Tempest?

[Daermon]

Eek, dropping the fighter levels makes it difficult to get all those Tempest feats...

Where is Exp. Dodge from?

Yeah, one level of Fighter is nearly required for Tempest. One area in which Dervish shines.

Expeditious Dodge is from Races of the Wild, sorry.

Argh. The Scout does not have Open Lock as class skill?

Their one flaw.

 

[Sound of Azure]

How's this sound?

Human Hexblade 3/Swashbuckler 3/Ranger 2/Scout 1/Tempest 5

lvl Class Feats/Abilities
1st Ranger Expeditious Dodge(1st)*, Mobility(H), Track(B)/Wild Empathy, Favored Enemy
2nd Scout Skirmish +1d6, Trapfinding
3rd Swashbuckler Weapon Finesse(B), Quick Draw (3rd)
4th Hexblade Hexblade's Curse 1/day
5th Swashbuckler Grace +1
6th Hexblade Sping Attack (6th)/Arcane Resistance
7th Swashbuckler Insightful Strike
8th Hexblade Mettle
9th Ranger Improved Two-Weapon Fighting/Combat Style (Two-Weapon Fighting)
10th Fighter Weapon Focus: Dagger
11th Tempest
12th Tempest (Two-Weapon Defense)
13th Tempest
14th Tempest
15th Tempest Open Feat

* Expeditious Dodge acts as the Dodge feat for all purposes, except it gives you a +2 continuous Dodge bonus against all enemies.

AC (Without Armor): 20 (+4 Dex, +1 Shield, +2 Dodge, +3 Unnamed)
Saves (With modifiers)

Fort: +19
Ref: +14
Will: +7

Specials

Hexblade's Curse: Not the most useful of things, but with your decent Charisma it should work well enough. -2 on attacks, damage, skill checks and saves isn't bad, especially as a free action.

Arcane Resistance: Add +3 to all saves against spells and spell-like effects. Not bad.

Mettle: Works like Evasion, except for Fort and Will saves.

Grace +1: Add +1 to all Reflex saves.

Insightful Strike: Add your Int modifier to all your damage rolls.

You have one open feat left. If your GM allows it, grab Twin Sword Style from the Forgotten Realms book. It gives a +2 to your AC which stacks with armor and shield when using two weapons. Otherwise, just grab whatever works for you.

Nice.

You should keep in mind Expeditious dodge relies on you moving 40 feet in a round to gain that dodge bonus, It sysnergises nicely with skirmish and dervish dance though, if you go that route.

 

[Taloras]

The character is primarily a 2 weapon rogue. Tempest helps out with that mostly. I -need- the rogue skills as high as possible without sacrificing attack power. Hence why Im tentatively ending up with rog9/ftr2/temp4 for now. +16/+16/+11/+11/+6 before adding in any magical weapons. Not nearly what a straight fighter would have, but definitely better than a straight rogue. -maybe- take 2 levels in swashbuckler instead of 8 and 9 in rogue, but doubtful. Mostly going to be flanking or invisible, so sneak attack damage will be nice. But I need as many rogue levels as possible for the skills as well.

Basically, the DM realized that he had unbalanced several party members, so he basically told us to bump everything up to 15 (most of us were 12/13 with one having abilities bumping him near 15). we all were allowed a complete respec(to use a WoW term). Im re-doing my rogue. Originally several of us had 2 characters each due to fewer players, but since we added 2 players(and lost one), we are each dropping the extra (so long, beguiler). Since one of our fighters is leaving, my rogue will have to pick up some damage dealing capabilities. Its looking like a barbarian, a cleric, and a wizard will round out the group.

 

[Daermon]

If you still take levels in Swashbuckler, it's really only beneficial if you take it to 3rd. Adding an extra +4 to damage is the biggest draw here.

And I forgot about that limitation on Expeditious Dodge, which means it's only really useful if you have a level in Barbarian or enough levels in Monk for the movement bonus.

When I get back tonight, I'll post up an alternative build if you wish.

 

[Darklone]

You're human and you want sneak attack. Which and how many rogue skills do you want maxxed? For maximum sneak attack goodness: Invisible Blade. You have all the prerequisites anyhow (Bluff 8, SenMot 6, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (dagger)). What about rog5/ftr2/InBla5/temp3. You'll have 6d6 sneak attack damage, a free action feint for every attack with take 10, AC +6 (+7 if you get an Int +2 item) and a higher BAB.

We might add in two levels Master Thrower too if the feats allow and you'd have Imp Evasion with nearly full BAB progression.

Feats needed: Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (dagger), Dodge, ITWF, Mobility, Spring Attack, TWF.

Feats we have: 9 (1 human, 6 levels, 2 fighter). Means we might take 3 levels Swashbuckler instead of the fighter levels to get Insightful Strike. We lose one feat though and one precious Tempest level. I wouldn't do this.

Rog1: Sneak attack +1d6, trapfinding, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (dagger)
Rog1/Ftr1: Bonus feat (TWF)
Rog2/Ftr1: Evasion, Feat (Dodge)
Rog2/Ftr2: Bonus feat (Mobility)
Rog3/Ftr2: TS +1, SA +2d6, fulfill InBla skill requirements
...
Rog3/Ftr2/InBla5: SA +5d6, feint mastery, feint as free action, Int bonus to AC when wearing no armor (max 5), bleeding wound, 2 feats (Spring Attack, ITWF)

The next two levels rogue give you 26 skill points to maxx out the Disable Device, Open Lock and the Search skills. That's more than enough... most other skills can be increased already with the InBla levels.

Afterwards: 3 Tempest levels with +2 AC (unnamed) and only -1 for TWF. Sadly with two daggers we can't use one nice Tempest ability... Two feats for leveling: GTWF and one other, perhaps Imp Critical.

Ability increases: At least 1 for dex (one needed for GTWF), perhaps the first two for Int (and AC +1) for more skill points at the level 11 and 12 rogue.

Your attacks: +13/+13/+8/+8/+3/+3 (BAB, TWF, ITWF, GTWF) + 4 (Dex) + 1 Weapon Focus, -1 TWF.

So this build has +1d6 more sneak attack, better attack, much better AC and "free" sneak attacks even without flanking. And hopefully enough skill points as well.

Edit: Movement. Don't forget that you need some movement booster without Dervish levels. Boots of Springing and Striding should suffice to get a good use of your Spring Attack after two more Tempest levels... and get some good bracers of armor

 

[Plane Sailing]

You may want to use Kukri instead, since you have fighter levels (and hence the martial weapon proficiency to use them)

The're exotic weapons, aren't they?

 

[shilsen]

The're exotic weapons, aren't they?

They were exotic in 3.0, but are martial in 3.5.

 

[Sound of Azure]

And I forgot about that limitation on Expeditious Dodge, which means it's only really useful if you have a level in Barbarian or enough levels in Monk for the movement bonus.

Expeditious Dodge is also great for charging characters, as it completely negates the penalty attached to charging (i.e, the -2 AC for charging), while getting the fun bonus to attack.

The're exotic weapons, aren't they?

They used to be in 3.0. I probably should have specified 3.5, sorry about that.

 

[Plane Sailing]

They were exotic in 3.0, but are martial in 3.5.

You live and learn, eh?

 

[brendan candries]

Close to Darklone's build but ...

Forget Tempest for a 2-dagger wielding rogue. One of the major benefits of the Tempest is 2-weapon versatility, thus using a longsword+dagger or such. Tempest offers better to hit in the end but no damage increases.

Invisible Blade will offer full bab as well and a whole bunch of feint stuff and dagger sneak attack. btw you can't free feint on every attack, just once (errata).

With that 18 int I would opt for Swasbuckler for extra damage (granting Finesse for free).

Rog1 [Trapfinding; Sneak d6] Point Blank Shot; Far Shot
Rog1/Swash1 [Weapon Finesse]
Rog1/Swash2 Weapon Focus Dagger
Rog1/Swash3 [Insightful Strike]
Rog2/Swash3 [Evasion]
Rog2/Swash3/Invisible Blade1 [Dagger Sneak d6; Unfettered Defense] 2-Weapon Fighting
Rog2/Swash3/Invisible Blade2 [Bleeding Wound]
Rog2/Swash3/Invisible Blade3 [Dagger Sneak d6; Uncanny Feint (move)]
Rog2/Swash3/Invisible Blade4 [Feint Mastery] Improved 2-Weapon Fighting
Rog2/Swash3/Invisible Blade5 [Dagger Sneak d6; Uncanny Feint (free)]
Rog3/Swash3/Invisible Blade5 [Sneak d6]
Rog4/Swash3/Invisible Blade5 ?
Rog5/Swash3/Invisible Blade5 [Sneak d6]
Rog6/Swash3/Invisible Blade5
Rog7/Swash3/Invisible Blade5 [Sneak d6] ?

bab 13/8/3; imp 2-weapon; 7d6 dagger sneak; 2 feats to pick 12/15
4 int bonus to damage; 4 int to armor (when not wearing armor) both can be improved with headband of intellect (armor max 5). Your dex to ac will require bracers of armor at this point.

7 rogue levels to keep your rogue skills high.