The Cipher in Ultimate Intrigue seems to be pretty interesting in terms of avoiding all confrontation.
It has Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Perform removed as class and inspiration skills. And it has most of its talent selections replaced. As well as removing any chance to multi-archtype.
What makes this archetype so special?
It clearly doesn't excel in combat, or social interactions, so how can I play a cipher?
It's the ultimate sneak. That's its reason to exist. If the game you're in doesn't have a place for such then you don't play a cipher investigator.
Yes, I understand that it is the ultimate sneak. The idea that you can basically turn people blind to you is auspiciously laughable, given the right circumstances.
However, I'm questioning it's base value because I want to know what I can do with it. If I can't interact with anything without being detected, what are some roles I can take in an rpg?
Ok, let me get into specifics.
1. What feats can I use to benefit from it?
2. Can I use Inattention Blindness with it's Hide in Plain Sight to loop back and forth?
3. Can I continously reactivate Inattention Blindness every turn I'm detected?
Inattention blindness is more usually a backup to stealth than a plan on its own - the DC just isn't high enough to be reliable against non-mooks. If you want to play Kragar from Steven Brust's Taltos series it's necessary, but until double-digit levels in PF you won't be as overpowered as any character in that series. It is a great backup though.
Inattention blindness doesn't work on people previously aware of you, so I don't think looping will work and reactivating it once detected definitely doesn't.
What can you do while covered by inattention blindness? You can happily buff up, wander past mook guards, listen in on conversations or read over someone's shoulder, move to a place where you can hide normally (if below 7th level where you might need to do so; otherwise just make the stealth check), leave threatening notes where they'll be found later; use your imagination!
I'm not sure that feats help that particular ability; maybe ability focus. Being a half-elf and taking the alternate FCB sounds good though. Feats which benefit from it? I'm not sure what you mean.
I don't know...I just thought it seemed to have more value to it's quality than it appeared.
Isn't there rules for how long the notice duration lasts for an enemy, so you could perhaps go back into inattention blindness after hide in plain sight?