Help me build this rogue

[Keltaris]

Hi guys!

Soon I'll be playing in a new campaign and looks like I'll be playing the skill-monkey, Factotum came to mind, but Dungeonscape's not allowed, so I'll go for rogue.

We start at 1st level and these are the books we have to work with:

SRD, BoED, Miniatures Handbook, Races of Stone, Planar Handbook, Complete Divine, Complete Adventurer, Complete Warrior, Complete Arcane, Draconomicon

Most of the rogue feats I love are out (Craven, Darkstalker), so this was my idea:

Rogue 5/Thief Acrobat 2/Dungeon Delver X (9?)

Flaw:
Flaw: Two-weapon Fighting
1st: Blind-fight
3rd: Weapon Finesse
6th: Item Familiar (getting Alertness to enter Dungeon Delver)
9th: Mage Slayer
12th: Staggering Strike
15th: Pierce Magical Concealment

I will play with a charging barbarian going into Frenzied Berserker and with a full caster (Cleric or Wiz, dunno yet).

I'd like to keep those PrCs in the progression, the thing that bothers me the most are feats and race (Human or Whisper Gnome?)

Any ideas?

[Curmudgeon]

Item Familiar gains you the benefit of the Alertness feat while you wield the item. It doesn't grant you the feat itself, so you don't qualify to enter Dungeon Delver.

[Gwendol]

Since you will not advance sneak attack much (+3d6) I suggest you spend your TWF on something else. An alternative to item familiar would be picking a race having alertness as a racial feat.

What is the reason for the two levels of thief acrobat? Most of the class features can be had with skill tricks, which you may not have access to. The excerpt from complete adventurer can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070105a&page=5

[docnessuno]

Swashbucker 3 / Rogue 4 (Penetrating strike ACF) / Dungeon delver X works better imho, the Thief Acrobat dip doesn't add that much to the build.

Also, considering you got Blind-Fight, i think PMP is a better option than PMC.

Go for whisper gnome if you don't need the human bonus feat. It's possibly the best LA+0 race for rogues.

F: Alertness
F: Two-Weapon Fighting
B: Weapon Finesse
1: Blind-Fight
3: Daring outlaw
6: Mage Slayer
9: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
12: Staggering Strike
15: Pierce Magical Protection

Overall +1d6 SA, +2 BaB, Int to damage, better saves, a couple more HPs, at the cost of 12 skill points and some unimpressive features.

[Gwendol]

He doesn't have access to penetrating strike (Dungeonscape ACF).

[docnessuno]

He doesn't have access to penetrating strike (Dungeonscape ACF).

Mmm, right.
Well the rest of the suggested build still works.

[Gwendol]

Agreed, and likely to work better than the presented build. The insightful strike might be just enough to make TWF viable, together with another dice of SA.

[Keltaris]

What is the reason for the two levels of thief acrobat? Most of the class features can be had with skill tricks, which you may not have access to. The excerpt from complete adventurer can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...070105a&page=5

My DM won't allow excerpts, that's why I wanted Thief-acrobat (I also like the fluff of the PrC).

The levels should be three; I wanted to get to defensive roll.

I think in the end it'll be a coin toss between my progression and docnessuno's.

I'll ask the DM what level of optimization he's going to adopt, and decide...

In case I went with mine... what should I take to replace the non-optimal TWF?

[Gwendol]

Well, I want to say something not combat related. Jack of All trades perhaps? I need to look through the books you have to come up with something clever, but that was my first thought.