Making a real 'shadowdancer'?

[Shiki]

Hai gals/guys. I've been thinking about [insert thread's name here] and I'm coming here to ask if you could please help me gather ideas to make this concept work. I know it can work, I just want to refine it as much as possible without going that much overboard. I guess it is kind of clear what you'd want out of real 'shadowdancer', but for the sake of it I'll list a few things I want the results of this brainstorm to be able to do:

- Unlimited shadow jump.
- Hide in Plain Sight.
- Usual shadow manipulation sthick.
- Skillful in the very least.
- Scouting abilities through the roof.
- Can hold its own in combat.
- If even a caster/manifester/etc at all, it must be able to heart the theme as much as possible.

The class in the DMG is so bad that I don't want it to be mentioned in any way, maybe even as a dip because feat tax stinks, though it could fit in a build with Telflammar Shadowlord and whatnot I guess, but it absolutely needs unlimited shadow jump, else it's not cool enough. Things in the vain of Naberius faster healing + Ritual of Shadow Walking + Troll Blooded (+ Immunity to non-lethal) are welcomed.

I'd really appreciate anything you people can/could come up with, as I lack time to work on d&d as of late.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Umm...this is the closest I can think of.

Cloistered Cleric w/ Shadow and Illusion domains and PHB2 alt. class feature for spontaneous casting of the Illusion domain
Prestige into Shadowcraft Mage and then Ruby Knight Vindicator.

Only problem is you'd need to use the adaptation section for RKV as Wee Jas has neither of those domains, iirc.  Preferably an adapted RKV that requires entering via Swordsage dip instead of Crusader dip, but if not, RKV provides the Shadow Hand maneuvers anyway, Swordsage would just be more helpful for this build.

- With Shadow Hand shadow teleporting being at will until refreshed and RKV's ability to burn a swift action and turn undead use to instantly recover a maneuver you have unlimited shadow jump.
- Shadowcraft Mage gives a constant 20% -40% (based on class level) concealment via a cloak of shadow, which should allow you to hide at will.
- ScM means pretty much every spell you're casting is manipulating shadow
- You'll have decent skill points and spells to help with scouting
- It's a cleric martial adept, it'll do fine in combat.
- Your feats and build will be geared towards this (ScM alone requires 4 feats just to work; Swordsage if applicable requires Adaptive Style and the Shadow Hand related feats are nice, and so forth...), and you're going to be spontaneously dropping prepared spells to cast shadow spells all day long.

[SleepyShadow]

I suggest perhaps a Ninja 3/Unarmed Swordsage 2/Shadow Sun Ninja 10/Invisible Blade 5.

This build gives you:

- Trapfinding and the usual skills that go with it.
- Swift action invisibility.
- Many shadow and darkness manipulation abilities that are either unlimited or refreshed each encounter.
- +17 BAB, +2d6 Sudden Strike, +3d6 Sneak Attack, all good saves, and a good AC (even better if your DM lets the Ninja and Swordsage Wisdom AC bonuses stack).
- Excellent scouting and general usefulness.
- Feat-light.

[Shiki]

Wow I'm bad I had forgotten about Shadow Hand maneuvers...

Looks good so far, keep 'em coming if you can.

[Prime32]

A refluffed blink dog with the Dark template and the Shadowblade^ToM PrC?

Or a warlock/child of night^ToM for shadowpouncing.

There's feats in Drow of the Underdark which give you things like HiPS powered by uses of a darkness SLA.

[Rebel7284]

Telflamar Shadowlord is the real shadow dancer.  Works best with some psionics.

[Endarire]

Swordsage for the Shadow Jaunt/Blink/Stride maneuvers seems to do it.  Telflammar Shadowlord would help, too.

[Wiggins]

Another vote here for Shadow Blink/Shadow Pounce combining Ruby Knight Vindicator and Telflammar Shadow Lord
Nightsticks give Extra Turning, effectively turning gold into shadow jumps. Not quite infinite, but as close as you're likely to get.

Fey Heritage and Legacy are a good way into Telflammar Shadow Lord's requirements as Maneuvers don't strictly meet them.

Skilled City-Dweller Drow Fighter 2/ Warblade 2/ Cloistered Cleric 1 (Knowledge Devotion, Law Devotion, Magic Domain)/ Ruby Knight Vindicator 6/ Warblade +1/ Telflammar Shadow Lord 4/ Ruby Knight Vindicator +1/ Warblade +3

Ready Maneuvers; Shadow Stride, Shadow Blink, White Raven Hammer Attack, Castigating Strike (via Martial Study), Earthstrike Quake

[X-Codes]

Some ideas...

Warlock 1 can get you Darkness at will, which combined with Instinctive Darkness and Fade Into Darkness are pretty awesome.  (Fade Into Darkness is also, basically, HiPS)

The teleport maneuver in question can be obtained via an item, and usable once per encounter in that way.  If you want more than that, then picking up a level in an initiator class will give you a method of refreshing maneuvers.  Warblade or Crusader are best in this situation, IMO.

Rebuking undead can get you control over shadows, and is progressed by Eldritch Disciple (which also progresses Invocations).

[Shiki]

Bunch of good ideas, thanks people.

With Psionics, I guess something with (Dominant Ideal) Ardent into Telflammar Shadowlord is cool, plus some Swordsage.. etc.

That Rebuke Undead and Eldritch Disciple are awesome ideas. Plus, I've always liked Invocations users.

[NiteCyper]

Warlock 1 can get you Darkness at will, which combined with Instinctive Darkness and Fade Into Darkness are pretty awesome.  (Fade Into Darkness is also, basically, HiPS)

X-Codes doesn't mean the Fade into Darkness feat  from Drow of the Underdark. The Blend into Shadows feat is meant.

[X-Codes]

 

Say it with me: fuck WotC's editors.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

Say it with me: fuck WotC's editors.

 

I'll pass on that personally.  I will say I think they were smoking some pretty heavy stuff when they made a lot of things though.

I want to play a Warlock with that now, among other things.

[Wiggins]

The Gloom Razor feat would make any of these builds work just a little better too, and if you went the Maneuver Blinking route you already meet most of the prerequisites

[X-Codes]

The Gloom Razor feat would make any of these builds work just a little better too, and if you went the Maneuver Blinking route you already meet most of the prerequisites

The Gloom Razor feat is secretly awesome in many ways, but getting it efficiently pretty much mandates a Swordsage dip (that's the only bad thing about it, though).

[SorO_Lost]

If you go Warlock you can dip Binder to cover ability damage for Hellfire (and Dark Speech if you use that), then of course snag a ritual or two out of Lords of Darkness. There is a 100ft teleport that can be obtained once you can expend the 2,000gp & 500gp to permanently obtain it.

[liquid150]

If you go Warlock you can dip Binder to cover ability damage for Hellfire (and Dark Speech if you use that), then of course snag a ritual or two out of Lords of Darkness. There is a 100ft teleport that can be obtained once you can expend the 2,000gp & 500gp to permanently obtain it.

Ritual of Shadow Walking, IIRC, in the section about the cult of Shar. You can also use Necropolitan to cover the ability damage from that one.

[X-Codes]

Shadow-Walker Warlock 1/Binder 1 using Naberious to negate all the ability damage... not bad.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

If you go Warlock you can dip Binder to cover ability damage for Hellfire (and Dark Speech if you use that), then of course snag a ritual or two out of Lords of Darkness. There is a 100ft teleport that can be obtained once you can expend the 2,000gp & 500gp to permanently obtain it.

Ritual of Shadow Walking, IIRC, in the section about the cult of Shar. You can also use Necropolitan to cover the ability damage from that one.

Might as well pick up 'honest pain' while you're at it.

[liquid150]

If you go Warlock you can dip Binder to cover ability damage for Hellfire (and Dark Speech if you use that), then of course snag a ritual or two out of Lords of Darkness. There is a 100ft teleport that can be obtained once you can expend the 2,000gp & 500gp to permanently obtain it.

Ritual of Shadow Walking, IIRC, in the section about the cult of Shar. You can also use Necropolitan to cover the ability damage from that one.

Might as well pick up 'honest pain' while you're at it.

Honest pain? Doesn't ring a bell.