Actually, my character will wind up being versatile between ranged and melee as a shadowdancer, alogn with his shadow companion. Won't be horribly optimized, but might be fun to play!
Also, a coupla questions:
I'm guessing Leadership is allowed in this campaign.
Do you allow monstrous cohorts? See: monsters with class levels, using their CR-1 as the NPC level? I realize it's unlikely, and I certainly don't plan to do it at this point, but I like to know things, I suppose.