Rogue 7/Shadowdancer 3/Fighter 2 - Let's do this!

[HatsofDragons]

Evening adventurers!

So I'm going to be entering into a campaign soon which is very combat heavy:

Idea - I'm looking for a ranged dmg dealer
Starting level - 12
Race - Human
Environment - DM describes it as Australian outback
Books - (Hypertext d20 website), Unearthed Arcana, Complete Champion
Special ruling - No metal magic items are allowed (RP reasons), any normal item like daggers are considered bone for example instead.

My role I'm taking is ranged damage so the basic idea is the rogue for sneak dmg, shadowdancer for hiding and the fighter for extra feats.


NOW! Onto why I'm here, I'd like to know of any suggestions for:
- Feats (8 feats)
- Magic items (88k starting)
- Skill distribution (Only ask because of using a longbow I believe strength has an important role? Not sure still somewhat new only done a couple of campaigns)
Any other information!
Points - 15, 18, 13, 16, 8, 10 (+3 more from levels)

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

[mabriss lethe]

For feats: You'll definitely want some ranged combat feats one you get the feats you need to enter. So you have to pick up combat reflexes , dodge, and mobility. Bare bones, you'll want point blank shot and precise shot, followed by rapid shot and manyshot when you have the room. Since complete champ is available, I'd seriously look into one or two of the domain feats, even without cleric levels. Travel and/or Animal Devotion are always solid choices.

[justiceforall]

Btw - you need Greater Many-shot; Many-shot doesn't allow you to apply your precision damage to more than one attack per round.

Regardless of your other choices, there's a near mandatory feat requirement in Darkstalker.

You can also consider throwing weapons instead of longbow since your precision damage doesn't go beyond 30ft anyway. A common suggestion around here is the glove of endless javelins (lets you throw force javelins).

If you are just taking Shadowdancer for Hiding, I recommend you take only 1 level (for HiPS).

Your OP doesn't seem to mandate that you have to use rogue - would you consider scout instead? Reason for my suggestion is it does much of the same thing, gives you bonus feats for the Shadowdancer prereqs, and Skirmish is much easier to trigger than sneak attacking at range.

As a possible variation to your build, Scout 4/Ranger 3/Shadowdancer 1/Ranger X, using feats:

Point Blank Shot
Mobility
Combat Reflexes
Darkstalker
Swift Hunter
Dodge (bonus - scout 4th)
Rapid Shot (bonus - ranger 2nd)
Many Shot (bonus - ranger 6th)
Greater Many Shot

[mabriss lethe]

Btw - you need Greater Many-shot; Many-shot doesn't allow you to apply your precision damage to more than one attack per round.

Regardless of your other choices, there's a near mandatory feat requirement in Darkstalker.

You can also consider throwing weapons instead of longbow since your precision damage doesn't go beyond 30ft anyway. A common suggestion around here is the glove of endless javelins (lets you throw force javelins).

If you are just taking Shadowdancer for Hiding, I recommend you take only 1 level (for HiPS).

Your OP doesn't seem to mandate that you have to use rogue - would you consider scout instead? Reason for my suggestion is it does much of the same thing, gives you bonus feats for the Shadowdancer prereqs, and Skirmish is much easier to trigger than sneak attacking at range.

As a possible variation to your build, Scout 4/Ranger 3/Shadowdancer 1/Ranger X, using feats:

Point Blank Shot
Mobility
Combat Reflexes
Darkstalker
Swift Hunter
Dodge (bonus - scout 4th)
Rapid Shot (bonus - ranger 2nd)
Many Shot (bonus - ranger 6th)
Greater Many Shot

Unfortunately, this doesn't fit with the list of sources available to the OP. SRD/UA+Complete Champion only.

[justiceforall]

Blargh, I thought I read the whole list, and no, no I didn't!

Well my commentary on the number of levels of Shadowdancer, and Greater Manyshot still stands at least.

Assuming you do go back to a single level of Shadowdancer, it lets you take 10th level Rogue, which also gives you a feat (if you don't take rogue "special abilities" you can take any feat you qualify for instead). That makes Fighter a lot less interesting since you are only +1 instead of +2 feats. So assuming you are a human you get:

1st Point Blank Shot
1st Dodge (prereq)
3rd Mobility (prereq)
6th Combat Reflexes (prereq)
9th Rapid Shot
12th Precise Shot

Rogue Bonus: anything you like. You could go Many-shot preparing to get Greater Many-Shot. You could also take one level of fighter instead of the 11th level of Rogue and get it there as a bonus feat.

Make sure you familiarise yourself with the Sniping rules of the Hide skill, since otherwise generating sneak attacks is going to be very annoying.