dusk knight paladin into crimson templar a good idea?

[zauriel56]

I know generally prestige classes arent as good as straight regular classes, but bear with me here.

i don't know all the sneak attack rules, so idk if the concealment a dusk knight gains from smiting would allow a crimson templar to sneak attack or not, but the archetype and prestige class seem like they go together thematically. what else should be done to make this a good build?

I want a thematic build here but also want it to be effective

[avr]

Concealment alone doesn't enable sneak attack. You need to flank or deny the enemy their dex bonus. You can use concealment to hide using the stealth skill, which would then allow you sneak attack once, and if you're not fighting an unchained rogue then concealment will probably protect you from others sneak attack.

The popular ways of getting sneak attack are flanking (including using the press to the wall feat), invisibility/greater invs., darkness or fog w/means to see thru such and sometimes feinting. Sniping from some distance off isn't popular for whatever reason.

With the 3-feat tax to enter crimson templar you're not going to be feinting, and those feats are pushing you towards melee. You might use unsanctioned knowledge to pick up a fog or darkness spell though spending a feat for one first level spell would hurt. Invisibility is out of your reach short of expensive items. Flanking is probably the way you'll need to do this. As noted above the press to the wall feat would help, and the grace spell would also assist with positioning.