Eldritch Scoundrel - a T3 Rogue Archetype (with spellcasting)?

[Serafina]

Well, the Arcane Anthology came out a short while ago. Among lots of spell books, new spells, some feats and other archetypes it also contains an Archetype for the Rogue: the Eldritch Scoundrel.
This Archetype gives the Rogue Magus-progression spellcasting off the Wizard-list.

Now, this obviously comes with a rather heavy cost.
No armor or shield proficiency will hurt AC a bit (though really only by 2 or so, you can still wear a Haramaki).
You only gain 4+Int skill points per level.
You only gain a rogue talent at 4th level and every 4 thereafter. However, you can explicitly take Ninja tricks and can burn a spell slot in place of Ki to fuel them.
You only gain Sneak attack at 3rd level, and it only improves every 4 levels thereafter (effectively halving your sneak attack progression).
You replace trap sense/danger sense with the trap spotter rogue talent.
And you don't gain Uncanny Dodge/Improved Uncanny Dodge (though you can take them as talents).

However: In place of all of that, you gain spells. A good number of them, off a good list. And you still gain most of your Unchained Rogue class features (in fact, all that are specific to them).
Just comparing that to the Minor/Major magic talents - well, instead of 1 Cantrip you get four (later 5) of them, and instead of 1 1st-level spell castable several times per day you get a generally comparable number of 1st-level spells that you can swap out since you're a prepared caster.
Comparing a 10th-level Eldritch Scoundrel to a 10th-level Magus or Inquisitor - well, your chassis is worse (good Reflex isn't as good as good Will and Fortitude). And the class features seem slightly worse as well - Finesse Training, Evasion, 2D6 sneak attack, Trapfinding, Debilitating Injury, two Skill Unlocks and two Rogue Talents. Compared to the things an Inquisitor or Magus gets, it's not quite as versatile or powerful.

Still, the Archetype seems like a good T3 class to me.
You can do one thing well in combat (deliver damage, with innate debuffs from Debilitating Injury). You can still disable traps and sneak well, plus a few things more out of combat. And of course you gain prepared spellcasting, with lots utility-goodies off the Wizards spell list, which can solve a lot of other problems as well.
At any rate and most importantly, it'd definitely be fun to play.

[Serafina]

As for building one, in my opinion it'd definitely be interesting to grab Ninja-talents with the few talents you get.
At the very least, you can innately fuel them. At low levels, sacrificing a first-level spell to use a Ninja-talent may not seem particularly appealing. However, at medium levels it effectively becomes a new use for your low-level spell slots - which you can then recover with cheap first-level pearls of power.

Any race that can grab "+1/6th of a new Rogue Talent" as a Favored Class Bonus is particularly attractive for Eldritch Scoundrel, given that you're short on Rogue Talents. Half-Elf, Half-Ork or Human would work pretty well most likely.

However, this becomes more attractive as you level if you pick Forgotten Trick (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/alternate-classes/ninja/ninja-tricks/paizo---ninja-tricks/forgotten-trick). Forgotten Trick effectively opens up all Ninja Tricks for use. However, sacrificing a second-level spell for a Ninja Trick (and potentially a 1st-level spell too) is probably not worth it very often, so it'd strictly be a "I need this right now" option.
Well, there is the Ring of Ki Mastery. It'd reduce the cost to only 1 Ki Point, and thus you'd have to sacrifice only a 1st-level spell (and potentially another to power the newly-unlocked trick).
However, for some silly reason you can only sacrifice spells to power talents and tricks - nothing else that requires Ki. So you can' use the Ring since you need to put 2 Ki points into it to get the reduction.

Well, there's a way around that (besides dipping and VMC). The Ki Pool (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/rogue/rogue-talents/paizo---rogue-talents/ki-pool-ex) talent is sadly not on the list of unchained rogue talents, so you'd have to get it approved by the GM first. With 14 Wisdom, it'd give you the required amount of Ki Points to get the reduction.

By now, we've invested two talents and 10k gold into an option that allows us to sacrifice one (or two) 1st-level spells to use any one Ninja Trick (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/alternate-classes/ninja/ninja-tricks#TABLE-Ninja-Tricks). That's not powerful per se, but at least it's very versatile - it allows such options as fast stealth, swift-action Invisibility, two extra attacks with shuriken (great if you have initiative), a climb speed, swift-action disguises and some other options.
Versatility is the name of the game here, at the very least lots of those tricks can be useful in the right situation and having spontaneous access to them seems worth 2 talents.


However, I do see one way to make this really good. Potentially good enough to make the whole sacrificing of spell slots redundant, but alas.
Magus Variant Multiclass and Ki Arcana (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus/magus-arcana/paizo---magus-arcana/ki-arcana-ex).
Now, VMC does cost a lot of feats - but then again, the basic two-weapon fighting unchained rogue doesn't need that many feats for basic functionality.
At any rate, come 7th level (and thus your Arcana), you have effectively brought your trick online (assuming FCB to get Ki Pool at 6th level). You now have a Ki Pool of Wisdom modifier + Intelligence modifier + (half level -1). At this level, this would easily be six or more points, and it'll continue to grow. That's four daily uses of Forgotten Trick, plus whatever spells you use to fuel that.

And it's not like the rest of the Magus VMC is useless.
Spellstrike on it's own is decent enough for delivering touch attacks with your weapon - particularly good for Chill Touch (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus/magus-arcana/paizo---magus-arcana/ki-arcana-ex) or other such spells that grant multiple touch attacks.
And at high levels, you get another Arcana in place of a feat - generally a good trade (hey, you can even trade it back for a feat). This can mean a familiar, or making all your attacks as touch attacks for one round (hello guaranteed hits - the ring might even reduce the cost of Accurate Strike (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus/magus-arcana/paizo---magus-arcana/accurate-strike-ex) to just 1 point. If so, thats a very powerful high-level trick.)


That being done, spending two more talents on Ninja tricks can be great. Specifically Vanishing Trick (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/alternate-classes/ninja/ninja-tricks/paizo---ninja-tricks/vanishing-trick) (mostly as a prerequisite, but having it also saves some Ki) and Invisible Blade (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/alternate-classes/ninja/ninja-tricks/paizo---ninja-master-tricks/invisible-blade). Now the latter does sadly once again require GM review since Unchained Rogues can't take it natively, and the archetype doesn't grant access to master tricks.
However, swift-action greater invisibility in exchange for one 1st-level spell or your (by now rather abundant) pool is very much worth it.



So, for an actual build. At least 7th level, though it's still good before that.

Race: Half-Elf. Grab Ancestral Arms for Shuriken Proficiency, and the human FCB for bonus rogue talents.
Attributes: Dexterity 16, Wisdom and Intelligence at least 14, we can dump Strength and Charisma.
Traits: Clever Wordplay to get one good social skill, and Failed Apprentice for style. Alternatively, Pragmatic Activator if you still want to use UMD.
Feats: Two-Weapon Fighting and other than that I'm not even sure, probably save-boosters.
Variant Multiclass Magus. Pick "Ki Arcana" for the 7th-level Arcana.
Rogue Talents: the 4th-level one goes into Ki Pool, the 6th-level one (from FCB) into Forgotten Trick. At higher level, the 8th-level one goes into Vanishing Trick, the 12th-level one into Invisibile Blade and the other 12th-level one (from FCB again) goes into Double Debilitation.
Skills: We have at least 6 skill points per level. That's enough for Disable Device, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Stealth and one social skill maxed, plus enough left over to invest some point into lots of other skills.

At 7th level, that character has access to
- 3rd-level spells
- medium BAB, good Reflex saves
- all the skills needed for stealth and disabling traps. These can be supplemented by spells to boot, as well as by swift-action invisibility
- Every Ninja-trick. This allows spontaneous emergency measures such as holding your breath, slowing poison, feather fall or spontaneous disguises
- inherent benefits from having a Ki-pool make you really good at jumping too and allow some extra stealth or speed in a pinch.
- 2D6 sneak attack
- Evasion
- Debilitating Injury gives enemies either -4 to AC or -4 to attack
- One Skill Unlock
- A Magus ability to enhance their weapon, including putting weapon special abilities on them


Suggestions (especially on feats) and other comments are of course quite welcome.

[Troacctid]

Seems nifty. I think the main question is how it compares to a Vivisectionist, which offers the same spellcasting progression with full sneak attack and better skill points.

[Kurald Galain]

At low levels, sacrificing a first-level spell to use a Ninja-talent may not seem particularly appealing. However, at medium levels it effectively becomes a new use for your low-level spell slots - which you can then recover with cheap first-level pearls of power.
I'd say using the ninja's Vanishing Trick (effectively a quickened Vanish spell) is well worth the slot for a rogue.

Also, the Accomplished Sneak Attacker feat alleviates the drop of your sneak attack dice.

[Serafina]

Oh, that is a good point!

Well, the Vivisectionist gets
- a better chassis (good Fortitude and Reflex). Same basic amount of skillpoints though, and since their spellcasting progression and need for physical stats is the same, they can get the same intelligence
- can wear armor (and use shields without worrying about spell failure)
- more sneak attack (progression every 2 levels, instead of every 4 levels as the Eldritch Scoundrel)
- twice as many discoveries as the Eldritch Scoundrel gets talents
- the mutagen with its nifty stat bonuses
- brew potion, throw anything, swift alchemy
- poison use, poison resistance and poison immunity
- Extracts with the good (can be rapidly prepared) and the bad that brings (can only be used for buffs, not to affect the environment).
- IIRC some level-discounted extracts when compared to their place on the Wizard spell list

Whereas the Eldritch Scoundrel gets
- more class skills, for what that's worth (well, it's great for dabbling to gain basic competency in lots of things).
- Evasion
- Trapfinding. Which the Alchemist can also get, admittedly.
- Debilitating Injury, which is quite a notable debuff (it is about as good for landing subsequent hits on the enemy as a mutagens bonus is)
- Free Skill Unlocks
- Wizard-spells. Compared to Extracts, that allows for the effecting of the environment - such as illusions, clouds of fog etc. No level-discount though since it's taken straight off the Wizard-list.


In a straight comparison the Vivisectionist is definitely stronger. Pick it, a few traits (or other ways to get class skills) and the Trap Breaker Archetype if you want "sneaking, trap-disabling, sneak-attacking class with up to 6th-level spells".
The Eldritch Scoundrel is good if you want Wizard-spells and some more focus on skills (you won't need traits for class skills, you get skill unlocks) and possibly if you want to do the thing with the ninja tricks, but it is by no means stronger than the Vivisectionist.


Would have been nice if Paizo had seen that comparison and made the Eldritch Scoundrel slightly differently.
Granted, an archetype that gives 6th-level spellcasting while taking away only the small things (as opposed to lots of talents or sneak attack) would have looked way too strong.
But it would have been nice if they had just straight-up given them a small Ki-pool (say, equal to Intelligence-modifier), possibly as a fixed first talent (or just at second level) that can be refilled straight by sacrificing spells (so sacrifice a spell, gain as many ki points as its level, instead of the current system) and if they had just allowed Ninja Master Tricks (opening them up to the Unchained Rogue and allowing you to take more than one).
This wouldn't even be that much stronger, it'd just integrate ninja-tricks and the ki-thing better without jumping through quite so many hoops.

But that would have come dangerously close to admitting caster supremacy, and we don't want Paizo to spontaneously combust.

[Psyren]

Spells are slightly stronger than extracts. There are more ways to affect the environment as you noted, and it's also easier to buff allies. You don't need a discovery tax (Infusion) to do so, and multi-target spells like Haste must be prepared multiple times as extracts.

[Topaz]

How does it compare with the Rogue 3 (Chained or Unchained)/Wizard 3/Arcane Trickster build?

[Extra Anchovies]

We have a Paizo-official 6ths-caster from the wizard list now? Nice! I've been wanting one for a while. That just leaves witch and shaman as the only lists without 6th-casters, right?

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Well, for witch, a hexcrafter magus comes pretty close.

This archetype looks like fun; I'm going to have to pick up this book.

[Triskavanski]

Well, there's a way around that (besides dipping and VMC). The Ki Pool talent is sadly not on the list of unchained rogue talents, so you'd have to get it approved by the GM first. With 14 Wisdom, it'd give you the required amount of Ki Points to get the reduction.

I want to point out something here..

when you select a ninja talent with Eldritch Rogue, you're not selecting the Ninja Trick Rogue talent. Rather you're selecting the talent as though you were a ninja.

Which means in a very oddish loophole, you could select the Rogue Talent Ninja Talent to select anything that wasn't brought over to be an unchained rogue talents.


Honestly though the whole "These were brought over list." kinda annoys me. Does anything new actually get added to an unchained rogue talents?

[Serafina]

How does it compare with the Rogue 3 (Chained or Unchained)/Wizard 3/Arcane Trickster build?Well, Unchained Rogue 3 gets you Sneak Attack 2D6, Evasion, Weapon Finesse and Dex to damage, Trapfinding, Danger Sense +1 and a single Rogue Talent.
Wizard 3 will get you your first-level school power, your arcana bond (though the Familiar won't advance well) and Scribe Scroll.
Arcane Trickster does fully advance your spellcasting, and gives you 5D6 Sneak Attack in 10 levels. It also gives you Ranged Legerdemain, Impromptu Sneak Attack, Tricky Spells, Invisibly Thief and Surprise Spells. Oh, and as a minor thing you don't add free spells to your spell book from Arcane Trickster levels.


Now, let's compare that at 8th level, 12th level and 16th level.

At 8th level, the Eldritch Scoundrel will have a BAB of +6, +2/6/2 saves, two 3rd-level spells, 2D6 sneak attack, Debilitating Injury, one Skill Unlock all of the rogue features mentioned above as well as two Rogue Talents. If properly built (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=707649), she'll also have good access to all Ninja-tricks.
At 8th level, the Arcane Trickster will have a BAB of +4, +3/5/5 saves, two 3rd-level spell, 3D6 sneak attack and all the Rogue and Wizard-features mentioned above, as well as Ranged Legederdemain.

At 12th level, the Eldritch Scoundrel now has a BAB of +9, +4/8/4 saves, three 4th-level spells, 3D6 sneak attack, Improved Debilitating Injury, two Skill Unlocks and (if allowed) swift-action Greater Invisibility as well as (with the right race) one more advanced talent.
At 12th level, the Arcane Trickster will have a BAB of +6, +4/7/7 saves, two 5th-level and three 4th-level spells, 5D6 sneak attack and Impromptu Sneak Attack 1/day and Tricky Spells 3/day.

At 16th level, the Eldritch Scoundrel now has a BAB of +12, +5/10/5 saves, one 6th-level and three 5th-level spells, 4D6 sneak attack, Greater Debilitating Injury, three skill unlocks and one more advanced talent (for a total of four talents, plus likely two from FCB).
At 16th level, the Arcane Trickster now has a BAB of +8, +5/9/9 saves, two 7th-level, three 6th-level and four 5th-level spells, 7D6 sneak attack and Impromptu Sneak Attack 2/day, Tricky Spells 4/day, Invisible Thief and Surprise Spells.

As we can see, the Arcane Tricksters casting starts pulling ahead at 12th level, and he'll ultimately end up with two more spell levels than the Eldritch Scoundrel (8th-level spells, compared to 6th-level spells). The Arcane Trickster also gets more sneak attack, a better will save and can apply sneak attack better with spells.
The Eldritch Scoundrel gets a better BAB - and with Debilitating Injury, will have a much easier time to hit targets (it reduces enemy AC by between 4 and 8). The Eldritch Scoundrel also gets skill unlocks (worth 3 feats basically) as well as more rogue talents and advanced talents. Oh, and (again, if allowed) she can use Greater Invisibility as a Swift Action basically in every fight per day, though the Trickster can eventually get 10 rounds of free-action greater invisibility as well.

The Arcane Trickster could also be built with Wizard 3/Rogue 1, if using the Accomplished Sneak Attacker Feat. This changes the calculation again, generally improving spellcasting while lowering BAB and of course removing Evasion and Dex-to-damage (which can be gotten back via an Agile Weapon or certain feats).


Overall, I'd say that the Arcane Trickster is definetly a stronger caster - with all that implies, especially for utility out-of-combat.
However, with the Eldritch Scoundrel having a much easier time hitting targets, she'll likely deliver more damage - 4D6 sneak attack three or more times per round is better than 7D6 once from a spell (though a clever Arcane Trickster may use Fiery Shuriken (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/f/fiery-shuriken) to get it twice per round, putting them on equal footing there again). Skill Unlocks won't make up for higher spell-levels, and the access to all the ninja tricks will eventually loose it's luster compared to better spellcasting as well.
Still, I'd say for most of the game the Eldritch Scoundrel is a good alternative to the Arcane Trickster - if you want lots of low-level versatility and go into melee, it's better than the Arcane Trickster (if not necessarily overall more powerful).

[Kurald Galain]

At 8th level, the Arcane Trickster will have a BAB of +4, +3/5/5 saves, 1 3rd-level spell, 3D6 sneak attack and all the Rogue and Wizard-features mentioned above, as well as Ranged Legederdemain.
Is there a reason why your wizard doesn't get specialist bonus spells? Pretty much every wizard I've seen in Pathfinder is a specialist.

You could also use wizard 3 / rogue 1 / AT 4 at this point, which gives you +3 BAB, +2/5/5 saves, 4D6 sneak attack, two fourth-level spells and three third-level spells, and impromptu sneak attack 1/day. Then wield an Agile weapon to get dex to damage.

[Serafina]

My bad, I simply forgot about specialist slots. Edited my post to show it, and also mentioned the Wizard 3/Rogue 1 option.

Well, this only makes the Arcane Trickster better by comparison of course, especially since such a build could get 9th-level spells.
However, that doesn't change that the Eldritch Scoundrel is a good class IMO, and it actually does have distinctively different play style from an Arcane Trickster.

[Kurald Galain]

Well, this only makes the Arcane Trickster better by comparison of course, especially since such a build could get 9th-level spells.
However, that doesn't change that the Eldritch Scoundrel is a good class IMO, and it actually does have distinctively different play style from an Arcane Trickster.

Oh, absolutely. "It's not as strong as a wizard" is really not much of an argument :smallbiggrin:

[Firest Kathon]

An interesting comparison would also be a Rogue (Eldritch Scoundrel) 4 / Arcane Trickster X (with Accomplished Sneak Attacker) or a Rogue (Eldritch Scoundrel) 7 / Arcane Trickster X. In fact I would even take 5 levels of Eldritch Scoundrel (for the Skill Unlock), and then go Arcane Trickster.

At 8th level, the Eldritch Trickster will have a BAB of +4, +2/6/3 saves, two 3rd-level spells, 3D6 sneak attack, Debilitating Injury, one Skill Unlock all of the rogue features mentioned above as well as one Rogue Talent.
At 12th level, the Eldritch Trickster now has a BAB of +6, +3/8/5 saves, two 4th-level spells, 3D6 sneak attack, Impromptu Sneak Attack 2/day, Tricky Spells 4/day.
At 16th level, the Eldritch Trickster now has a BAB of +9, +5/10/7 saves, one 6th-level, three 5th-level and four 4th-level spells, 6D6 sneak attack and Impromptu Sneak Attack 2/day, Tricky Spells 4/day, Invisible Thief and Surprise Spells.

You'll get the full spell progression of the Eldritch Scoundrel, plus at least the basic rogue goodies with a faster sneak attack progression than pure Eldritch Scoundrel. What you lose are the rogue talents, greater debilitating injury and uncanny dodge (and you don't have the rogue talents to get it back). You also have a worse BAB. At level 15 you have all 10 levels of Arcane Trickster, you can tack on 5 more rogue levels (giving you one more Skill Unlock, one talent, and more sneak attack)

[Serafina]

So, pretty relevant for the Eldritch Scoundrel: Weapon Selection.

The Shortsword is usually the gold standard for the Rogue. But having both hands occupied obviously prevents casting spells with somatic components.
Furthermore, while Shuriken (for the Flurry of Stars trick) can be drawn as a free action, you obviously need a free hand to actually throw them.

Now, you could just not use Two-Weapon Fighting, but that's not very optimized.
So, the question is: What weapons count as having your hands free for casting spells, and possibly for drawing and throwing Shuriken?

I think the Cestus would qualify, and be only a slight downgrade from the Shortsword (1D4 instead of 1D6 damage).
If not, a Spiked Gauntlet should work (but it'd also reduce your crit range).

Are those interpretations correct, or am I misunderstanding something here? Also, are there options I am overlooking?

[Florian]

Interesting archetype and interesting build @Serafina.
So far, I see some slight problems with armor/ASF and TWFing while using weapons, as well as some heavy overlap in the equipment section.
I´d be more inclined to pick VMC Monk instead of VMC Magus and use IUS with Finesse Training/TWF. Yes, that delays the Ki Pool to level 11.
Feats, I´d go for Hamatulatsu so you can pick keen for your Amulett of Mighty Fists and sickened is a nice condition to dish out and meshes well with debilitating injury.
For tricks, I think Forgotten Trick is too expensive in the long run. I´d stick with Vanishing Trick/Invisible Blade for obvious reasons, gain Weapon Focus (IUS) via trick and round it out with Terrain Mastery and Camouflage to counter the missing skill points.

Equipment is what really troubles me. You want an Headband of Ninjutsu for obvious reasons and a Shozoku of the Night Wind to power your Vanishing Trick w/o wasting spells or Ki points on it.
That precludes using the headband slot to increase INT/WIS for your casting and pool, which is bad, and your body slot would be used better on a Hamatulatsu Robe in the long run.

Now, comparing all of that to a Ninja/Red Mantis Assassin, it´s a close call, but I still think the PrC wins out in terms of sheer efficiency.

Edit and afterthought: It might actually be to to bad to go "Wordcaster" with this archetype.

[Serafina]

You CAN wear armor - the Haramaki and the Silken Ceremonial Armor have no ACP and no ASF.
But you don't have to anyway - after the first few levels, you'll just call Mage Armor (which is as good as a Chain Shirt or +1 Studded Leather) and call it a day. Though you'll probably still wear armor just for the enchantments, eventually.

And for weapons, I'm pretty sure you can use a spiked gauntlet (which makes normal armed attacks) and still cast spells just fine. And possibly with the Cestus too, though I am not sure.
If you can not - well, you can just pick up Improved Unarmed Strike via a feat.

Now yes, VMCing into Monk will give you both increased damage from unarmed strike, and a Ki Pool.
But consider what else it gives. Evasion is redundant, the +3 AC bonus is nice to have but not that important, and Improved Evasion is not really that great (you have a good Reflex save and high Dexterity, you'll likely make most reflex saves anyway).
The Ki Pool? Well, it's nice, no doubt. But it won't give you the prodigious amounts of Ki that Ki Arcana would give you. You add half your level, but only your Wisdom instead of Wisdom and Intelligence as with my build. So that's less Ki. It also only comes online at level 11 instead of level 7 with Ki Arcana.

Oh, and if you're not using unarmed attacks, you have no need for a Hamatulatsu Robe, so that frees up your body slot.



Now, as for Forgotten Trick: Have a build. (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=707649)
This is an 8th-level character, though if you do save up the gold for the Ring of Ki Mastery it also works at 7th level. I've also used Automatic Bonus Progression for sake of simplicity.

She has 12 points in her Ki Pool. Forgotten Trick costs 1 point to give her access to any Ninja Trick she wants for 8 rounds.
Assuming 5 encounters per day, she can easily gain a single Forgotten Trick during each fight and still have 7 Ki to spare.
She can open combat with a flurry of five Shuriken - throw that at a flat-footed caster and it'll hurt, a lot (each dealing 1D2+2D6+2 damage if she enchants them with Greater Magic Weapon). This costs just 2 Ki points, she can afford to do that every combat.

"But you could just take Flurry of Stars as a Ninja Trick, then it'd be cheaper".
Yes, it would. But Forgotten Trick also opens up a ton of other options. She could spend 1 Ki to get Bodyguard, and increase an adjacent allies AC with her AoOs. Stand near your main caster (while casting spells yourself) while Invisible and that can be a decent tactic. Oh, and she can (as a no-action, so at any time) also get In Harms Way to take an attack that would have otherwise killed a party member - this'll even create a Blood Debt that you can later use to save your own life.
You can also whittle down an enemy tank by decreasing their Dexterity by 1 with each sneak attack - Pressure Points is just 1 Ki away.
Got hit by poison? Spontaneously slow it's speed for 1 Ki, it could save your life.
Want to quickly sneak somewhere? Fast Stealth for 8 rounds for 1 Ki.
Want to break&enter without being detected? Undetected Sabotage.
Climbing somewhere? Get a 20 foot climb speed, and thus +8 to climb.
Falling to your death? I'll cost 2 Ki, but Feather Fall will save your life.
Swift-action casting of Ventroliquism or Disguise Self is also pretty good - sure, you can also get them as spells, but that way they take up spell slots, and you might not need them today after all.

The point of this build was to get tons and tons of options, not a single good trick.
A Ninja of that level would have four (or with FCB, five) of those tricks, and likely a Ki Pool of 6.
If he had gone into Red Mantis Asssassin instead, it'd be two tricks - in exchange for four first-level spells. No Cantrips, oh and only four spells known.
That's nowhere near the same amount of versatility, and it's not even more uses of the same tricks.


Now yes, of course a pure-classed Ninja or one that PrCs into Red Mantis Assassin/Crimson Assassin is also a valid build. You'll have more skill points (well, nor not, depending on Intelligence), more charisma, more sneak attack and of course PrC-features if you go there.
But without the PrC, you have no spells.
With the PrC, you will only have some low-level spells, with limited spells known, from only two schools. And not even a way around the issue of being unable to cast while wielding weapon, since that PrC is supposed to fight with Sawtooth Sabres.
Oh, and the PrC requires you to be evil and isn't PFS legal - no alignment restriction at all for the Eldritch Scoundrel (you could even be lawful) and everything about the build but getting Invisible Blade is PFS-legal (and that hardly matters since the level-cap is 12 anyway).


As for the item issues, that's a problem lots of classes have.
As mentioned before, you don't need the Hamatulasu Robe if you're not going for unarmed strikes and no armor at all.
The headbands - well, if your campaign uses automatic bonus progression. If you don't, you don't need a higher ki pool, or higher saving throws on your spells, so you can still take the extra hit on sneak attacks if you want to.

[Florian]

@Serafina:

Let´s have an honest discussion here. This archetype is a trap, but a fun and engaging one.
The (Un)Rogue/Ninja never had an efficiency problem as it does its job (hp damage) admirably well and always had the option to UMD stuff up to 4th level (or even higher) for added utility.

This archetype does one thing, and that is giving you regular access to 5th and 6th level spells without UMD but it costs you sheer efficiency on the way to get there. You could be en par with investing three feats into the TWF feat chain and 5 more feats into Accomplished Sneak Attacker, leaving you with a whopping two feats to customize you character, which is actually quite ok.

What we talk about here is looking for synergies that rock hard enough to bring this archetype on the needed level and boost it a bit beyond it, a thing that I actually don´t see right now.
Both of us have mentioned VMC options, and there´re certainly some more that could be considered, Alchemist for example. They expand options, yes, but they do not come close to the efficiency of the base/core class here.
What do we want? This archetype gives us an illusion. Regular access to spells, therefore options, that the base class normally doesn´t have. What it doesn´t do is making us a regular "gish" or upgrading the Economy of Actions in an significant way. You mentioned VMC Magus for Spellstrike and that is certainly a thing, but considering the base class framework, it is a very weak option that doesn´t come close to the "real thing".

[daryen]

How does this compare to the Bard/Archaeologist?

[Extra Anchovies]

How does this compare to the Bard/Archaeologist?

Archaeologist Bard is about on par with stock Bard - maybe slightly lower - but Archaeologist and Eldritch Scoundrel are both firmly in T3 territory. The Archaeologist is perhaps more directly powerful, but the Eldritch Scoundrel has the benefit of being a prepared spellcaster. I'd rather play the former, but ES makes for a really nice Wizard surrogate in a game without full casters. Magus probably outshines ES as well, because the Magus list gets a fair amount of utility that also appears on the Sor/Wiz list and the Magus is probably a better damage-dealer.