Talk:Crackerjack (3.5e Class)

Ratings

	Foxwarrior dislikes this article and rated it 1 of 4.
	Eh I guess it's not completely broken as a design, but I do not like it. There's gonna be some wiki feats you could pick that would voltron together to be unreasonably strong, which you couldn't do as easily with other bonus feat classes because they're restricted by type. And all gestalt games are worsened by this class's existence.

	Fluffykittens opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.
	Gain a ton of insignificant bonuses and a few gamebreaking ones.

DanielDraco opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.

Since its class features are singlemindedly focused on skill use, we cannot ignore here what is ignored for most other classes: UMD and Diplomacy are incredibly strong features. UMD use makes a character able to function as VH, but Diplomacy abuse actually makes a character overpowered even by VH standards. At level 5, a half-elf Crackerjack is capable of taking 10 to get a 34 (8 ranks, 5 favored skill, 6 synergy, 4 charisma, 3 skill focus, 2 mwk tool, 2 negotiator, 2 racial, 2 contemplation) when rushing Diplomacy to a full-round action. The first use will make the enemy Indifferent, ending combat. The second use will make them Helpful, turning them into a new ally. At level 9, their ability to take 20 on it lets them get an automatic 53 as a full-round action -- the first use catapults the foe all the way from Hostile to Helpful, and the second makes them Fanatic. So this class breaks the game on a Pun-Pun scale at level 9, and that's not even using a single bit of cheese or anything outside the SRD. And if it doesn't choose Diplomacy or UMD (or UPD, I guess) as its favored skill, this class is useless in combat. Although it might be amusing to see one choose Jump. WHEEEEEEE!

Some of the balancing assumptions I use when posting homebrew seem relevant. Assumption 1: Effective balance varies greatly from gaming group to campaign. Assumption 2: Many gamers have experience correcting from the game's default balance. Assumption 3: The game's default balance assumes the standard classes, skills and feats to be balanced. So when I write homebrew for posting, I treat the skills as balanced.

If you feel the balance category needs adjusting, I would be happy to change it. --Ideasmith (talk) 03:41, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

(Also, Diplomacy "retries usually don't work." and this applies "Even if the initial Diplomacy check succeeds,"(PH, page 72). So in DanielDraco's examplethe second use would only make the (former) enemy Helpful if the DM decided this was an unusual case that allowed a second check. And per DMG 36-37, whether this counts as defeating the enemy is at the DM's discretion.)--Ideasmith (talk) 03:41, 22 January 2013 (UTC)