No love for Mimic Class Feature? Granted, most of it is pretty lame, but using it to pick up turning to fuel DMM or devotion feats is pretty nice:
"
Mimic Class Feature: At 3rd level, you gain the ability to mimic a certain class feature possessed by other characters...
Turn/Rebuke Undead (Su): You can turn or rebuke undead creatures (your choice when activating the ability) by channeling the power of your faith through a holy symbol. See Turn or Rebuke Undead, page 159 of the Player's Handbook. Treat your cleric level as equal to your class level."
The limitation on Mimic Class Feature still applies - you can only use the mimicked ability once per day for each use of Mimic. The question I have is, do you gain an actual turning pool (that you can only use once), or do you just gain a single turn attempt? It calls back to the actual cleric class feature, so if you get the former, that's potentially three extra
pools of turning. For a chameleon with a Charisma of 10 and Extra Turning, that's 21 bonus turn attempts. You can only actually turn or rebuke undead once, but who cares? You're just funneling the turn attempts into DMM.
If you only gain one specific turn attempt, that's a little less fun, but it is still pretty handy for fueling devotion feats and the like.
If you're looking for builds, over on another forum I have an
archer build compendium, and four of the builds involve Chameleon (it's one of my favorite classes):
The Zen Chameleon
BUILD STUB: Human, Cloistered Cleric (Knowledge, Planning, Trickery) 1/Soulknife 2/Ranger 2/Soulbow 2/Chameleon 10/Swordsage 2/Warblade 1
PROGRESSION:
1. Cloistered Cleric1- Point Blank Shot, Able Learner, Knowledge Devotion, Extend Spell
2. Soulknife1- Weapon Focus (mind blade), Hidden Talent (psionic minor creation)
3. Ranger1- Track, Precise Shot
4. Ranger2- Rapid Shot
5. Soulknife2-
6. Soulbow1- Zen Archery, Persistent Spell
7. Soulbow2-
8. Chameleon1-
9. Chameleon2- Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell)
10. Chameleon3-
11. Chameleon4-
12. Chameleon5- Extra Turning
13. Chameleon6-
14. Chameleon7-
15. Chameleon8- Travel Devotion
16. Chameleon9-
17. Chameleon10-
18. Swordsage1- Woodland Archer
19. Swordsage2-
20. Warblade1-
This is my attempt at a solely Wis-centric zen archer. Ends up with Wisdom to attack, damage and AC, in addition to powering Chameleon spellcasting. I must say, I do like Chameleon alongside a splash of initiating classes, for the ability to pick up Martial Study for maneuvers on demand. (I do similar things with the incarnate archer, picking up Totemist-only soulmelds or chakra binds when necessary).
If you can use items that grant feats to qualify for prestige classes, or you are playing with flaws, consider dropping the level of Warblade for a level of Shiba Protector. You lose out on White Raven Tactics, but you gain double your Wisdom bonus to both attack and damage. That gets nasty, especially when Owl's Insight is on board...
Soul Dreamer (Incarnum Archer + Earth Dreamer)
BUILD STUB: Azurin, Cloistered Cleric (Knowledge, Trickery, Planning) 1/Incarnate 2/Ranger 2/Chameleon 10/Earth Dreamer 5
PROGRESSION:
1. Cloistered Cleric1- Able Learner, Extend Spell, Persistent Spell
2. Ranger1- Track
3. Ranger2- Rapid Shot, DMM (Persistent Spell)
4. Incarnate1-
5. Incarnate2-
6. Chameleon1- Earth Sense
7. Chameleon2-
8. Earth Dreamer1-
9. Earth Dreamer2- Open Least Chakra (Hands)
10. Earth Dreamer3-
11. Earth Dreamer4-
12. Earth Dreamer5- Chain Spell
13. Chameleon3-
14. Chameleon4-
15. Chameleon5- DMM (Chain Spell)
16. Chameleon6-
17. Chameleon7-
18. Chameleon8- Extra Turning
19. Chameleon9-
20. Chameleon10-
This was actually an early draft for the TISP Sniper, a build that fires arrows through walls, but I liked it so much that I branched it off on its own. In addition to the standard persist shenanigans, this also uses DMM (Chain) to apply Brilliant Energy Arrow to all her arrows as a swift action. Earth Dreamer provides Earth Glide and Earth Sight to stalk enemies from afar, while Chameleon's floating feat can be used to nab higher level chakra binds or totemist soulmelds when necessary.
Ultimate Arcane Archer
BUILD STUB: Half-Elf, Half-Elf Paragon 3/Martial Wizard 1/Cloistered Cleric (Trickery, Planning) 1/Fighter 2/Chameleon 10/Death Delver 1
PROGRESSION:
1. Half-Elf Paragon1- Human Heritage, Able Learner
2. Cloistered Cleric1- Knowledge Devotion, Extend Spell
3. Wizard1- Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
4. Fighter1- Rapid Shot
5. Fighter2- Weapon Focus (longbow)
6. Chameleon1- Persistent Spell
7. Chameleon2-
8. Chameleon3-
9. Chameleon4- Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell)
10. Arcane Archer1-
11. Arcane Archer2-
12. Chameleon5- Extra Turning
13. Chameleon6-
14. Chameleon7-
15. Chameleon8- Extra Turning
16. Chameleon9-
17. Chameleon10-
18. Death Delver1- Extra Turning
19. Half-Elf Paragon2-
20. Half-Elf Paragon3-
OK, I love Arcane Archer, and I love Chameleon, so it should be no big surprise that I tried to get them both into the same build. Half-Elf Paragon lets me take both Human Heritage and Able Learner at first level, allowing me to qualify for both Arcane Archer and Chameleon down the road.
Depending on your reading of Mimic Class Feature, this should allow me to persist a ridiculous number of buffs - with five turning pools (cleric, death delver, mimic class feature x3), that's 75 + (5xCha) turn attempts before items. In any case, as for spells to imbue, there are a huge number of options, since as a Chameleon you can cast just about any spell in the game of 6th-level or below. The classic is AMF, of course, but I also enjoy using Imbue Arrow to cheat down the casting time of otherwise difficult spells. You can also pick up Control Weather off the shugenja list as a 6th-level spell, for example. Guards and Wards is another fun one to imbue.
As an alternative, consider dropping two instances of Extra Turning for Spell Mastery and Uncanny Forethought, allowing you to swap out the arcane side of your Chameleon progression on demand.
The Sniper Assassin (inspired by ksbsnowowl's sniper archer)
BUILD STUB: Ranger (Arcane Hunter) 2/Wilderness Feat Rogue 4/Deepwood Sniper 7/Chameleon 7
(Dedicated to an Elder Evil of your choosing.)
PROGRESSION:
1. Feat Rogue1- PBS, Precise Shot, Able Learner, Evil Brand
2. Ranger1- Track
3. Ranger2- Rapid Shot, Darkstalker
4. Feat Rogue2- WF (Comp. Longbow)
5. Feat Rogue3- Blood War Conscript
6. Feat Rogue4- Far Shot, Martial Study (Shadow Jaunt)
7. Deepwood Sniper1-
8. DWS2-
9. DWS3- Knowledge Devotion
10. DWS4- Murderous Intent
11. Chameleon1-
12. Chameleon2- Martial Stance (Assassin’s Stance)
13. DWS5-
14. DWS6-
15. DWS7- Apostate, Craven
16. Chameleon3-
17. Chameleon4-
18. Chameleon5- Maiming Strike
19. Chameleon6-
20. Chameleon7- Insane Defiance
This is my take on ksbsnowowl's classic Deepwood Sniper archer.
Basically, this relies on Hunter's Mercy plus Murderous Intent to fire off arrows guaranteed to crit with a x6 multiplier (kaorti resin arrows plus Deepwood Sniper's ability). Arcane Hunter means Murderous Intent works against a pretty broad range of enemies, and it can use the Chameleon floating feat to pick up Extra Favored Enemy, for new favored enemies when necessary.
It gets all the relevant stealth goodies, Poison Use, and Chameleon can nab Minor Creation to make poisons on demand. Maiming Strike means that you can sacrifice your sneak attack damage for static Charisma damage which will multiply on a crit. With Hunter's Eye we're looking at 4 points of Charisma damage, which translates to 24 points of Charisma damage with the auto-crit. (Ego Whip, eat your heart out.) Make sure to use Sniper's Shot to extend your range.
As far as damage goes, assuming a +2 collision energy bow with GMW cast on it, and a +4 strength bonus, we can look at something like...
1d8 +2 FE +20 craven +1 Blood War Conscript +5 enhancement +5 collision +4 strength +17 power shot +5 knowledge devotion = 1d8+59 base damage. So with a single arrow, we're looking at a MINIMUM of 360 points of damage, plus poison and 24 points of Charisma damage.
Honestly I'm a little disappointed with the damage, because that means that its "headshots" do less damage than the expected CR 20 HP (~448), although the bonus effects are nice. That being said, while only the first attack will auto-crit, there's nothing in the world stopping you from making a full attack, so the subsequent shots should do the trick.