[3.P Eberron] Trying to piece up Melee Utility/Dps

[Bard]

So, new campaign, new character to make, new challenge for me.
This time I'll try to keep a "diary" of what I try and what I end up (hopefully, if I don't give up halfway).

(click to show/hide)

All Paizo's Pathfinder books + 3.5 Dragon Compendium.
All Wizard's 3.5 books.
No Dragon, no Wizard's website.
If something exists on both sides, usually the Pathfinder side is what gets used. 3.5 ACF that didn't end up in a PF archetype can be used on Pathfinder classes if they still have the class ability to trade away.
No templates, no overly weird races (not that being a pink outsider frog-man would have helped anyway).
3.5 Races get an additional +2 to a stat of DM choice. Whatever requires a Concentration roll gets moved to a different skill of DM choice. d4 HD goes up to d6 and d6 MIGHT get up to d8, on a case by case basis.

(click to show/hide)

Nothing much definitive yet, I'll update if I know more.
Cleric w/ Prestige Paladin dip going for Divine Abjurant Champion, a mix of melee-ing, heals and buffs
Conjurer Wizard (mostly summoner, dunno about the specific build)
"Normal" Rogue, lots of attacks, lots of d6, lots of damage, lots of skill, no magic
Some kind of ranged dps?
PF Alchemist (support?)

The target is to make a good damage dealer with enough utility both in and out of combat to be relevant as something other than a glorified slapstick.
As a reference on the damage part I plan on using a not that crappy rogue 20 doing its thing with d8 sneaks and the sniping googles (or whatever they're called, the ones that give +2 damage to each sneak dice). There actually is a rogue way better than that in the party, but I'm not really aiming for top damage, just being comparable. For simplicity since I just need a ballpark value, I'll just consider full round, no misses.

(click to show/hide)

lvl 5:  2x 1d4+3d8 (no goggles yet) Dam: 8-56, avg: 32
lvl 10: 4x 1d4+5d8+10 Dam: 64-216, avg: 140
lvl 15: 6x 1d4+8d8+16 Dam: 150-486, avg: 327
lvl 20: 6x 1d4+10d8+20 Dam: 186-606, avg: 405

The ideas I plan to give a shot on using:
1. Iaijutsu Focus + Warblade/Swordsage, possibly 5-8 levels on Iaijutsu Master. Single attack and using a katana
2. Iaijutsu Focus + Magus, using spellstrike to delivery everything in one hit.
3. Good'ol King of Smack, using some full-caster Psionic class.
4. Like above, but Tashalatora.
5. Give up and play some ranged caster/dps or truly give up and play another batman wizard like always

Apparently I'm a bit rusty and pulling out of the hat something that feels cool, is strong and useful (and not a frankenstain of dips) is hard
Of course suggestions are welcome, both of things to use for those and new ideas. Meanwhile I'll try to consider and post a tentative build for each to see how it turns out. Unluckily I don't have that much free time lately so I expect a day or two between post with some meat and builds in them :|

[geniussavant]

Are you using PF feat progression or 3.5? And don't forget craven for +character Level damage on sneak attacks. And if focusing on sneak attack, make sure you have a reliable way to get around immunities and Dr.

Edit: if you want some spellcasting, you may want to look into spell thief and possibly the trickster variant. I used a trickster spellthief with martial study and stance for assassin's stance first a total of 3d6 sneak attack and bard spell casting in a game as a utility with striker back up.  I think I may have dipped thug fighter and rogue for a Level each for another 2d6 sneak attack, but is been a while.

[Bard]

Pathfinder progression, I'll add that bit of info to the op.

To be honest I'd rather stay away from rogue-like characters as we already have one in the party. I'm just using the rogue damage to balance the character in the context of the party.

The rogue of course has also craven and a couple of levels of swordsage anmong other things.

If there weren't already a rogue in the party I would have gone for a rogue/wizard/spellthief/daggerspell mage or something like that

[geniussavant]

Let's back up just a hair.  Are you just looking to create a character that can hold his own in melee and still have some out of combat use? That isn't rogue like? If you want to change things up,  a gish build would do the same.  I'd almost even consider a dragon fire inspiration bard using snowflake war dance and maybe song of the white raven.

[Bard]

Yep, that's right. My first choice would be a one hit-kill kind of character, with a single huge attack in a round. Failing that, I was thinking of a psionic gish with 9th level powers since I never played one yet.

As soon as I get a bit of free time I plan to post tentative builds here. I hoped I could post the first today, but didn't have the time to finish it yet
At this point I'm working on the magus and the warblade version, gopefully tomorrow I'll have something  ready to post

[Bard]

The first try
So, first one, the initiator-iaido guy. It doesn't seem able to measure up unfortunately, and it's a shame as it was my favorite concept. Even combining manouvers and iaijutsu focus, even using maneuvers for damage (as opposed as making the opponent flat footed) it doesn't work well.

Lvl 5:
Considering a feycraft one handed sword (1d6) that counts as light for flick of the wrist, +5 to Cha and 10 ranks in Iaijitsu Focus, I'd be able to hit with Soaring Rapotr Strike (most damage for the level) and a 10 on the IF roll, it would do 1d6+6d6+3d6, so 10-60 damage with an average of 35, so it looks balanced with the rogue... but...

Lvl 11: (I'm going to consider level 11 here instead of 10 as there's a big damage boost there)
Same weapon, +6 Cha, +37 to Iaijitsu focus (base skill with item familiar, cha, +10 magic item) and using the same Soaring Raptor Strike as it didn't get any newer manouvers...
1d6+6d6+8d6+8x6 the damage would be 63-138, average of 100.5

The build  in progress:


The problem with this:
This lags behind quite a bit already at level 10 and it's not really enough damage. Plus from here on, the damage doesn't increase all that much anymore.
But I don't seem to be able to improve the damage in any significant way. Battle Leap could be an option, but doesn't mesh all that well and it's a bit situational.
Barring any brilliant idea, I think I'll have to discard this build and starting to work on the Magus variant