If i were to build a scout/skill monkey rouge i'd focus more on my int, for the skill points, and not on str and Wis, i'd keep them at 10. In combat you could focus on sneaking and common sence in overrated :-). And you could consider light armor, chain gives you penalties. Drow blooded half Elf is a great idea, i'm going to try to talk my GM into that.
Hmm, Armor Expert combat trait, -1 to armor check penalties from armor. I think I would take it in place of the Failed Apprentice. Would get you a ton of skill points back... On 27 points, my array would look more like -
Str 14, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
before racial mods
Thoughts in general on party:
1) Sorcerer is likely to have UMD, 20 Cha, Spellcraft, and at least 1 social skill.
2) Paladin hard to guess, I generally play them as Archer, but if he is sword and board.. Anyhow, likely to have 16 Cha, minimum, and at least 1 or 2 social skills
3) Oracle is so incredibly varied (Battle v. Heavens v. Life, for example) it is also very hard to predict, but again I guess minimum of 16 Cha and 1-2 social Social Skills, and UMD.
4) Witch is likely to have 20 int, granting 7 skills, I would guess 4 Knowledges (Religion, Planes, Nature, Arcane) UMD, Spellcraft, and maybe Craft(Alchemy) if plans on taking Cauldron Hex, otherwise likely Fly.
So, I think the covered skills are probably: Knowledges (All) [Best left to the int heavy skill heavy witch]. Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate, and 2-3 UMD already in party.
So the skills that are generally needed and desirable for a scout, are (1) Perception (2) Stealth (3) Disable Device. At this point, every thing else is gravy just because of the power of your allies. Because of the party makeup, I might suggest your Paladin focus on Shattered Defenses, so you can REALLY shine on damage. Ancestral Weaponry alt racial and choose Sawtooth Sabre (1d8, 19-20/x2) It counts as light for TWF with the Exotic Weapon Proficiency.
14 Str will let you be a more capable combatant, 20 Dex (I would not normally recommend, but you have hella stat points to burn!) 14 Con is never bad.
Stats to Dump if you want more Str/Dex/Con.
1) Cha. You are such a Cha heavy party, dumping Cha to 7 would not be bad at all.
2) Int. Although you're planning a skill monkey, with so many of the skills are being covered, or are capable of being covered, I would be tempted to dump Int to an 8 or even 7 and focus on combat. Especially if you can convince the paladin to follow the Shattered Defenses feat tree...
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I think black or grey, or perhaps some sort of green and brown earth tone is a better color for a scout than rouge.
A darkvision race and the free combat expertise with fighter lore warden on level 2 allow for moonlight stalker quite fast, what lets you hit better and do more damage when youhave concealment (+2 both). Also pimps your FORT save.
With what you say, i wouldn´t dump WIS or CON because of the save bonus.
Alternatively you could take monk dip.
2 levels of zen archer are nice and give you higher saves overall.
Also, as a scout, you could consider something that lets you get hidden again when you are alone out there. Like some ninja tricks or hellcat stealth or hide in plain sight.
So after a brutal Jade Regent(awful AP btw)TPK my group is getting started on the Shattered Star AP. My character taking is his first level as a fighter then, putting everything into rogue. Our group as a unit decided after reading the SS players guide that everyone MUST have darkvision. As a result it is a party of freaks. 3 Drow blooded Half Elves: Paladin, Sorcerer, and Fighter/Rogue, a Half Orc witch, an Asimar (who looks like a dwarf) oracle, and a Goblin gunslinger.
Our DMs are particularly generous when it comes to point buying (27) but that’s where the generosity ends.
My planned primary role will be party scout / skill monkey.I need to be able to defend myself in a fight, but combat is not my primary concern. My character as is
STR 13
DEX 18
CON 14
INT 13
WIS 13
CHA 12
I like well rounded builds, but I'd consider taking 2 points from either Wis or Cha and putting them into Strength to bump it to 14, for when you get into melee and carrying capacity and for composite bow damage when you get one.
Racial traits of note:
60’Darkvison
Skill Focus: perceptionTraits: reactionary +2 initiative, failed apprentice +1 vs. Arcane.
First level feats: Point blank shot,Precise shot
Armor- chain shirt, quick draw steel shield.
Weapons- Long bow, short sword, daggers, spiked gauntlet.
So my planned character path is as follows.
Level : Talent / Feat
3 Finesse Rouge / Deepsight
5 Combat trick (TWF) / Doge
7 Weapon training / Mobility
9 fast stealth / ToughnessOpen to comments and questions.
I would suggest choosing either ranged expertise OR two weapon fighting, but not both. Rogues don't get a lot of feats, even if you're using rogue talents and a level of fighter to boost you up, and excelling at archery or two weapon fighting both eat up a ton of feats in the end. There's a narrow line between being versatile (something a rogue is good at) and being spread too thin (often a pitfall when building rogues). Also if you are really trying to build a skill monkey, you want to leave some of your rogue talent slots up for the talents that boost skills.
Choose what would be fun for you, of course, but as you have a sorcerer, oracle, and moreover gunslinger in the party, I would suggest a melee focus, and take TWF and Weapon Finesse at 1st level (your fighter level). Work on being flanking buddies with the paladin and sneak attack the night away. From there I would get TWDefense and maybe Weapon Focus if you're TWFing with a particular weapon a lot (help mitigate those penalties to hit).
At 2nd level grab fast stealth -- or at least get fast stealth sooner than 9th level, as you are going to want to have that earlier rather than later if you are being the party's scout. Other rogue talents to consider might be minor and major magic to get vanish as a spell-like ability--useful for a scout to become invisible in a pinch.
If you are enjoying the idea of getting Dodge and Mobility then I would also consider getting Combat Reflexes and filling in the required Stealth 5 and Perform (Dance) 2 to qualify for Shadowdancer to get Hide in Plain Sight (great for a stealthy scout concept), with the caveat that it can open up arguments about what the heck and where dim light is (but if you're anticipating a campaign where you're often in dark areas, then HIPS should be able to be activated often). If you want, get 2 levels to also boost up your Darkvision instead of taking Deepsight (also if you take an archetype that replaces Uncanny Dodge you can get it back by the 2 level Shadowdancer dip). While taking shadowdancer will slow your sneak attack progression a dip can be useful for a mobile scouty build (even if it's not always useful building past a few levels); although they're not often favored in theorycrafting, hands down one of the best stealth-skirmishers I've seen played IRL was a fighter/rogue/shadowdancer. (You can get Hide in Plain Sight as a rogue but not till 10th level and only for 1 terrain, although it is an Extraordinary ability for the Rogue rather than the Supernatural ability it is for the shadowdancer, so that should be borne in mind.)
Also, the needs of the campaign may end up making you realize other build options may be more viable so be willing to be flexible.
And you could consider light armor, chain gives you penalties.
He has a chain shirt, which IS light armor (chainmail is medium armor, but that's different). Yes, there's a -2 armor check penalty, but it otherwise isn't going to penalize his actions in any way (eventually the mithral shirt is ideal for rogues/scouts/skirmishers since they are light armor with 0 ACP).
I would go with a higher STR than DEX rogue... you are burning a feat on Finesse.
Fighter 4/Rogue 12
STR 15 (17)
DEX 15
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 14
CHA 8 (or lower DEX by 1, WIS by 2 and add here for UMD)
traits:
armor expert
reactionary/warrior of old
1 Weapon Focus
3 Furious Focus
5 Dazzling Display
7 Cornugon Smash
9 Weapon Specialization
11 Iron Will
13 Toughness
15 Improved Iron Will
Fighter Feats:
1 Power Attack
2 (3) Improved Initiative? (or whatever you want)
4 (7)Shatter Defenses
Rogue Talents
2 (4) Strong Impression (Intimidating Prowess)
4 (8) Offensive Defense
6 (10)Fast Stealth
8 (12)Surprise Attack
10(14)Crippling Strike
12(16)Hunter's Surprise
DO a fighter level every other level until you have fighter 4/Rogue 3, then go pure rogue.
This will allow you to:
a.)set up sneak attacks on your own via Shatter Defenses. (VERY important for a scout who may not have back up immediately available.)
b.)deal decent damage via STR focus, even when Sneak Attack isn't viable/doesn't work on a given opponent.
c.)Increase your defenses via Iron Will and Med. Armor. (mithril breastplate is my go to, its a good blend of defense and low check penalty.)
you will still be very stealthy, but you will also be able to hold your own in combat, whether full attack or a standard action.
Personally, I prefer ranger/rogue to fighter/rogue if you are only dipping a level or two.
What a level of fighter gets you over a level of ranger:
Heavy armor and tower shield proficiency
a bonus feat
What a level of ranger gets over fighter:
4 skill points
better skill list
favored enemy
good reflex save
track
wild empathy
ability to use clw wands
A second level of each gets bravery for figher, 4 more skill points for ranger. The bonus feat vs combat style is pretty much a wash.
I would suggest going ranger 1 or 2/rogue (scout archetype) 8. After that you can either stay with rogue, or switch back to ranger. Stats would be str 14, dex 16 + 2 (racial), con 14, int 12, wis 14, cha 10. First feat should be weapon finesse, then decide whether you want to be archer or two weapon build. first level skills should be perception, stealth, survival, disable device (non-class for now, but you likely won't be hitting any magical traps until later levels), and then whatever other skills you want. Skill feat should be perception or stealth (I would pick perception).
If only dipping Ranger, you should probably be a Freebooter.
+1 attack and damage to yourself and all allies against any foe you're willing to spend a move action to designate, all day long > a +2 against a single creature type for yourself only. Unless the game is predicated on fighting the same thing alot, like an undead game. In which case...just go ranger 20. :)
Trapper archetype is also great for a dipping ranger. You won't be able to use ranger wands/scrolls, but that's what use magic device is for. By getting trapfinding there, it frees you up to pick out a rogue archetype that drops it.
Ranger is fine for 2 levels... but my above build requires more feats around level 6 than Ranger can provide.
If going Ranger dipping, go either 2 or 6 levels, get TWF, do the finesse build thing. Done.
For a scout/skill monkey don't worry about your combat skills. You want smart, quick and quiet. You want acrobatics, perception, disable device, climb, swim, disguise, bluff. You want to be able to have spare points for knowledges, throw in a craft or profession or two (ex: craft [trap] or prof [guide]).
Remember that just because another party member can do it better, doesn't mean you're ineffective. Take the helpful trait and aid another with +4's instead of +2's. Likewise in combat, get in there and flank (give that fighter +2 from flanking, +4 from aiding, and letting him give'er on the power attacks). Don't worry about your attacks hitting or doing much damage other than for sneak attacks.
Rogue talents I suggest would be fast stealth and quick disable (or whatever it's called).
There is no reason you can be a skill monkey/scout, but be horrible at combat. You can be good at both.
Scouting is the single most dangerous thing a single party member can take up on their own. Sucking at combat while doing so is going to get you murdered in short order. Being good enough at combat to survive until the rest of the party can rescue you is a NECESSITY.
Because one day, just because of the way Stealth and Perception work, you are going to mess up, and get caught. Running and hiding is great, it should be your first reaction after telling your party of the threat. However, because of the way speed and Stealth work, you aren't going to be able outrun them every time, and you can't hide in plain sight. Even if you do, they will be searching around for you, and eventually, you will fail your roll, or they will succeed at theirs.
My point here, is that after figuring out how to scout well, a good scout in this game needs to figure out how to survive a fight alone for however long it takes for support to turn up.