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I was looking over the prestige classes on the APG and liked the look of the Master Spy (not just the picture I mean). The see I need 7 ranks in Bluff & Disguise so I need 7 level in something else first. I'm a little bit lost as to what at the moment. One part of me is thinking to steer clear of any spell-casting class. I was thinking straight old-fashioned rogue - but that almost seems to obvious.
Our campaign we are starting (well sort of again) is not very combat orientated at all and most of the action takes place in a city.
Has anyone played a Master Spy yet? Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Stefan.
I was looking over the prestige classes on the APG and liked the look of the Master Spy (not just the picture I mean). The see I need 7 ranks in Bluff & Disguise so I need 7 level in something else first. I'm a little bit lost as to what at the moment. One part of me is thinking to steer clear of any spell-casting class. I was thinking straight old-fashioned rogue - but that almost seems to obvious.
Our campaign we are starting (well sort of again) is not very combat orientated at all and most of the action takes place in a city.
Has anyone played a Master Spy yet? Any thoughts?
Cheers,
Stefan.
This is going to come down to personal preference. The most obvious choice is rogue or ranger/rogue multiclass. For a spy who can go anywhere and be potent combatively a monk seems a good option. The bard would make a decent master spy 7 levels nets you lots of social skills, 2 versatile performances, fascinate, suggestion, move action inspire courage, good hope, haste, or glibness. bard 8 gets you another level 3 spell and dirge of doom.
I have not played one yet, however I must say from looking over the APG I would suggest the following could be good entries:
Alchemist -- Depending on what you want out of it, the bombs and discoveries can make for a very nice poisoner, and explosions expert. You need a little time to make the extracts, but given that you can make them on the fly easier than the wizard can change spells giving you more flexibility. You'll have lots of skill points and the ability to use many good spell trigger items (as well as make potions -- an useful *anyone* ability).
An Inquisitor *Could* make a good spy but it would be an awkward fit for most inquisitor archtypes.
Bards:
The Court Bard, Detective, Sandman, and Street performer bard variants could do wonders with the master spy.
9 levels of urban Druid gets you several nice class features and wild shape for small and medium creatures -- a useful disguise most people won't even think to look for.
Monk of the Empty Hand could make good use of anything he could reach if things go badly and wouldn't have to fear a lack of armor. He has a decent amount of skill points which, if agumented with traits to get a few key skills as class skills, would make an excellent choice.
An Infiltrator Ranger with favored enemy on the various humaniods could make a really nice master spy, even if he uses the ranger skirmisher variant too, as could the urban ranger.
A plain rogue is a good choice, as is the cutpurse, investigator, poisoner, rake, spy, thug, trapsmith, and possibly the sniper.
While normally not a recommendation, if you don't mind losing the casting a conjuration or enchantment wizard could really bring in a lot of unexpected tricks to use with the class features of the master spy. Possibly mixing in some Arcane Trickster when you have the time could yield unexpected results too.
If you went with bard, would 7 ranks in Act as your versatile performance count for the requirements to enter the prestige class? Just curious about that.
Yeah Bard looks like a natural choice especially in a low combat city based campaign.
no, it wouldn't.
If you're not going Core only then the Beguiler from Players Handbook II would make a good choice, especially for a combat light urban game.
Don't forget a cleric with the Trickery domain (or the Deception or Thievery sub-domains). This can be surprisingly effective, although you lose much of your spell progression.
Was thinking of combining rogue with alchemist for this, getting brew potion and some of the extracts is nice, cannot decide between rogue3/alchemist4 or rogue6/alchemist1
OK here is my ideas on master spy.
6 levels of inquisitor(or bard) then 1 level of assassin, then master spy. the 1 level gets u death attack faster, and ur levels of Master spy and assassin stack for the d/c(retroactive too so u dont need 8th level master spy) and poison use is icing on the cake imo. Also the levels of inquisitor give u a couple of nice abilities as well as access to the inquisitor spell list which has quite a few "spy" spells on their. As long as u have no qualms of "evil" (i dissagree with the restriction on Assassin quite passionately) then u should be fine. I guess u could always start "evil" then maybe change later as the game progresses, as long as u are within 1 step of ur deity. Could also go bard for some nice spells as well, and i think there are a couple of nice archetypes to play with as a bard spy.
Chameleon Rogue would synergise with those bluff ranks, letting it spill over to boost stealth.
I have some NPCs Monks, Who are of the Empty Hand and have Serpent Style line of feats, then are Master Spies. My players have a tough time with them if they get in an ambush, which, being monks, they can be doing all sorts of menial tasks.
I would think a bard would be the best choice. Maybe urban ranger or druid. Street performer bard has some nice perks. I wonder if an assassin could decide that it is wrong to kill people for money, hence changing their alignment. Would being an ex-assassin cause you to lose skills?