Bizarre Character Request, Tank and Infiltrator

[Human Paragon 3]

I have a friend who is playing a half dragon crusader. The back story is that the character looks Yuan-Ti (he's a half yuan ti who is using half dragon stats), so he has been placed by lawful good agents into the Yuan-Ti organization to infiltrate them.

Being a half dragon crusader, he will have good AC and tank-ability without even trying, which the player wants.

However, he also wants to be a good infiltrator, due to his backstory, with good scores in Bluff and Disguise and/or related abilities.

Looking for Skill/Feat/Skill Trick/Gear advise.

ECL 5. Dungeons and Dragons 3.5.

Basically any source is allowable.

[Greenish]

Dragonborn. Sorry, but if you don't just handwave the LA away, half-dragon won't have enough hitpoints to stand in frontlines as a tank, and his skill ranks will suck.

As for classes, Bard/Crusader (with Songs of White Raven) gives social and martial skills.

[Jallorn]

Factotum: for all your skill monkey needs.

[Human Paragon 3]

How about Marshal 1/Crusader X with motivate charisma? Would that be sound?

[gbprime]

Aiming for Nightsong Enforcer (CA) or Guerilla Scout (Heroes of Battle) would get the job done, classwise.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Get a dip into cloistered cleric trickery domain to get some skills that fit the theme and then prg class into Ruby Knight Vindicator. the fluff even supports this concept

[FishAreWet]

Ruby Knight Vindicator fits perfectly. Enter with Crusader and either Cleric or Ur Priest.

[Another_Poet]

I have no helpful suggestions (other than to second Marshal/Crusader), I just wanted to say what a cool character concept that is!!

[Human Paragon 3]

Haven't been too impressed with the suggestions so far. Was hoping for some feats that turn a tank into an infiltrator, or some gear that might mitigate the challenges. I'll look into ruby knight, though.

[Zemro]

Well the the biggest bit of friction between the two concepts is his ACP, so he might want to look into mithral, or the nimbleness enchantment from MIC.

Aditionally the Guerrilla Warrior feat from Heroes of Battle allows you to purchase hide and move silently ranks at 1 skill point each, even if cross-class. It also reduces the ACP of light and medium armour by one (Mithral full plate may qualify here, which in addition the the nimbleness enchantment would completely remove the ACP, if I'm thinking correctly).

[Hawk7915]

If you want stealth tank...maybe Dread Commando? It ends up eating a ton of feats (at least two and a 13 dex required, and potentially 3 if you take Guerilla Warrior for less pain in purchasing stealth skills), but it will boost the whole team's initiative, almost completely remove the ACP for Plate Armor, no mithral required, and give you tons of skill points and some Sudden Strike dice.

Failing that, I think a level or two in Bard is a great plan; there are some feats for Crusader (White Raven)/Bard synergy and you get some spellcasting and lots of social skill points. Rogue works too, and makes it easier to get into Dread Commando if that's what you wanted.

[Another_Poet]

Ironically, what about the Knight class? Tank by definition, with a tank use for high charisma, great HD, etc.

[Krazddndfreek]

If said player has access to the Able Learner feat, any full BaB class can put him into the Dread Commando class as early as possible. Or else he could be a ranger. Or he could go in even later. No matter what though, he won't have very good tanking ability because of the shortage of three HD. He may however succeed on an ubercharger build though if he can use Able Learner.

Not really much you can do with ECL 5 when your template takes up 3 of your HDs. Dread Commando should definitely be a future choice still, as it allows you to sneak around in full plate.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A Half-Dragon character at ECL 5 only has two class levels, so regardless of what class(es) he takes he's not going to be much of a tank. You should consider using the Half-Dragon Template Class, which you can delay taking the next level of for as long as you want to. Start out Half-Dragon 1/ Crusader 4, and spend two more levels on Half-Dragon later when it won't be such a huge drawback.

If you're allowed to buy off a level adjustment, Half-Dragon could be bought off in the following way: one point at your 9th character level (ECL 12), one point at your 15th character level (ECL 17), and one point at your 18th character level (ECL 19). With the Half-Dragon Template Class I linked above, you could gain one level of the template and then three levels in any class(es), buy off that level of the template, gain a second level of the template, gain three more levels in any class(es), buy it off, then do the same for the third. You would end up at 9th level and the Half-Dragon template with no level adjustment, rather than at 18th level.

Yet another idea would be to get the DM to homebrew a Yuan-Ti Bloodline for him to use in place of Half-Dragon. He wouldn't get all of its benefits immediately but he wouldn't have to pay for it immediately, either.

I'll agree that using Human or any other creature type Humanoid (Human) with the Able Learner feat is probably going to be his best option. Take one level in any class that grants the right class skills, and they may as well be class skills forever since they'll never cost cross-class ranks even when it would be cross-class for his current level.