Killer Clown build?

[Conchobar]

Okay, so I haven't seen the Hunchback of Notre Dame in about fifteen years but for some reason I'm on this kick about creating a Clopin Trouillefou-esque character. Note that I'm going for the jovial/insane Disney version of the character, not so much the Victor Hugo version. I imagine him as being a highly mobile fighter, jumping and bouncing around all over the place and then sinking a dagger into your back when you least expect it. Here's where I'm at so far:

Human Swashbuckler 3/Fighter 1/Rogue 1/Master Thrower 5/Rogue 3/Swashbuckler 7

Feats:
Able Learner (Human)
Weapon Finesse (Swashbuckler)
Weapon Focus [Dagger] (Level 1)
Point Blank Shot (Level 3)
Precise Shot (Fighter)
Quick Draw (Master Thrower)
Rapid Shot (Level 6)
Combat Panache (Level 9) (thanks gallagher!)
Daring Outlaw (Level 12)
??? (Levels 15 + 18)

Thrown weapon tricks:
Palm Throw
Tumbling Toss
Weak Spot

For the empty feats I was considering Combat Reflexes and Leadership, as much as I hate it, just because it fits so well with the concept. Skills would be things like Tumbling, Sleight of Hand, Perform [Comedy] and/or Perform [Sing], Bluff, Hide, Intimidate, etc. I feel like I could have a lot of fun with skill tricks on this one, so far I'm looking at Hidden Blade, Acrobatic Backstab, and maybe Mosquito's Bite if I have skill points to spare (which I probably won't after investing in combat-useless skills like Perform). Main stats would be Dex and Int, with Con and Cha taking secondary priority. Str is fairly low priority thanks to Weapon Finesse, Insightful Strike, and the inability to add Str mod to Palm Throw/Weak Spot. Wis would be my dump stat (insane, remember?).

So, after all that I'm looking at +19 BAB, good Fort Save, good Reflex save due to high Dex, Master Thrower/Rogue/Grace+2, absolutely abominable Will save, +7d6 SA damage, improved flanking, the ability to reroll a bad roll once per day, Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, and various other goodies.

My question for you is, how would you improve this build without changing the character concept? I realize that it's not optimized, and I don't really want it to be. I just want an insane, charismatic, killer clown. Feats, skill tricks, different thrown weapon tricks (namely, replacing Tumbling Toss with Trip Throw if I can't use Palm Throw on it), alternate class features (I'm not really using trapfinding, for one thing), go crazy.

Thanks all!

[gallagher]

Where is Combat Panache? That was the first thing I would have expected in this build

[Conchobar]

And rightly so. I wasn't aware of it before, but having read it it's perfect for what I want to do, more so than Combat Reflexes. In it goes at level 9.

[nedz]

Where are the Bard levels ?

[Conchobar]

I didn't consider them necessary. Between Able Learner and Rogue, I can always take Perform as a class skill, and everything else a Bard can do (like magic) I'm not really interested in. Unless you have a really good idea of how it would improve the build and character concept...?

[hex0]

Where are the Bard levels ?

Don't you mean Jester levels?

[*.*.*.*]

Any reason to not take Shadow Blade?

[Conchobar]

Never heard of Jester, and Shadow Blade's a good idea but I'm trying to stay away from ToB stuff. This build's already pretty multiclassed as it is.

[hex0]

Jester is in Dragon Compendium. They cast similar to Bard, but taunt and humiliate their opponents. They can also buff, but focus more on debuffing. Also they get Deflect and Snatch Arrows as bonus feats.

[Conchobar]

I guess I should be more specific as to which books I'm drawing from--I'm open to using anything from Core, UA, the Complete series, and the Races of books. Anything beyond that I'm not familiar with/have no access to, and more importantly even those books I am using are way beyond what the rest of my group would use. I'm already kind of that guy pulling from eight different sources while they're playing single-class fighters, barbs, monks, etc. In my current campaign I'm playing a Beguiler, which the rest of them had never heard of. That's one of the main reasons I'm not looking to optimize this character--there's just no need to. Even this guy I'm 95% sure I'll never actually play, but if I ever get around to DMing I feel like he could be an interesting NPC (and not level 20, of course).

[SethFahad]

Don't you mean Jester levels?

Who summoned me?

Jester is from Dragon Magazine and Dragon Compendium. He is good only for the fluff. Nothing extraordinary there. The only thing that rocks is the art... thats why I took a piece of it to make it my avatar. :smallbiggrin: