skill monkey

[Bloodymango]

so im thinking of making a skill monkey for an up coming campaign. was thinking about a rogue or factotum to start out with. then going with exemplar. but i want to still be able to do a decent amount of dmg. this means maxing out sneak attack die or some how buffing factotum. what i'm looking for is a great skillmonkey/ok dmg dealing build i can run with. note ToB is not allowed neither is psyonic characters

[Con_Brio1993]

I know there is some trick with the factotum.

Gnomish Quickrazor, and Iajutsu Focus (a skill from Oriental Adventures).

The razor can be drawn as a quick action, and IF allows a charisma based check with the result adding a certain number of d6 to your attack. The catch is that it requires the enemy to be flat footed, so you need to either catch them by surprise, have a high bluff skill for feinting, or have access to the spell Grease.

[Seth62]

You may also want the jack of all trades if u r going rogue

[Human Paragon 3]

Jack of All Trades is practically useless. You're better off taking Open Minded and putting 1 rank in 5 different "trained-only" skills. You get a real rank that way. The best way to optimize damage for a rogue is to get a CL12 wand of Scorching Ray and combining it with sneak attack damage. If you can get 4 sneak attack dice per ray, that's 32d6 damage.

Craven is a must, as it adds your character level (not rogue level) to all sneak attacks.

The most reliable way of sneak attack is to use the spell blink, or getting improved invisibility.

Even then, understand that a large number of enemies are simply immune to sneak attack, so you will need to be creative.

[Curmudgeon]

Exemplar's Skill Mastery is pretty much the same as the Rogue special ability Skill Mastery, available starting at Rogue 10. Also you can't qualify for Exemplar until level 11, so I just don't see the attraction if you "want to still be able to do a decent amount of dmg." as you say.

Now, a skillful character can leverage that for damage via the Knowledge Devotion feat (Complete Champion, page 60). Max out the 6 Knowledge skills related to D&D creature types, select those 6 skills for Skill Mastery, and you'll have a guaranteed bonus to attack and damage vs. everything in the game. But you can get this with both Rogue and Exemplar, so I don't see any reason to give up sneak attack.

[hex0]

Exemplar's Skill Mastery is pretty much the same as the Rogue special ability Skill Mastery, available starting at Rogue 10. Also you can't qualify for Exemplar until level 11, so I just don't see the attraction if you "want to still be able to do a decent amount of dmg." as you say.


The first level of Exemplar also nets you a +4 competence bonus to a skill, so it can be a decent dip for certain builds that use Knowledge Devotion, Iajutsu Focus, or the Kensai PRC.

[JohnDaBarr]

I like the rogue with a 4 lvl Fighter dip (because feats, HP, BAB and weapon's proficiency), you still get a ton of skill points and with nice attributes go TWF bastard sword's...

yeah many will say that's not a good way to go, but with some good tweaking you'll be ok, especially if you focus on Use Magic Device get a wand chamber on your sword's get wand of swift Invisibility and wand of Hunters eye so you can max your sneak attack abilities

main feats:
Craven, Staggering strike and ofc any feat that allows you to SA creatures with immunity (you have one in Castle Ravenloft and in some other book so ask your DM)

Edit:

Penetrating Strike (Dungeonscape)
-Give up Trap Sense to be able to deal 1/2 normal dice SA damage to normally immune beings. Now you can sneak attack everything!

[hex0]

Penetrating Strike (Dungeonscape)
-Give up Trap Sense to be able to deal 1/2 normal dice SA damage to normally immune beings. Now you can sneak attack everything!

This. Also, you can go straight Rogue, dip for Exemplar and pick up some of the better Rogue Special Abilities (crippling strike)...and the Savvy Rogue feat and be pretty much set. Changes take 10s to take 12s and you can cripple anything you can Sneak Attack! :smallamused:

Edit: And of course, UMD and Knowledge Devotion tricks still apply. :smallbiggrin:

[JackRackham]

pirit lion totem barbarian (ACF from somewhere) let's you full attack on a charge at 1st level. So, if you're gonna be sneak attacking, this is a good move. Factotum 8 gives extra standard actions and SLAs. Rogue 11, factotum 8, slt barbarian 1 would have a lot of options and do plenty of sneak attack/Iajutsu focus damage. Otherwise, factotum 19, whatever 1 works. Also, there's a skill trick that let's you flatfoot an enemy by tumbling through his/her square. A 3 level run in Scarlet Corsair let's you feint as a free action. Note that dungeonscape's penetrating strike only works for flanking. Really factotum, as a chassis, or an 8 level dip, is nice because you have options against any enemy and don't have to worry about wasting a feat to sneak attack things (and even then for 1/2 sneak attack and only when flanking). There's another penetrating strike that works anytime, but only on undead.

Preemptive EDIT: penetrating strike is an ACF, my bad.

[Legendairy]

Jack of All Trades is practically useless. You're better off taking Open Minded and putting 1 rank in 5 different "trained-only" skills. You get a real rank that way. The best way to optimize damage for a rogue is to get a CL12 wand of Scorching Ray and combining it with sneak attack damage. If you can get 4 sneak attack dice per ray, that's 32d6 damage.

Thought a wands CL was maxed A LOT lower than this?

[A_S]

Jack of All Trades is practically useless. You're better off taking Open Minded and putting 1 rank in 5 different "trained-only" skills. You get a real rank that way. The best way to optimize damage for a rogue is to get a CL12 wand of Scorching Ray and combining it with sneak attack damage. If you can get 4 sneak attack dice per ray, that's 32d6 damage.

Sneak (precision) damage is applied only to the first ray, per the "weaponlike spells" rules on page 86 of Complete Arcane.

[Slipperychicken]

Factotum, Iajutsu, quickrazor. If your DM will let Jack of All Trades work for Cunning Knowledge, it can save you some skill points. Straight Factotum is very strong as far as doing everything (especially skills) goes. Heals? Spells? Skills? you've got it all. If you want to completely dominate skills, prestige into Chameleon, get divine focus, and use your spell slots on Guidance of the Avatar (+20 on skill checks, search it).

[gallagher]

have you considered the swift hunter build? it is scout/ranger with the swift hunter feat from complete scoundrel i think. if you pick your favored enemy to be something that is normally immune to extra damage, your skirmish still applies

with the better BAB of the ranger, you will be landing more hits, and you still have god skills, better HP, good armor and mobility, and a few free feats

[Curmudgeon]

Penetrating Strike (Dungeonscape)
-Give up Trap Sense to be able to deal 1/2 normal dice SA damage to normally immune beings. Now you can sneak attack everything!
It's worth pointing out that this Penetrating Strike doesn't actually say you're still dealing sneak attack damage:
Benefit: Whenever you flank a creature that is immune to extra damage from sneak attacks, you still deal extra damage equal to half your normal sneak attack dice. Because your DM may decide that this isn't still sneak attack, you wouldn't get the Craven bonus.

There is a clearer alternative, though: Lightbringer Rogue Penetrating Strike in Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (page 208). Since the names are different, you can pick either one. I recommend Lightbringer Penetrating Strike as the ACF which doesn't lead to arguments with your DM. :smallsmile:

[Darrin]

Penetrating Strike (Dungeonscape)
-Give up Trap Sense to be able to deal 1/2 normal dice SA damage to normally immune beings. Now you can sneak attack everything!

There are some elementals, oozes, and swarms that might beg to differ (immune to flanking).

[JohnDaBarr]

There are some elementals, oozes, and swarms that might beg to differ (immune to flanking).

Most of those things have damage reduction especially against slashing/piercing weapons so in most cases anyone using sword's and similar stuff is almost useless against them.

[Bloodgruve]

I am very happy with my Factotum8/Swordsage1.

Factotum is my go to class for skill monkeying. + your level once per day to each skill, how can you go wrong.

For damage the quickrazors with Dark Creature Template'd Whisper Gnome gives big +'s to hide and Hide in Plain Sight so you can maintain your IF attacks more easily, even at -20 Hide while making attacks. I took the Item Familiar feat and invested skills into IF which currently gives me +24 at level 9. I average +6d6 IF per attack. Throw in wraith strike, an extra standard attack and the 'attack with both weapons' maneuver you can drop a big guy in one round.

GL
Blood~

[marcielle]

No ToB? That's always a shame.
The best thing you can do(without goin all out minmax) is go human Cloistered Cleric and grab Able Learner and depending on how your DM handles Exalted, Nymphs Kiss.

You are looking at about 7 skillpoints a level and every skill ever as class skills as well as all the awesome divine buffs, most notably, Divine Power and Guidance of the Avatar (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a)

Trade in a domain for Travel Devotion, maybe Trickery Devotion and Animal Devotion depending on circumstances and you are golden.

[Curmudgeon]

The best thing you can do(without goin all out minmax) is go human Cloistered Cleric and grab Able Learner and depending on how your DM handles Exalted, Nymphs Kiss.

You are looking at about 7 skillpoints a level and every skill ever as class skills
That's definitely not right. Cloistered Clerics get the standard Cleric skill list plus Decipher Script and Speak Language, and all Knowledge skills (from the bonus Knowledge (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spellLists/clericDomains.htm#knowledgeDomain) domain). That's it. Able Learner makes all skill ranks cost 1 point, but it doesn't make them class skills, so you're stuck with those cross-class skill maximums.

[marcielle]

Well dang, forgot the second part. Still, not like he'll need half his level in skill points when hes got 2nd level cleric slots. First 2 levels might suck though.

Still stand by my Cloistered Cleric.

[Gavinfoxx]

Skill Monkey!

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