Invisible Blade/Black Flame Zealot?

[rowport]

OK, I need some help here! I am planning my PC for a new campaign, and would welcome any input. I really like both the Invisible Blade (CompWar) and Black Flame Zealot (CompDiv) PrCs and think that both classes have nice synergies from both a story and metagame perspective. I am trying to build a character into both classes, based on Rogue, Cleric, and Monk core classes. Generally, the concept looks effective, but I am having trouble with the sequencing- there are lots of feat requirements balanced by needed skill points.

Monk, Rogue, and Cleric all work well for the core. Monk and Cleric WIS scores synergize, and Rogue and Monk DEX do as well. I am using high-point buy (32), so I need to put points into DEX, WIS, and INT with CHA and CON decent and STR dump stat (relying on Sneak Attack damage with Weapon Finesse). The skills are somewhat tricky- relying on Cleric mostly for Know (Religion) to get the "sneaky" skills from Monk and Rogue. LOTS of skill points needed (Bluff 8, Sense Motive 6 for Invisible Blade and Move Silently 8, Hide 8, Know (Religion) 8 for BFZ).

The Feats are even more of a pain- although if there is official errata for Weapon Finesse instead of PBS and Precise Shot for Invisible Blade that would help a lot! Bueller..?

Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[Piratecat]

Try using Heroforge. You'll find a link in the software forum; this Excel character sheet has all the PrC requirements already built in, and I found it incredibly useful when planning my character.

 

[Malin Genie]

One major problem you will face is that with Rogue, Monk, Cleric, Zealot and Blade levels your BAB will lag horribly. Yes, the high Wisdom you'll want anyway (for the Monk AC and Stunning Fist bonuses) would help make an effective caster, but you need at least three Cleric levels to meet the BFZ prereq, and it's then another three levels before you gain any SA!

In addition, the combination of all of the above will be hard to make work.

You need: PBS, FS, WP(Kukri), WF(Kukri), Iron Will (5 Feats, which you won't get until 9th level without bonus Feats)

You also want Weapon Finesse (because you have to dump ST.)

One possible progression, though, if you're determined:

Human
Rogue1 / Cleric 3 / Monk 1

You may need to take Rogue last because of the hefty skill rank requirements, but with Human skill bonuses and good Intelligence you might be able to do it with Monk last.

Feats: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Kukri), Iron Will, Point Blank Shot (you can't get both EWP and Focus or Finesse because of the +1 BAB requirement for both of these.)

10 levels of Black Flame Zealot (during which you pick up 4 Feats - Far Shot, Weapon Focus (Kukri), Weapon Finesse (Kukri), and one other.)

You can then take your last 5 levels as Invisible Blade.

At 20th level you will cast as a 7th level cleric, have a +8d6 dagger Sneak Attack and a free Bluff action, a death attack DC 20 + Int bonus and the flaming weapon abilities of a BFZ.

Disadvantages: Your BAB will only be +14 and you won't have off-hand attacks. The Feat and Caster requirements for being a Black Flame Zealot stop you taking the Fighter and/or Ranger levels you really need to build an effective two-weapon fighter.

Overall, I think this attempted build attempts to combine too much (in a rules sense, although certainly from a story point of view it could be an interesting mix.)

The Invisible Blade synergises well with Monk (for the AC bonus), Rogue (SA), Fighter (bonus much-needed Feats) and Ranger (bonus much-needed Feats and stealth skill synergy). However, cleric levels in an IB build are a complete waste, and given 3 Cleric and 10 BFZ levels only gives +3d6 Sneak, whereas 13 more Rogue levels (for example) would give +6d6 Sneak and 3 Rogue special abilities, or, say, 9 more rogue levels give +4d6 Sneak and 1 RSA with 4 Fighter levels giving Weapon Specialisation, two more Feats (say TWF and Improved TWF) and a better BAB and hp...