[3.5] Building a diplomancing Sha'Ir.

[Petrocorus]

I got interested in the Sha'ir class from Dragon Mag recently.
I would wish to play one in a future campaign, so i'm working on some possible builds.

I already work out some gish build and some casting focused builds, but i was thinking that, since the Sha'ir is focused on Charisma and Diplomacy, he could be the party face, and i could build a diplomancer out of a sha'ir.
But the sha'ir is a bit skill-starved, so i need some way to solve this, by PrC'ing and other tricks.

I've thought to use the Geomancer an the Seeker of Misty Isle by now. They both imporves skills, BAB, and saves and the sha'ir can qualify for them without to much troubles. Nymph's kiss is obvious, and i thought to use the apprentice feat from DMG 2. But the result are sill lacking efficiency in the skill and social stuff department.

Any idea?

PS: I assume i can talk the DM into letting me use the caster lvl instead of the sha'ir lvl for the retaining of spells.

[avr]

This is a valid use for Arcane Trickster. Rogue 1 / Spellthief 1 / Sha'ir 5 (or 6? I forget their progression) / Arcane Trickster X and the Master Spellthief feat works pretty well.

[Waker]

You might consider the Magical Trickster from Complete Scoundrel or the Paragnostic Apostle from Complete Champion. Both would be rather easy to get into, and assuming you were a Human with Able Learner you would be able to take advantage of the increased skill points. The Trickster could improve the use of some of the social skills with tricks and the Apostle can boost certain Sha'ir spells, like taking Divine Understanding to boost your Cleric domains.

[Spuddles]

The easiest way to boost a skill is picking up item familiar at 3rd level.

[Petrocorus]

The easiest way to boost a skill is picking up item familiar at 3rd level.

I think the item familiar is not compatible with the Sha'Ir who needs the gen familiar to fetch spell.

[Gildedragon]

An item familiar has nothing to do with real familiars. It's a pretty cheesy means to boost skill modifiers. It's in the SRD if ya google for it

[Petrocorus]

An item familiar has nothing to do with real familiars. It's a pretty cheesy means to boost skill modifiers. It's in the SRD if ya google for it

OK, thanks, i misread it, and i thought it replace the normal familiar.

[Spuddles]

An item familiar has nothing to do with real familiars. It's a pretty cheesy means to boost skill modifiers. It's in the SRD if ya google for it

It can be cheesy, but really, it's just a feat to make sure that you've got a skill or 3 that are always relevant without having a ton of magic item/spell dependency.

[Petrocorus]

This is a valid use for Arcane Trickster. Rogue 1 / Spellthief 1 / Sha'ir 5 (or 6? I forget their progression) / Arcane Trickster X and the Master Spellthief feat works pretty well.

Thank you for that build, it's very interesting. I've been working on it since yesterday.