Rogue/Cabinet Trickster/Mindspy help

[Wolfepuppy]

Ok, so I'm starting in a group that is going to be all rogue or roguelike PCs. I've decided to play a social role for my character. The build I'm trying to do is Changeling Rogue 6/Cabinet Trickster 5RE/Mindspy 5CW and then probably more rogue or something after that.

Not particularly combate savvy, or oriented for that matter, but should be fun to play with; being able to read everyones mind could come in handy in many situations, combate or social.

Also when reading up to four bad guy's, or possibly in the setting of a roguish party anyone who gets in the way, minds I could use a thought trick to stun any one of them and provide my fellow rogues with a flat-footed opponent ripe for a full round of sneak attacks without having to maneuver for flanking. Could also come in handy for helping anyone out of a tight spot.

So anyway I have two questions.
1. mindspy has the prerequisite of 8 ranks in concentration, what would be the least painful way of achieving this
2. The detect thoughts for cabinet trickster is DC 10+class level+cha modifier. Since this class ends at 5 this becomes solly reliant on the Cha modifier, is there anyway to boost this DC. Its not so bad against the less willful enemies but against some this could be lacking.

Thanks for the help in advance :smallbiggrin:

[T.G. Oskar]

So anyway I have two questions.
1. mindspy has the prerequisite of 8 ranks in concentration, what would be the least painful way of achieving this
2. The detect thoughts for cabinet trickster is DC 10+class level+cha modifier. Since this class ends at 5 this becomes solly reliant on the Cha modifier, is there anyway to boost this DC. Its not so bad against the less willful enemies but against some this could be lacking.

Thanks for the help in advance :smallbiggrin:

For the first, nothing comes to mind at first, but the handy list of Alternative Ways to get Class Skills indicates that getting the Martial Study feat as your 1st level feat also nets you Concentration, but only if you take a Diamond Mind maneuver (Moment of Perfect Mind or Ruby Nightmare Blade are great choices). That way sets you up for Pearl of Black Doubt or Hearing the Air with Martial Stance, which is awesome.

For the second, you could attempt to get Ability Focus on your Detect Thoughts ability for a +2 to its DC, and if your CL for Detect Thoughts is high enough, Heighten Spell-Like Ability with it. Likewise, 3 levels in Uncanny Trickster can be used to advance Cabinet Trickster and get a DC of 17 + Charisma; with Supernatural Ability Focus, that's 19 + Charisma for 1 round. Ideally, you should get ways to weaken your opponent's Will saves: the Aleval School Weapon Style feat, the Terrifying Strike and Sickening Strike ambush feats, and perhaps another such thing allows you to sacrifice Sneak Attack dice to impose penalties to saving throws for 1 round. With a -6 penalty to Will saves and a decent Charisma, you can attack them at first, then use Detect Thoughts to gain the other bonuses. The imposed penalties will make any other Rogue friend that relies on DC happy, though it won't work as well with enemies immune to sicken and fear effects.

Since you're a Changeling and a Cabinet Trickster, have you considered having your last levels be in Warshaper? You won't get that much social guile from those levels, but you'll definitely get some lasting combat power. Reach, bonuses to Strength and Constitution, immunities, fast healing...definitely a good way to complement your fighting skills. You'll probably get only the first four levels, but you can probably ignore the 6th level of the Changeling Rogue (you get a better benefit via Warshaper) and get the 5th level of Warshaper for Flashmorph and the ability to change shape as a move action.

[Piggy Knowles]

Regarding ranks in Concentration, Martial Study is probably your best bet if you don't want to dip out of rogue.

Levels in Uncanny Trickster or Legacy Champion can boost the DCs for Cabinet Trickster. Vow of Nonviolence is a solid +4 boost on its own. Save debuff a like a hexblade's dark companion or Focalor's aura of sadness can also help.

[Wolfepuppy]

Ok, Ill probably throw some uncanny trickster in there.

How could I take the Ruby Nightmare Blade maneuver with martial study, doesn't it require me to have two other maneuvers to take it? Also it says it multiplies melee damage by 2, does this mean it multiplies the sneak attack damage too?

Ill probably pick up Ability Focus

There is one thing tricky about heighten spell like ability. I believe the feat says that it increases the spell level. With the normal spell version it would be fine, as DC is 10 + spell level + ability mod. With the detect thoughts gained by the cabinet trickster, however, the DC is 10 + class level + ability mod. So by RAW I don't think heighten spell like ability would work very well. What do you guys think?

Also what book is supernatural ability focus in? I can't seem to locate it.

[Wolfepuppy]

One more thing, if I was to dip into another class, what would be the best class to do it in, just for getting concentration? Are there any classes that would synergize well with the build I'm looking at, and give me concentration? I was thinking factotum, would that be a good option?

I was thinking along the lines of multi-classing at level 6 to factotum, or something else. This way, I'm not missing out much on my rogue levels, level 6 has trap sense yipee, and I could put up to 9 ranks into concentration, probably would only put 8.

Any thoughts?

[Piggy Knowles]

It's hard to do better than a dip into Cloistered Cleric. That will give you decent skills (including Concentration), plus three domains. I'd recommend Knowledge, Trickery and Magic. Drop the Knowledge and Trickery domains for their respective domain feats. Knowledge Devotion is an easy damage boost across the board for a skill-focused character. Trickery Devotion has a ton of excellent utility, especially for a character like yours. With the remaining Magic domain, you can use spell trigger items as though you had a level in wizard, which means that you can start using wands from the wizard or cleric spell list without having to rely on UMD.