Our next campaign is going to be an Evil Gestalt campaign, and one of the players wants to play as a Gun Chemist Alchemist20 / Spy20. He does not want to multi-class or prestige class. He told me his vision for the character is to infiltrate organizations, adeptly sap/incapacitate people when needed, use a firearm when needed, and have a heavy use of disguise and stealth.
I've never played a spy before, so I'm wondering what kind of feats/items would help him do this? My first thought was seeing if he would go Human for Focused Study (to get Skill Focus in Stealth, Disguise, and Bluff), and Hellcat Stealth and Hellcat Pounce.
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Taking a peek on d20pfsrd - is it this spy that you mean? If so, it has full sneak attack so sap adept/master are obvious feats to get if he wants to use a sap.
Some variation on a hat of disguise (&/or sleeves of many garments, glamered armor etc.) is handy for a spy as a concept rather than a class
Taking a peek on d20pfsrd - is it this spy that you mean? If so, it has full sneak attack so sap adept/master are obvious feats to get if he wants to use a sap.
Some variation on a hat of disguise (&/or sleeves of many garments, glamered armor etc.) is handy for a spy as a concept rather than a class
Yes, that is the Spy this player is wanting to play as. Thanks Avr, I think a Hat of Disguise and Sleeves of Many Garments are perfect for what he wants to do. Do you have any recommendations for mid-late level?
There's a fair few magic items in Ultimate Intrigue for sneaky types. The dampen presence feat is necessary to beat blindsense/sight later on.
There's not a lot of spy talents. It might be worth asking the GM if some more rogue talents can be imported.
The spy looks very like a rogue in general. It might benefit from many of the same things - either version of the sniping weapon property, items which improve vision so as to negate miss chances (anything which gives darkvision, a goz mask or fogcutting lenses, etc.), maybe a decoy ring. The alchemist side would benefit from boro beads, an endless bandolier and eventually a vest of stable mutation.
That's the thing, I am the GM of this campaign. The player is asking me for advice on what feats/items to get to help him do the things he wants to do. I've never played a Spy before, and this particular player is extremely eccentric; like, I have no idea what he will do in any 6 seconds of a 6 hour session. He is a mostly-new player to Pathfinder (he's been playing about 2 years as of now, and this current campaign is only his 2nd campaign, but his playstyle is just out of this world); I was DMing back in d&d 2.0 in the late 90's; this player is simply one-of-a-kind as far as his logic for figuring out encounters and general roleplaying. Anywho, he's getting a much stronger feel for the mechanics of the game, and he's asking me for advice on what feats/items to get to enhance his "Spy play".
So far he has told me his vision for his character is to infiltrate organizations to not only spy and report, but to shut-down and incapacitate from within - either with stealthy play, or even by spreading rumors and inciting in-fighting and riots; also to sap/inctate people with sneak attacks and hide or disguise the bodies when needed, and when forced into full-on actual combat, he wants to use alchemy and firearms.
I think he is going to be extremely focused on bluff, stealth, disable device, and disguise.
So I guess the TL:DR version is: what feat progression should this guy go for to level 12-ish? What items should he keep on his radar?
Dampen Presence is awesome for beating Blindsense/Blindsight, and Alchemists can get a "spell" called Negate Aroma so he cannot be tracked by scent. I'm perfectly okay with him importing Rogue talents - but I would like to limit it a little bit simply because this is a Gestalt campaign and I know the Spy is a bit of a forlorn class in terms of Rogue talents.
Given the spy gets bonuses to bluff and disguise skills anyway I'm not sure he'd need skill focuses in those. Having some sort of low-light or darkvision is useful for someone sneaking around too - a half-elf might be an idea.
Here's how feats / talents / discoveries might go:
1: enforcer or weapon finesse
Human or half-elf: skill focus (stealth)
Talent 2: combat trick (sap adept)
Discovery 2: chemical stability
3: rapid reload
Talent 4: trapfinding
Discovery 4: pheromones
5: sap master
Talent 6: trap spotter
Discovery 6: dispelling bomb
Gun chemist 6: point blank shot (he already has rapid reload)
7: precise shot
Talent 8; fast stealth
Discovery 8: confusion bomb
9: rapid shot
Advanced talent 10: feat (dampen presence)
Discovery 10: rapid ordnance
Trying it out there, splitting feats between melee and ranged on those two classes with few bonus feats is fairly hard. Also having the spy get trapfinding, trap spotter and fast stealth makes it unnecessary to import more talents.
Besides the items I named try following the link I put in to Ultimate Intrigue on Archives of Nethys. There are several items worth looking at there.