So looking through the Advanced Class Guide and as the Counterfeit Mage rogue archetype as it got me thinking. Could you actually build an effective character that is nothing but a fake mage? Could you fill the role of party caster?
The ability for a rogue types to use some magic items that are normally limited to casters has been around for ages, but I've never really considered it a viable option. As a result I don't even know where to start looking for options to even consider such a thing.
Is it possible, could a rogue have everybody convinced, his own party included that, they are a great a powerful wizard and still remain a viable character? How would you build the character?
In PFS at low levels you could get away with it, burning prestige points to pick up an assortment of level 1 wands. I'd imagine that it will get harder as you gain levels to keep up the appearance simply due to the wealth cost without an extremely generous GM.
If you had a GM that fed you scrolls and wands like candy then you could do it.
Playing it straight with wands and scrolls certainly is an expensive option. Right now I'm actively looking for tricks to enhance wand use, and other ways to simple fake it.
Do some kind of trickery to look like your casting an invisibility spell then use Stealth. Sneak Attack with low level Ray spells, Ray of Frost is much scarier when you can sneak attack with it.
Cheap things that you can convince people are magic would be viable and probably essential to the character concept as well.
Without the hide in plain sight ability I don't think you'd be fooling anyone. A wand of vanish might should work though, maybe with some slight of hand.
There are definately some items that would help. Alchemist Fires, tanglefoot bags, smoke sticks.
Then there are more expensive items, like a snapleaf or a toothpick of pyrotechnics. Again though, just by wealth this stuff is expensive, but in PFS they are viable buys with prestige points along with wands and higher level scrolls.
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The Major Magic Talent plus the Bookish Rogue Feat (and possibly even Talented Magician, though that seems pricey), and investing a little money in a spellbook, and you can actually wind up with access to every 0th and 1st level Sorcerer or Wizard spell in the game. Plus you can get a Familiar, and maybe even an Improved Familiar, then tack on Dispelling Strike...and you might have something workable.
Of course, it's all probably done better as an Empiricist Investigator with Student of Philosophy (allowing the addition of Int to many skills and a serious Int focus). That loses you out on the Familiar and Dispelling Strike (as well as Signature Wand), but I think being a vastly better class in most other ways makes up for that.