Totemist/Martial Adept/Rogue

[RFLS]

I'm looking at combining totemists and one of the martial adepts (probably swordsage) with a rogue. The idea is to pump up Dexterity, and go to town with SA and hiding. So uhm....how would this go? I'm not very familiar with MoI, but the blink shirt meld caught my eye...it looks like it's tactical teleports as a move action at level 2, which is amazing for a melee character. How would Totemist 2/SS 1 followed by some mixture of rogue and SS levels go?

[Piggy Knowles]

Here is a totemist/rogue/telflemmar shadowlord build that I've used in the past, and that I like a lot:

Azurin, Rogue 1/Totemist 2/Cobra Strike (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#cobraStrike) Monk 2/Umbral Disciple 3/Telflammar Shadowlord 4/Swiftblade (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070327) 8

It doesn't have swordsage levels, although the monk levels could probably be dropped for that, and the final swiftblade levels could be re-jiggered to include some martial adept. Monk is solely there for feats and skills, and if I were actually planning on playing up to level 20, I'd replace them with something full BAB (probably fighter, but warblade could work as well) so that I could hit +16 BAB.

It only gets a few dice of sneak attack, but Craven makes up for that. I also toyed around with a psionic version that used Indigo Strike and Psycarnum Infusion to also up sneak attack damage, but I didn't like it as much.

[Dusk Eclipse]

If you are going to go Totemist/Swordsage/Rogue I suggest dipping monk 2 for flurry of blows and Invisible fist (ACF in EoE), the first one opens the Sun School tactical feat which is Shadow-pounce lite, pretty useful with at will DDoor. The second gives you a 1 round invisibility, the condition not the spell, which means you can full attack and get sneak attack against your enemy every other round.

Finally shaping Kruthkik claws can give you a pretty hefty bonus to hide and move silently (4+4/essentia competence bonus) and if you bind it to your totem chakra you get claws that also deal acid damage.

[eggs]

I've been doing a lot of fiddling with spinoffs of Rogue 3/Totemist 2/Assassin, which tend to be absolute blenders, while remaining very flexible.

Something like [Feat Rogue or Monk] 2/Totemist 2/[Warblade or Swordsage 1/Assassin 2, repeating] could be excellent.

[RFLS]

I really like the Monk 2 suggestion; both of those fit pretty well. For the sun school feat, does that mean you get an attack as an immediate action? Because...that's really powerful.

How does Totemist 2/Swordsage 2/Rogue 1/Invisible Fist Monk 2/Rogue 2/SA Thug Fighter (Drow variant if allowed) 1/Swordsage 1/X, with Darkstalker, Weapon Finesse, Shadow Blade, Craven, and Sun School go? For race (assuming complete cheese-out), I was thinking Were-Serval Dark Whisper Gnome.

[Person_Man]

I would avoid Monk. Natural Weapons are not special Monk weapons, and the Shadow Mantle soulmeld bound to your Shoulder chakra (ECL 9 for pure Totemist, a bit later if you want to pick it up with a Feat or PrC) offers you a weird/cool Globe of Darkness/Greater Invisibility ability that you can turn on and off as a Swift Action, at will, all day.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I think monk 2 here has some advantage, as per the wording in Exemplar's of Evil the Invisible fist is an (Ex) ability and to the best of my knowledge that is the only way to get an (ex) invisibility effect. Second while you are right that natural weapons are not special monk weapons, nothing prevents from flurrying with your unarmed strikes and then use you natural attacks.

Girallon Arms gets you 4 (if you state that you are using your unarmed strike with something other than your arms, I suggest kicking)+ other melds. From the top of my head Unicorn mask gets you a Gore attack, Chaos Roc span can get you wing buffet if bound to shoulders [?], Lammia belt could potentially get you another set of 2 claws; but you would need to flurry with something other than you legs, perhaps body slams?

[Godskook]

Second while you are right that natural weapons are not special monk weapons, nothing prevents from flurrying with your unarmed strikes and then use you natural attacks.

Flurry of Blows does that. Flurry of blows is its own action, that costs a full-round action. But its immaterial, since you really don't need Flurry to get useful things from a lvl 2 monk dip. That '1' extra attack won't be missed.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Flurry of Blows does that. Flurry of blows is its own action, that costs a full-round action. But its immaterial, since you really don't need Flurry to get useful things from a lvl 2 monk dip. That '1' extra attack won't be missed.

My bad, I thought it was an "augmentation" on the full attack not a separate action; but in that case you can still get your iterative attacks and natural weapon routine. And as I said, flurry is needed for sun school and the mini-shadow pounce.

[Piggy Knowles]

I like a two level monk dip for feats and skills - think of it as a fighter dip, but you trade a point of BAB for better skills and either evasion or invisible fist. The other bonuses (flurry, unarmed AC bonuses, etc.) are pretty much ignored.