What are the non-combat builds?

[RoboEmperor]

Builds the completely, totally, and utterly avoid all combat situations.

On top of my head is:
1. Ultimate stealth. Sneak past every encounter, and perhaps pickpocket bosses to advance?
2. Diplomacy. Duh.

Are there any others? Oh and a sample build for the method you suggest would be awesome.

[nedz]

There are several Exalted builds which use things like Vow of Non Violence to make Combat not pay for anyone.

There are Minionmancer builds, e.g. Summoner, where your minions do the fighting.

There are Artificer type builds where the things you make do the fighting.

There is the GOD Wizard concept where you just use BC and buffs to make everyone else fight better - also some Bards.

There are Mind control builds where you control your opponents and have them fight each other - this tends to not work at high level though.

There are mis-direction type builds where you use Illusions to confuse your opponents.

[LudicSavant]

Information gathering via divinations and such.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Have hundreds enough spare bodies and copies of yourself, and be immune to damage. Moat in your way? Fill it in with a dozen simulacra. Dragon ate your McGuffin? Send some simulacra crawling down its throat. Want to teleport somewhere? Jump into a crowd of fighting simulacra.

[Curmudgeon]

Mostly hang out on a different plane (usually the Ethereal Plane) where you can see but bypass all the Material Plane issues. You're fine for information-gathering missions, and you can also shift to the Material Plane to retrieve items when you see there's nobody around.

[Inevitability]

I've played around with the idea of a buff-focused caster who spends his time in the party's main base and only interacts with the party when he casts a few spells through the Ring Gate he shares with the party leader. The remainder of the time he crafts magic items and researches the area and monsters the party is currently dealing with.

[OldTrees1]

While this is not a "never combat" build, it does focus on the non combat aspects of D&D

Ghost 1 Dwarf Dwarven Rogue 3 / Silver Key 2 (for the "skills at a distance" ability) / Swordsage 1 / Rogue +1 / Swordsage +1/ Shadowdancer 1 / Rogue +1 / Exemplar 10

This is a decent build for any:
Thief / Locksmith / Dungeoneer / ...

[Psyren]

Making enemies decide not to fight also counts as defeating them and will get you exp. Some sort of Apostle of Peace build could probably pull this off.

[frost890]

The only class that springs to mind would be a Courtier from OA Rokugan campaign setting. Other then that I am not sure even the rogue has direct combat class abilities. Maybe the NPC expert class? The problem with having a PC that does not do anything for combat is that it throws off the level of creatures they are fighting ageist. when you have to protect a party member every time you get in combat it makes it more challenging for the others.