Greetings, and asking for help

[Duke Arioch]

Hello good/evil/lawful/chaotic/neutral (and other combinations) people of Playground,

I am a long time lurker on these forums, but first time posting here. First, I apologize for jumping in with questions as soon as I joined.
Now onto my question. I just returned from a looong contract on a cruise ship, and, having set in and done resting (mostly), I wanted to jump back into the fray. A good friend of mine asked me to join in with him and two other acquaintances playing in a game that is to start in a couple of days. Now, I did say yes, but I am in trouble. I am afraid that the character I will cook up would steal the show and probably ruin the fun for the other players (and possibly DM whom I don't know that well). I am afraid that will happen because I am a heavy optimizer, and used to play in high end tiers parties.

What I came up with so far is that i want to try to play a Tibbit with 3 levels of warshaper (to tone down STR penalties, get tasty immunities and rectify reach problems in cat form. I want to stay in cat form as much as possible. Other classes I consider would be swordsage and capitalize on Diam and Shadow maneuvers (with a bit of Tiger). What I like here is the idea of teleporting cat via maneuvers, with my goal being getting to at least lvl 7 or even better lvl 8 maneuvers (level 9 maneuvers I don't really care about). That opens up to 5 more levels in something else, and I don't know what to get. I don't want shadowpouncing, as that would be too strong for the party I will be playing with. Likewise, I want to stay clear of psionics or arcane/divine casting. I am considering 3 levels of rogue, 5-6 levels of warlock or something similar. I am trying to pack in "Confound the Big Folk" and maybe some Sneak attack, or go warlock/eldritch claw. What do you guys think? Can you cook something up that gets shadow blink on SS side and respectable SA dice?

For reference, all books and magazines are allowed, with banhammer applied to some outrageous things. No multiclass XP penalties, 2 flaws allowed, 32 point buy, up to LA +2 races/templates allowed (LA 1 gets 28 buy, LA 2 24). My friend is going with fighter/warblade(max lvl4 dip)/bloodstorm blade/master thrower, and the other two guys I am not sure, but one of them usually goes with a sort of barbarian, and the other likes gish characters. Oh, and we are starting with very early levels, between 1 and 3 (not sure yet).

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the wall of text.

[Feralventas]

Well, Tibbit is already LA+2 if I recall correctly, so you're looking at 24 point buy.

You're looking at Starting as a Warshaper? Was the pre-requisite of the PrC waived?

It's much easier to build toward avoiding over-shadowing the party if you share what you're dealing with.

So far you've mentioned Swordsage, Rogue, Warlock and the war-shaper. Mixing and matching those won't be Too troublesome, but you're looking at splitting yourself up an awful lot.

That said there's a famed Tibbit Warlock running around here somewhere, so it's not like it can't be done.

[Yllarius]

THink about Factotum if you can. It's an excellent addition to rogue-like classes really.

It DOES have some casting, and can be abused if you choose to do so. But really anything can if you decide to....

The Int to dex/str checks might be particularly powerful if you're int is already high. It'llmake you're dex-based rogue skills mean as well.

That and I feel like cat's are naturally kind of jacks of all trades....

[ArcturusV]

Kinda why I'd think a cat should be a bard. They like their caterwauling concerts. They are expert manipulators. And feel most comfortable sitting in the way of the action telling everyone else what to do, inspiring courage and such.

[Duke Arioch]

Thank you all for your responses.

Ok, so, tibbit is only LA 0, not 2. That opens up either dark or feral template for me, and still getting 28 pt buy. ALSO, warshaper is, ofc, a PrC, and I was probably a bit vague in my post, and should have mentioned that I want my build to contain 3 levels of it, instead of starting the class list with it.

I played factotum 2-3 times, and only once on my choice. I didn't like it. It becomes a bit drab after a while, although it starts pretty well, I must add. As for bard, I get the comedic value of mewing Inspire courage out, but IME, if I play a bard, I will most likely fall into healbot/buffer part, which I don't want to do in this particular game. Now, I am a huge fan of casting (manifesting etc.) classes, but not because their power overshadows everything come mid-late levels, but because of options and thinking on feet this type of character requires. That is why I liked ToB so much - it gave melee classes options - even outside of combat. And that is something I want in every character I play.

That in mind, and trying to clarify my first post, I did some build-fiddling, and I got the following:
SS14/WS3/ROG3 (not in that order, ofc). This would give me 5 stances, 9 readied maneuvers (can add one more via feat), 19 known (up and including lvl9), evasion on SS side, so I can trade one that rogue gives for something else. I can slap on feral and together with warshaper get huge CON score and negate cat form STR penalty. Or I can go dark template and get more hide/move silently goodness along with HiPS and speed increase. UAS would deal 1d8 without spells/feats/items, and adding 4d6+20 SA damage (with craven) gives respectable damage output, which still won't break the game.

Now, looking at the above, I realize I can shave off 2 more SS levels (UAS still 1d8, lose 2 known, 1 readied and 1 stance as well as 9th level maneuver) and get something else - 2 more rogue levels, or I don't know.

Any suggestions with feats/those 2 floating levels?
Thanks in advance.