As the title says. I'm interesting in making a polymath / historian.
First thought was a wizard, due to all knowledges, and high Int.
But then I saw that the Mindchemist adds twice their Int, and once you get more than 18 int, that eclipses the bonus from all the class skills of knowledge a wizard gets.
The oracle of lore is an option, but I find their spell selection to be a bit weak.
Wizard into the Loremaster PRC at earliest chance probably wins out over Bard, at least in the long term. Wiz 7/LM 2 gets Lore at character level 9, mimicing the Bardic lore ability of the Bard. Wiz 7/LM 2 at lvl 9 would have a +1 to all knowledge skills, while Bard 9 would have a +4. At lvl 10 the Bard gets to a +5 (On even character levels bard would gain a +1, while on odd levels LM would get the +1). So the difference would fluctuate between 3 and 4 in favor of the bard.
However, consider that the wiz/LM will have a much higher intelligence than said Bard. If his Int Mod is 3 or 4 over the Bard's then they will be roughly even. If his Int Mod exceeds the Bards by more than 4, then the Wiz/LM will pull ahead and stay there.
Lets assume a bard will have around a 14 Int, probably unmodified by magic items (as he'll want Cha over Int). So the wiz/LM needs a 20 to 22 Int mod to keep up, which is pretty easy for a wizard around lvl 9 or 10. If he can get that to 24 he'll pull ahead. And 24 Int at lvl 9/10 is doable, but not necessarily guaranteed.
At higher levels the wiz will probably have an incredibly high Int, due to continued boosting of his Int through ability point increases due to levels, headband of Int, and possibly a tome of clear thought or whatever its called. By lvl 20, the Bard 20 would have a net +5 bonus due to bardic lore over the Wiz 10/LM 10's lore ability, but the wiz/LM's Int will likely be 30+ at that point, giving the wiz/LM a boost of a few points over the bard.
All in all though, it will probably be pretty close overall, so either character would work well. The bard will be easiest to do, but the wizard will probably pull ahead of the bard in the long run. (Also consider that while the bard has lots of skill points, he has lots of skills to spend them on, so not as many into his knowledges. The wiz gets lots of skill points from his massive Int, but doesn't have nearly as broad a class skill list as the bard, so he'll likely put more points into knowledge skills overall.)
Oracle of Lore into Loremaster will work too, and the oracle's focused trance ability is pretty awesome for getting incredible knowledge skill checks. However, his skill points will be much lower than the wizards and bards, so he won't have as many to spend on putting points into the knowledge skills.
Elf as the race probably wins out due to the Int boost, and allows for the Breadth of Experience feat that gives a +2 to all knowledge skills.
(Not familiar with the mind chemist class, but if thats the case then taking that into Loremaster if possible would win out completely over the others. Assuming its an Int based class, that is.)
Bard, bard is always a nice base for something like this. Look into the archeologist archetype, it might fit your concept pretty well.
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The first thing you need to look at. What do you need to make the easy and hard rolls for the knowlage skills. The static rolls are from 5 easy to 30 hard. Monsters are 15 + CR = DC (plus exta info for every 5 over your DC).
With this in mind. There are 9 knowlage skills. No class can keap all of them maxed out. Not even the Wizard with a 24 Int.
Human(1)+Bard(6)+Int 12(1)+favord class bonus(1)= 9 skills per level
Acrobatics, Perception, Stealth, UMD, Perform oratary, Perfrom act
3 knowlage skills per level.
Human(1)+ Wizard(2)+Int 20(5)+favord class bonus(1)=9 Skills per level
( They will incress there Int. There next Mod is at level 8, and 16)
Linguestics, Spell Craft,
7 knowlage skills per level (+1 at levels 8 and 16)
level 10
Bard
6 knowlage skills : rank(3)+class skill(3)+Int Mod(1)+Bardic Lore(5)=12
3 Knowlage skills : rank(4)+class skill(3)+Int Mod(1)+Bardic Lore(5)=13
Can take 10 Can take 20 2/day
Wizard
8 Knowlage skills : rank(9)+class skill(3)+Int Mod(6)= 18
1 Knowlage skills : rank(10)+class skill(3)+Int Mod(6)= 19
I think the best class would be an Oracle 1 (Lore, focused trance), Archivist Bard (2) (take 10 or 20), mindchemist 2 (2*Int to Knowledge!), and then the rest wizard.
You'd be rocking those skill checks, but not much else!
I think the best class would be an Oracle 1 (Lore, focused trance), Archivist Bard (2) (take 10 or 20), mindchemist 2 (2*Int to Knowledge!), and then the rest wizard.
You'd be rocking those skill checks, but not much else!
For a build that is more feat intensive but has less multi-classing, a mindchemist with the Kirin Style feat chain can eventually take 10, add double INT to knowledge checks, and spend a swift action to add double INT to a single attack that round. Using targeted bomb admixture and Kirin Strike, you could be adding your INT bonus to damage 4 times on a single bomb throw without splashing your allies. Or if you really want to dip elsewhere, 2 levels of monk (master of many styles) and you can get the first 2 feats in the Kirin Style chain without meeting the requirements. If you're allowed 3.5 material I'd suggest the Kung Fu Genius feat from Dragon Compendium so all your monk abilities are based off INT for better synergy.
