Bard 7 path to Arcane Trickster

[moritheil]

sorry, should have said official books only. (no dragon magazine as well). However, the Ninja class appears in the Complete Adventurer as well, so I have taken a look at that one.
I have a Wisdom penalty, and the ninja requires no armor to use ki powers, but the poison use gained at lvl 3 sounds good.
I can't go assasin because that requires evil alignment, and that's just a no-go in our group.

the sudden strike seems identical to sneak attack except it desn't apply when flanking, but since ranged flanking isn't possible, that's not a problem. Also, the sidebar with the ninja class specifically mentions that sudden strike should be considered the equivalent of sneak attack for the purpose of qualifying for feats and prestige classes.

Looks like I will be taking a closer look at the pro's and con's of the ninja....

thankx!

Ah, the thing with the CA ninja is it doesn't have full BAB (which would be ideal) . . . in that case I'd probably recommend the assassin over the ninja, since the assassin spells let you waive range restrictions on sneak attack.

Of course, CA ninja offers Wis bonus to AC, but that doesn't mean much as your wis is 8. The swift invisibility (ki power) is still neat.

 

[FalcWP]

Snag a level of Spellthief (Complete Adventurer). Get half your sneak attack in one level, and grab the rest with a level of Rogue or something else.

Then, pick up the Master Spellthief feat from Complete Scoundrel. Both Bard and Arcane Trickster levels will stack for your steal spell class feature, meaning you can steal high level spells, including offensive ones that your bard couldn't cast normally.

 

[Shin Okada]

Usually, 3 levels of rogue could be the best option. Having Evasion is a good thing.

Or if somehow you can reincarnate or reconstructed into another specific race, be a Greenspawn Sneak.

 

[Herzog]

@FalcWP:
sounds good, although 'dipping' is usually frowned upon by my group. Also, the prognosis is that magic will be rare in the campaign, so the spellthief's abilities will be less powerfull than in a 'normal' campaign.

@moritheil:
which assasin spell lets you wave range restrictions?
as I said before, assasin requires evil alignment, and so is out of the question, but depending on the spell in question, maybe I can make a case to make it available to the bard/ninja/AT.... or maybe it already is?

@Shin Okada:
I'm currently trying to decide whether Ghost step and poison use are more interesting than Evasion. Especially since I really like the idea of poison use, and was rather disappointed when (until I found the Ninja) it only appeared to be available to the (evil) Assasin.
reincarnation is possible, however we play a 'human only' campaign, so that would be rather pointless

Last but not least:
Does anyone know of a Feat that adds Bard and Ninja lvls for the purpose of : Sudden Strike damage, AC bonus, Ki power or maybe even bardic music or Caster Level?

 

[Shin Okada]

Last but not least:
Does anyone know of a Feat that adds Bard and Ninja lvls for the purpose of : Sudden Strike damage, AC bonus, Ki power or maybe even bardic music or Caster Level?

As an Arcane Trickster gets spell casting ability progression in all it's levels, Practiced Spellcaster feat will easily cover Caster Level loss from taking Ninja levels (up to 4 levels).

But I don't know any particular Bard/Ninja combo feat.

 

[moritheil]

@moritheil:
which assasin spell lets you wave range restrictions?
as I said before, assasin requires evil alignment, and so is out of the question, but depending on the spell in question, maybe I can make a case to make it available to the bard/ninja/AT.... or maybe it already is?

There are two level 1 assassin spells of interest:
Sniper's Shot lets you ignore range for a single sneak attack. You still have to see the target, it can't have cover, etc. But you are no longer bound by 30'.

Sniper's Eye allows you to Death Attack at up to 60'. It also sets SA to 60', so arguably the intent is to allow you to Death Attack at your Sneak Attack range, but the wording only says 60'.

Does anyone know of a Feat that adds Bard and Ninja lvls for the purpose of : Sudden Strike damage, AC bonus, Ki power or maybe even bardic music or Caster Level?

Sorry, there aren't any according to my memory.