombatant, (any other)

1. Factotum1- Able Learner, Wedded to History, Nymph's Kiss
Inspiration, cunning insight, cunning knowledge, trapfinding
2. Bard1-
Bardic music, bardic knowledge, soothing voice, inspire awe, fascinate
3. Artificer1- Scribe Scroll, Item Familiar
Artificer knowledge, artisan bonus, disable trap, item creation, craft reserve 20
4. Artificer2- Brew Potion
Craft reserve 40
5. Factotum2-
Arcane dilettante (1 spell)
6. Factotum3- Heroic Destiny
Brains over brawn, cunning defense
7. Death Delver1-
Deathsense, rebuke undead
8. Death Delver2-
Deadened soul, spontaneous casting
9. Death Delver3- Fearless Destiny
Death ward 1/day
10. Death Delver4- Diehard
11. Death Delver5-
Fear aura
12. Death Delver6- Healing Devotion
Death ward 2/day
13. Death Delver7-
Cheat death
14. Death Delver8-
Mantle of life
15. Death Delver9- Run
Death ward 3/day
16. Death Delver10-
Nine lives
17. Ardent Dilettante1-
Heightened senses, lore
18. Ardent Dilettante2- Font of Inspiration
Enthrall
19. Ardent Dilettante3-
Joie de vivre
20. Ardent Dilettante4- Font of Inspiration
Sense Link

Item Familiar:
"Sonic Screwdriver" - Heavily invest UMD and maybe Open Lock into this. Enchant it with knock, some fun detection-style spells and possibly mage hand and prestidigitation.

For your own skill ranks, Diplomacy, Bluff, UMD, Perform (technobabble), Perform (stirring speech about the nature of humanity), and a lot of knowledge skills. Maybe some craft here and there, but a permanent item of magecraft would do just as well.

For some interesting abilities...

"No, seriously, stop trying to kill me while I talk at you for a while." - Soothing Voice. Make a diplomacy check to instill calm emotions on an enemy. Because the doctor needs to have room to talk, dangit.

"I'm the Doctor, and you're in the biggest library in the universe. Look me up." - Inspire Awe, fear aura. Suddenly the enemies realized you're actually a terrible Time Lord and that you're about to do something unspeakable to them. A fear aura you can turn on, and you can more or less extend it as long as you keep talking by combining it with Inspire Awe.

Immortal - Wedded to History. You're not only immortal, you're one of a kind. You could have a starring role in every history book ever written...

Sonic Screwdriver - You've got a screwdriver that can open just about anything, operate any magical technological device, move things from afar, cause sparks, etc.

Brains Over Brawn - OK, you're not big and strong. But dang you're smart, and Brains over brawn means you add your Intelligence bonus to all Strength, Dex or Con checks.

Hard to Kill - Dang, you're pretty hard to kill. Death Ward means a lot of things simply don't effect you. Your inspiration points and Heroic Destiny give you even more defenses. And once each day when something DOES actually reduce you to -10 or below HP, Fearless Destiny kicks in and you instead are set at -9 HP. Oh yeah, and then Healing Devotion gives you fast healing.

Many Regenerations - OK, Fearless Destiny has been used for the day, or someone zaps you with a death ray. What now, big man? Oh, nothing much, just scratch off a life from the Doctor's Nine Lives ability. Combine with a Hat of Disguise and a funny accent for a total change. Maybe this time you've got a North accent - plenty of planets have a North!

"Aren't mind melds a Vulcan thing?" - Clairaudience/clairvoyance, sense link and various other spells let you see into the minds, and through the eyes, of others.

Absorbing Damage, Drinking Poison, etc. - Death Delver spells. They're not flashy, but rather are all defensive in nature and let you gain protection from energy, or neutralize poison, or whatever.

Juryrigging - Sometimes the Doctor needs to make items do things they were never intended to do. No problem for you, just use your artificer infusions and your pimped out UMD scores to do just that. Bonus points for the Spell Storing Item infusion to give things really silly powers.

Superhuman Sensation - You've got scent, and all your other senses are heightened.

Joie de vivre - Sometimes you can be down about all the things you've done in your long and storied past, but your lust for life inspires such hope in others. No, seriously, it does - you inspire others as though by a good hope spell.

Run - Trust me. Run.

[Phelix-Mu]

@Piggy: Wow, masterfully done for not making it a custom race. Kind of sucks that he will start out fairly normal, but then so does every 1st level character. The Death Delver stuff is genius. And Ardent Dilettante is one of my favorite PrC of all time. This is probably a more powerful version of my Exemplar suggestion, with added flexibility and covering a few more examples of the Doctor's strange abilities. In higher levels, the Ardent Dilettante just gets better, more and more skill points.

Interestingly, as I recall the Doctor actually doesn't start adventuring until a fairly long ways along his chronological lifespan. It's unclear to me exactly how he managed to spend so much time in his first body, as he was over 700 as far back as generation 4, now on 11 or so and 900, showing significant depreciation in the length of his cycling through a regeneration. Not sure how Wedded to History works, but this might be some precedent for boosting his age category. Certainly the mental stat bonuses could only help.

[Squirrel_Dude]

You could also try a factotum. The ability to have ALL SKILLS as class skills might be helpful. They also have some really interesting ways to mess around with them, but you said you didn't want spell-casting so they may not be for you.

[Talionis]

MacGyver -- Rogue (expert) into Combat Trapsmith at the fifth level Trapsmith allows you to make the traps out of nothing. Factotum is much better as a base class, but it's been banned.

Then I'd suggest Uncanny Trickster to further increased the DC's of the traps. Plus skill tricks work for McGyver.

If ever a pocket knife could be called thieves tools...

[Spoilers Below]

Vow of Non-violence?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMAab89iINM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yueXCauSZL4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsSKm2HPYXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idEcvdL_zHA&t=0m45s

Factotum or Artificer is about as close as you're going to get. Simply refluff his "magic" as science your mere mortals don't understand yet. The build Piggy Knowles posted up there looks lovely.

[searlefm]

yer the fist thing the doctor dose is a diplomacy check in every situation,
after every peaceful or intellectual solution is exhausted and no alternative (or at least not a morally adaptable alternative to him) he responds in the same way i do in real life superior level violence to a point where you feel guilty and wish there had been another choice (although i do enjoy the fight as long as its happening just not before or after it).

[Gavinfoxx]

I wrote this as a reinterpretation of him for a FR campaign...

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetvie...sheetid=350664

But yea, he has Jack of All Trades, and maxxed Int/Cha.

[Spoilers Below]

yer the fist thing the doctor dose is a diplomacy check in every situation,
after every peaceful or intellectual solution is exhausted and no alternative (or at least not a morally adaptable alternative to him) he responds in the same way i do in real life superior level violence to a point where you feel guilty and wish there had been another choice (although i do enjoy the fight as long as its happening just not before or after it).

Absolutely with the diplomacy, and while he's more or less violent depending on regeneration, but he's quite far from the pacifistic and never-killing-without-atonement level guilt that the feat suggests. In the very first adventure he was willing to bludgeon a caveman to death with a rock to allow himself and his companions to escape. The eleventh recently killed a man by redirecting a ton of missiles to blow up his ship. The morality of these actions is certainly worth discussion or debate, but if he did possess that feat, he lost it a long time ago...

[Psyren]

Eccleston wasn't afraid to kick arse either, and lets not forget torturing a Dalek or killing Slevines.

He's Good overall but certainly not enough to be Exalted Good, in any incarnation I'd say.

[Petrocorus]

Don't forget the social skills for the Doctor-- the new regenerations, at least, tend to be pretty good at talking to people.

He should have the Bavarian Fire Drill feats. He use and abuse this a lot.

Thing is, The Doctor, as awesome as he is, has no real powers outside of the Screwdriver, the Tardis, the psychic paper, Regeneration/reincarnation and massive intellect. Regeneration can be granted by a template, race or magic item; the paper, Screwdriver and Tardis are obviously magic items or artifacts. That leaves the intellect, which Expert emulates just fine.

Going Wizard gives him a bunch of other stuff that The Doctor has no business having. When has The Doctor ever thrown a fireball at someone, or teleported himself around? And personally, I think he'd probably avoid using anything called "Time Stop"

I always seen him as an artificer, that would perfectly fit the Doctor.

And as a race, he's probably a native outsider, with a huge Int.

[koboldish]

Thanks so much! That is by far one of the most awesome builds I have ever seen. I hereby award all of you who have contributed an award of awardly awesomeness. Twice. I now have lots of stuff to work with! Just in case, keep the ideas coming .

[koboldish]

Sorry for the double post, but I statted out the screwdriver. Wondrous item of knock, mending, and horizikauls caugh. I'm working on the Tardis at the moment.

[Gavinfoxx]

The Doctor has at least a 22 int, Int to several things:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125732

and the feat Jack of All Trades, and a WHOLE TON of skill points...

Also, remember that as far as the 'do any skill whatsoever' classes go, it is:

Expert < Savant < Factotum

If you can't be a Factotum, look into Savant from Dragon Compendium.

[Sception]

Agree with artificer as a good call. A lot of the technology the Doctor works with is basically magic, and in a magic setting like D&D he'd be an expert in magical effects - or at least have a tinkerer's familiarity.

Same with McGuyver, actually. In D&D worlds magic is simply another law of nature, another scientific field to study, another aspect of engineering to familiarize oneself with.

Artificer has the skill set, the focus in items and tools, and the dabbler's thematic feel to work with these characters.

[koboldish]

I think artificer is the only way to make it work at low levels though. Phooey. I only have 20 hp at level 5 though :(. I figure if I get craft contingent spell at level 11, I can have regeneration (sort of). Nice suggestion though. I know what I'm doing doesn't quite fit the concept, but it seems like the only way to make it work later. I will probably try to make my DM let me use factotum, then go into that after artificer. Mabye a level of ninja for good measure . Thanks.

[Gavinfoxx]

You want to be Factotum at Level 1... for the skills. That with Able Learner means 'All skills are class skills for you, always.'

[koboldish]

True... I would have a bigger craft reserve to have built my screwdriver if I started as an artificer though. That's a very good point though.




Edit: I have statted out the Tardis, and it will cost about 1,200,000 gp and 50,000 xp to build. Not available at low levels.

[Sception]

You want to be Factotum at Level 1... for the skills. That with Able Learner means 'All skills are class skills for you, always.'

How important this is, however, will depend on how many skill points you gain when leveling, and what skills you might want to spend points on that aren't class skills for your other classes.

[Waker]

Good suggestions made thus far, I especially like the one with Death Delver and Ardent Dilletante. Another potential race/class combo to remember is the Changeling Rogue acf. Ton of skill points, able to take 10 on several social skills (because the Doctor never rolls a 1) and for added sillyness you can use your Change Shape ability whenever you need to "Regenerate". Alternatively you could try the Elan race for something that looks human, but is distinctly different. The built-in psionic flavor is a bonus.

[koboldish]

The Elan would be very nice. Psychic rogue, perhaps? I like the psychich abilities, but the sneak attack doesn't seem to fit. And it needs more skills. Mabye like an Elan Factotum/Psion/Artificer/Expert?


Edit: I have finally been converted to Factotum, because I still have the spells for crafting. And the skills. And everything else. I'm looking at Dictum Mortum's handbook right now, and it seems pretty epic. So, lots of knowledge skills, and random points in random things!

[Waker]

It's not quite magic, but you could also take a look at Incarnate from Magic of Incarnum. Makes a decent skillmonkey with all-day buffs, including some stuff that gives you defense against some of the more common dangers that adventurers face, like ability damage or energy attacks. If you liked the Elan race, there is also a theurge PrC for Incarnum and Psionics. You'd have a decent bit of versatility between the two meldshaping and psionics, but since it's a theurge you wouldn't run the risk of overshadowing the rest of the party.
Can't give too much specific build advice since I don't have my books with me though.

[koboldish]

My friend has a copy of Magic of Incarnum. It is really interesting, but I don't think it quite fits. I just read the XP is a river thread, and thought about Factotum crafting.... Muhuhuhahaha....

[Talionis]

True... I would have a bigger craft reserve to have built my screwdriver if I started as an artificer though. That's a very good point though.




Edit: I have statted out the Tardis, and it will cost about 1,200,000 gp and 50,000 xp to build. Not available at low levels.

I think The Tardis is stolen. I think the Tardis says she found The Doctor. The Tardis is almost a mount. I've also thought of her as item familiar.

Additionally, we have never seen a low level The Doctor. It would not surprise me that even the earliest regeneration a were level 20.

MacGuyver is different than the Dr. Mack is much lower level. Does smaller things. I still very much like Expert into Combat Trapsmith for Mack.

[Zonugal]

MacGuyver is different than the Dr. Mack is much lower level. Does smaller things. I still very much like Expert into Combat Trapsmith for Mack.

You have to remember that MacGuyver is basically a secret agent. He gets sent on rogue-equivalent missions.

I'd honestly, using a reductionist 6-level scale, put him at Riklan Rogue 2/Artificer 3/Rogue 1. He has trapfinding, bardic knowledge, great skills, expertise with magical items (read: dnd technology) and via the Spell Storing infusion he can basically "macguyver" his way out of a problem with whatever items are nearby.

[The Viscount]

One class that might be worth considering for MacGyver is Shade Hunter. It has the ability to pull any mundane item worth at most 10 gp per class level from its bag, provided it subtracts the cost from its savings once per day.

[koboldish]

Macgyver is pretty easy, you just need to have a ton of skills and think things through with improvised stuff. Nice build. The Tardis was a wondourus item when I made it, and it was just for fun. It had, like, a ninth level, two or three 6th level, and way more stuff at will. As for being stolen... If it exists in the world already, I don' have to buy it! Item familier sounds cool as well. How would you do it as a mount? If you could post that, it would be amazing! Thanks.

[Malroth]

Human Paragon 1 with able learner, Bardic sage 8, Exemplar10

Psycic paper is precicely duplicated by the 3rd lv spell "illusionary script", The doctors low level telepathy effects work well with appropiate spells from the bards list. Plus the doctor especially the recent incarnations are very good at making ordinary mortals overcome their limitations.

[koboldish]

Well, The Doctor doesn't seem to have as much musicy stuff though. Can you think of a way to re-fluff it? I'll have to look into human paragon as well.

[Waker]

Well, The Doctor doesn't seem to have as much musicy stuff though. Can you think of a way to re-fluff it? I'll have to look into human paragon as well.

Perform (Oratory) works perfectly fine for that. The Doctor just needs the time to talk to work his magic.

Here is a list of acfs for all the 3.5 classes
http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...s_Features_III
Stuff that fits the Doctor; Half-Elf Bard with Soothing Voice, Bardic Sage and maybe grab a bit of Planar Bard for flavor.