Good options for a high-level flanker?

[Cheech]

I'm playing a daring outlaw build (currently rogue 4/swashbuckler 13) and having a lot of fun with it. When he gets his sneak attack off he does huge amounts of damage, but when he doesn't, the damage he does is fairly trivial. I have deathstrike bracers, so I can sneak attack most things, and I have darkstalker/high hide and move silently/wand of invisibility, so I can generally get one round of sneak attacks off.

But I'm having trouble getting a second round of sneak attacks off, when the first doesn't finish the encounter (or if for any reason I don't get my first off). None of the other PCs really do front line melee (they're all low to mid optimisation casters), so I don't generally have anyone to flank with.

So I'm looking to take a feat at 18th level that will give me a flanking buddy. It doesn't need to do much damage, and I don't want it overshadowing any of the PCs. It mainly just needs to stand in the right place. So good stealth, mobility and durability are priorities. I think my DM will probably allow most any feat (maybe not Dragon Magazine content).

Any suggestions?

[Metahuman1]

Just a thought.



Buy either some eternal wands or some Drow Tokens of Persist Blade. Or see if you can get a custom continuous item of it.

It's a level 1 Sorcerer/Wizard spell in the spell compendium.

It creates a dagger of force that floats on it's own once the spell is activated, and goes to whatever you wish to target and attacks it for 1d4 force damage, once a round, with an attack bonus that's better then nothing at low levels but not at all stellar, and doesn't scale well.

But while it's doing that, it's ALSO automatically flanking with you receiving the flanking bonus.

And the only way to destroy it is to dispel or anti magic it successfully, making it something of a specialized tactics enemy's have to use to deal with it.






This way, you can spend your feat on something else, always have a flanking buddy that can't really die, and not over shadow the rest of the party.

[Darrin]

Trickery Devotion (Complete Champion) would work. Your duplicate can wield weapons and thus threatens for the purposes of flanking.

Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) could also provide flanking.

Magic items that summon creatures might be an option. Bag of Tricks, Figurines of Wondrous Power, Aberrant Sphere (MIC), etc.

[Endarire]

What about multiclassing into Swordsage for the Island of Blades stance and the Distracting Ember maneuver?

[Goaty14]

couldn't they just summon monsters to flank? They're all casters after all.

Or just somehow get somebody to spawn an earth elemental, ready an action to sneak attack, earth elemental pops up out of the group, BAM!, sneak attack!, and then it goes back into the ground. Rinse and repeat.

[ExLibrisMortis]

What about multiclassing into Swordsage for the Island of Blades stance and the Distracting Ember maneuver?
This would be my suggestion, too. If you can get a relatively low-level creature (say, a monkey pet) with a spear to ride on your shoulder, you'll flank everything forever.