Build advice

[Jaerun of Sothis]

I'm trying to build a character based off a <i>Ninja Scroll</i> bad guy (old anime movie). He essentially hides in shadows, can move around in shadows, and uses a some sort of reach-able spiked chain weapon (he also seems to have some sort of mind control abilities, but I'm not as worried about that at this point).

Shadowdancer seems perfect for this, but doesn't come online until pretty late and needs a ton of feats before it can effectively jump around the battlefield.

So I started looking at Arcanist for the Dimensional Slide ability. 4 levels of Arcanist would get me 40ft of teleporting around.

I'm thinking of starting out as an Unchained Monk to get Flurry and Kusarigama prof.

Then alternating Arcanist and Slayer to get Dimensional Slide (Arcanist), better BAB (Slayer), feats (Slayer), and sneak attack (Slayer). Arcanist can also get a second exploit at level 3, which I would probably use to grab the Divination abilities.

What I'm struggling with a bit is feats.

*Is going the Dodge-Mobility-Spring Attack route good for battlefield control? (Kusarigama is reach, and trip, and I can Flurry with it.)

*Combat Patrol?

*Improved Trip?

I also see the Tapestry Traveler feat...does that work with Dim Slide? Then I wouldn't have to take as many levels of Arcanist.

What about using Dim Slide in combat? Can you move (normal movement), attack, and then Dim Slide away?

Anybody want to help me out?

Suggestions for a build up to level 8-10?

Appreciate everyone who takes a look and/or has a comment!

[MrCharisma]

I don't remember Ninja scrolls well enough to know exactly what powers you'd need, but OCCULTISTS can get a move action teleport at level 7 from the CONJURATION IMPLEMENT and can get some shadowy/invisibility powers from the ILLUSION IMPLEMNT (and if you want to be good with any weapon you want the TRANSMUTATION IMPLEMENT).

Occultists get 4 Implements by level 6 (and a 5th at level 10) so you should be able to do all of that easily and still have some room to personalise the build. About the only thing they're missing is bonus feats, but if you need feats to get going there's not much support in the Occultist class, so it may not work for you (there's the Battle Host archetype, but it loses half the Implements, so it won't really work for level 8).

[VoodistMonk]

Is Ninja Scroll the same movie with an invincible sumo dude that licks a poisonous chic and dies? I think I know what you're talking about, but it's been literally forever since I have seen it.

Benge, from Vampire Hunter D, is also very similar... and I am much more familiar with Vampire Hunter D. Let sme snoop around my notes, I know I have tried to make Benge before. You might even be able to search these threads for my topics on the matter of building Benge.

[Jaerun of Sothis]

VoodistMonk wrote:

Is Ninja Scroll the same movie with an invincible sumo dude that licks a poisonous chic and dies? I think I know what you're talking about, but it's been literally forever since I have seen it.

Benge, from Vampire Hunter D, is also very similar... and I am much more familiar with Vampire Hunter D. Let sme snoop around my notes, I know I have tried to make Benge before. You might even be able to search these threads for my topics on the matter of building Benge.

That's the one...lol

Cool, I'll poke around and see what I can find about Benge.

Thanks!

[Jaerun of Sothis]

MrCharisma wrote:

I don't remember Ninja scrolls well enough to know exactly what powers you'd need, but OCCULTISTS can get a move action teleport at level 7 from the CONJURATION IMPLEMENT and can get some shadowy/invisibility powers from the ILLUSION IMPLEMNT (and if you want to be good with any weapon you want the TRANSMUTATION IMPLEMENT).

Occultists get 4 Implements by level 6 (and a 5th at level 10) so you should be able to do all of that easily and still have some room to personalise the build. About the only thing they're missing is bonus feats, but if you need feats to get going there's not much support in the Occultist class, so it may not work for you (there's the Battle Host archetype, but it loses half the Implements, so it won't really work for level 8).

I don't know anything about the OA stuff, but I'll take a look. Thanks!

[MrCharisma]

Jaerun of Sothis wrote:

I don't know anything about the OA stuff, but I'll take a look. Thanks!

Yeah fair enough. The Occultist is pretty different to other classes as well, so it'll take some reading (and playing one requires some bookkeeping).

As a really simplified version: The Magus and the Occultist both have spells, and both have class abilities that are powered by a pool of points specific to their class (Arcane Pool for the Magus, Mental Focus for the Occultist).

The Magus is a prepared spellcaster, but with spontaneous class abilities. Their Arcane Pool can be spent to empower weapons, recall spells, make direct attacks, enhance spells, etc. You have to decide which spells to cast in the morning, but the class abilities can be used spontaneously on the fly by spending Arcane Pool points.

The Occultist is the reverse of that - they cast spells spontaneously, but must prepare their class abilities in the morning. Their class abilities are separated into groups, each group specific to an Implement (each Implement tied to a school of magic) and you have to allocate Mental Focus to the Implement in the morning rather than deciding on the fly. So it's not quite like prepared casting (you don't allocate points to specific abilities, just to each Implement), but it's more preperation than most class abilities.

Now you don't actually HAVE to prepare your Mental Focus each morning, you can leave it unprepared and use them spontaneously, but there are advantages of preparing them. 1) Powers cost twice as much to cast spontaneously, and 2) You get a passive ability for each Implement you invest points in at the beginning of the day. These passive abilities last all day, and some of them are extremely powerful (eg. the Transmutation Implement is your go-to for martial combat abilities, and putting points into this Implement gives you a bonus to a Physical stat of your choice that lasts all day).

My previous post had links to the Implements and to the base class. The Resonant Power is the passive ability that lasts all day and the Base Power is something you get automatically just by choosing that Implement. All the other Focus Powers must be chosen as you level up. The Resonant Power is passive and will affect you as long as you have that Implement on you (ie. As long as you don't give it to someone else), but the Base Power and Focus Powers are active abilities that cost points to use. And you're also a 6/9 caster, so you get spells too.