Iron Chef Optimization Challenge In the Playground XLII

[Piggy Knowles]

Hmm, you're right, Darkstalker is a must-have feat for sneaky types. I'll have to find a copy of LoM for next ICOC.

Yeah, it's pretty clutch. To give you an idea of how necessary it is, in the SRD alone, just looking at monsters with a CR of 5 and below, you've got...

27 creatures with blindsense
9 creatures with blindsight
83 creatures with scent
14 creatures with tremorsense

...and that's with NO doubling up - if a creature, for example, has both blindsense and scent, I only list the "better" one (generally the one with a bigger range). Again, that's just the SRD, and just CRs 5 and below, and you've got 133 creatures that will more or less automatically detect you if you don't have Darkstalker. You can have epic hide and move silently checks, but if your enemy happens to have, say, a CR 1/8 rat or a CR 1/3 guard dog with them, they'll notice you as soon as you get within 30'.