[3.5] Thought Experiment: Optimizing a Shadowdancer's pet shadow.

[mabriss lethe]

I know shadowdancer is a pretty horrible class beyond dipping for HiPS. That said, I'm trying to brainstorm various ways to optimize both the character and the shadow itself to squeeze out the most juice possible from it.

My op-fu is failing me, though. Beyond a certain point, I just can't find that many really useful options to boost its effectiveness.

I'm thinking of starting with a Bard chassis sporting Requiem as soon as the build will allow it. The shadow itself will acquire a feat slot and I'm torn as to what I should put there. Being an incorporeal undead, there are a lot of feats that just won't work. The simplest choice I can think of would be to grab Draconic Aura. The most versatile would be to use a +1 tome combined with it's 4th HD ability score increase to boost Charisma to 15 and snag Ghostly Grasp and then turn it into a coat rack of minor magic items.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

[DarkOne-Rob]

I can take no credit for this, but I read on the Paizo forums once about a Paladin that went into Shadowdancer for the Shadow - his high BAB, HPs, and Charisma all led to it being a pretty buff little Lawful Good undead...

[mabriss lethe]

Unfortunately, I'm talking about the 3.5 shadowdancer, not the PF version. Your stats, beyond SD class level to determine the shadow's hit dice, have no bearing on it at all. With this version, you get a bog standard shadow that matches your alignment and can't spawn. It gains +2 HD for every 3 level in shadowdancer a character possesses. (and if it's destroyed, you take XP damage similar to when a caster's familiar dies in 3.5, though you don't get any familiar-like abilities from it.)

[peacenlove]

I usually put on my summoned shadows the following feats: Mage Slayer [CA], Martial Study (Steel Wind) [ToB] and Empowered ability Damage [LM]. You can then branch out with Pierce magic protection (Auto dispel buffs), Ghostly Grasp (general utility), Draconic Aura (the initiative one) or Shape Soulmeld (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?321557-The-World-in-One-Feat-A-Shape-Soulmeld-Handbook).

[deuxhero]

Check the Shadowdancer Iron Chef. Some/most of the contestents detailed their shadow's feat progression

[mabriss lethe]

Can't do shaped soulmeld on a shadow without jumping through several hoops. It's still undead, so you'd need to get the undead meldshaper feat first. That will switch meldshaping requirements to wisdom. Shadows have a default wisdom of 12, so you'd need to improve that to 13 before you could qualify for the shape soulmeld feat. Even then,(I'm afb, so I could be wrong on this part) I don't think that undead meldshaper actually alters prerequisites of other feats, if so, shadows simply do not qualify.

[peacenlove]

Can't do shaped soulmeld on a shadow without jumping through several hoops. It's still undead, so you'd need to get the undead meldshaper feat first. That will switch meldshaping requirements to wisdom. Shadows have a default wisdom of 12, so you'd need to improve that to 13 before you could qualify for the shape soulmeld feat. Even then,(I'm afb, so I could be wrong on this part) I don't think that undead meldshaper actually alters prerequisites of other feats, if so, shadows simply do not qualify.

You are of course right, I forget I houserule it away and default to charisma for undead with soulmelds.
Note that Ghostly grasp lets your shadow wear items, so a periapt of wisdom will take care of the wisdom prerequisite.
Failing that, the binding feat chain from ToM or the fey/fiendish heritage (CM) should give some useful abilities to your companion.

[mabriss lethe]

You are of course right, I forget I houserule it away and default to charisma for undead with soulmelds.
Note that Ghostly grasp lets your shadow wear items, so a periapt of wisdom will take care of the wisdom prerequisite.
Failing that, the binding feat chain from ToM or the fey/fiendish heritage (CM) should give some useful abilities to your companion.

Ghostly grasp requires a lot of hoop jumping to acquire in its own right. It requires a Charisma of 15 and shadows have 13. Probably the fastest way to qualify would be to boost it 14 with its 4 HD bonus and then snag a +1 tome or wish for an inherent bonus. I've thought about healing devotion cheese. (the wording of the feat allows for healing of others, but instead of simply granting others fast healing for 1 minute, it instead grants the owner the ability to pass off the feat's granted power to another, namely being able to burn a swift action to grant yourself fast healing. Once that use is granted to another, it doesn't go away until used, and there is no limit to the number of uses a character can sandbag in that fashion.)

[peacenlove]

Overpriced and on the custom side would be to slap a +2 enhancement bonus to charisma to a ghost touch armor. It would cost 6.000 gp due to the unusual slot and afterwards the ghost touch property would be rendered mostly obsolete by Ghostly grasp but it is a slightly more affordable solution.

[Inevitability]

Can you have it take Undead Leadership? If so, have all of its followers be Savage Species shadows of various levels (some can be Evolved if you want them to). You now have an army of minions, some of which can create more minions. And it still makes sense thematically!