[PF] - Building a Gambler

[Gorfnod]

Playing in a Pathfinder-only game and am looking for some help with a build. My general concept is a scoundrel, gambler that uses throwing cards as his primary weapon. My first thought was a rogue with the Throw Anything feat but I wanted to come to the playground and ask those with more Pathfinder experience.

Some general information:
probably will play half-elf or halfling
anything that is shuriken-specific may be refluffed for throwing cards
prefer low magic
would like to incorporate gambling in a meaningful way if possible

Anything that you guys have seen that might be beneficial for this type of build would be appreciated.

[crillitor]

There is the Harrower class from the Inner Sea World Guide that is based around casting using a tarot deck with different results depending on what you draw.

[Crasical]

Starting with actually good at gambling...
Ranks in Profession: Gambler and a wis-heavy class seems like a good start. The 'Secret Stash' deed gives you a bonus to Sleight of hand checks (To cheat, presumably), so Gunslingers are pretty good gamblers by default.

Alternatively, a shuriken-base monk or ninja might also work.


Edit: If you're okay with cheating, tons of bluff and Power of Suggestion (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/equipment-traits/power-of-suggestion) lets you basically lie about the face value of a card for a full minute, probably a long enough time to get it shuffled back into the deck.

[Waker]

I'd say Ninja would make a good base class for the idea. If you are allowing refluffling of shuriken to cards, some ninja tricks to grab are Flurry of Stars and Ki Charge.
Otherwise the class has plenty of skill points and access to Rogue Talents to aid in various skill checks. Not to mention that Charisma is a good stat for the class, which is always helpful when you are a gambling ne'er do well.

[Crasical]

Ki Charge (Su): A ninja with this trick can invest a portion of her ki into a single thrown weapon, such as a shuriken, and throw it as a standard action. The thrown weapon explodes on impact in a 5-foot burst, dealing 1d6 points of fire damage plus 1d6 points of fire damage for every four levels of the ninja above 2nd, to a maximum 4d6 at 18th level. Creatures caught in the blast receive a Reflex save to halve the damage. The DC of this save is 10 + 1/2 the ninja’s level + the ninja’s Charisma modifier. If the thrown weapon hits a creature, that creature takes a –2 penalty on the saving throw. If the thrown weapon misses, treat it as a thrown splash weapon. Using this ability expends 1 ki point from her ki pool.

http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/24900000/Gambit-x-men-24960500-525-700.jpg

[Akal Saris]

There is the Opportunistic Gambler trait, which adds +1d4 rounds to any morale bonus that you have. So if you rage or play bardic music for 1 round and then stop, it will linger for 1d4 rounds.

[deuxhero]

It's a campaign trait though (but VERY light on fluff compared to every other campaign trait), so the GM can potentially only allow it in Second Darkness campaigns.

[Gorfnod]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Sounds like a refluffed Ninja would work pretty well. A little concerned about sneak attack and throwing though. I guess I will have to look in to some of the invisibility goodies.

Any more input would be great.

[Waker]

Well, aside from wanting to throw cards and gamble, are there any other character ideas that you wanted to explore?

[Gorfnod]

I plan on using more chaotic items in battle for some variety, think Rod of Wonder, but figure that will work with most builds.

Most of my party seems to be playing somewhat stealthy characters so I guess having that as an option would be good. Never played in an all stealth party.

I see him being a bit of a cheater so if he gets caught some escape tricks would be nice.

Dirty tricks seems like an interesting combat maneuver. I'd be interested in anything to do with this other than just Improved Dirty Tricks.

Seems like Ninja would still cover most of this but if anyone knows any interesting feats or even an archetype for another class that fits I'd be glad to hear it.

[Larpus]

I know you said low magic, will just add for the record:

The Alchemist is a pretty good thrown weapon based character (at least as far as I can tell), aside from throw anything for free with the added bonus of getting Int to damage (on an Int-heavy class), you get:

There's the mutagen (supernatural, but with a sciency fluff) that can increase one of your physical stats by +4 (at first, later on you get +6/+4 to two and then +8/+6/+4 to all of them).

You get bombs, which are great damage and/or control, or you can trade them for sneak attack (stacks with Rogue's).

You get poison use, increased speed in applying poison, poison resistance and a bonus to Craft(alchemy) (which is used to make poisons) for free and you can get a discovery that makes poison linger in your weapon for Int strikes, managing to finally make them worthwhile without minor creation (you're looking at getting poisons at about 1/9 base price or so).

Discoveries are a great way to increase your character's overall survivability and/or versatility, though you might be looking at looking like a complete monster.

And on top of all that, buff-based spell list which you don't actually cast, but rather drink just like potions, so it can be refluffed or simply ignored.

[Psyren]

A fun refluff idea might be Sound Striker Bard. Have your Bardic Performance be something like (magic tricks) or (shuffling) and have the Weird Words be knife-sharp playing cards/bullet-hard coins instead of sounds. You can even combine it with the Magician or Street Performer archetypes.