help with a dopplegagner character

[kemmotar]

okay, for some time i've been wanting to play a mindspy dopplegagner. Now i've gotten this opportunity but i need some more help to make him into a decent character. The aim is to be pretty much a spy, party face and decent in combat. ECL for the campaign i'm joining is 16

What i have so far is dopplegagner 4(monstrous humanoid levels from MM)/rogue1/mindspy5/invisible blade5/fighter1.

I'm aiming for 20 intelligence, at least 20 cha and as high dex as i can get. That way i get +5 to AC and attack roll(when my detect thoughts succeeds) and +5 to AC from invisible blade's unfettered defence. Feats i'm thinking of are:
ability focus:detect thoughts
weapon finesse
improved initiative
weapon focus: dagger or punching dagger
point blank shot(for inv. blade)
far shot(for inv. blade)
able learner or impr. feint
quick draw
flick of the wrist

his main tactic is to use feint as a free action(again from inv blade) to get sneak attack in and a good bluff check to get SA in every time(+4d6).

One good point of this build is that it has 15/16 BAB and can also be used to intimidate enemies with detect thoughts and psychological tactics...how would you feel about an enemy that is finishing your sentences?

Now...i figured out that this character can also be an excelent thief. Change shape, go into a shop. Ask the shop keeper, when he loses his save for your detect thoughts, about the shop's security...for maximum effect pretend to be a guard :smalltongue:

Concerning items, these are the ones i've thought about until now:
the phoenix set from MIC(+2 cha boosted to +4 cha)
veil of allure
belt of battle
wand bracelet
shirt of the leech
boots of temporal acceleration
chronocharm of the horizon walker
ring of arming
mask of lies(boosted with +4cha)

Now the mask of lies would be interchangeable with the phoenix set to cover different needs. This is made easy with the ring of arming. I just place one set in the ring and keep the other one out. Whenever i need the other it's a free action to change them. I was also thinking, a decent dagger would help for damage, definately +5 with some enchantments...

Any ideas? Builds, feats, tactics, items...anything:smallbiggrin:
thx for your contributions.

[Admiral Squish]

You could play a changeling, and take five levels of cabinet trickster. It takes one feat to get in, but you can get in from level one. Same effect, more interesting culture fluff, two bonus feats, and 'thought tricks' (daze) (disrupt) (confuse) and (stun). It really is all-in-all more useful than straight doppelgangery.

[Bag_of_Holding]

In addition to 4HD, a doppelganger also has LA of +4. Therefore, a doppelganger PC without any class levels is equivalent to a 8th-level character.

[Serenity]

It looks like he's using the Savage Species variant of taking 'levels' in a monster class to get around that.

[Bag_of_Holding]

Even if you did use Savage Species, you can't multiclass out of the monster class.

[Talic]

I'm leery of doppleganger PC's. The only reason Dopplegangers don't rule the world is that they have very low ambition... PC's tend to have a hard time RP'ing that.

[kemmotar]

Actually the fluff is that i am sent from a small community of dopplegagners to live among humans and learn everything i can about the outside world's culture, adopt a stable persona with ambitions and characteristics. Make gifts and try to befriend them in order to gain a deeper understanding to use for the community's advantage. I don't know about changelings since it's eberron and we're playing FR...i guess i'll ask him:smallbiggrin: