Best detective? With qualifications?

[logic_error]

Which class forms the best detective? Except, Factotum of course.

Let's say that this does not necessarily mean magic users (divination spells) but rather skilled characters.

Requisite skills are gather information, search, listen, spot, sense motive, knolwdge local.

I guess beguiler, bard and rogue seem like the ideal answers. if that is so, which one of them would be the most sucessful detective and combatant?

[Deeds]

Bard gets Bardic knowledge or whatever its called, is fantastic at diplomacy, and if the bard picks up Intimidate they can play "bad cop" too.

[logic_error]

Bard gets Bardic knowledge or whatever its called, is fantastic at diplomacy, and if the bard picks up Intimidate they can play "bad cop" too.

Thanks! Will the bard be better at combat than either rogue or beguiler? And I don't mean damage.

[Gildedragon]

Urban Ranger is pretty great as a detective as they can track down people quite effectively, and can take criminal organizations as their favored enemy

Changeling Rogue is also fantastic as they can gather info very fast and have a good number of class skills

[Zaq]

Thanks! Will the bard be better at combat than either rogue or beguiler? And I don't mean damage.

Rogue will likely have the highest direct damage output of those three (I know you said that you don't care only about damage, but still, it's someone's job to bring enemy HP to 0) if they can reliably get Sneak Attack, but since the Rogue has no magic, they're easier to shut down than the other two.

Since the Beguiler gets higher level spells than the Bard, they're likely to have more raw magical oomph—they actually have very few spells that do straight damage, but they have a whole lot of spells to control and annoy enemies (as well as plenty of great out-of-combat goodies). Enemies with high Will saves and/or immunity to mind-affecting abilities tend to make the Beguiler sad, but since they know their entire list, they're not likely to be rendered completely useless unless the GM is specifically gunning for them. (If they were in the same party, the Beguiler would make the Rogue's job a lot easier, but if combat still needed to end with someone on Team Monster dying, it would definitely be the Rogue's job to make someone die.) Since the Beguiler casts with INT instead of CHA, they're likely to invest more heavily in it than a Bard would, so they're likely to have a couple more skill points; that said, they don't get Bardic Knowledge, so that's something to consider.

The Bard can be an absolute beast of a force multiplier if you build for such a thing. Without investment, they're acceptable at buffing allies (either with direct buffs like Inspire Courage or with spells that make things better for your team), but with investment, they can turn the rest of the team into unstoppable killing machines. (They can usually benefit from their own buffs, but it's usually very resource-heavy to make yourself capable of standing on the front lines and taking hits.) In a party-neutral setting, they've got good spells to help end fights, but they have fewer than the Beguiler does (both fewer spells known and fewer slots).

Overall, the Beguiler and the Bard are likely to be about the same in terms of combat power, though they will likely approach the task in different ways. I think the Beguiler likely has a higher ceiling just because they get more spells (and more magic = more better), but a well-played Bard is a force to be reckoned with nonetheless. If you feel like you've needed to invest a lot of build resources (primarily feats, but maybe also items and/or class levels or PrC levels) into making yourself feel like a detective, the Beguiler is likely to be stronger just because the Beguiler doesn't have to invest as much to make their magic effective. Neither is a bad choice, though.

[logic_error]

Thanks zaq. That seems really like a comprehensive summary! Would also have some suggestions for what thematic and useful feats you would consider? Other than investigate and research of course. The latter is purely RP without much real application.

Currently I am tending to be a beguiler with a distribution of:

8 14 14 16 10 13. As a human that should give me 10 skills. I am thinking:

Conc
Spell craft
UMD
Diplomacy
Disable device
Search
Spot
Gather information
Bluff
Sense motive

Later I will get listen.

Any ideas?