I have a wizard disguised as a fighter. Since an elf gets longsword and longbow amongst his favored weapons automatically, it works great. Kind of like the old-school fighter-magic-user vibe.
I used traits to give myself diplomacy and UMD as class skills. With an extra traits feat, I suppose you could get disable device and sleight of hand as class skills as well. The +2 DEX of an elf helps there too.
The only thing missing would be trap finding... though I guess a high perception skill would handle most of that.
A high-INT wizard can have nearly as many skill points as a rogue.
Guess that would make him a fighter-magic-user-thief!
There's a trait that allows a character to locate magical traps like trap finding. The just put ranks in disable device and perception. Add additional skills, such as sleight of hand, depending on what rogue-y things you want to do.
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So, we've all heard of the thief disguised as a wizard/cleric/spellcaster. Hell, there are entire archetypes devoted to the concept. But why don't we try to turn that around? I want to see your best build for a full caster meant to do everything a rogue does, but better.That really isn't a challenge. There is very little unique about the Rogue. Any Int based casting class can replace his role as the skill guy.
Skill guy is easy. How do you replace the skirmisher aspect of the rogue? With the worst BAB in the game and the inability to do sneak attack damage, you aren't going to be able to engage in any sort of physical combat, and if you start throwing spells, you'll be writing "I am Gandalf" in runes that all can read from Rivendell to the Mouths of Anduin.
A cleric doesn't have the BAB problem (but doesn't have the intelligence for the necessary skills), and of course a 2/3 caster like a bard or an investigator is a better rogue out of the box than an actual rogue is, but I'm thinking a full caster is too limited physically.
How do you replace the skirmisher aspect of the rogue? With the worst BAB in the game and the inability to do sneak attack damage, you aren't going to be able to engage in any sort of physical combat, and if you start throwing spells, you'll be writing "I am Gandalf" in runes that all can read from Rivendell to the Mouths of Anduin.Given that the Rogue is basically terrible at this I am not sure it is an issue.
If you are talking about having an impact on combat then you don't need to do anything special, full casters so far outclass the rogue it isn't even funny.
But not when they're "disguised as a thief," at least, not if it's in any way an effective disguise. Yes, a wizard disguised as a wizard can have a substantial impact on combat. But a wizard who wants to preserve the idea that he's a thief can't simply bust out the fireball spell and expect Her Royal Majesty's Wizard Hunters to believe he's merely a humble thief.
The Cyphermage prestige class (Inner Sea World Guide) gets 4+ skills a level, and Disable Device, Climb, Perception and UMD. That gets you more in the skillful rogue realm. Detect magic will help you see magic traps, right? I actually don't know the answer to that. You can always dispel magic on them.
Traits, you take Highlander for stealth and Canter for Bluff.
The enchantment school with give you a bluff bonus, so will a carnivalist rogue's pet viper, or the transmutation school helps you get free dex bonuses. Get good at at least one one these.
The spell Sense Vitals from Dirty Tactics Toolbox gives you a lesser sneak attack! Zounds!
Arcane Armor training, mock armor (UE) or glamers make it look like you are wearing armor as normal.
So you combine all this with the scrollmaster wizard archetype, and you can be a Highland speaking sneaking gentlemanly character, and old fellow who smacks people on the back of the head with a rolled up newspaper/scroll, then climbs up a fire escape and picks the lock on someone's door, disables the alarm, then lies about it. Any spellcasting can be done from a scroll, because as a charismatic rigue, you totally got the UMD, why, you're even chucking out a few cleric spells. That's all a rogue does, right?
Every round that intelligent opponents dont think: "Lets gang up on their Wizard. He needs to go down asap!" is a round won. Even if it is just the surprise round in which they dont focus on "the token trap guy".
Not looking like a walking cliche of the "very dangerous, but easy to take down" primary target is often an advantage.
Extra thing to note: While it's all well and good to be saying Aram Zey'z focus or Sense Vitals give you roguish abilities, everyone can see you casting spells. Rogues don't cast spells. The feat Secret Signs (Inner Sea World Guide) offers a great way to utilize eschew materials and silent spells (Deaf oracle dip...?) into a very expensive secret spellcasting.
Extra thing to note: While it's all well and good to be saying Aram Zey'z focus or Sense Vitals give you roguish abilities, everyone can see you casting spells. Rogues don't cast spells. The feat Secret Signs (Inner Sea World Guide) offers a great way to utilize eschew materials and silent spells (Deaf oracle dip...?) into a very expensive secret spellcasting.
As per the recent FAQs, people can still see you casting spells even if you cast them without materials, stilled, and silent. Apparently the sparkles and Disney Dust give it away anyway.
As per the recent FAQs, people can still see you casting spells even if you cast them without materials, stilled, and silent. Apparently the sparkles and Disney Dust give it away anyway.
This is true.
When casting a spell that has only somatic components, Secret Signs allows you to roll sleight of hand, opposed by perception, to prevent others from noticing your spellcasting - with a -2 penalty.
It also gives you a +4 bonus on bluff checks to pass secret messages, and we all know how often GMs remember to ask for those. It is my favourite feat.
Since there is no reason a wizard cannot actually be a thief I assume you mean rogue not thief. You also specified wizard instead of spell caster so that leaves out the obvious solution of the archeologist bard.
A wizard because of his INT will have near as many skill ranks as rogue but usually spends them on knowledges and spell craft. For the most part they also lack the proper class skills. The thing is there is nothing preventing a wizard from putting ranks into any skill he wants. If the skill in question is not a class skill all it means is they don’t get the +3 bonus. While being behind 3 points on a skill seems like a big deal it really is not for one reason spells. Many spells the wizard gets give huge bonuses to specific skills. The best example is invisibility giving a +20 to stealth, but there are also other spells that can not only overcome but actually exceed the class skill bonus. One spell also deserves special notice which is Heroism. Heroism gives a +2 bonus to all attacks, saves and skill checks, and it lasts 10 min. per level. This one third level spell almost makes every skill in the book a class skill.
Anyone with disable device can find and remove traps. To use disable device for magical traps requires Trapfinding or something similar. The thing is why would a spell caster even bother using disable device to overcome a magical trap. Wizards get the cantrip detect magic which can be use an unlimited number of times per day so they are actually better at detecting magical traps than a rouge. Simply take three rounds and you have located any magical traps. As to disabling them that is what dispel magic is for.
The only other class feature that the wizard needs to emulate is sneak attack. Instead of trying to simulate a sneak attack let’s look at what sneak attack really does. Sneak attack is designed to allow a rogue to take out a target that he surprises. There are plenty of spells that can do this starting with sleep, various touch attacks spells can also be used. Throw in a few meta magic feats like silent spell, and still spell can allow you to cast a spell without drawing attention to yourself. Yes if someone sees you casting they may still be able to figure it out, but if you cast without them seeing this will often be enough to avoid drawing attention to yourself.
If the wizard really needs to cast a spell and cannot avoid being noticed then simply hold a piece of paper or a stick and pretend to use the skill use magic device. They could also carry colored water in potion containers and pretend to drink a potion. Use the cantrip prestidigitation to make the tip of the stick glow purple so people really think it is a magic wand.
You will have better luck disguising a Psychic or Mesmerist as a simple thief. Cunning Caster allows you to cast without being obvious about it. In the case of Mesmerist, you can even use Painful Stare to fake a sucky sneak attack. Psychic can wear armor so long as it has 0 ACP, and Mesmerist can wear light armor.
Cunning Caster is a good route even for a wizard. Consider that the wizard, as discussed prior, has a huge amount of tools at its disposal to enhance skill checks; usually, Cunning Caster will result in a -12 penalty to Bluff for a wizard spell.
Let's look at a level 5 half-elf wizard, the Faker. With his first level feat, he takes Deceitful [+2]. He also grabs Skill Focus (Bluff) [+3] using an alternate racial trait. The Faker takes a Viper familiar [+3], and spends a trait to use INT in place of CHA for Bluff checks [+4, assuming 18 INT]; he also spends a trait for Bluff as a class skill, and +1 to Bluff [+4]. He can also grab the Enchanting Smile power from the Enchantment school [+3].
The Faker can extend a Raiment of Command at the beginning of each day [+2, effectively]. He can also cast Heroism [+2], which lasts for quite some time itself. Furthermore, the Blend spell renders him effectively invisible; this probably doesn't stack with Raiment of Command, but because Bluff is being opposed by Perception in this case, not Sense Motive, that's [+18].
Finally, at level 5 he can easily afford a +2 competence bonus to Bluff from a magical item, and a +2 circumstance bonus to conceal spellcasting with Bluff via a masterwork tool.
With 5 ranks in Bluff and all spell effects active, the Faker has a +38 bonus to Bluff-- after the -12 penalty. That will probably do for any opposed Perception checks, especially considering the -1 penalty the opposing creatures receive per 10 feet of distance, and other obscuring obstacles.
There's a trait that allows a character to locate magical traps like trap finding. The just put ranks in disable device and perception. Add additional skills, such as sleight of hand, depending on what rogue-y things you want to do.
It's a clearly unbalanced trait that was never meant to be used outside of the specific AP it was created for.
Seeker Sage Sorcerer
Trapfinding, Int Based and just fairly bad ass in general.
There's a trait that allows a character to locate magical traps like trap finding. The just put ranks in disable device and perception. Add additional skills, such as sleight of hand, depending on what rogue-y things you want to do.It's a clearly unbalanced trait that was never meant to be used outside of the specific AP it was created for.
Meh. The trait was literally made so that campaigns that are trap-centric dont need to have a rogue.
The context of the trait was that it should be allowed if the campaign is going to be trap heavy ala Mummy's Mask. Forcing folks to give up features for trapfinding so a player out of 4 or 5 will have to solo play is terrible game design regardless.
Y'know because traps are solo encounters really where only one person rolls two dice and either something bad happens or it doesnt.
Well heck, the trait is best on Rogues who trade trapfinding away too so its a shame you're denying them that option.
There's a trait that allows a character to locate magical traps like trap finding. The just put ranks in disable device and perception. Add additional skills, such as sleight of hand, depending on what rogue-y things you want to do.It's a clearly unbalanced trait that was never meant to be used outside of the specific AP it was created for.Meh. The trait was literally made so that campaigns that are trap-centric dont need to have a rogue.
The context of the trait was that it should be allowed if the campaign is going to be trap heavy ala Mummy's Mask. Forcing folks to give up features for trapfinding so a player out of 4 or 5 will have to solo play is terrible game design regardless.
Y'know because traps are solo encounters really where only one person rolls two dice and either something bad happens or it doesnt.
Well heck, the trait is best on Rogues who trade trapfinding away too so its a shame you're denying them that option.
You can find magical traps with just perception. The only thing the trait does is allow you to use disable device to remove them. It's hardly overpowered. You could also have an unseen servant with a bag of flour set off and thereby disable it.
The notion of the "obvious wizard" is a trope for a good reason. It's only from the gamist perspective that you view the caster as "powerful, high-priority target who goes down easy" and want to take him out of the picture first. From an in-character view, a group of bandits who see a wizard walking down a forest trail are going to step off really quick because they aren't suicidal. Spellcasters dress like spellcasters to make people wary and avoid conflicts. This is why we also have the trope of the "poser wizard" who dresses like one to enjoy that social armor and privilege. Down-dressing is a completely different trope and far more often applies to warriors and martial artists who try to pass themselves off as meek and not worth-while when, in reality, they could wreck you five ways from Sunday. For a wizard to outright try passing themselves off as a Rogue character, who you'd think would be equally seen as an even easier target, seems a bit odd to me.
There is nothing "gameist" (whatever that should mean) about it. It is all based in-game in general known things about certain types of person. And even an Orc ferom Stupidstan can see that the dude in Fullplate is probabyl much harder to take down that the other dude in a shirt that throws Ligntning Bolts from his fingertips. And needs to go down at the quickest, lest he turns you into a newt!
What commoner rabble or trivial forest bandits do or dont isnt really a concern for a mid-level wizard, especially if he has his adventurer friends with him.
But what the Drow Hunting Party does in the surprise round is. Or the Mindflayer hiding behind that illusory wall.
There are those that ride around on goldem Mares. And then there are those whos 1stline of defense is obscurity and misdirection.
The hard part isn't doing what a rogue does, it's doing what a rogue does without anyone noticing how, you basically need that cunning caster feat, and then you need to eliminate the various penalties by eschewing materials, casting silently and still-ly. Then you need to figure out how to function properly in combat with 1/2 bab and the expectation that you will be attacking, you might be able to use some scrolls if you claim to have a good UMD, but even then it's going to seem rather odd, not to mention be a real gold sink if you plan to do it regularly.