Best Mage/Thief Combos

[Remathilis]

Beyond the Arcane Trickster, what are the best builds for mage/thieves. Specifically, I'd like something with good spell advancement and good skill points (better than AT's 4/level). Anything else is gravy.

BTW: I'm not really interested in spellthief or beguiler either, I want some boom magic as well as sneaky skills.

 

[javcs]

Unseen Seer - have to get Practiced Spellcaster (I think it is) though if you want to keep non-divination CLs up. Advances bonus damage dice, good skillset and skill points. IIRC, it's a full or near full caster PRC. It's in Complete Mage.

 

[MadMaxim]

Daggerspell Mage from Complete Adventurer is up there, though it requires Two-Weapon Fighting and Weapon Focus (dagger). There's full spell progression except for 1st level and 6 + Int modifier skill points. I'd say it's pretty easy to get on with an elf or a halfling Rogue/Wizard.

 

[Nifft]

Scout 1 / Wizard 4 / Unseen Seer 10 / Abjurant Champion 5 is pretty good. Daggerspell Mage is nice too, if you like melee + TWF rather than delivering your sneaky attacks at range with a ray or three.

I prefer Scout + Unseen Seer because Skirmish damage is easier to generate -- you can move & cast a ray spell more often (and with less risk!) than you can flank. Sure, greater invisibility is nice for sneak attacks, but only for mid levels -- at higher levels, every frikkin' thing seems to have true sight.

The only thing Unseen Seer stinks at is trapmonkey skills. If you're human and can take Able Learner this isn't an issue; elsewise, consider mixing in 5 levels of Arcane Trickster instead of Abjurant Champion (and spend all your skill points for those levels on Disable Device and the like).

Cheers, -- N

 

[FalcWP]

I love Unseen Seer. My preference is Rogue/Beguiler for getting there, but wizard is certainly good if you need blasty spells rather than more skills.

 

[R-man]

The above suggestions are excellent and a lot of fun to play. However there is one other easy to play build that can be done.

Human Rogue-1/Wizard-19 with Able learner feat.

Able learner makes all skills cost 1pt per rank.

If any skill has ever been a class skill then max ranks is Character level +3.

Assuming the best stat is Int, plus the skill pt/lvl for being human. You will find that this is more then sufficient for your purposes. This leaves your remaining feat selection open for your choice and allows prestige classing into whatever you like.

But if a small monkey is available to you as a familier then it mite be worthwhile to stay in wizard for the mean extra party rogue that your familier can be. He can use all your skills at the ranks that you have modified by his stats.

Otherwise it would be fun to keep your UMD max and get a Raven with one language and give it wands to use.

 

[szilard]

Beguiler/Master of Masks

Beguiler gives you all the thiefiness you could want, plus a great spell list, minus the evocation.

Master of Masks (with the mage mask) gives you the blasting ability.

-Stuart