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Zach J.
2010-04-17, 11:36 AM
Hi everyone. I need some suggestions for a Shadowdancer build. The character is being played by my DM (I don't like DMPCs either but she's the only one willing to run...) who is not an optimizer. She doesn't even consider what kind of feats she's taking until she gets to the level that allows her to do so, but she is willing to take suggestions. Currently her character is a second level rogue with the feats Acrobatic and Dodge and she's told me that she's wanting to get into Shadowdancer as soon as possible. It's not a dip either. She wants to play a Shadowdancer and that means she wants to be able to Shadow Jump.

She recently got the Book of Nine Swords so I'm going to try to get her to look at some of the Shadow Hand maneuvers and see if those could work, but in she's not interested I was hoping that maybe someone could help me out in a competent build for a full Shadowdancer. It doesn't need to be an uber-build either. Here's the party for comparison:

Bridget: Human Rogue 2 (The DMPC)
Elias: Human Swashbuckler 1, Fighter 1 (Uses TWF with a Rapier and Shield Bash. I imagine he'll head into a Bo9 class once he's become more familiar with the book.)
Malik: Elf Druid 1 (My (new) character. Planning to stay straight druid.)
Sir Jett: Human Knight 2 (New player. Not very familiar with basic abilities or rules yet.)

The only books I know my DM has access to are the core rulebooks, Book of Nine Swords, Complete Warrior, the Book of Vile Darkness and Deities and Demigods. What do you guys suggest I suggest?

Edit: I also forgot to mention that she LOVES multi-classing so she'll definitely need some Bard in there too...

Cogidubnus
2010-04-17, 01:53 PM
Sorry, bit off topic, but if there's only 3 of you aside from the DMPC, normally I would say it was ok to fill the missing role (Rogue) so long as she only acted on your prompts a.k.a. outside of combat she's more of a RPed toolset than someone who suggests solutions. However, if you don't like DMPCs, there's a problem, and is it worth asking her about it? At least asking if she'll stick to combat participation and not ruin your puzzle-solving fun?
I often DMPC for my friends, but that's cos they like me to and cos I'm willing to fill a missing role.
Anyway, as for your question, I can only suggest you try to get her to stick as skill monkey and trap bait. It kinda seems like she's trying to control your campaign and solve her own problems (shadowdancer seems more like a puzzle solving option that combat optimisation) and all I'd say is see if she'll let you guys do the work.

Zach J.
2010-04-17, 02:02 PM
Haha, yeah I kind of get what you're suggesting. The campaign has not been going on for very long (4 or 5 sessions I think) but it does seem like her character is fairly central to the plot (this is a big reason that I normally don't like DMPCs). She's been doing her rogue thing (i.e. unlocking doors and disarming traps) and that's fine but she's also starting to make the game pretty RP intensive. That's fine, but she's kind of made her character the party face as well... We actually didn't have a single battle last session. If that happens again I might bring it up. I don't dislike role-playing but I don't want to play in a game where there's no combat...especially D&D.

Back on topic though...I doubt I'll be able to get her away from the Shadowdancer so I'm still looking for advice.