Good feats for a skill monkey

[BerronBrightaxe]

A bit back we started an all dwarf campaign (in Faerûn: Citadel Adbar) and I’ve decided to build a skill monkey. Currently I’m Rog2/Ran2 with the feats: Tireless (bonus), Blind-fighting (preq.), Alertness (preq.) and TWF (ranger). My focus for skills are dungeoneering and movement (dis.div., open lock, search, jump, balance, tumble, etc.)

I intent to make a build of Rog3/Ran2/Thief-Acrobat2/Dungeondelver4/ Thief-Acrobat2/Dwarf Paragon3/??4 and take a bunch of skilltricks (Comp. Scoundrel). My dwarf wants to be a member of the ‘Deepscouts’ (the ‘commandos’ of Citadel Adbar) and invent ‘Dwarvencraft’ (Rac. of Stone) traps (think the game: ‘Orcs must die’) for the defense of the Citadel and for the honor of his Clan.

Survivability is an issue, because our DM has tendency of making ‘challenging’ encounters. And, as you can imagine, I made this build mainly because of flavor and not for the cheese (My damage output averages out at about 10hp/r (if I actually hit stuff), which will stay the same for several levels to come).

But getting to the point…
What feats should I take from now on, also considering the flavor and that I only get a few? We’re using all 3.5 books and Faerun setting (no Pathfinder, Dragon mag. and Ebberon).

I haven’t found anything really awesome, but some ‘decent’:
Dodge - titan fighting (survivability, but situational)
Dodge - mobility - spring attack /Elusive target (survivability/movement)
Skill focus: UMD - Dual wand wielder (versatility)
Quick reconnoiter – Improved initiative (survivability)
Combat expertise – improved trip (versatility/survivability)
Skill focus: dis.div./open lock/search (flavor)
Ancestral Weapon (flavor)
Moradin's Smile - Clan prestige (IIRC) (flavor)
Dash (movement)

Less ‘decent’ feats:
Skill focus (any other skill) - I can make this up with skillpoints
Able learner - already got all skills (except one) as class skill
Luck feats - doesn’t fit the setting/flavor in my view
Nymph’s Kiss - doesn’t fit the setting/flavor in my view

Any advice? Are there any other I haven’t found?

Cheers,
Berron

[Gwendol]

Jack of all trades is a solid choice.

[JadePhoenix]

Quick Recconeiter is indeed a good feat for a skillmonkey.
Trap Sensitivty (Dungeonscape) is good if there are any traps around, specially if you can always take 10 on Search checks (even if you can't, you should be able to take 10 on Search checks most of the time).
Keen Eared Scout (PHB II) is good for scouting, but it might ruin your DMs plan almost as much as divination spells and he'll hate you for it

Too bad you can't take Wanderer's Diplomacy

[BerronBrightaxe]

Thanks, Gwendol and Jade, for your input.

Jack of all trades: although I think it is a really good feat for lowlvls, on higher lvls a skill-monkey has enough skillpoints to 'buy' the skill

Keen Eared Scout: Sounds very good. I'll be sure to bring a wand of 'Listening Lorecall (http://dndtools.eu/spells/complete-adventurer--54/listening-lorecall--381/)' and drive the DM insane :smallcool:

Trap sensitivity: I think my dwarf will refuse (stubbornly) to have less beard and pointier ears :smallbiggrin:

A Dungeondelver gets 'Skill mastery' on lvl 3 (3 + int). I do intent to have 'search' as one of them. (the combination of Dungeondelver and Thief Acrobat gives you Skill mastery in 7 + int skills)
Although my Dwarf won't be able to take the feat 'Trap sensitivity'. It did lead me to: Trap Engineer (http://dndtools.eu/feats/dungeonscape--63/trap-engineer--2961/) and Trapmaster (http://dndtools.eu/feats/lost-empires-of-faerun--30/trapmaster--2965/) (which are about the same). They seem very interesting.

Wanderer's Diplomacy: Very interesting indeed, but not interesting for my dwarf. He has been adopted as a baby into his current clan (which is pretty rare with dwarfs) and honoring the clan (and his adoptive family) is very important to him. One way to honor the clan is to improve the defense of the Citadel. So diplomacy ain't his thing...

[Kuulvheysoon]

A handy one could be Shape Soulmeld (MoI). There's a huge variety of different soulmelds to choose from, and they typically provide the rare(r) Insight Bonus to certain skills. For the price of a single feat, you could get a +4 Insight bonus to Decipher Script, Spellcraft and UMD (!)

[BerronBrightaxe]

A handy one could be Shape Soulmeld (MoI). There's a huge variety of different soulmelds to choose from, and they typically provide the rare(r) Insight Bonus to certain skills. For the price of a single feat, you could get a +4 Insight bonus to Decipher Script, Spellcraft and UMD (!)

Share Soulmend, you mean I presume.. We don't use Magic of Incarnum. One of the few books we don't own... :smalleek:

My bad.. I thought we had pretty much everything :smallfrown:

[Kuulvheysoon]

Share Soulmend, you mean I presume.. We don't use Magic of Incarnum. One of the few books we don't own... :smalleek:

My bad.. I thought we had pretty much everything :smallfrown:

No, I mean Shape Soulmeld. It lets you shape a single soulmeld. Share soulmeld lets you share the effects of soulmelds that you already have shaped.

That's too bad - Incarnates make amazing skillmonkeys.

[BerronBrightaxe]

too bad.. the only one I can find is Share (http://dndtools.eu/feats/magic-of-incarnum--74/share-soulmeld--2576/)...

Incarnates won't fit the campain theme, although it seems like a lot of fun to play (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19870566/Incarnate_by_the_numbers) with

[Curmudgeon]

A Dungeondelver gets 'Skill mastery' on lvl 3 (3 + int). I do intent to have 'search' as one of them.
Most of the time when you're searching for traps you're not being threatened or distracted, so you can "take 10" without Skill Mastery. Now I can see mastering Search if you're going to get Savvy Rogue so you can instead "take 12", but you won't qualify for that feat. Since it's a full-round action to search each square, I don't see this as being a skill with much utility during combat. So, I'm curious; why master Search?

[BerronBrightaxe]

Most of the time when you're searching for traps you're not being threatened or distracted, so you can "take 10" without Skill Mastery. Now I can see mastering Search if you're going to get Savvy Rogue so you can instead "take 12", but you won't qualify for that feat. Since it's a full-round action to search each square, I don't see this as being a skill with much utility during combat. So, I'm curious; why master Search?

Main reason is that I get 'Stonecunning' as a dwarf, specificly: A dwarf who merely comes within 10 feet of unusual stonework can make a Search check (+2 racial bonus) as if he were actively searching, and a dwarf can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can.
Due to the stonecunning ability from the Dungeondelver, my dwarf receives a +2 comp. bonus (total +4). And if my Dwarf becomes lvl 14 and can take a lvl of Dwarven paragon, my racial bonus is doubled (total +6) and so is the area (20 feet radius).

So at lvl 14 my search (with Stonecunning) will be:
17 [ranks] + 5 [int] + 10 [take10] = 32 + 6 [stonecunning] = 38

So by taking Skill mastery (search) my skill will be high enough by 'taking 10' to succeed on almost every roll and it takes out the random effect of dice.

'Stonecunning' has a very wide range of what the ability contains and as a dwarf party we are probably going to be in the Underdark and dungeons a lot :smallbiggrin:

Also for flavor. It fits my toon, to be able to take 10 in the skills he uses most (and in the end he can Skill master in 7 + int skills)

[Venger]

Share Soulmend, you mean I presume.. We don't use Magic of Incarnum. One of the few books we don't own... :smalleek:

My bad.. I thought we had pretty much everything :smallfrown:
you're both right. shape soulmeld and share soulmeld are both feats from MoI

A handy one could be Shape Soulmeld (MoI). There's a huge variety of different soulmelds to choose from, and they typically provide the rare(r) Insight Bonus to certain skills. For the price of a single feat, you could get a +4 Insight bonus to Decipher Script, Spellcraft and UMD (!)
they're quite nice. open lesser chakra might also be a decent choice depending on how many feats you have available and if you can't just cut out the middleman and dip totemist depending on levels