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Thread: MacGyver/The Doctor
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2013-01-30, 08:57 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2011
MacGyver/The Doctor
Alirght! I know I don't contribut much to the forum, but I have come to ask the playgrounders a question: How would you build either The Doctor or MacGyver in D&d? Preferably without being a spellcaster or a factotum. Thanks!
3.5, not Pathfinder.
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2013-01-30, 09:08 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Well, I suppose you could make a MacGyver-ish character with a rogue/expert. Take basically ALL the knowledge and craft skills, plus search and disable device. Prioritize int above all else.
The doctor, I have no idea.
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2013-01-30, 09:10 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
The doctor is a homebrew outsider with lots of neat tricks/laughably obsolete technology.
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2013-01-30, 09:12 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Well, the Doctor pretty much has to be some kind of skills monkey.
If we go with the old show flavor, we could even give him some nonlethal combat skills.
I'd give him Skill Mastery and some kind of skill ticks or ACF to allow him to quickly infiltrate locks and bypass traps. There is a feat of some kind in BoED that allows one to deal nonlethal damage better. Giving him Vow of Nonviolence might not be out of line, but sadly it has totally miserable effects for anyone that isn't a spellcaster.
Really, rogue is looking pretty golden. He needs access to all Knowledge, though, so this might call for some kind of dip. Factotum is really good for him, but Jack of All Trades may work alright too. Regardless, Int is his key stat by a wide margin. I'd follow by Dex/Wis, Con, Cha, then Str. You pretty much have to ignore all of his racial traits.
So, Rogue headed for Exemplar. If you want non-magical inspirational coolness, Exemplar PrC from Complete Adventurer is the way to go. Look for ACF and feats that switch rogue stuff from dex to int. There was a feat called Keen that lets interaction skills key off Int, I believe.In my dreams, I am currently adruid 20/wizard 10/arcane hierophant 10/warshaper 5.Actually, after giving birth to a galaxy by splitting a black hole, level is no longer relevant.
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2013-01-30, 09:15 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Don't forget the social skills for the Doctor-- the new regenerations, at least, tend to be pretty good at talking to people.
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2013-01-30, 09:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2012
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Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Exemplar and Skill Artistry (talk to DM about making it something other than competence bonus, maybe insight, since as written it just ends up duplicating magic item effects) can go a long way to the social skills being top notch. As I mentioned, there is some kind of Dragon Mag stuff to alter rogue to be Intelligence based. You could still give him a good Charisma, of course, but he has racial traits that bump his Intelligence way, way, way more than any of his other stats. The higher level benefits of Exemplar are pretty awesome, too, not to mention over 10 levels this nets an int-based character a crazy number of skill points, probably in the range of 150-180.
Also look into PrC that grant permanent bonuses to stats. Mythic Exemplar from Complete Champion comes to mind. Flush all the fluff, and the int-character, Ktolemagne IIRC, has some cool benefits. Pretty much a caster, though. The Doctor might benefit from some of the stuff granted to other paragon paths, though.
Some of the old shows actually went into describing the way that the brains of Time Lords (not sure if it was only Time Lords or all Gallifreyans) were different from those of humans. Pretty cool stuff. It would be all but impossible to make a time lord race, though. Way too much coolness to quantify, but I guess one could try to narrow it down some. Still, the LA stands to be quite high.In my dreams, I am currently adruid 20/wizard 10/arcane hierophant 10/warshaper 5.Actually, after giving birth to a galaxy by splitting a black hole, level is no longer relevant.
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2013-01-30, 09:39 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2011
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Awesome! Thanks! What book is vow of nonviolence in? I still haven't decided on class.
Edit: Nevermind, I messaged a friend and vow of nonviolence is not for me :)Last edited by koboldish; 2013-01-30 at 09:40 PM.
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2013-01-30, 09:48 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2012
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- Realm of Dreams
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
In my dreams, I am currently adruid 20/wizard 10/arcane hierophant 10/warshaper 5.Actually, after giving birth to a galaxy by splitting a black hole, level is no longer relevant.
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2013-01-30, 09:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2011
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Aww... Hmmm.... How about psychich rogue or lurk? Would those be absolutely terrible?
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2013-01-30, 09:58 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2012
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- Realm of Dreams
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Don't know a lot about psychic rogue, but there is precedent for the Doctor having quasi-psychic abilities. I'd aim for telepathy, mainly hypnosis (charm), and ones that boost his interaction skills.
Lurk is pretty dark in flavor, but if you could keep the elaborate-murder flavor out of their powers and class stuff, then I'd say fine.
I went with rogue off the bat because of the more urban flavor and the high skill points. Scout wouldn't be 100% out of line either, just the new Doctor isn't in the countryside half as much as he once was. There is evidence that he might have access to Track as well, and Scout bonus feats might be nice. The bigger HD for Scout is also good, as the Doctor is stupidly difficult to kill. Consider feats like Endurance and such.
If I were to custom make his race, Endurance would be free, and they'd probably have some kind of cool use of Autohypnosis to ignore pain and damage for 1 round. Kind of a Mad Foam Rager racial ability. Hehe, there is just too much material from 50 years of the show to replicate even a portion of their abilities in a balanced fashion. That said, I'm sure many people have made a 3.5 Time Lord race, especially since the new show is very popular across much of the world.In my dreams, I am currently adruid 20/wizard 10/arcane hierophant 10/warshaper 5.Actually, after giving birth to a galaxy by splitting a black hole, level is no longer relevant.
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2013-01-30, 10:41 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2012
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Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Rule 1 on death immediate reincarnation to a time lord moving on.
listen to the Tom Baker radio shows of doctor who.
as his states in that are
STR 10
DEX 10
CON 10
INT 75
WIS over nine thousand (he knows the whole of the earths and humans history and a around the grand total of everyone everything)
CHA 20
and craft skill are all of the charts as he once fixed a spaceship with only a pair of stocking wile suffering from the time lord equivalent of senile denture from a 900 year exile
move onto the Sylvester McCoy the 7th doctor
he is an epic level fighter who has taken vow of peace,
and happily beats well trained SS lunar future Nazis with only an umbrella in hand and his tardis stolen by a Bloody SS nuclear weapon scientist who rewrote history to mack Nazis a space faring empire by 1991,
but i digress the doctor is an epic level planes shifting, chronomancer, skill money, with enoth feats making it so he can do enoth to make MacGyver look like an armless child playing with lego, who is around a with fist level character and solving ALLLLL problems he runs into regardless of where people want his help of not.
so yer play MacGyver that's easy in comparison in every way, and slightly better play wise as silly shenanigans and abusing jury rigging is much more rewarding then macing the DM look in informed and the enemy incompetent.
so in my opinion enjoy MacGyver as is is fun relay relay fun but I'm not sure how to pull that of tho.
Edit:i forgot to mention the doctor refuses to use any special powers he has is he has an alternative.Last edited by searlefm; 2013-01-30 at 10:42 PM.
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2013-01-30, 11:11 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2007
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- Manchester NH
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Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
MacGyver I'm not sure...
But the doctor... well the doctor in my mind is a human bard 1. Taking the jack of all trades feat and taking bardic knack... Then maybe a level of artificer to explain the gadgets. I don't know about the regeneration stuff but thats what I would play if I was making the doctor.When the end comes i shall remember you.
I sorry i fail Englimish...(appologise for Spelling/Grammer Errors) Please don't correct my spelling or grammer eaither.
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2013-01-31, 03:19 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jan 2012
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
I kind of like the cerebrex for this, but I kind of like the cerebrex in general. Rogue's skill progression, half spell progression, gets a bonus equal to his level on Int checks in order to solve any puzzle, code, enigma, or riddle, Craft, access to all Knowledge skills, Speak Language. We see Doctor 10 frequently using senses other than sight, and Cerebrex gets scent, blindsense, and eventually blindsight. He can send other creatures into a rage (and for any non-barbarians, this rage is largely futile). He's got such great control over his brain that he can boost his own Dex score. Immune to telepathy, clairaudience/clairvoyance at will. Can wipe prepared spells from his opponent's brains. Insight bonuses to AC and all the social skills based on knowing what his opponent's going to do before his opponent does, and gets bonuses against illusions, mind-affecting, sleep, and fear effects. And he has an eidetic memory as a class feature.
Beguiler or bard might be a good way to prepare for getting into the class, though I'm gonna lean beguiler because I love beguilers. Super versatile, almost entirely nonlethal, lots of misdirection and manipulation.Last edited by Ellrin; 2013-01-31 at 03:23 AM.
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2013-01-31, 10:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Jul 2007
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- Bellona
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Vow of Nonviolence isn't too bad - that one's a personal vow, so you don't have to be the party nanny. You just personally can't deal lethal damage or ability damage to humanoids. It's actually quite nice for a lot of builds, if they can stomach being Exalted. It's Vow of Peace that I think should be anathema to any party.
I always think the half-elf bard substitution level granting Soothing Voice would be excellent for the Doctor, if you can handle making the Doctor a half-elf. (There were a couple of the older stories that implied the Doctor was half-human, so you could treat elves as Time Lords maybe? But that thread was never really followed up on, because it was kind of silly.)Optimization Showcase in the Playground
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2013-01-31, 11:25 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Plague Doctor by Crimmy
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2013-01-31, 11:56 AM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2011
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Steal the Anytool from Pathfinder's Ultimate Equipment book. Cheap magic item, with a command word it becomes any nonmagical tool you require. Seems like a pretty reasonable facsimile of the Screwdriver.
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2013-01-31, 12:01 PM (ISO 8601)
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2013-01-31, 03:59 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2011
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Thanks for all the help everyone! I'll look into some stuff, probably beguiler (and a slightly psychich paper), as I have decided to build The Doctor. Keep up all of the good work!
Edit: Poked around on Google, and it looks like I need to buy Dragon 317, because Cerebrex is perfect and exactly what I'm looking for. Anyone have unconventional uses for intelligence besides spells?Last edited by koboldish; 2013-01-31 at 04:04 PM.
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2013-01-31, 04:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Oct 2010
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Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Well, Cerebrex gets 60 ft. Blindsight and a boatload of skill points, but that's all it really has going for it if you ask me. And it really should have been psionic as far as I'm concerned.
If you're interested in it, it's also in Dragon Compendium if you have access to that.Last edited by Psyren; 2013-01-31 at 04:55 PM.
Plague Doctor by Crimmy
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2013-01-31, 04:57 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2011
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Alright. What do you think would work better than cerebrex, then?
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2013-01-31, 05:15 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2011
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2013-01-31, 05:18 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2011
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
So, like 500 to make it on par with a 20th level wizard, right .
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2013-01-31, 05:26 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2011
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
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"
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2013-01-31, 05:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2011
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2013-01-31, 05:46 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2011
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Thank you
I've already mentioned my suggestion of using the Anytool cribbed from Pathfinder Ultimate Equipment as a sort of substitute for the Screwdriver. It can basically be any piece of mundane equipment you may need all at once, which is more or less what the Screwdriver is anyway.
Tardis is more difficult, and basically requires some homebrew. I'd imagine an adamantine box with a door, that has a permanent Rope Trick cast inside, can fly at will, and can cast Plane Shift and Greater Teleport on command.
Psychic Paper is the most difficult of all, because it has no real analogue mechanically. Some sort of permanent illusion/mindreading type magic item is all I could really come up with.
For regeneration, I don't have any books with me, but I'm sure there exists some template with Regeneration on it. If not, the Ring of Regeneration exists.
For The Doctor himself, like I said, 20+ levels of Expert and huge Int Wis and Cha scores is all you really need.
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2013-01-31, 05:51 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2011
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Most campaigns I play in start at level 1. How would you suggest doing this at low levels? I'll ask my DM if I can have a higher point buy for playing an NPC class .
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2013-01-31, 06:17 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Aug 2011
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2013-01-31, 06:47 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2011
Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Very true. Would it be possible to make a something of knock at level 1?
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2013-01-31, 07:37 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: MacGyver/The Doctor
Actually, you've overlooked quite a lot. Even focusing on the new doctor, he's shown to have some strange ability to redirect energy that he absorbs, as well as having some kind of racial energy resistance . Ability to metabolize poisons also came up in that episode with Agatha Christie.
The old doctor used powerful hypnosis on numerous occasions. Low-level telepathy. Ability to meditatively slow and virtually stop his metabolic functions. Ability to stop both of his hearts (feign death). Ability to stop breathing for prolonged periods of time. One of his regenerations had access to some pretty extreme barehanded combat ability, and it's later implied that he could still use it, just that the personalities of his later bodies all had an even greater distaste for violence. He should also have crossbow proficiency, possibly also bow proficiency, and mad fencing skills. He knows a lot about combat, just he intentionally never uses it.
Now, as I said before, actually modeling everything that he is capable of doing is quite hard. Skills-based should be the go-to flavor, since the Doctor pretty much laughs at AMF. He is way, way more dependent on his screwdriver in the new show. It was around a lot before, but even without it he routinely escapes bonds, picks locks, bypasses security systems, and such. The screwdriver is a great asset, but it's hardly a crutch. He also had a sonic lance at one point, like a screwdriver but more focused on building things than taking them apart, as far as I could tell.Last edited by Phelix-Mu; 2013-01-31 at 07:39 PM.
In my dreams, I am currently adruid 20/wizard 10/arcane hierophant 10/warshaper 5.Actually, after giving birth to a galaxy by splitting a black hole, level is no longer relevant.
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2013-01-31, 07:40 PM (ISO 8601)
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- Dec 2011