kBro's page

Human Sanctified Slayer Inquisitor with Rogue VMC

The goal here is to take advantage of combining studied target, spells, bane, sneak attack, and ranger combat style feats to enable huge amounts of damage on a single stealth alpha strike, while at the same time being devastating in normal party combat. The build really comes online once Named Bullet is available, but prior to that using stealth to set up bane sneak attacks is your go to. Additionally, picking up the ranged teamwork feats for solo tactics along with picking up point blank master with ranger combat styles means you can shoot in melee without issue. On top of all this you have lots of out of combat utility and eventually suffer no consequences on any successful save. If you really want to go heavy into infiltrator assassin, the Infiltrator archetype stacks with the Sanctified Slayer archetype. The Recovery Inquisition also works very well with this concept. As an added bonus, this build works with any inquisitor stat array, because all feats have no stat requirements and you'll be getting absurd bonuses to hit from studied target, teamwork feats, bane, and spells.

I had toyed around with the idea of DEX as precision damage in addition to STR with finessable weapons, under the rule that everyone can use finessable weapons with DEX to attack, and when using a finessable weapon (either with STR or DEX to attack) you add your DEX as precision damage. To check if this makes finesse weapons simply better than using non-finesse, I wrote a program to calculate the DPR of all weapon damage dice options for all weapon types. From that, I came to an interesting conclusion :

Even with weapon finesse free and DEX added to damage, STR still had the highest DPR. This is due to a number of reasons. First, the number of weapons you can use if you are a STR fighter is significantly larger than weapons you can finesse, and those weapons all have much larger damage dice than the finesse weapons. This results in finesse weapons, while allowing the addition of DEX to damage, still only matching and rarely passing normal weapons because of superior damage dice. Another thing with this rule is large crit ranges benefit STR more than DEX, because DEX is added as precision damage. The precision damage condition also holds back DEX due to conditions that prevent precision damage from being applied, like fortification effects, concealment, and flat immunity.

As an example, take two level 10 Warriors. Take one with 20 STR, 13 DEX, wielding a greatsword, and wearing full plate. Take one with 13 STR, 20 DEX, wielding two shortswords, and wearing studded leather. Each warrior has masterwork weapons and armor.
The STR Warrior has 20 AC, and swings his greatsword at +16/+11 for 2d6+7, or +13/+8 for 2d6+16 when power attacking. His DPR against AC 24 is 16.17, or 18.975 when power attacking.
The DEX Warrior has 18 AC, and uses two weapon fighting, swinging his short swords at +14/+11 for 1d6+1+5 and 1d6+0+5, or +11/+6 for 1d6+7+5 and 1d6+3+5. His DPR against AC 24 is 15.98, or 15.785 when power attacking.

If the two warriors were to square off, the STR warrior would win because he has higher AC and higher DPR. The STR warrior has all weapons available to him to use effectively, while the DEX warrior is limited to finessable weapons only. Assuming the two warriors use the same amount of resources to benefit themselves, the STR warrior still pulls remains ahead because additional hit change and crit range benefit him more. The only time the DEX warrior passes the STR warrior is by spending double the resources to have his weapons enchanted at the same level as the STR warrior, and even then it's only by a very small margin.

If the argument is DEX to Damage should cost more because it's superior to STR, I have to disagree. Even adding DEX on top of STR for free does not surpass STR, but only evens the playing field so that a DEX fighter can compete with a STR fighter in combat.

Levels 1 and 2 are tough, so you'll be relying on a lot of luck in your rolls to do well (though everyone is at that point). Smart use of your limited extracts can serve you very well.

At level 3, taking Mutagen as your Investigator Talent helps you in combat significantly. That, combined with buff extracts helps a lot. Using a DEX mutagen with an extract of Shield can push your AC up by 8 alone, which while you won't be hitting hard, you'll be very hard to hit.

Level 4 and on is when the Investigator can shine in combat. The combination of Studied Combat, Mutagen, and Extracts can turn them into very formidable combat monsters.

Investigator is what you go with when you want to be rewarded for being useless in combat. Otherwise, you play a rogue.

You are vastly underrating the potent combination of extracts, mutagen, and studied combat. Combat is not the investigator's focus at all, but it can easily hold it's own with the combination of all the tools available.

A skilled player with an optimized character should be able to easily control their character's power level in relation to the rest of the party (like the God-Wizard who focuses on buffs), making sure everyone has the opportunity to contribute. But when everything goes wrong and the party is in a pinch, the player who'd been holding back can pull out the stops and do everything they can to help the party succeed. However in the same situation, a character that is suboptimal for whatever reason, regardless of player's skill, will struggle to contribute in the dire situations where in the more average situations they were just "good enough".

There is nothing wrong with building a mechanically strong character. It's always better to have a mechanically strong character than a mechanically weak one. The real issue is in the player behind the character. A skilled player can always play down to the level of a less skilled player, and a skilled player can also help the less skilled player play at a higher level. But a player can only play up to the level allowed by their character's mechanical strength.

I want feats to scale with level or BAB like spells, making them worthwhile investments throughout your entire character progression. This includes all improved/greater feat chains.

I want some feats that are always must haves to be a part of the game mechanics or given as bonus feats upon meeting prerequisites.

I want Combat Expertise to be worthwhile and augment Fighting Defensively rather than being a completely separate entity.

I want feats that grant options and have reasonable pre-reqs.

I want feats that enable more options for moving and attacking in combat.

I could go into other things I'd want changed, but I'll just stick to feats.

2 rangers and a pillar with a calender (the type you can tear away) calling hunting season as for say... duck season, rabbit season, duck season, rabbit season.....and so on, till some [insert monster/humanoid] comes along and they tear away, revealing season is on forementioned monster.

They take off hunting the monster.....

Make one an elf and the other a dwarf.

1. What's the setting and story for the campaign? What kind of campaign is it going to be? Is it more story and social focused or more combat and dungeon focused?
2. Come up with some knee-jerk reactions and ideas for characters, usually things I want to play or try.
3. Check what everyone else is playing. How much casting is covered? Do we have divine or arcane? Do we have ranged and melee effectiveness? Do we have the skills covered?
4. Narrow down my character concept to fill gaps if there are any and compliment the party. Do we need something more arcane or divine focused? Do we need a skill monkey or a frontliner?
5.1. Start looking at classes to best mechanically represent my concept while also being effective, useful, and fun to play. What mechanics will allow me to do what I want my character to do, and do it well?
5.2. Start coming up with a background and personality parallel to deciding on mechanics. How can I make the rollplay and roleplay compliment eachother?
6. Plan out feats, skills, and choices as far ahead as possible, but allow for modification as the campaign progresses. Where do I want to be and how fast do I want to get there?
7. Crunch the numbers. Where can I expect to be at X level assuming A, B, and C?
8. Once everything is settled, let the character evolve with the campaign and story.

Nanobots/Nanites in the liquids.

Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Let's imagine an Improved Weapon Finesse, with Weapon Finesse and 15 Dex as it's requirements. It lets you use your Dex mod in place of Str for damage, is not increased when two handing, but is reduced in the off hand. Additionally, any penalty to Str is still applied to damage rolls.

A Str fighter deals 1.5x Str all day long for no feats when two handing.

A Dex fighter deals 1x Dex for the cost of 2 feats, and needs the two weapon fighting feat line to get to 1.5x Dex. Additionally, they are taking a penalty to get their damage potential to match that of the Str fighter. So a Dex fighter needs at least 3 feats to keep up damage wise with the Str fighter.

I think this is perfectly acceptable from a cost/benefit standpoint, especially if someone is willing to invest in 3+ feats to have damage comparable to the 2H Str fighter who needs to spend nothing.

Canny Tumble sounds familiar...

Oh, I know why, it already exists :

Sure, the two stack, but Canny Tumble is just inferior to what already exists.

My arcane duelist bard mounted the transmutation wizard and rode him into battle. (the wizard was a large dire wolf and had cast fly on himself)

Accidentally? Never.

Intentionally? Many times. A lot of the fun is seeing how accurately you can emulate a character, and then how long it takes for your GM/party to catch on.

Our captain, an undine, has a great hatred of Sahaugin, so we've acquired a great deal of deep platinum. We've designed some custom deep platinum magic items with deep sea themes. I had my two swords alchemically bonded with deep platinum to give them an on hit and on crit sea sickness like effect. The captain, a cleric and devout follower of Besmara, is going to have an enormous deep platinum plated statue of Besmara erected at our island in front of our cliff fort base. Our GM let us be creative with how we used it.

I've only played in a few campaigns, but the groups I've played with haven't had an issue with playing and RPing different races and genders, and I enjoy getting into the mind of characters vastly different than myself. My friend who introduced me to TTRPGs most often plays male, high charisma, megalomaniacs, often to great effect, but he has no problem playing or RPing anything since he GMs a lot.

Generally I enjoy playing any race or gender. I sometimes find humans to be too normal, but I have no problem playing a human. If I can I like playing female ninja types, where my forever-GM friend likes to play charismatic male arcane casters. Also, my characters' names almost always start with a 'K' (if that wasn't obvious).

You probably wouldn't need Acrobat since you're gaining a climb speed (which gives you a +8 racial bonus to climb and there is no 'accelerated climb' you can just double move and climb 40ft a round). I've played ninja's with climb speeds before and it's proven so useful time and time again.

A feat you might want to look at is Hellcat Stealth which would let you stealth anywhere, anytime, no matter what. Also, if you decide to focus more on stealth, the Fast Stealth ninja trick is highly recommended. I also highly recommend the Offensive Defensive rogue talent, which will help you stay alive after you get sneak attack and are no longer invisible.

Another thing to possibly look at is Improved Critical (Katana) once you qualify, though that would be at the end of your career.

Fun is always #1

If you're having fun, if everyone is having fun, let it go. If your GM is bending rules to improve the experience and narrative, who cares? He might have a plan for a dramatic turn around or something, so trust him in his decision and ruling. It's also not that strange for the BBEG to break and bend some rules, they're a big bad evil guy, why should they?

I've never had a problem with rule bending for the sake of fun or balance. For example, my GM in one campaign isn't allowing our Maneuver Master Monk with greater grapple to grapple and pin someone in a single round. I don't know if the player is aware of this ruling, but I understand it from a balance point of view so I didn't say anything. My GM also is going to allow certain enemies to resist my character's demoralize because my character cannot fail to intimidate (+27 to demoralize at level 9 without any buffs), which I also understand from a balance point of view, but it won't be all enemies, just boss-types that shouldn't be so easily shaken. Both of these cases go against the rules, but I don't have a problem with it because it's not affecting my experience in a negative way. On the opposite side, another GM in a different campaign has let me bend rules for the sake of fun. He's let me use a racial SLA freely since it's just a cantrip (dancing lights). He's also occasionally let me strike with both weapons on a leaping charge because it's cinematic and fun, even though by the rules you can't. Because it doesn't lessen anyone's experience, and because it's fun, he's let me bend rules when it fits.

However there are times when I will call out incorrectly enforced rules, but this is only when the incorrect ruling will negatively impact the party and the GM isn't doing it purposely. Most often it's something the GM forgot or a rule that slipped his mind, so I'll bring it up and get it resolved as quickly as possible. If it's something minor that doesn't really affect anyone, I won't bring it up.

One thing to remember is that observations like this go both ways. Sometimes a GM will bend rules for the player's benefit. Sometimes the GM will see a player bend or break a rule either on purpose or accidentally, and won't call them on it if it's no big deal. It's hard to remember all the rules and how they interact with each other because of how many there are, so slip ups will happen.

Again, Fun is #1. I don't care if rules are bent for the sake of fun, or balance, or benefiting the party. If they're bent but no one's experience is lessened, I won't bring it up. If rules are being bent and it's making things unfun, I have a problem.

(your mileage may vary when arguing with your GM, be warned)

Ninja/Paladin is Batman. 'nuff said.

Ninja/Antipaladin would be terrifying for the reasons mentioned above and more.

Ninja/Samurai could be very flavorful. Taking the Sword Saint archetype could be brutal single hits with all those d6's, or if you went third party the Nitoujutsu Sensei archetype for TWF sword master.

Ninja/Summoner would be ridiculous, with Synthesist being Ironman Ninja.

Ninja/Sorcerer for spontaneous arcane full casting, or Ninja/Oracle for divine.

Ninja/Bard would be interesting, but invisibility prevents visual components for performances. However there's a lot of utility there.

Ninja/Fighter for straight combat with all those bonus feats.

Ninja/Barbarian could be brutal, probably working best with Urban Barbarian.

Ninja/Ranger with any archetype that doesn't rely on WIS heavily would be an excellent scout/tracker/assassin.

Ninja/Gunslinger with the Mysterious Stranger archetype would be fun, but you'd need some oil of silence for your guns.

Ninja/Monk was already mentioned, and can be done well since you get Ki from both WIS and CHA.

Ninja/Inquisitor could be pretty effective with bane/judgement, but your CHA will suffer a bit since you'll need higher WIS.

Ninja/Alchemist could also be pretty fun with bombs, or if you went Vivisectionist you'd get double sneak attack dice, but like Inquisitor your CHA might suffer for INT.

Ninja/Magus could be fun with sneak attack + spell strike, but it has the same problem as the Alchemist with INT dependence.

Ninja/Cleric would be very effective with all good saves and full casting, but might be a little MAD.

Ninja/Druid would be very effective like the Cleric, all good saves, full casting, but very WIS dependent and CHA might suffer for Ki.

Ninja/Wizard and Ninja/Witch could be fun, but need high INT which could hurt other stats.

But this is just looking at basic class synergy. Anything with casting will be better than anything without. Anything with CHA dependence works better than INT or WIS dependence. Anything with good Fort and/or Will saves is good help. Full BAB martial with bonus feats is always better for combat.

The Ninja is like an archetype, but it is not an archetype. It's an alternate class, and a separate thing from the rogue. You could easily replace a Ninja's Poison Use and No Trace with Trapfinding and Trap Sense with a little house ruling, but this is because they are parallel features. You can apply any Rogue archetype to the Ninja so long as you can replace the appropriate features.

The features that Rogue Archetypes might change are :
- Trapfinding
- Evasion
- Trap Sense
- Uncanny Dodge
- Improved Uncanny Dodge
- altering Sneak Attack
- altering Rogue Talents
- altering class skills
- Master Strike (capstone)

Now, the only archetypes that replace evasion are the Smuggler and the Filtcher (hafling only), so these can't be taken by a Ninja as the Ninja does not have Evasion or an equivalent.

Any archetype that replaces Trapfinding and Trap Sense can by taken by a Ninja by having those abilities replace Poison Use and No Trace, because Poison Use and No Trace are equivalent and parallel to the Rogue's Trapfinding and Trap Sense.

Any archetype that replaces Uncanny Dodge can be taken by a Ninja.

Any archetype that alters Sneak Attack can be taken by a Ninja

Any archetype that alters Rogue Talent progression can be taken by a Ninja by replacing Ninja Tricks instead. This functions the same as using the Extra Rogue Talent feat for extra ninja tricks as a Ninja since there is no Extra Ninja Trick feat. The two features are equivalent and parallel.

Any archetype that alters class skills can be taken by the Ninja so long as it does not alter Knowledge skills, as the only difference in skills between the Ninja and Rogue is the Ninja has Kn. Nobility while the Rogue has Kn. Dungeoneering.

Any archetype that alters the capstone can be taken by the Ninja by replacing the Ninja's capstone.

You are correct that you cannot take multiple archetypes that modify the same class feature, so you can't take two archetypes that both modify Trapfinding. However, the Ninja is not an archetype. It is an alternate class, and therefore can be used with any archetype that replaces equivalent and/or parallel class features.

Let me use an analogy : Let the Rogue be a Pickup Truck and the Ninja an SUV, where both vehicles are from the same manufacturer, in the same weight class, and use the same frame, suspension, drivetrain, and other core components (sneak attack, bab, saves, skills, general progression). One has an open bed while the other an enclosed trunk (Evasion vs Ki), so some aftermarket parts (archetypes) will work on one but not the other. Other parts of the vehicles are one in the same (uncanny dodge), and work with aftermarket parts for both. Some exterior styling might be different (trapfinding vs poison use), but the exterior panels bolt onto the same frame and can be interchanged easily or replaced by something aftermarket. Say you really want to drive the SUV since it has most of what you want, but you like the styling of the an aftermarket front end for the Pickup better (archetype that replaces trapfinding/trapsense). Because the two vehicles have the same chassis you can use the aftermarket part by replacing the equivalent parts on the SUV (poisonuse/notrace) without any problems, as they bolt on to the chassis in the same way.

Phase Spiders

Yea, lets just sit in the ethereal plane, pop into the material plane, bite you for con poison, and shift back and wait until you die.

The ninja as an alternate class is an elaborate archetype of the rogue class. It replaces Trapfinding with Poison Use and replaces Trap Sense with No Trace. With this relation, you can take the Kitsune Trickster archetype by replacing Poison Use with Kitsune's Guile and replacing No Trace with Kitsune's Charm. You're effectively replacing the equivalent rogue class abilities in this way.

The same can be said for the Anti-paladin alternate class and Paladin archetypes, and the Samurai alternate class and Cavalier archetypes. As long as the alternate class has abilities that have a class equivalent, you can reasonably take an archetype.

Now, you wouldn't be able to take an archetype that swaps out Evasion on a ninja because the ninja class has no Evasion equivalent. But you can take an archetype that swaps out Trapfinding because the ninja's equivalent is Poison Use.

I have to agree with what's been said about Weapon Finesse, Two Weapon Fighting, and Sneak Attack. You want to be getting as many chances as possible to apply sneak attack, which means attacking as much as possible. Sure, Power Attack or Piranha Strike might give more damage, but the penalty from those will match TWF by level 6, and be worse at level 11. Sure, a single agile weapon might hit more and do good damage, but you're missing half your potential damage. Also, since you're a ninja, you've got invisibility on demand, which is a +2 to hit, canceling out the TWF penalty, and you're target flatfoot AC. Additionally, with the 18-20 crit range on Wakizashi, swinging as many times as possible means a pretty good chance to crit, especially if you make them Keen (granted you won't crit very hard, but an elemental burst enhancement would be nice, or you could get some critical feats).

Yes, in a straight fight, TWF will likely make you miss. But if you're trying to fight straight up without flanking, using invisibility, charging, or other ways to get sneak attack, you are doing it wrong. A ninja doesn't try to fight up front, he sneaks into a good position and eviscerates his target in a flurry of steel.

Kitsune Ninja are awesome. I'm playing one in a campaign now, and we just hit level 10, which is where the ridiculous ninja stuff happens (half jump DCs and greater invis). You can stay useful in a number of ways with all the great racial feats available to Kitsune.

For stats, I would go with 10/16/12/12/12/14. It's pretty balanced.

I highly recommend the Scout archetype for granting you additional ways to get sneak attack beyond flanking. I also recommend the Kitsune Trickster archetype (replaces poison use and no trace) for some nice boosts to social skills and Charm Person x/day. I also recommend using the Kitsune alternate racial favored class bonus to get extra ninja tricks, taking HP levels 1-4 and the alt 5-10 so you can grab two advanced ninja tricks at level 10.

Weapon finesse will likely be your level 1 feat. Level 3 you can go for two weapon fighting right away, but since you already have an additional attack from ki and a natural attack you can wait. Instead you can take the great racial feat Realistic Likeness which is an amazing infiltration and disguise tool (and if you're GM is nice he might let you mimic humanoids rather than just humans since it functions like alter self; my GM let me do that). Level 5 you definitely want to take the Fox Shape feat, because who doesn't like to scout as a tiny creature with scent and a +8 size bonus to stealth. In the following levels you'll want to take the Two Weapon Fighting feat line. At some point grab Swift Shapechanger which will let you shapeshift super fast (example : say your scouting as a fox and encounter someone; surprise round shapeshift as swift and charge). At level 14 you will qualify for the amazing Vulpine Pounce, which with the scout archetype is brutal (and you can pounce in the surprise round since it's part of a charge and you can charge as a standard if necessary).

For ninja tricks the obvious choices are Vanishing Trick at level 2 and Invisible Blade at level 10. The Offensive Defensive rogue talent is fantastic since it will help protect you after a sneak attack and scales well. Fast Stealth is a must if you'll be scouting. I like the Forgotten Trick ninja trick in combination with a Ring of Ki Mastery which lets you grab any ninja trick you don't have for a number of rounds equal to your level at the cost of 1 ki (2 w/out the ring), which combined with Combat Trick lets you adapt to different situations easily, or you can grab the ninja tricks for darkvision, a climb speed, or unarmed strike ability when you need them. If forgotten trick isn't something you think you'd need, you could grab Combat Trick to grab a combat feat instead or the Weapon Training trick. The Wall Climber ninja trick is also very nice.

Here's an example build that would be both effective in combat and out of combat.

I'll note that the Enforcer feat is another way to get the shaken condition for Shatter Defenses, which also synergizes well with the Sap Adept -> Sap Master feats and the Knockout Artist feat (if you have Improved Unarmed Strike). Along with this, the Ninja Trick Unarmed Combat Training and Advanced Ninja Trick Unarmed Combat Mastery work great.

Combining all this on an attack with sneak attack means dealing 2d6+4 damage per sneak attack die.

You can only make a single attack as a standard action. You can make a full attack as a full round action. In the surprise round, you can only stab once because you are limited to a standard action. Two Weapon Fighting states you can make an additional attack with an off-hand weapon and reduces the penalty of attacking with two weapons. However to make more than a single attack (either due to high BAB or other methods of getting extra attacks), you must use a full round action to full attack.

Full Attack

If you get more than one attack per round because your base attack bonus is high enough (see Base Attack Bonus in Classes), because you fight with two weapons or a double weapon, or for some special reason, you must use a full-round action to get your additional attacks. You do not need to specify the targets of your attacks ahead of time. You can see how the earlier attacks turn out before assigning the later ones.

In your example, you'd get a single attack at your normal bonus in the surprise round, and then (assuming you win initiative) you can make a full attack in the first full round of combat.

Your standard action can only be STAB, while your full attack (which takes a full round action) is STAB STAB. You can move and STAB, you can STAB and move, or you can combine 5-foot-step and STAB STAB. You cannot move and attack multiple times unless you have an ability that allows you to do so (such as pounce).

The only class who can attack with both weapons as a standard action is the Two-Weapon Warrior Fighter Archetype. No other class can attack multiple times as a standard action.

A few things about Skulls and Shackles and Skills (since I am running a Kitsune-like Ninja through it) :

Profession (Sailor) is very important, and hope that one of your party member's has high Wis for the Prof. and Perception checks.

Diplomacy is king, and focusing on being a face with all your bonuses will help tremendously. Bluff as well.

Swim is important, and since you have a low Str score, you'll want to dump a few ranks into it so you at least can't fail to keep your head up.

Climb is pretty important, but if you take the Ninja Trick to get a climb speed, it becomes an non-issue, and actually opens up a lot of tactical advantages of being able to scale things with ease.

Another important thing to note is Tiny creatures use Dex for climb and swim checks, so shifting to Fox form, getting +4 to Dex and using Dex for swim could save you if you need it (just don't get eaten :D).

I'm actually currently running a Kitsune-like character in a Skulls&Shackles campaign. I went with Ninja over Rogue, and took both the Kitsune Trickster and Scout archetypes (replacing poison use, no trace, uncanny dodge, and improved uncanny dodge). Since the only real loss would be Evasion, I'd recommend using Ninja over Rogue since it will have a slightly easier time in combat and you're Cha will already be high for Ki. I also would advice against dipping classes because postponing your advanced talents hurts.

For stats I wouldn't roll with 10 Con, ever. In your case since you're building finesse I'd go with a 10/16/13/14/10/16, or a similar stat spread.

Definitely invest in the Kitsune racial feats. Realistic Likeness is great for infiltration, but definitely remember to invest into Bluff or perhaps Perform (act) to help assist your Disguise checks (if your GM allows). Fox Shape is an excellent scouting tool due to having a Tiny size (+8 to stealth yes please) and having Scent. Swift Shapechange is great when you can get it so you can shift as a swift, and it leads into Vulpine Pounce, which has amazing synergy with the scout archetype. Avoid the Magical Tail feats, they aren't all that great.

If you want a familiar, the Minor and Major Magic rogue talents are the way to go. A ranged touch cantrip is nice since you can sneak attack off it, but spells like Prestidigitation are amazingly useful. For major magic, I would recommend something like Shield, since it's a +4 Shield bonus to AC which can make a difference (the blocking magic missiles is also a nice bonus). These feats open up into the Familiar advanced rogue talent and also the Dispelling Sneak rogue talent, which is great.

Offensive Defensive is a must have talent for keeping you alive and scales nicely. If ninja, Vanishing Trick and Invisible Blade are must haves. Fast Stealth is very useful. If a ninja, Forgotten Trick can really make you adaptable to different situations (a Ring of Ki Mastery makes this even better).

Since you're a kitsune, you can take the alternate racial favored class bonus to get more talents/tricks. On my ninja I took HP for levels 1-4, and then the alternate for 5-10 so I could take two advanced ninja tricks at level 10. But considering you've got so many bonus talents, you can go all HP for favored class bonus.

There are some great ninja tricks that don't rely on Ki, such as Wall Climber (a climb speed in a campaign with ships is amazingly useful, I can say from experience), Unarmed Combat Training, Deflect Arrows, Pressure Points, and if you have any combat maneuver feats Redirect Force (a new trick recently added). I would check with your GM if you can take advanced ninja tricks via advanced rogue talents like the ninja can with rogue talents, since the Assassinate trick is great, and Unarmed Combat Mastery is pretty potent if you're going unarmed.

For combat feats, since you're building finesse, you've got a few options. Two weapon fighting is an obvious choice, but is feat intensive, but can make a full attack on a charge very dangerous. From this you could go with a Two Weapon Feint focus for getting sneak attack when you can't flank, charge, or move 10 feet. The Sap Adept -> Sap Master feat line is very potent, and doing non-lethal damage as a pirate is beneficial (you want to capture crew, right?). If Two Weapon Fighting isn't your thing, you could always go with a one handed dervish build and get imp./gr. feint, but that limits you to a single attack per round. Another option, if you build up some good Intimidate, is the Weapon Focus -> Dazzling Display -> Shatter Defenses feat line, in addition to the Enforcer feat, which when combined with a Cruel weapon is a fantastic debuff tool and lets you get sneak attack. Another thing to note is enemies with Uncanny Dodge will be your worst nightmare, since they turn off sneak attack completely with the exception of feinting. Another nice feat is Arcane Strike, which you will qualify for as a Kitsune, and gives a nice bonus to damage and lets you bypass magic DR easily (it also applies to your bite).

Lemme Sum Up:
Scout Archetype + Vulpine Pounce can be devastating
IMO Ninja > Rogue
Tiny Fox Form is amazing for Scouting/Stealth
Diversify your ways to get Sneak Attack (scout archetype, flanking, feinting, shatter defenses, invisibility)
Uncanny Dodge is the bane of all Ninjas/Rogues
Never forget to bite (unless you're trying to stay disguised)
Do what you want (cause a pirate is free).

I'm currently playing a Kitsune-like Ninja character (Kitsune-like in that she has kitsune shapeshifting magic but her natural form is that of a catfolk). Originally I intended to hide my true form as long as possible in the campaign until something deemed my natural form necessary. That didn't happen, and I ended up revealing my natural form in the first session.

Ultimately, the player should never feel forced to reveal his character's nature. Talk with them to figure out how they want to reveal it, if they do at all. The optimal reveal to me would leave the rest of the party with a feeling of "oh! he's a kitsune! that's awesome!" rather than a "oh... he's a kitsune... that's weird..." kind of feeling. If and when it's revealed, the TOUCH-FLUFFY-TAIL like comments will probably happen, but if the reveal is well done it shouldn't be a negative. You can also throw some situations that might cause the character to act Kitsune-like rather than human, but be sure to check with the player first. Another thing to remember is True Seeing will reveal his true form, so an NPC with this might see it and make some offhand remarks about it, but you'd never want to outright reveal it for the player unless the player is okay with it. And also, make sure to understand WHY the player chooses to hide his form beyond the obvious reasons. Is the character uncomfortable in his natural form? Were they shunned as a child for being different? Were they brought up taught to always hide so now he does it as a habit? Is the character actually very comfortable with himself and doesn't care what others think if they find out? Does the character remain human out of convenience? Figure out how the player wants to roleplay his Kitsune nature.

yeah rolling less than 5 is pretty much the norm for me on a d20, as wakedown and many of the other players I game with regularly can attest

:)

:|

:(

*sobs*

I know this pain. I consistently roll low. And what's worse is the likelihood of me rolling low is directly proportional to how important the roll is. This has happened so much that the term "to kBro" in our group means to roll poorly when it matters most.

Example : got dropped to from 12 to 1 CON by box jellyfish poison because I failed every single save, even with healing aid by our cleric

I've also rolled multiple 1s at the same time on full attacks multiple times.

Dice gods hate me.

So, if the MoMS archetype is the real problem, fix it. How? Simple really: apply the same unlocking of bonus feats as the normal monk for style feats. What this means is at 1st and 2nd level, a MoMS monk can choose any of the first level of style feats without meeting prerequisites. At 6th level they can choose from the second level of style feats without meeting prerequisites. At 10th level they can choose from the third level of style feats without meeting prerequisites. They can still choose any style feats they meet prereqs for as normal feats, so a Monk is still able to get Crane Wing at level 5, or any class at BaB of +5. Also, any class can dip a single level of MoMS monk to get Crane Style but they still need to have enough BaB to grab Crane Wing. Also, because a Monk can't get the feat until 5th, it won't break low level encounters (big single hit encounters are a bad example anyways). This change also promotes the style-fusion aspect of the MoMS because you need to take two different first level style feats with your first two bonus feats, and then can further specialize in other styles as you progress.

Two things I completely forgot about were the Eldritch Heritage feat line with the Draconic Bloodline and the Dragon Disciple archetype if you wanted to go more dragon for Issei. The Eldritch Heritage route is much easier and allows you to remain a full Magus while still giving you some fun dragon stuff. The Dragon Disciple route gives you some other cool things, however you lose out on a lot of Magus stuff for a while. If I were to go the Dragon Disciple route, I would do it as follows :

Full Bladebound Magus with the Eldritch Heritage feats is just as potent, and doesn't trade away any of the Magus's black blade strengths and progression.

It's entirely possible to recreate anime characters using pathfinder, but you will almost never get an exact representation.

Can you create a character that is Issei 100%? Absolutely not.

Can you create a character like Issei that has his silly perverted personality, uses an intelligent gauntlet, buffs himself and allies, and is able to strip defenses from enemies? Absolutely. It's just a matter of how.

Personality is simple enough, but you need to keep it in context of the campaign, otherwise it might cause unnecessary turbulence if you have a horny teenager punching the clothes off people.

Mechanically, the Bladebound Magus is probably your best bet, with the Knuckle Axe. You can gain proficiency however you choose, either through the half-elf alternate racial trait or with the Kensai Magus archetype. I would opt for half-elf which would allow you to wear dragon-plate armor and still cast spells, which you wouldn't be able to do as a Kensai Magus. Additionally, a STR build would fit Issei more than a DEX build, which also goes counter to the Kensai Magus a bit.

Need to BOOSTO? Buff spells. Issei takes time to BOOSTO up to more power; it takes time to apply all your buff spells. Mechanically it matches the aspect of taking time to power up before fighting like Issei does.

Need to strip enemies? Sunder and debuff spells. Sunder specifically lets you strip your enemies of weapons, armor, etc, which is close enough to Issei's more perverted application of defense stripping. Debuffs are also always useful to you and your allies.

Overall, your Issei pathfinder equivalent could be an Intelligent Knuckle Axe wielding Bladebound Magus who buffs himself with crazy strength and proceeds to sunder and dispel an enemies defenses until they are naked and defenseless.

(I'll preface this by noting our GM was very flexible with races and classes and let us do some interesting and crazy things.)

We're currently level 9, soon to be level 10, and are in the process of...

The crew of the Flogging Molly (current total of 63 including PCs; 35 female/28 male):

- PCs -

Sandara Quinn - currently Montague's cohort, romantic partner, and moral anchor preventing him from doing more evil necromantic things
Ambrose "Fishguts" Kroop - our master cook who spent a great deal of time with Montague during our time on the Wormwood
Owlbear - best friends with Steve the Barbarian

- NPCs -

Most of the crew from the Wormwood that came with us on the Man's Promise, plus a large slew of others.

If you've got the feats to spend, you can make use of it in normal combat using the Performing Combatant feat and the various performance feats. You can go with a Fighter for all those bonus feats, and possibly use the Gladiator archetype for the Charisma skills and the ability to take performance feats as bonus feats. Another option is to dip 2 levels in either Cavalier or Samurai with Order of the Cockatrice to be able to use Dazzling Display as a standard action with any weapon.

The full feat line requires (weapon focus), Dazzling Display, (any performance feat), Performing Combatant, (performance feat)x2, Master Combat Performer. Due to the use of Dazzling Display, you can also build into the Shatter Defenses feat and focus on debuffing through demoralize and a weapon with the Cruel enhancement.

Another thing to note how the performance check bonus works. The bonus is your Charisma modifier (which means you can't dump charisma) + BAB/5 rounded up + (ranks in Perform (dance/act/comedy))/5 rounded up. Rules are noted here. You'll notice that a DC20 check (required for Performing Combatant) is quite difficult to make, especially at low levels you've only got maybe a +5 bonus from combined BAB (assuming martial), ranks in perform (assuming maxed) and Charisma (assuming +3 mod). Using a performance weapon or having the Performance Weapon Mastery feat gives you a +2 bonus on performance checks. If you're making a check to gain the effects of a performance feat, you also gain a +2 bonus on the performance check.

And then even if you can manage to consistently roll well to make that DC20 performance combat check, you need to be able to perform actions that trigger a check, like charging, getting first attack, hitting an enemy multiple times in a round, etc. And if you do trigger a performance combat check, you need to spend a swift action to make the check, which doesn't even guarantee you'll gain the bonuses from the performance feats.

The performance feats themselves can be nice. Hero's Display is great for maintaining the shaken condition. Savage Display and Dramatic Display are great buffs for attack and damage. Masterful Display is a must have once you have others, and by that point you should have the Master Combat Performer feat so making the checks is a free action.

Can you use performance combat in regular combat? Yes. Is it optimal? Not really unless you're fully willing to spec towards it. Can it be useful? Sure in the sense of using demoralize as a debuff. Can it be fun? Absolutely if you're building a very theatric kind of character. It's very feat intensive, but if you've got the feats to spare and want to do it, there are ways to make it work.

If you're allowed to use 3rd party stuff, I would take a look at the Inspiring Commander Cavalier archetype. It gets bardic performance in exchange for a mount, so you can go straight Inspiring Commander 5 into Battle Herald. Also, its bardic performance is Int based so you can grab combat expertise more easily, but Battle Herald is Cha based so that may hinder you.

If that doesn't work, I would suggest going Cavalier 4 / Bard 1 / Battle Herald X (using the archetypes you've already picked). Getting that second challenge, extra damage, other cavalier class features is better than getting some more bard spells or caster levels (which won't increase Arcane Strike damage until 5th bard level). You'll only have 2 1st level spells known and can cast them twice per day, but that's not an issue. I highly recommend Saving Finale as a spell, and any other spell that has a long duration or an instant lasting effect without a save (grease,silent image, clarion call for thematic reasons) or something that's useful outside combat.

As far as feats and weapons, I would definitely suggest a reach weapon combined with combat reflexes as your first feat. Stand Still is also a nice feat to get, along with a lot of the Combat Reflexes feat line. If you're worried about fighting up close, you can take a 1 level dip in Hungry Ghost Monk to be able to fight with your hands full, get combat reflexes as a feat, and get punishing kick (which works great with a reach weapon after kicking them away). Lingering Performance is a must for any class with bardic performance, just to allow your performance to continue even when you're unable to maintain it. If you wanted you could focus on debuffing as well if you went with weapon focus, dazzling display, spear dancer, and shatter defenses.

If you go with Order of the Dragon, I would suggest getting Gloves of Arcane Striking when you can, which adds your arcane strike bonus to aid another, among some other nice benefits. Also, if you take the Bodyguard feat, you can aid another using attacks of opportunity. Dragon fits the most thematically, but if you want to branch out a little, Order of the Cockatrice works well with the debuff strategy using dazzling display.

For action economy in combat, you likely won't be directly attacking often. Early on you'll be using your standard to start inspire courage and using lingering performance to get the most out of your few rounds (as in not maintaining it), followed with a move action to get into a good strategic position. Combat Reflexes will be where you get your attacks in, using arcane strike to get a small bonus, and possibly power attack if you have the BAB and Strength (which you should with mostly full BAB).

I would build like this :
Level 1 (Cavalier – Standard Bearer/Strategist): Combat Reflexes, [teamwork feat]
Level 2 (Bard – Arcane Duelist) – [Arcane Strike]
Level 3 (Cavalier – Standard Bearer/Strategist) – Lingering Performance
Level 4 (Cavalier – Standard Bearer/Strategist)
Level 5 (Cavalier – Standard Bearer/Strategist) – {Leadership?,PowerAttack,StandStill,etc}

For a self sufficient character that can still play well with others, I would recommend a Ranger with the Guide archetype. Rangers on their own are very self sufficient, have good survival skills, good combat skills, and a limited list of divine spells for healing and utility (which also allows you to use spell trigger items and craft magic items if you want). The Guide archetype is great if you don't want to be locked into focusing on certain enemy types and can focus on the current enemy, and it lets you grant your favored terrain bonuses to your party. You also get some nice features to be awesome when you need it most.

Another class you could look into would be the Inquisitor. Much more divine in flavor, but still an incredibly self reliant class with it's combination of spontaneous divine casting, large list of skills, and judgement and bane abilities. Bane alone is a fantastic combat buff, and combined with Judgement is even stronger. You've also got lots of useful class abilities for both yourself and allies.

Bard is also another good class example, particularly the Archeologist and Dervish archetypes. Bards have a great buffing spell list (Heroism is AMAZING), a great list of skills, versatile performance, and are no joke in combat. Archeologist is particularly good because the bonus is a luck bonus and adds to a lot of things, and can be improved with the Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier.

Thematically, a character who is mostly a loner can be one who's fine on his own, but due to his self reliance knows how to lead and guide others when the need arises. Being a loner doesn't mean you have to be Mr. Edgy McDarkCoat who only works alone and is always sitting in a corner brooding. You can still interact with other characters and lead and have a personality while having no problem going off alone to do whatever needs to be done. You're character may not need interaction, but it shouldn't be incapable of it.

While traveling with a caravan transporting arms and armor to Absalom, our Vanara Maneuver Master Monk spotted a shady dude up ahead in a tree. She then proceeded to leap from the caravan and land on the branch next to said shady guy (61 on acrobatics) and points her staff at him with one hand waving the tip a few inches from his nose.

"FOOL! The first rule of ambushing a caravan is, don't! The second rule is *trip attempt*"

In the Skulls & Shackles campaign path, our party had acquired a good amount of deep platinum (due to our undine captain's hatred of sahuagin). Deep platinum is a dark metal formed in the deepest trenches of the ocean, mined by aboleths, and is somewhat toxic due to the vents (kind of like lead). So our captain's player came up with a bunch of deep platinum magic items for us to be crafted at one point or another once we gained enough wealth (all of which are deep sea themed).

I had an additional idea for a use. I had deep platinum alchemically bonded to the blades of my two swords. I worked out with the GM that it worked like a combination of silver and viridium. I took a -1 penalty on damage with the blades due to deep platinum being a softer metal, but gained an on-hit and on-crit effect. On hit, enemies had to make a DC13 fort save or be sickened for 1 round, and additional hits beyond the first increased the DC by 1. On crit, enemies had to make a DC16 fort save or be nauseated for 1 round, and additional crits beyond the first increased the DC by 2. The blades took on a dark swirling color and inflict wounds that cause a deep sea sickness.

Total cost of the upgrade was 500gp (since I was supplying the deep platinum), and it's the best 500gp I've spent all campaign.

I am convinced that the dice gods hate me, or pity me, or both. I consistently roll low when it matters, but roll high when it doesn't. In our last session I got hit with phase spider poison. I didn't roll above a 10 for the duration of the poison (cleric lesser resto'd me so i didn't die, but 1d2 con is such a pain). Same session I got three crit threats on ghosts...

My friend (who got me into TTRPGs) consistently rolls well, or has other rolls go in his favor (enemy rolls on table for phenomena after pushing spell beyond limits, gets mirror and has his spell blasted back at him; "just as planned"). The dice gods love him.

We both employ the same practices though (I copied him) : Always keep your die highest number up so the die's natural state becomes skewed towards success.

To me, I find more satisfaction from an item that has significance to my character than anything else, and how my character came to possess said item isn't as important. Crafted/purchased items more easily meet this requirement due to the randomness of loot drops, but if the GM comes up with some fun toys/tools it's just as good. Sometimes items you purchase turn out to be more useful than you realize at the time.

For example, our party pooled our resources to buy what appeared to be a +1 dagger (we were low level and low on funds at the time). It turned out to be a +1 Animal Bane Dagger, and became incredibly useful as we were doing a lot of underwater combat against big nasty fishes. And it was even more useful to my character (Ninja, so extra attacks from ki) being able to dish out an additional 4d6 damage per hit when I got to sneak attack the beasties. Even now (we're currently almost level 10) I still keep that weapon ready. A very satisfying, yet not intended, purchase/find.

But I have to say there is nothing like making your own thematic items based on the campaign and characters you have. For example, (same campaign), we ended up acquiring a good amount of deep platinum from the Sahuagin we've been slaughtering (our captain, an Undine Cleric of Besmara, has an undying hatred of them). Our captain's player has the amazing idea to start crafting items using the deep platinum (our Elven Arcanist was spec'd for crafting), so we started coming up with ideas for items. One item was a pair of Deep Diver's Gloves, which was a modification of the Deliquescent Gloves to add the Frost property rather than Corosive, and allows the wearer to be protected the cold and pressure from deep water rather than having protection from oozes. Other deep platinum magic items had names like "Chill of the Deep", "Wrath of the Aboleth", "Embrace of the Kraken", "Revolver of the Unfathomable Depths", and "Deeplord's Mantle".

But my absolute favorite items from this campaign is my pair of swords, a katana and wakizashi (I multiclassed into the Nitoujutsu Sensei Samurai archetype). My character had deep platinum alchemically bonded to the blades (similar to alchemical silver), causing the blades to take on a dark purple/blue swirled color and making the wounds they inflict cause a form a deep sea sickness. Mechanically, they take a -1 penalty to damage rolls due to platinum being a soft metal (like silver), but have on hit and on crit effects (like viridium). Targets hit must make a DC 13 Fort save or be sickened for 1 round, and additional hits beyond the first increase the DC by 1. Targets crit must make a DC 16 Fort save or be nauseated for 1 round, and additional crits beyond the first increase the DC by 2. It's a fun little debuff mechanic that gets progressively worse the longer my character lays into someone, but thematically it's the most satisfying image of a pair of dark metal blades that cause seasickness in the heartiest of sailors. Best 500gp I've ever spent, and they weren't even enchanted at the time.

Overall, I'd have to say that the theme of an item is most important, followed by it's usefulness, usefulness based on how useful it is to the party or to a character (a +3 Greatsword of Drow Smashing means little if there are no drow around). Based on that, thematically crafted useful items and useful thematic item drops are the most satisfying, followed by useful thematic purchases. After that are thematic crafted items, thematic item drops, thematic purchases, useful item drops, useful crafted items, useful purchases, situationally useful anything, and finally regular old drops (assuming you'd only craft/purchase useful/thematic things). Situational items are only satisfying when useful (such as that Scroll of Situation Unf'king when that situation finally arises).

Thematic & Useful > Thematic > Useful > Situational > Misc
if Thematic & Useful : crafted, drop > purchase
if Thematic : crafted > drop > purchase
if Useful : drop > crafted > purchased
if Situational : drop > crafted/purchased as needed
anything else is saved or sold

There's a difference between scaling up and scaling out.

If you scale up (increase the power of the one enemy) then you risk a lot of problems. He could gain too much AC and be untouchable by all but the PCs with high enough to hit bonuses, which as a player is infuriating when you can't hit on anything but a 20 and feel helpless. You risk him hitting so hard that he can 1shot kill a PC from full to dead dead on a single crit or full attack, which is extremely frustrating as a player to get dropped from full to none in one round, and never getting a chance to even act. To a point you can scale up to increase HP so the enemy lasts longer, or increase AC enough so he's harder (but not impossible) to hit.

If you scale out, you add more bad guys for your PCs to deal with, which creates a more interesting combat scenario if the initiative is spread around. Your players will have the opportunity to play more strategically in who they focus. Does the rogue sneak around to try and disable the caster so they can't disable your fighter? Do the casters split their focus between AOEing the mooks and disabling the bosses? Does the fighter slam straight to the boss or take a round to great cleave through 4 mooks? But there is a danger to having more enemies, in that if multiple enemies gang up on a single PC, they can drop them just as fast as up-scaled single boss, but this can be lessened with good positioning and tactics.

When you have a lot of players, it's better to scale out more than up. It gives the players more to do in combat rather than "everyone hit this guy till he dead." If your players are smart and fight with tactics, make their enemies do the same. If your players have a predictable fight progression, make their enemies prepared for it (if a group of psychopathic adventurers always enter a fight the same way, word would get around). If your players are dropping enemies too fast, boost the enemies' health first, then AC to a point, and only boost damage if you keep in mind how much it takes to 1hit full kill the squishiest player. Also, pulling punches is never a bad thing in a situation like the BBEG getting two crits with a scythe and doing enough damage to kill someone twice over. There's also nothing wrong with your players playing smart, dropping multiple Hold Person on the big boss, and having the rogue coup de grace to end the fight quickly and cleanly (did this in one of my last campaigns, and prevented the alchemist from throwing bombs all over her lair and reducing the loot).

Order of the Warrior is absolutely awesome if you wanted to play the traditional honorable samurai. The abilities it has are fantastic. And you could easily forget the intimidation aspect and go straight for damage.

The Order of the Cockatrice I like because it fits well with the image of a self-obsessed samurai who's all about being showy and having all the attention. Intimidating any who stand against "the great mighty me" and striking hard and fast with his sword. This concept is such a great contrast from the traditional honorable humble samurai that would follow Bushido.

I'd also like to note that it should be reasonable to talk to the DM about choosing any weapon to apply a Samurai's Weapon Expertise and Iaijutsu Strike, if you don't want to stick so close to the eastern theme.

Iaijutsu Strike is usable with any weapon which you can sheath, so this limits it somewhat to swords and the like (you are playing a sword saint).

The katana is probably your best option since you can two hand it and choose it for a Samurai's Weapon Expertise, which lets you qualify for weapon specialization, improved critical, and similar feats eventually. It's also has a great crit range, and you add +2 to confirm from Weapon Expertise in addition to half your Samurai level at level 4 and on (I'm assuming that Brutal Slash replaces Mounted Archer at level 4 not 3).

A strength build is your best option. Power Attack and it's feat line are great. Getting a +1 Impact Katana would also devastate. Let them come to you and hit them for huge damage with an Impact Weapon (2d6 with katana), Iaijutsu Strike (more d6's), Strength (raw damage), Power Attack (more raw damage), Challenge (even more raw damage), and Weapon Specialization (even MORE raw damage). At level 10, you could easily be swinging for 2d6+5d6+1+8+9+10+2 -> 7d6+30 on a SINGLE HIT (with a 15-20 crit range if you have improved critical).

If you want to go with an intimidation build to complement your damage, I recommend the Order of the Cockatrice, which works well with Terrifying Iaijutsu ability. Also, Shatter Defenses is another great option to go with this. Combine it with a Cruel enhancement on your weapon for temp HP on kills and sickening shaken enemies.

Another thing to look at would be Equipment Trick : Scabbard and a Combat Scabbard. Fight without your sword drawn until you have a worthy opponent, then challenge, draw your sword, and strike. The Hurl Scabbard trick is funny since you will have Quick Draw with the Katana due to Weapon Expertise as a Samurai. But the better one is the Steer Opponent Trick, which grants you a nice bonus to hit, and requires Improved Bull Rush which you'll qualify for with Power Attack.

Using Betrayer and Underhanded together requires a little work since both abilities have limitations.

Betrayer allows you to make an attack after a successful diplomacy check. The target is only flatfooted if they are friendly as a result of the diplomacy check, so you would only get sneak attack then. Also, the attack is done as an immediate action, so you are only allowed to take free actions during the attack (which is why it requires Quick Draw), so you can't take any swift actions. However, if the immediate action leads to a surprise round, then you have a standard action and swift action you can perform, but this negates the purpose of the feat since you can always just attack someone if you have quick draw or some way to draw a weapon as a swift action. This leads me to believe that using the Betrayer feat causes a surprise round situation but not a true surprise round.

Underhanded only works a limited amount of times per day based on CHA. It only functions in the surprise round IF you get sneak attack, and you must use a weapon your target is unaware of.

To use them together, assuming you succeed on the diplomacy check and the target is friendly and flatfooted, you need to use a hidden weapon or weapon your target is unaware of, draw that weapon as a free action, and attack as an immediate action. A spring loaded wrist sheath won't work because using it is a swift action. Drawing a hidden weapon normally is a move action, so this won't work, unless you use sleight of hand beforehand during the diplomacy check to get it in hand. The easiest option would be to use a Sheath of Bladestealth with the weapon which you have quick draw with, which would allow you to draw the weapon as a free action and have the weapon concealed from your target (unless they have see invisibility or similar). A final option (subject to DM approval) would be to combine the Hidden Weapons ninja trick, which allows you to draw hidden weapons as a move action, with a weapon you have Quick Draw with, which allows you to draw weapons as a free action rather than a move (normally on non-hidden weapons, but since you already draw hidden weapons at the same speed as normal weapons, it would make sense to draw them even faster).

Unarmed strike is tricky because you don't need to draw it, but it's never a hidden weapon. I can see Underhanded being used with unarmed strike as a sort of sucker-punch, but it's up to the DM.

I forgot to mention the Underhanded rogue talent, which has the potential to be devastating when used with the Betrayer feat, but requires some more work. If you strike your target with a hidden weapon they don't know about in the surprise round, you deal max sneak attack damage. To Quick Draw a hidden weapon, you can take the Hidden Weapons ninja trick which allows you to draw hidden weapons as a move action, which (if your DM rules it so) would translate to a free action using Quick Draw.

It would play out like this :

Diplomacy -> Betrayer -> Quick Draw hidden weapon -> Strike Flatfooted Opponent -> Deal Max Sneak Attack Damage

If you bluff well enough to create a distraction, you could diplomacize someone you don't particularly like and kill them (potentially) without anyone noticing, and maybe even take their place.

For racial feats I highly recommend Swift Kitsune Shapechanger.

Swift Shapechange lets you shapeshift as a swift action, so you don't need the Fast Shifter racial trait and can keep the Dancing Lights SLA, which can be really useful if you're creative. Also, keeping the SLA allows you to qualify for Arcane Strike earlier (rather than level 3 when you'd get Charm Person), which is a nice boost in damage.

Also, if you have feats to spare, you could take a look at the Magical Tail racial feat. Each tail gives you a different spell you can use twice a day, and the spells are all useful for politics and social situations.

Other feats of course include Skill Focus : <your pick> and Persuasive. If you take Persuasive and Quickdraw, you can also take the Betrayer feat, which is a free attack on a successful diplomacy check. Not exactly politics unless you count eliminating the opposition.

Another note, you can qualify for the No Name Grit Feat in two ways without taking levels in Gunslinger. First, you can take the Firearm Training and Grit Rogue Talents to gain the Amateur Gunslinger Feat and follow that with the No Name Grit Feat. Second, you can just take the Amateur Gunslinger Feat and No Name Grit Feat normally, but you don't gain the firearm proficiency as you would had you taken the rogue talents. Either way, you can gain the grit feat without multiclassing.

My favorite character I've played is the character I'm currently playing through Skulls and Shackles, Kyuubi the Pirate-Ninja-Samurai-Cat. She's a (Kitsune Trickster,Scout)Ninja 4 / (Nitoujutsu Sensei)Samurai 4 Kitsune/Catfolk Hybrid.

She has a whole bunch of fun tools for infiltration, deception, and stealth, and plenty of combat strength with different means for getting sneak attack and raw damage from strength and challenge. She happily serves under her captain, and prides herself in being his "shadow" always around and ready to pounce (quite literally) on anyone should her captain order her to do so. She's can be very charismatic, but prefers to sit back and assist her captain in any social encounters. Her damage potential when you combine improved two weapon fighting, challenge, and strength is no joke, and adding sneak attack increases it further. She's been a blast to play.

I'll also note that my captain (and the most experienced member of our group) is equally ridiculous as a Cleric 6/Master of Storms 2 Undine with stupidly high diplomacy, profession sailor, and perception, can swim as fast as our ship, had 8 CON, and has been nearly untouchable all campaign. Our gunslinger is damage-incarnate, crits at least once a session, and has done triple digits multiple times before level 7. Our wizard rebuilt as an arcanist is short fused, blasts everything, and crafts all sorts of wonderful toys.

I will note that there's been a lot of discussion and working with our DM for our characters, and he's been ruling more for fun than anything. This character has a lot of crazy tools, but nothing is game-breaking (yet). Always talk a lot with your DM if you've got some wild and crazy ideas like hybrid races or 3rd party stuff.

Another fun thing to do is to dip one level into the Hungry Ghost Monk. You get a monk's unarmed strike damage so you can unarmed strike with your hands full, can pick up combat reflexes for free, good boost to saves, and get punishing kick as a feat. Enemy comes at you? AoO as they approach, then on your turn when they're next to you, punishing kick them back into polearm range, use other iterative attacks if you have them, and 5' step back so they have to close with you again which will provoke another AoO.

I have an [Arcane Duelist Bard / Hungry Ghost Monk 1 / Fighter 1] like this that uses a polearm and employs this strategy combined with a cruel weapon, dazzling display, and shatter defenses to debuff like mad in addition to granting inspire courage in a fight.

Debuffing enemies through Dirge of Doom is incredibly useful, since it's a -2 on most rolls with no save for the duration of the performance. However, this can also be accomplished easily with Dazzling Display if built for demoralizing. Additionally, a Skald get's Dirge of Doom one level after they get their third rage power and DR 1/-.

With that in mind, why would a Skald ever, EVER, use Dirge of Doom when they could be granting +4 Str/Con, +3 to Will saves, a full line of totem powers (claws, natural armor, and pounce as an example), and untyped DR 1? I can't see any combat encounter where causing the shaken condition on enemies (which can be ignored by creatures immune to fear effects) is more useful than the benefits of ragesong. Couple this with the low number of ragesong rounds a Skald has (15 at level 10 with 16 Charisma compared to a Bard's 25), and you can see that most of the time, if not all the time, a Skald will be better off using Ragesong.

The Skald shouldn't get Dirge of Doom as a second performance. Leave Ragesong as the class's main and only performance, but give it a Dirge of Doom like effect at level 10. For example :

Terrifying Ragesong : At 10th level, a Skald's ragesong can create a sense of growing dread in his enemies. In place of adding rage powers to the ragesong, a skald can cause enemies that hear his ragesong to become shaken. This only affects enemies within 30 feet that are able to hear the performance, and the effect persists for as long as the enemy is within 30 feet. This cannot cause a creature to become frightened or panicked, even if the targets are already shaken from another effect. This is a sonic mind-affecting fear effect, and it relies on audible components.

With this, Ragesong still provides it's normal buffs, but gives the Skald the choice of granting rage powers to his allies or debuffing his enemies. This also removes any and all bardic performance from the Skald, allowing it to only worry about Ragesong related effects, and further distinguishing it from the Bard.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland wrote:

Just like it states in the document right now, once per enemy per 24 hours.

Ok, cool. Yeah, I'll totally playtest this new version with my group when I get home from work tonight.

Just eyeballing it, I do think that being able to add a status effect as part of the Studied Strike is something worth considering. It would give the ability a bit more oomph and a good reason to consider ending Studied Combat early.

Also, it would fit well with the Holmes-style fighting from the Robert Downy Jr. movie:

"Two: throat; paralyze vocal chords, stop scream"

As it is right now, there isn't a lot of incentive to take your Studied Strike as anything except your final hit against the target. Milk that static bonus for as long as you can. But, if a Studied Strike could temporarily deafen, sicken, silence, or otherwise mess with an opponent then you'd have a lot more temptation to use the strike earlier.

Higher level investigators would have more status effect choices, and talents could provide additional effects to choose from or make the effects last longer than, say, 1 round.

This reminds me a lot of the Rogue Talents and Ninja Tricks that inflict effects in addition to or in place of sneak attack damage, and I think would be amazing as extra utility in fights.