Forgery, Diplomacy, and Bluff.

[Metahuman1]

Hello Playground. Been quite awhile since I've been around here. Busy with a job transition. And juuuuuust as I was getting my footing under me The Fire Nation Attacked....... but that's beside the point and I'm starting to ramble.


So, long story short. I have a friend who is introducing one of her kids to 3.5 because he tried 5E and didn't take too it. Found it too restraining.

He's interested in playing a social skills focused character. Lighter hearted game. He wants to be able to play it such that even when a fight breaks out he can BS some of the enemy's into not having to fight. Think like

Initiative:

Wizard: Casts Lighting Bolt.

Barbarian: Rage and charge.

My friends kids character: Bluffs some of the mooks into chasing a unicorn that doesn't actually exist. Causing them to exit the battle. Or gives them forged papers that say he's really working for there boss and there boss has new orders for them to go bring him a shrubbery. Or persuades them that there weapons are cursed and they should go contemplate a plan of attack. At the Inn. Over a pint.


Towards that end, I went to go check some handbooks for optimizing Bluff, Diplomacy and Forgery Skills since I was a bit rusty on the specifics.

And couldn't seem to get the pages to load in several different browsers. Kept giving me a DNS error.

Sooooooo,


I came here.

I need help optimizing Diplomacy, Bluff and Forgery so that I can pass that information along. Forgery in particular I seem to recall there being a whole lot of obscure little mundane items that added circumstance bonuses that could be stacked to get the check really high.

Hoping for some help playground! :)

[Doctor Despair]

Forgery doesn't need to be that high because it's opposed by forgery. Who takes forgery?

A marshal dip for motivate charisma will do wonders

Nymph's Kiss gives +2 to all cha checks

A binder dip (or the Bind Vestige/Improved Bind Vestige feats) gets you the ability to make rushed diplomacy checks at no penalty

Three levels of Incantatrix could let you use Persistent Spell on Glibness at a relatively early level

There's lots of other stuff, but that's a good place to start

[Psyren]

Beguiler should do the trick. Skills focused, easy to play, and illusions let him do all the "trick my way out of combat" shenanigans he could possibly want.

[Telonius]

Changeling Rogue 1 (Races of Eberron) for Social Intuition: take 10 on Bluff and Diplomacy (and some other skills) even when threatened, plus some other assorted social bonuses. (Replaces Trapfinding)

Warlock1 for Beguiling Influence. +6 untyped to Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate.

Equipment: Circlet of persuasion (+3 to Cha-related skills), Cloak of Charisma (obviously).

EDIT: Found this (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=10573.0) "Diploficer" build, that managed a +284 to Diplomacy (though really, anything over +149 is unnecessary, since a roll of 150 turns a Hostile into a Fanatic)

[Metahuman1]

Forgery doesn't need to be that high because it's opposed by forgery. Who takes forgery?

A marshal dip for motivate charisma will do wonders

Nymph's Kiss gives +2 to all cha checks

A binder dip (or the Bind Vestige/Improved Bind Vestige feats) gets you the ability to make rushed diplomacy checks at no penalty

Three levels of Incantatrix could let you use Persistent Spell on Glibness at a relatively early level

There's lots of other stuff, but that's a good place to start

True, that is the strength of Forgery, but you still want to beat them by a hugh amount because you don't want the DM's circumstance penalty to offset the fact that the other guy doesn't have the skill. So, bonuses like a bunch of cheap mundane items that give stacking bonuses help a lot with that.

Which Vestige is the one for Bind Vestige/Improved Bind Vestige/the Binder Dip? I'll need to refer him to a specific one.


Psyren
Re: Forgery, Diplomacy, and Bluff.

Beguiler should do the trick. Skills focused, easy to play, and illusions let him do all the "trick my way out of combat" shenanigans he could possibly want.

I was actually going to recommend Bard since if all else fails, Inspire Courage means he's not useless. Though I can show him Beguiler and let him pick between the two easy enough.


Telonius
Re: Forgery, Diplomacy, and Bluff.

Changeling Rogue 1 (Races of Eberron) for Social Intuition: take 10 on Bluff and Diplomacy (and some other skills) even when threatened, plus some other assorted social bonuses. (Replaces Trapfinding)

Warlock1 for Beguiling Influence. +6 untyped to Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate.

Equipment: Circlet of persuasion (+3 to Cha-related skills), Cloak of Charisma (obviously).

EDIT: Found this "Diploficer" build, that managed a +284 to Diplomacy (though really, anything over +149 is unnecessary, since a roll of 150 turns a Hostile into a Fanatic)

The Diplomacy Artificer is, perhaps, a bit much. I'm not actually trying to get the prospective GM to throw books at the player.

The rest though looks helpful.






Tell me, does anyone perhaps have a skill hand book around for Bluff, Diplomacy and Forgery that we could examine for ideas? Mundane Items to help the Forgery side of things for instance?

I know there use to be quite a few of them floating about but lately googlefu is only turning up pages that browsers refuse to access cause they claim it's a DNS security risk. (seems to consistently be because there old not because there actually dangerous, but, I can't seem to force the browsers to over ride that.)

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Hmm, I had a competition build a while back that made heavy use of those skills. Of course, the competition also featured the Unholy Scion template, so the end result wasn't uber-strong (and I was focusing more on fluff than on raw power), but it might have some stuff worth looking at...

War Child (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=24198725&postcount=50)


Noteworthy Stuff (from the build and just off the top of my head):

Warlock or Dragonfire Adept -- Beguiling Influence (a least invocation that gives a fantastic +6 to Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate). A single level is enough to give you that, but going more heavily into them will definitely give you stuff to do in combat.

Mountebank (Dragon Compendium) -- this is not a strong class. It is a very cool one, though, and gives you a Sneak Attack analogue for people you've bluffed. Alter self at 4th level is also pretty nice. Note that the class's main feature, Beguiling Stare, is super fitting for the concept, but only scales with Mountebank levels, and Mountebank is pretty weak at higher levels. It also gives you all the skills you want, with a nice 6+Int per level, too.
In short, this could be a great pick for a low-level campaign, but if you're planning to go past level 10 or so I'd pick something else.

Incarnate (Magic of Incarnum) -- Incarnum is an incredibly cool subsystem, and Incarnate is its skill-monkey base class. Your bonuses won't come (just) from ranks; you'll be channeling the souls of people who've done this before to give yourself an edge. Incarnate gives you a lot of flexibility from day to day, since you can choose what "soulmelds" you're preparing each day to completely change your loadout depending on what you expect to be doing. Moment to moment, you choose how your points are spread between your soulmelds (for instance, switching them out of your social soulmelds and into your combat ones at the start of a fight). That said, the class also doesn't have any of the skills you want as class skills. You can get around that (the Able Learner feat + a dip into a class that does have the skills you want would do the trick), but if you don't want the hassle you can just take the feat Shape Soulmeld (Silvertongue Mask) for the best social soulmeld and maybe Bonus Essentia to turn its +2/+2 into +6/+6.
TL;DR, Incarnate is a great pick if you want a super-flexible utility character, but isn't enough on its own to specialize in social skills. The feat Shape Soulmeld is always worth looking at, though.

Changelings -- The perfect race for a disguise focused character, hands down. They also get access to the feat Able Learner, which makes cross-class skills cost the same as class-skills; a godsend for some builds. If you want some combat power, once you reach BAB +4 you qualify for the Warshaper prestige class, which'll let you grow your own natural weapons and makes you immune to critical hits at level 1, gives you bonuses to Str and Con at level 2, gives you reach at level 3, gives you fast healing at level 4, and lets you change shape as a move action at 5th level. And if you want to get fancy, the Racial Emulation feat lets you count as other races for prerequisites.

[Metahuman1]

Hmm, I had a competition build a while back that made heavy use of those skills. Of course, the competition also featured the Unholy Scion template, so the end result wasn't uber-strong (and I was focusing more on fluff than on raw power), but it might have some stuff worth looking at...

War Child (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=24198725&postcount=50)


Noteworthy Stuff (from the build and just off the top of my head):

Warlock or Dragonfire Adept -- Beguiling Influence (a least invocation that gives a fantastic +6 to Bluff/Diplomacy/Intimidate). A single level is enough to give you that, but going more heavily into them will definitely give you stuff to do in combat.

Mountebank (Dragon Compendium) -- this is not a strong class. It is a very cool one, though, and gives you a Sneak Attack analogue for people you've bluffed. Alter self at 4th level is also pretty nice. Note that the class's main feature, Beguiling Stare, is super fitting for the concept, but only scales with Mountebank levels, and Mountebank is pretty weak at higher levels. It also gives you all the skills you want, with a nice 6+Int per level, too.
In short, this could be a great pick for a low-level campaign, but if you're planning to go past level 10 or so I'd pick something else.

Incarnate (Magic of Incarnum) -- Incarnum is an incredibly cool subsystem, and Incarnate is its skill-monkey base class. Your bonuses won't come (just) from ranks; you'll be channeling the souls of people who've done this before to give yourself an edge. Incarnate gives you a lot of flexibility from day to day, since you can choose what "soulmelds" you're preparing each day to completely change your loadout depending on what you expect to be doing. Moment to moment, you choose how your points are spread between your soulmelds (for instance, switching them out of your social soulmelds and into your combat ones at the start of a fight). That said, the class also doesn't have any of the skills you want as class skills. You can get around that (the Able Learner feat + a dip into a class that does have the skills you want would do the trick), but if you don't want the hassle you can just take the feat Shape Soulmeld (Silvertongue Mask) for the best social soulmeld and maybe Bonus Essentia to turn its +2/+2 into +6/+6.
TL;DR, Incarnate is a great pick if you want a super-flexible utility character, but isn't enough on its own to specialize in social skills. The feat Shape Soulmeld is always worth looking at, though.

Changelings -- The perfect race for a disguise focused character, hands down. They also get access to the feat Able Learner, which makes cross-class skills cost the same as class-skills; a godsend for some builds. If you want some combat power, once you reach BAB +4 you qualify for the Warshaper prestige class, which'll let you grow your own natural weapons and makes you immune to critical hits at level 1, gives you bonuses to Str and Con at level 2, gives you reach at level 3, gives you fast healing at level 4, and lets you change shape as a move action at 5th level. And if you want to get fancy, the Racial Emulation feat lets you count as other races for prerequisites.

Some of those are useful. :)










Again though, does anyone have anything for buffing the Forgery Skill?

Or maybe the names of those Vestiges that were suggested earlier from Tome of Magic's Binder sub system?

[Doctor Despair]

Again though, does anyone have anything for buffing the Forgery Skill?

Or maybe the names of those Vestiges that were suggested earlier from Tome of Magic's Binder sub system?

Sorry, I was at work when I made the first post; today I'm working from home, so I can check my resources more efficiently.

The vestige is Naberius. It's a first level vestige, but the Bind Vestige feat doesn't give the Silver Tongue ability, so you need the follow-up feat Practiced Binding to expand its use.


Papyrus of Deception: +5 to forgery
Stylus of the Masterful Hand: +5 competency to forgery; other useful benefits
Masterwork Forgery Tool: +2 circumstance to forgery



5 ranks in each of the following grants a +2 bonus to diplomacy:

Sense Motive
Knowledge Nobility/Royalty
Bluff

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Aereni Focus is an elf-only, first-level-only feat that makes the chosen skill permanently a class skill and gives you a +3 to it. Skill Knowledge is similar and doesn't have any prerequisites: make two class skills permanently class skills or a single skill none of your classes have permanently a class skill. Forgery, diplomacy, and bluff are all valid skill choices.

A feat is a heavy price to pay for those benefits, but it can be worth it in the right build.

[Metahuman1]

Sorry, I was at work when I made the first post; today I'm working from home, so I can check my resources more efficiently.

The vestige is Naberius. It's a first level vestige, but the Bind Vestige feat doesn't give the Silver Tongue ability, so you need the follow-up feat Practiced Binding to expand its use.


Papyrus of Deception: +5 to forgery
Stylus of the Masterful Hand: +5 competency to forgery; other useful benefits
Masterwork Forgery Tool: +2 circumstance to forgery



5 ranks in each of the following grants a +2 bonus to diplomacy:

Sense Motive
Knowledge Nobility/Royalty
Bluff


Gotcha.

So, for the Papyrus of Deception and Stylus of the Masterful Hand, what books are those in?





PoeticallyPsyco
Re: Forgery, Diplomacy, and Bluff.

Aereni Focus is an elf-only, first-level-only feat that makes the chosen skill permanently a class skill and gives you a +3 to it. Skill Knowledge is similar and doesn't have any prerequisites: make two class skills permanently class skills or a single skill none of your classes have permanently a class skill. Forgery, diplomacy, and bluff are all valid skill choices.

A feat is a heavy price to pay for those benefits, but it can be worth it in the right build.

Right. But that's not, quite the effect I was looking for. I wasn't looking to get the skill treated as a class skill. I was looking for a way to get all trained only skills to be able to be made untrained. I know there was a feat that did that floating around somewhere. I don't recall what it was called off hand though.

[Doctor Despair]

. I wasn't looking to get the skill treated as a class skill. I was looking for a way to get all trained only skills to be able to be made untrained. I know there was a feat that did that floating around somewhere. I don't recall what it was called off hand though.

Bind Vestige for Naberius also does that. ACF Bardic Knack also does it.


Naberius, The Grinning Hound

A cunning and mysterious vestige, Naberius can make his summoners adept with all manner of arts and sciences, disguise them, and make them cogent speakers.

Legend: Though Naberius’s origin remains mysterious, binder scholars know that his name and form have changed many times over the centuries. Ancient pact magic texts refer to a spirit matching Naberius’s powers as Naberus, Kaberon, Cerbere, and Serberius. One of these spirits appeared as a noble, bird-headed man, another as a dog with a crane’s head, another as a wolf with fifty heads and a tail of three entwined snakes, and the fourth as a heap of bodies surrounded by a cloud of flies.

A few fiendish sages have suggested that Naberius might be an aspect of the three-headed, doglike creature that guards the gates to the Underworld on the third layer of Hades, but that creature is thought to be simpleminded and has never been known to speak. Naberius never admits to having had older forms or names, and questions about his origin get only a sly smile in reply.

Special Requirement: Naberius values knowledge, industry, and the willingness to deceive. He manifests only for a summoner with at least 4 ranks in Bluff or in any Knowledge or Profession skill.

Manifestation: Naberius’s manifestation begins with a great squawking and fl utter of feathers. Moments later, a black crane flies in an agitated fashion over the seal, then crashes down atop it, apparently dead. Naberius then stalks forward out of invisibility as a three-headed hound to feast upon the crane. He speaks hoarsely from whichever dog head isn’t eating at the moment. Despite his terrible appearance and raucous voice, Naberius somehow manages to seem amiable and eloquent.

Sign: Your voice deepens and acquires a gravelly, growling tone.

Influence: While you are influenced by Naberius, you love the sound of your own voice and are constantly pleased by your cleverness. Whenever you are presented with a pulpit, a stage, a talking stick, or any other place or object designed to give a speaker the fl oor, Naberius requires that you immediately seize the opportunity to speak. Any topic will do, but since Naberius resents others taking control of the discourse, he requires that you either shout them down or mock them. Your speech must last a number of rounds equal to your effective binder level to satisfy Naberius.

Granted Abilities: Naberius grants you the power to wear any face, swiftly regain lost ability points, use skills of which you have no knowledge, and talk your way through danger.

Disguise Self: You can alter the appearance of your form as a standard action. This effect works like the disguise self spell.

Faster Ability Healing: You heal 1 point in each damaged ability score every round, and 1 point in all drained ability scores every hour.

Naberius’s Skills: At the time you make your pact, you can choose a number of skills equal to your Constitution bonus (if any). Your choices must be skills that can’t be used untrained and in which you have no ranks. For the duration of the binding, you can make skill checks with your chosen skills even though you are untrained. If your Constitution modifier decreases after you make the pact, you lose the ability to make untrained checks with an equal number of the chosen skills. Lost skills are chosen randomly, and they remain inaccessible to you until you make another pact with Naberius.

Persuasive Words: You can direct a verbal command at a single living target within 30 feet as if using the command spell. A successful Will save negates the effect. When your effective binder level reaches 14th, your words become even more persuasive and this ability functions like the suggestion spell. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Silver Tongue: You can take 10 on Diplomacy and Bluff checks even if distracted or threatened. In addition, you can make a rushed Diplomacy check as a standard action and take no penalty. (Normally, a rushed Diplomacy check requires a full-round action and imposes a –10 penalty on the check.)

Papyrus and Stylus are both from Complete Adventurer iirc

[Metahuman1]

Bind Vestige for Naberius also does that. ACF Bardic Knack also does it.


Naberius, The Grinning Hound

A cunning and mysterious vestige, Naberius can make his summoners adept with all manner of arts and sciences, disguise them, and make them cogent speakers.

Legend: Though Naberius’s origin remains mysterious, binder scholars know that his name and form have changed many times over the centuries. Ancient pact magic texts refer to a spirit matching Naberius’s powers as Naberus, Kaberon, Cerbere, and Serberius. One of these spirits appeared as a noble, bird-headed man, another as a dog with a crane’s head, another as a wolf with fifty heads and a tail of three entwined snakes, and the fourth as a heap of bodies surrounded by a cloud of flies.

A few fiendish sages have suggested that Naberius might be an aspect of the three-headed, doglike creature that guards the gates to the Underworld on the third layer of Hades, but that creature is thought to be simpleminded and has never been known to speak. Naberius never admits to having had older forms or names, and questions about his origin get only a sly smile in reply.

Special Requirement: Naberius values knowledge, industry, and the willingness to deceive. He manifests only for a summoner with at least 4 ranks in Bluff or in any Knowledge or Profession skill.

Manifestation: Naberius’s manifestation begins with a great squawking and fl utter of feathers. Moments later, a black crane flies in an agitated fashion over the seal, then crashes down atop it, apparently dead. Naberius then stalks forward out of invisibility as a three-headed hound to feast upon the crane. He speaks hoarsely from whichever dog head isn’t eating at the moment. Despite his terrible appearance and raucous voice, Naberius somehow manages to seem amiable and eloquent.

Sign: Your voice deepens and acquires a gravelly, growling tone.

Influence: While you are influenced by Naberius, you love the sound of your own voice and are constantly pleased by your cleverness. Whenever you are presented with a pulpit, a stage, a talking stick, or any other place or object designed to give a speaker the fl oor, Naberius requires that you immediately seize the opportunity to speak. Any topic will do, but since Naberius resents others taking control of the discourse, he requires that you either shout them down or mock them. Your speech must last a number of rounds equal to your effective binder level to satisfy Naberius.

Granted Abilities: Naberius grants you the power to wear any face, swiftly regain lost ability points, use skills of which you have no knowledge, and talk your way through danger.

Disguise Self: You can alter the appearance of your form as a standard action. This effect works like the disguise self spell.

Faster Ability Healing: You heal 1 point in each damaged ability score every round, and 1 point in all drained ability scores every hour.

Naberius’s Skills: At the time you make your pact, you can choose a number of skills equal to your Constitution bonus (if any). Your choices must be skills that can’t be used untrained and in which you have no ranks. For the duration of the binding, you can make skill checks with your chosen skills even though you are untrained. If your Constitution modifier decreases after you make the pact, you lose the ability to make untrained checks with an equal number of the chosen skills. Lost skills are chosen randomly, and they remain inaccessible to you until you make another pact with Naberius.

Persuasive Words: You can direct a verbal command at a single living target within 30 feet as if using the command spell. A successful Will save negates the effect. When your effective binder level reaches 14th, your words become even more persuasive and this ability functions like the suggestion spell. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 5 rounds.

Silver Tongue: You can take 10 on Diplomacy and Bluff checks even if distracted or threatened. In addition, you can make a rushed Diplomacy check as a standard action and take no penalty. (Normally, a rushed Diplomacy check requires a full-round action and imposes a –10 penalty on the check.)

Papyrus and Stylus are both from Complete Adventurer iirc

Does Bardic Knack do that? I know it get's you a bonus but I didn't think it let you make technically untrained checks on trained only skills.

I mean that's great if it does it frees up a feat for other things, but I want to be sure.

Also, thanks for pointing me at Bind Vestige and the two Items. Those should prove helpful regardless. :)

[Doctor Despair]

Does Bardic Knack do that? I know it get's you a bonus but I didn't think it let you make technically untrained checks on trained only skills.

I mean that's great if it does it frees up a feat for other things, but I want to be sure.

Also, thanks for pointing me at Bind Vestige and the two Items. Those should prove helpful regardless. :)

No problem.

And you're right, Knack doesn't do that -- Jack of all Trades does. I was misremembering because they're often discussed together .

Edit: Elf Dilitente also works if you are an elf

[Troacctid]

Papyrus of Deception: +5 to forgery
Stylus of the Masterful Hand: +5 competency to forgery; other useful benefits
Masterwork Forgery Tool: +2 circumstance to forgery

Adding to this list:
Forgery kit (CAd; this is the standard masterwork tool for forgery)
Pen of the scribe (ECS)
Wondrous writing set (OA, updated in D318)
Gloves of manual prowess (MIC)
Quill of rapid scrivening (DMG2)
Rod of mimicry (AEG)

You might also be interested in the Spawn of the Dark Prince feat from D359.

[Doctor Despair]

Papyrus of Deception: +5 to forgery
Stylus of the Masterful Hand: +5 competency to forgery; other useful benefits
Masterwork Forgery Tool: +2 circumstance to forgery






Adding to this list:
Pen of the scribe (ECS)
Wondrous writing set (OA, updated in D318)
Gloves of manual prowess (MIC)
Quill of rapid scrivening (DMG2)
Rod of mimicry (AEG)

You might also be interested in the Spawn of the Dark Prince feat from D359.

Just picturing the poor character trying to use all of these. A quill in one gloved hand, a stylus in the other, a pen gripped in the teeth, the rod held in the crook of a bent knee, flipping through a masterwork how-to booklet with the toes of a bare foot on the bent leg, writing set spread out on the desk in front of them...

[Troacctid]

Just picturing the poor character trying to use all of these. A quill in one gloved hand, a stylus in the other, a pen gripped in the teeth, the rod held in the crook of a bent knee, flipping through a masterwork how-to booklet with the toes of a bare foot on the bent leg, writing set spread out on the desk in front of them...
Luckily, most of them don't stack!

[Doctor Despair]

Luckily, most of them don't stack!

Oh, fair enough; I'd imagine there's a decent amount of competency and enhancement in there.

[Metahuman1]

No problem.

And you're right, Knack doesn't do that -- Jack of all Trades does. I was misremembering because they're often discussed together .

Edit: Elf Dilitente also works if you are an elf

That's the one! What book is that in. Races of Destiny? Or, was it Complete Scoundrel? I swear it was one of the two.




Troacctid
Re: Forgery, Diplomacy, and Bluff.

Quote Originally Posted by Doctor Despair View Post
Papyrus of Deception: +5 to forgery
Stylus of the Masterful Hand: +5 competency to forgery; other useful benefits
Masterwork Forgery Tool: +2 circumstance to forgery
Adding to this list:
Forgery kit (CAd; this is the standard masterwork tool for forgery)
Pen of the scribe (ECS)
Wondrous writing set (OA, updated in D318)
Gloves of manual prowess (MIC)
Quill of rapid scrivening (DMG2)
Rod of mimicry (AEG)

You might also be interested in the Spawn of the Dark Prince feat from D359.

Now that's what I'm talking about! :)

So, what does this feat do by chance?





@both:

I get that they don't stack but it's almost a shame cause it's a sufficiently goofy image that it would be right at home for what the player in question wants! :)

[Troacctid]

Now that's what I'm talking about! :)

So, what does this feat do by chance?
It grants a +10 untyped bonus to Bluff checks for lying (but not feinting, innuendo, or other uses of Bluff), at the cost of -2 to Spot checks.

Hidden Talent (conceal thoughts (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/concealThoughts.htm)) is similar, although it's just for an hour at a time rather than at will.

[Metahuman1]

It grants a +10 untyped bonus to Bluff checks for lying (but not feinting, innuendo, or other uses of Bluff), at the cost of -2 to Spot checks.

Hidden Talent (conceal thoughts (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/concealThoughts.htm)) is similar, although it's just for an hour at a time rather than at will.

Nice.

Thanks for the help! :)

[Fouredged Sword]

What level are you starting at?

Because it a lot of options are just not going to work at low level.

Though if you are starting at mid levels I am going to suggest Changeling Rogue 5/ Chameleon X

Wonderful class combo that's a lot of fun, and it will let him play around with basically all the core game systems.

Disguise naturally ends up very high, and the fact that he's playing a changeling means he doesn't need to worry about disguise kits or taking time to make a disguise. He can just poof himself into whatever he wants to be in a given moment so long as it's medium and humanoid. Get him glamoured armor and he can make it look like any normal clothes he likes to match his disguise.

He gets access to both divine and arcane casting from any list. This is great because he can access all the really powerful divine skill boosting spells like divine inspiration and guidance of the avatar. Put a few ranks in forgery and then give yourself +20 with a single spell.