ninja/shadowdancer build.

[Animal]

hello, guys.
i've currently started playing a shadowdancer-wannabe ninja. but i'm not sure of the best way to enter the PrC. the obvious option would be to go ninja 7/SD X. on the other hand ninja 4/ranger 2/dread commando 1/SD X seems a lot more combat oriented and viable. what do you guys say, which is better and why? maybe someone will share their own builds with me?

 

[Angrydad]

Oi. It really depends on what you want the character's focus to be. Sneakiness? Combat effectiveness? What are you going for here?

 

[Animal]

being a bit of a powergamer i want to be overall effective. but i'd like to focus on sneakiness/infiltration/assassination kind of build (hence the SD PrC). i'm also thinking to go ranged, cause i can't whip up a decent melee build (low AC, hampered mobility, harder to use SA, feat-intensive).

 

[Drowbane]

Dark (LA 1 template) + rogue + swordsage (focus on Shadow Hand).

Hide in plain sight is vastly superior to invisibility (see invis is too easy to get)

 

[Animal]

we don't use ToB. and dark template is so broken that i don't want to use it even as a player. anyway i already have two ninja levels..
hide in plain sight is actually one of the main reasons i want to take at least one level in shadow dancer.

 

[Shin Okada]

It seems that all you need is only 1 level of Shadowdancer class. IMHO you should just go for NinjaX/SD1. Because at higher level Ninja gets a lot of fancy abilities such as becoming ethereal or striking from ethereal plane.

If you are a power gamer, taking a level of Fighter and Martial Stalker feat (Comp Scoundrel) is not a bad idea, too. You can add up fighter and ninja levels for qualifying feats which require a minimum fighter level. So you can take feats such as Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus, Melee Weapon Mastery (PHB II). Bonuses from those feats are effective against enemies immune to your sudden strike damages.

 

[Starbuck_II]

It seems that all you need is only 1 level of Shadowdancer class. IMHO you should just go for NinjaX/SD1. Because at higher level Ninja gets a lot of fancy abilities such as becoming ethereal or striking from ethereal plane.

If you are a power gamer, taking a level of Fighter and Martial Stalker feat (Comp Scoundrel) is not a bad idea, too. You can add up fighter and ninja levels for qualifying feats which require a minimum fighter level. So you can take feats such as Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus, Melee Weapon Mastery (PHB II). Bonuses from those feats are effective against enemies immune to your sudden strike damages.

Does Weapon Mastery require both of those feats (been a whilesince I read PHB 2)?

Even if not a Power gamer (come on, this is a CV ninja not a Druid): Martial Striker is a good feat.

 

[Animal]

i agree that SD can well be just a one level dip if i find a more interesting build. but i don't really feel that martial striker gives me a lot of benefits. do i really need all those fighter feats? this build you guys suggest is very feat-intensive and not powerful at all in the end. i'm a ninja, standard full-round attacks are not effective for me, you see? without SA ninja's damage output is not very impressive and weapon mastery doesn't really make up for it.
what i need is not boosting my base damage, but gaining more SA, more chances to use it in combat (invisibility, stunning, etc.) and more mobility. any ideas on such a build?

 

[Stormborn]

What's your alignment?

If evil, or if you have a DM who is willing to work with you on the requirements, you could try ghost faced killer There is even some rules about adaptation for a good PC.

If lawful you could consider some levels of monk for increased mobility and FoB could help you out, and IIRC there are some good feats for using Ki abilities. Especially useful if you can talk your DM into letting you take af eat that allow multiclassing with the Monk.

 

[Shin Okada]

i agree that SD can well be just a one level dip if i find a more interesting build. but i don't really feel that martial striker gives me a lot of benefits. do i really need all those fighter feats? this build you guys suggest is very feat-intensive and not powerful at all in the end. i'm a ninja, standard full-round attacks are not effective for me, you see? without SA ninja's damage output is not very impressive and weapon mastery doesn't really make up for it.

Right. But Ninja class has "Average" BAB progression. In my experience, you will eventually find that the biggest problem is that your attack bonus is too low comparing to those of characters with "good" BAB classes. If you can't hit, you can't inflict SA damages. Fighter feats helps you in that area.

what i need is not boosting my base damage, but gaining more SA, more chances to use it in combat (invisibility, stunning, etc.) and more mobility. any ideas on such a build?

Taking a level of Cleric with Magic Domain instead is not a bad idea. Imagine what you can do with wands and staves of all the Sor/Wiz and Clr spells.