Bored with a soulbow, where to go next?

[TheDreadedThrag]

Currently playing a soulknife 5 Soulbow 6. at first i was having a lot of fun with this character, and the idea of being "unarmed" and taken somewhere and proving that doesn't matter just seemed neat. But now i've gotten fairly bored. Any ideas for a prestige class that would build upon this guy and keep me interested? I've tried pyro, but wasn't very intrigued. Maybe something sneaky?
Also i have a ring of chameleon and a maul of the titans that would be neat to build something around.

[Daverin]

As I probably have a different idea of fun from you (since a lot of the fun is derived from how much you enjoy your concept in and of itself), I am not sure what would be a good suggestion. Is there any sort of concept you prefer over others? You mention a wide range, so it seems like you are not wanting to just have an "unarmed but better" class. Given your items, you sound like you might want to try someone who is stealthy but also strong and hard-hitting? If so, you might want a black knight kind of archetype. If so, I could try to look into some prestiges that help that along (or let one of the far more proficient members give advice...)

[Urpriest]

I'd recommend going for something that makes archery more exciting, since you already have this soulbow base. What about Cragtop Archer? Shooting people from miles away is pretty amusing.

On the other hand, a monk dip and tashalatora would let you stack monk abilities on to Soulbow, which would at least give a qualitative change.

Can you add the aptitude enchantment to your arrows? If so, that opens up a few interesting options.

[Bang!]

What sources are available?

Peerless Archer is 3.0 and setting-specific (Silver Marches), but it's stealthy and has a lot of abilities that make archery work (ranged power attack, ranged sneak attack, close-range archery). I'm not sure, but I think it works with mind arrows. There are some other 3.0 classes that are decent-to-good in similar ways: the Deepwood Sniper from Masters of the Wild specializes in long-range combat and the Order of the Bow Initiate from Sword and Fist (not Complete Warrior) has some nice abilities like Ranged Sneak Attack, Zen Archery and weapon specialization. (WS has a bad rep, but opens the option of the Ranged Weapon Mastery feat from PHB2, which is actually really nice.)

It might be kind of weird, but the 3.0 Soulknife from Psionics Handbook is a prestige class with an actual power progression, good skill points, sneak attack, and mind blade improvements.

Versatile Blade (http://dsp-d20-srd.wikidot.com/versatile-blade) is 3rd party, but Dreamscarred Press has done a much more innovative, better balanced and more professional job supplementing 3.5 psionics than WotC, so it's not really a powergrab to dig into their stuff. It loses some skills, so it's not going to be as good at stealth as a lot of options, but it has some fun and versatile abilities like turning a Mind Blade into almost any object at will and shaping defensive items and wings. It advances archery, skills and mind blade enhancements at a slower pace than Soulbow, but it might be useful anyway.

Swordsage from Tome of Battle would be an interesting option. It's Wisdom-based like the Soulbow, it's stealthy and it can add some versatility through teleports, and counters. Some of its boosts and stances improve both melee and ranged attacks, so you could go into it and become both better at the schtick you've developed already (shooting things with your brain) and somewhat competent at melee, in case you just want to change things up a little. The swordsage also counts your non-swordsage levels toward advancement in its main class abilities, which makes it less bad than many other options for this kind of late-game multiclassing. Of the ToB's other classes Warblade can also work, but Crusader has little to support a ranged fighter.

If you're chaotic neutral or neutral good and have a decent Con score, Incarnate, Totemist or Umbral Disciple from Magic of Incarnum give a lot of new options, buffs and abilities. They're also rather friendly to late-game dipping. The rules are complicated, so you might want to have someone at hand who already knows the system if you go that route (well, maybe not so much complicated as presented terribly). Even though the frames of the classes look bad (especially the Incarnate, which has base stats similar to a Wizard), the mechanics of Incarnum basically make up for it, while also giving a lot of cool options.

EDIT:
I totally asked about sources exactly to avoid typing this kind of thing if it wasn't necessary. <_<

[TheDreadedThrag]

wow, thanks for all the quick replies.
this campaign is 3.5. we have pretty much every book and i've spent a fair amount of time looking through them.

Dagerin that's actually a good idea of what i'm looking for but i haven't really seen anything that strikes me as worth jumping around for. My idea of fun so far is basically doing things other than just rolling a few arrows and being done. In my party there's a paladin, a wizard and a sorcerer, and i'm finding my role in the party to be somewhat in the grey area. I'm thinking something assassin-esque would be pretty neat, maybe get some good damage in without getting hit so damn much (soulbow builds, a tank does not make, at least with a paladin in the party)

Cragtop archer is incredibly neat and i've checked it out before, but this campaign is in an urban setting (Waterdeep if you know the maps) and shooting from miles away doesn't really work if there's dozens of buildings in the way. I really appreciate the help though

aptitude enhancement?

[Urpriest]

aptitude enhancement?

From Tome of Battle. +1 weapon enchantment, lets you use feats that specify other weapons. RAI this is stuff like Weapon Focus, RAW it could include, say, Boomerang Daze.

[Talbot]

Throwing in a few levels of whichever Paladin variant suits your alignment (and there is one for, IIRC, every alignment) and picking up the Serenity feat (Dragon Compendium) will boost your saves, up your base attack, and give you some cool/fun class features (feel encouraged to turn your Turn Attempts into more uses of whatever your favorite Domain Feat is). Paladin, as a base class, also has loads of ACFs lying around in case you don't want casting/special mount/lay on hands.

Another option that would work really well if you have the right feats and alignment for it is Dragon Warrior (Dragon 298), which will give you a rage for when you feel like going into melee, and staple your presumably high Wisdom onto both your HP and AC. Also, good base attack. If you go that route, you'll need the three pre-req feats, one of which can be stolen with a one level dip in Swordsage (which should probably be a 2 level dip to get your Wis to your AC and another maneuver), and another (Iron Will) can be gotten with an item assuming you have a cooperative DM. On top of that, I suggest having Shape Mindblade so when you do close to melee range you can have a Greatsword which, IIRC, benefits from Dragon Warrior's class features.

Basically, you can shoot guys till you get bored, then get angry and tear them apart up close and personal while waving around your giant (free) flaming sword and having ridiculously high AC without investing in armor (thereby further liberating your WBL).

Also, IIRC Soulknives get Weapon Focus with their Mindblade automatically, right? If so, you don't actually need Weapon Focus to get into Dragon Warrior, just Shape Mindblade (which I suggested taking anyways).

So, your last nine levels should be Swordsage 2/Dragon Warrior 7, or, if you don't care as much about the raging, Alignment Appropriate Paladin 4/Swordsage 2/Dragon Warrior 3.

Edit: Dragon Warriors need to be neutral, but if you're not, Serenity Palading Variant or Swordsage are both still good options.

[TheDreadedThrag]

haha alright, well our session tonight threw a few twists in to the mix and added quite a bit of flavor. (i spent a few hours unconscious in the beginning so i posted here)

Turns out people in the party started a magic shop, which then via lots and looottsss of stone shape spells became an entire magic school. My character who has always been a drunkard at heart is starting a fine dining restaurant/bar right beside the magic school, which will have a beautiful flower shop on top of it. (negotiations for the property got out of hand with a sweet dwarven lady, and our DM is one of the coolest story tellers i've ever known) So i'll be spending some time traveling and finding expert chef's and of course the most vintage and tasty of brews.

So after talking with my friend after, we came to the idea that we could start an assassin's guild to make money, and of course keep us in on explosions and awesomeness and help us get rid of some of the vermin in town while at the same time giving good flavor to the story other than: they have something shiny/they insulted your great great grandfather. Go kill them and take their ****.

So after all of this i've been given quite a new direction. I know there is a set prestige class for being an assassin, plus other things like shadow dancer and beguiler, but i want to see if you guys have any ideas worthy of a master of assassins.

Man i love this game.
(character is Chaotic Neutral btw...because...**** yeah Chaotic Neutral)

[Talbot]

Swordsage does "assassin" pretty well, although it's sadly too late in your build for FIVE SHADOW ICE ENERVATION STRIKE!

Teflammar Shadowlord is fantastic at the whole "assassin" thing, but an enormous pain to get into.

I saw Factotum build once that killed people in their dreams ala Freddy Krueger, but I don't remember it.

Uncanny Trickster could be fun as some of the Skill Tricks are sort of Assassiny (and 8+ skillpoints help with the sneaking and the lying and such), and 2/3 levels would still advance your soulbowing.

[TheDreadedThrag]

ok, took another look at assassin and it looks pretty damn nice. Thinking of maybe reworking some of those soulbow levels back in to some soulknife. jumping through a few hoops will most likely get my DM to let me shape my knife in to a boomerang. Boomerang Daze/Boomerang ricochet/Death Attack/Poison use sounds pretty damn sick, but i'm not one to jump in to a class set without really weighing my options

once again thanks for all the feedback guys, this is awesome

[MeeposFire]

Careful normal soulknives can't throw their blades as full attacks until hgih levels. You may want to keep a level of soulbow if you want to be able to boomerang daze at range with a full attack.

[TheDreadedThrag]

ok, took another look at assassin and it looks pretty damn nice. Thinking of maybe reworking some of those soulbow levels back in to some soulknife. jumping through a few hoops will most likely get my DM to let me shape my knife in to a boomerang. Boomerang Daze/Boomerang ricochet/Death Attack/Poison use sounds pretty damn sick, but i'm not one to jump in to a class set without really weighing my options

once again thanks for all the feedback guys, this is awesome


*Facepalm's self
This would be the time when i realize aptitude gets rid of all that work i'd be doing. I'd gladly give up a +1 for daze... and i'd get arrows and full attacks. duh... Now for a ring of true strike and a level in assassin and I'm pretty much set.