How Do You Build a Socially Adept Egoist?

[Maat Mons]

I think that Egoist ACF that gives Changeling’s Minor Change Shape ability to a character of any race is neat. I especially like the idea of putting it on a Warforged to create a transforming spybot, assassinbot, or pleasurebot. But there are skills you’d want for those rolls that Egoist doesn’t innately give. Many of the feats that would normally be used to fix this are 1st-level only. That causes them to conflict with each other, since Warforged don’t gain a bonus feat at 1st level. And on top of that, they conflict with some good Warforged feats that are also 1st-level only. How would I resolve this issue? I considered prestige classes, but the results were not as good as I’d hoped, once I ruled out things that lost more than one manifester level.

Anarchic Initiate
4+Int skill points
Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive as class skills
Can gain Disguise, Gather Information, and Knowledge (local) from feats (City Slicker)

Ectopic Adept
Bluff, Disguise, and Knowledge (local) as class skills
Can gain Diplomacy, Disguise, and Gather Information from feats (City Slicker and Martial Study)

Quori Mindhunter
2+Int skill points
Bluff, Intimidate, and Sense Motive as class skills
Can gain Diplomacy, Gather Information, and Sense Motive from feats (City Slicker and Martial Study)

(Illithid) Slayer
4+Int skill points
Bluff and Sense Motive as class skills
Can gain Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, and Knowledge (local) from feats (City Slicker and Martial Study)

Subverted Psion
2+Int skill points
Bluff, Intimidate, Knowledge (local), and Sense Motive as class skills
Can gain Diplomacy, Disguise, and Gather Information from feats (City Slicker and Martial Study)
Uses taint mechanics

It’s almost enough to make me want to give up and use Egoist as just a 1-level dip, with some other casting or manifesting class doing the heavy lifting.

Also, if you were a shapeshifting robot, would you want Adamantine Body, so you have a good suite of armor that’s concealed by Minor Change Shape? Or would you want Unarmored Body, so you can put on armor as part of your disguise?

[ShurikVch]

How about the Percipient (https://web.archive.org/web/20161031215635/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20031024a)?
It's a full-progressing Psion manifesting, with Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge (any), and Sense Motive (only Disguise and Gather Information are missing - and you can get them with City Slicker)
The only problem about the PrC, probably, is the feat prerequisites: Alertness, Dodge, and Psychoanalyst - while the last one could help you to be even better in social situations (presuming 3.0 content is allowed), previous two are widely considered a "useless feat tax"

[H_H_F_F]

How about the Percipient (https://web.archive.org/web/20161031215635/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20031024a)?
It's a full-progressing Psion manifesting, with Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge (any), and Sense Motive (only Disguise and Gather Information are missing - and you can get them with City Slicker)
The only problem about the PrC, probably, is the feat prerequisites: Alertness, Dodge, and Psychoanalyst - while the last one could help you to be even better in social situations (presuming 3.0 content is allowed), previous two are widely considered a "useless feat tax"

A psicrystal grants awareness.

[Anthrowhale]

You can transfer 4 skill points/level into cross class skills without paying the cross-class rates using the PHBII retraining rules. This allows you to keep 4 cross class skills at near-max ranks as you level up as long as you dip in a class which provides the in-class max. Between this technique and (say) anarchic initiate, it looks like you can keep social skills at high levels?

[TalonOfAnathrax]

This thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?491181-Alternative-ways-to-get-new-Class-skills&p=20885236#post20885236) is a good resource. I like the Flexible Mind feat.

[Maat Mons]

I had already looked at that list, but I always forget that the “Any” category exists. Flexible Mind is good. It provides an option for gaining Bluff and Disguise that doesn’t consume my precious 1st-level feat.

Okay, so then I could do:
Egoist: Knowledge (local)
Anarchic Initiate: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Sense Motive
Flexible Mind: Disguise, Gather Information

But which of the 1st-level-only Warforged feats would be best? Unarmored Body would help me better impersonate meatbags by allowing me to wearing armor when appropriate. Psiforged Body would give me a few extra power points. Adamantine Body, Ironwood Body, or Mithral Body slightly boost AC and, in some case, give minor damage reduction. I’m leaning towards Unarmored Body, but I’d like to hear what other people think.

[Anthrowhale]

Unarmored Body certainly seems more appropriate to the overall character concept.

[ShurikVch]

Is there any rule which says you can't take both Psiforged and Unarmored Body at the same time?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If you're considering Unarmored Body, how about going dragonborn warforged? You gain additional bonuses and only lose your body armor plating and your (fairly ineffectual) slam attack, and you don't have to spend a feat on it.