critique my ninja build

[samuraijaques]

hello all,

i recently posted a thread to these boards asking for help in making a ninja character. the thread died but i have done a lot of research on my own and come up with the following build. I wanted to know how it could be improved.

incarnate shadow warforged (already got this cleared)
swordsage 1/ Rogue 1/ invisible fist cobra strike monk 2/ hit and run fighter 1/ swordsage 2/ telflammar shadowlord 4/ swordsage 9

base ability scores: 38 point buy
str: 10
dex: 18
con: 12
int: 12
wis: 16
cha: 10

putting all of the stat increases into dex.

feats (2 flaws)
1st craven
1st shadow blade (flaw bonus)
1st blind fight (flaw bonus)
3rd adaptive style
4th weapon finesse (fighter bonus)
6th spring attack
9th staggering strike
12th darkstalker
15th combat reflexes
18th gloom razor

the idea is to go into telflammar shadowlord for 4 levels to get shadow pounce and use the teleportation maneuvers from shadow hand to strike my enemies without them getting a chance to retaliate.

and there it is. what do you guys think? any suggestions?

looking forward to hearing from you.

edit: changed feat order to make it legal

[avr]

Weapon Finesse at 1st level is a problem without a house rule for you, since you're starting as a rogue (zero BAB). A reasonable house rule, but get that cleared too. Adaptive Style requires a level of swordsage which is also a problem for you at 1st level. Spring attack requires +4 BAB which would be a problem for any character at 3rd level.

OTOH darkstalker is useful at much lower levels than the 12th level you're taking it; shadows don't really exist for creatures with darkvision.

[samuraijaques]

okay, so i fixed the feat order so that it is now legal i believe. I was writing this post really late last night so I kind of fudged some stuff, hopefully not too much. do you think it would be worth taking darkstalker earlier? what would i replace darkstalker with?

thanks for the replies, looking forward to hearing from you

cheers

[Courier6]

You can't take Shadow Blade without a shadow hand maneuver. You can't take Adaptive Style without one level in a martial adept class. You can't take Spring Attack without Dodge or Mobility. You don't qualify for Telflammar Shadowlord without spellcasting, mobility, dodge, +2d6 Sneak Attack, or the shadow-walker template.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Unless blind-fight is a pre-req for something (AFB) I suggest that you drop it.

[avr]

IMO Adaptive Style could wait to 12th. You don't get Shadow Pounce until 11th anyway so recharging Shadow Stride isn't such a priority from levels 1-10, and you're only getting 3 of your first 11 levels as a swordsage so other maneuvers can't be the focus of your character at that point.

Courier6's reminder that you'll need Dodge (or Desert Wind Dodge) & Mobility too is making this character look really feat-starved. Darkstalker might have to drop off your list until 15th, ouch. You could take your first level as a swordsage to make Shadow Blade available though.

Maybe a less Dex-focused character would work better?

[samuraijaques]

cool, thanks for the replies

@courier6
i updated the feat order without changing the class level order, sorry for the confusion, that should address your first two concerns. cobra strike monk gets dodge and mobility as bonus feats at 1st and 2nd level respectively. the spellcasting requirement has been waived due to the class not progressing another classes spellcasting but instead having its own, dodge and mobility come from the aforementioned cobra strike monk and i get 2d6 sneak attack from assassins stance. :P

@deusmortuusest
blind fight is a prereq for telflammar shadowlord

@avr
not getting adaptive style till later is going to limit the playability at those low levels. I would prefer to take it as soon as possible as the swordsage recovery mechanic is pathetic. do you still think it's necessary now that you know i am getting dodge and mobility for free? i would really like to make this character dex based. do you think it is worth the two feats i need to make it work? what would you suggest if i went with strength?

thanks a bunch for the replies you guys, great advice. looking forward to hearing more

cheers

[avr]

Dodge & mobility as bonus feats, great. That does make the dex focus possible, I was beginning to think that you'd need to put spring attack on the chopping board.

The swordsage recovery mechanism is not at all good, no. The thing is you're not much of a swordsage at the point where only 3 of 11 levels are in the class. You won't have any maneuvers higher than 3rd level until after character level 11 - thinking about it you don't actually qualify for assassin's stance when you get your 2nd stance, an initiator level of 4 at swordsage level 2 doesn't get you a 3rd level stance. Relying on swordsage maneuvers for most of his career sounds painful for this guy.

Also (sorry) making swordsage your first level invalidates taking craven then. More reshuffling needed still.