[3.5] Whisperknife?

[Quirinus_Obsidian]

Came across this prestige class when I was looking for some ranged combat specialists. Races of the Wild supplement.

The only downside I can see are these
Halfling only (not a big deal to me, halflings reign)
Heavy feat requirement (point blank shot, precise shot, two weapon fighting, and weapon finesse)

Has a full bab, free feats, improvement with the "returning" ability, sneak attack progression, fast movement, poison use, uncanny dodge improvements, etc.

It just looks pure badarse, and could be a natural extension of the Master Thrower PrC.

[Starbuck_II]

No provoke when throw is useful.
It makes a non-evil Halfing Assasin type class. I mean, the Venegence strike alone works if you know their name (which fits Assasin getting contract to kill a foe)

Now if you combine Truenamer with it: then you can truename them and that is there name after all. Granted that gets kinda MAD.

[tarbrush]

The best use I've seen of it is in a build called "I may be tiny but you're dead", which focused on using that, gnomish quickrazors, and the huge array of feats that let you abuse people two or more sizes bigger than yourself. It was both effectve and hilarious, although you needed items or buddies to cast shrink person on yourself.

[thubby]

The best use I've seen of it is in a build called "I may be tiny but you're dead", which focused on using that, gnomish quickrazors, and the huge array of feats that let you abuse people two or more sizes bigger than yourself. It was both effectve and hilarious, although you needed items or buddies to cast shrink person on yourself.

I don't know the build but if you can work it off of a psionic warrior base you could take compression.

[Keld Denar]

Here is the build, straight from the ninja of logic himself.

Here is the bulk of it. After BB10, the build splits, but after 16, it doesn't really matter that much anyway.

Spoiler

Show

I was flipping through Races of the Wild and Races of Stone today, looking something up, when I thought: my, but there are a lot of anti-giant feats in here. And they're really effective
And then I thought: you know, they're based on size category differences, not on the other creature's actual size.
And, really, how hard it is to buy potions of Reduce Person, or get the party mage to memorize/cast a couple for you? And at higher levels, maybe get an item of reduce person x/day?

Here's the basic idea: you're a gnome. You're Small. You reduce yourself to Tiny. That means that Medium creatures are two size categories bigger than you.
You use the Races of the Wild tactical feats and Blade Bravo class features to utterly tear humans, elves, orcs, and the like apart--not to mention what you can do to creatures who are *already* Large or larger.

The ideal race is, of course, the whisper gnome. If you can't get it, a regular gnome will have to do--but these are the Character Optimization boards, and whisper gnomes are cool, because unlike most gnomes, I don't want to kill every last one of them and hang their corpses from meat hooks. They're *serious* gnomes. They're stylin'.

32-point-buy:
STR: 8 -> 12, -2 racial: 14
DEX: 8 -> 16, +2 racial: 18
CON: 8 -> 12, +2 racial: 14
INT: 8 -> 16
WIS: 8 -> 10
CHA: 8 -> 10, -2 racial: 8
As a whisper gnome, you have a 30-foot land speed. How do these things *not* have no CHA penalty and LA +1? +4 dodge bonus to AC vs. giants.

1) Swashbuckler 1. Weapon Finesse! Feat, take Dodge--it'll come in handy later.

2)Monk 1. Carmendine Monk, Combat Expertise (Passive Way variant monk)

3) Monk 2. Improved Trip (Passive Way variant monk), Evasion. Feat: Carmendine Monk. You're all about the INT & DEX.

4) Monk 3. Speed boost (for when you're shrunken), Still Mind.

5) Swashbuckler 2. Wait for it...

6) Swashbuckler 3. Insightful Strike! Yay! Now we don't need to take Swashbuckler anymore. Oh, and a feat--snag Weapon Focus(rapier), you need it for...

7) ...Blade Bravo 1! You get Flourish and Goad. Flourish lets you add your class level to Bluff to feint--meh, you're no Invisible Blade. Goad lets you, as a move action, force a creature to make a Will save (DC 10 + 12 your character levels + CHA); if it fails, when it starts its next turn, you are the only creature it can make melee attacks against. A lot of things only have melee attacks. Additionally, Bravo gives you +2 to the DC for 5 ranks of Bluff.

8) Blade Bravo 2, "Mobile Fighting" means that moving 5 feet or more (5' step, anyone?) gets you a +1 dodge bonus.

9) Blade Bravo 3 gives you a bonus feat from an excellent list. Take Mobility, in hopes of snagging Elusive Target eventually--when you run out of anti-Big-Things feats. Speaking of which: for your feat this level, take Titan Fighting, Races of Stone. Titan fighting means that you get your dodge bonus vs. giants (+4!) against your Dodge target, as long as they're at least *one* size category larger! You don't even need to shrink to use this.

10) Blade Bravo 4 - Melee Sneak Attack +1d6. Why not?

11) Blade Bravo 5: this level is a tasty, tasty biscuit: Size Advantage gives you +2 dodge AC per size category vs. any larger foe that attacks you. You're fighting a human. You're under the effects of Reduce person, so you're two size categories smaller. You get +4 Dodge AC with them--AND you get another +4 if you smack them with your Dodge bonus, due to Titan Fighting. Take a 5' step that round, and you're getting +9. (+5 of that vs. any medium foe who attacks you). Vs. a Large creature like an ogre, that'd be +11 Dodge AC.

12) Blade Bravo 6. Another bonus feat, and a regular feat. Bonus feat: Improved Critical OR Improved Disarm OR Two-Weapon Fighting. Let's go with Two-Weapon Fighting. For your regular feat, Elusive Target is tempting, but instead, take Underfoot Combat (races of the wild)--you can now move into or through the square of a critter two or more sizes larger than you (humans, if you're shrunk!). If you move into the thing's square (with a 5' step, say... and then use Goad as a move action to make sure it attacks you next round), you get a +4 unnamed bonus to AC from "soft cover", vs. ALL attacks. Remember that +9? It's now +13 AC vs. whoever's square you're in, and +9 vs. everyone else

13) Blade Bravo 7--you're Small but Deadly (good of them to finally recognize it, eh?) and therefore get +4 to confirm criticals on anyone larger than you. Hmm, maybe we should have taken Improved Critical instead of TWF last level!

14) Blade Bravo 8. Melee Sneak Attack, that's +2d6 now. Not a big deal yet, but it will come in handy later.

15) Blade Bravo 9. Bonus feat! Improved TWF (alternatively, they could have been Improved Critical and Improved Disarm, or Imp Crit and Combat Reflexes). Regular feat! Confound the Big Folk tactical feat. Three uses, as all tactical feats:
-Knee Striker--move into the square of a foe 2+ sizes larger. Next round, they're considered flatfooted (remember that sneak attack? Maybe a "Deadly Precision weapon would be a good investment), *and* you get *another* +4 to confirm criticals (maybe a "Keen" enhancement would be a better one).
-Underfoot Defense:same requirement, move into their square. Every round after that, as long as you remain in their square and fight defensively... or activate Combat Expertise for -1 (that's it!)... other creatures attacking you have a 50% chance to strike the creature whose square you're in. Of course, your huge AC bonuses make this kind of moot--but still.
-Unsteady Footing: again, move into their square. You're gonna be doing this a lot. Next round, you can use a standard action to make a special, special trip attack: make a touch attack. You succeed! Make a strength or dex check (your choice--GEE, guess which!) to trip them. Improved Trip helps with this, as it's a trip attack, it's just a better kind of trip attack. They make an opposed check (STR or DEX)... but don't get to add their size modifier. Nifty! You've got Improved Trip, so you get to stab them for free when they go down. With sneak attack--they're flatfooted thanks to the Knee Striker part of this feat!

16) Blade Bravo 10. Boy, we just keep getting better, don't we. This nets you "Lethal Riposte"--once/round, when someone attacks you and misses you, you get to stab them. Oh, and they count as flatfooted, so you get to stab them in their oversized (from your perspective) kidney, spleen, mother-in-law, whichever.

[Berserk Monk]

Came across this prestige class when I was looking for some ranged combat specialists. Races of the Wild supplement.

The only downside I can see are these
Halfling only (not a big deal to me, halflings reign)
Heavy feat requirement (point blank shot, precise shot, two weapon fighting, and weapon finesse)

Has a full bab, free feats, improvement with the "returning" ability, sneak attack progression, fast movement, poison use, uncanny dodge improvements, etc.

It just looks pure badarse, and could be a natural extension of the Master Thrower PrC.

I need to check this out.

[Raiki]

Reading over LogicNinja's build, I'm getting a really cool idea for a character in a new campaign we're starting. The only problem I'm running into is that I can't seem to find Carmendine Monk anywhere. Anyone know where it's from?

~Raiki

[Dusk Eclipse]

Either Champion of Valor or some Dragon Magazine

[Raiki]

Ah! Brilliant!

I tend to forget that the champions of x books, and really faerun books in general, exist. Thanks for the assist.

~Raiki

[Person_Man]

I'm personally not a fan of the class. It requires 4 sucky/situational feats plus Sneak Attack and a bunch of minor Skills as pre-reqs. Over 10 levels you get:

Full BAB
6 Skill points per level
Good Skill list (Intimidate, Spot, Sleight of Hand, Tumble)
d8 hit die
3d6 Sneak Attack
Rapid Shot
Uncanny Dodge/Improved Uncanny Dodge
Don't provoke AoO on thrown weapons
A Returning ability weaker then the Bloodstorm Blade's ability.
Minor situational Dodge bonus.
Fast Movement
Poison Use
Limited (you must know the enemy's name) Stun attack 3/day.
Flank as if you were wielding a reach weapon.

If you entered with Rogue 5 or something similar, you have 6d6ish Sneak attack (plus Craven, presumably) at level 15, and a bunch of minor abilities. Not much. Compared to Master Thrower, Bloodstorm Blade, and Hulking Hurler, it's pretty much a joke character or NPC class.

[dsmiles]

For Halflings, Whisperknives rule. If you can combine it with Invisible Blade, and a few levels of rogue and a few of fighter, let the stabbity death commence!