Good feats to take?

[Gmmaster42]

I don't really know if this is the right forum for this, but here goes. I'm making an albino drow (from Drow of the Underdark) for the campaign I'm playing in. Eventually I'm going to be a ranger multiclassing into ninja. My main question is does anyone have any feat suggestions for me? The character will be female, from Menzoberranzan, probably from an unimportant minor House. She is like most drow in that she thinks that everyone is beneath her racewise and is cruel, but she is attempting to make people believe she is an elf, and she is very good at doing her job. Her task is to scout out good areas for raids and to learn about the surface in general. Her weapons are a whip, hand crossbow, and possibly two rapiers. She will carry a few daggers on her person as well. Thanks for the help.

[Kaelaroth]

Open Mind; which is in Complete Adventurer.
Ambidexterity
Negotiator
Lightning Reflexes
Weapon Finesse

[DraPrime]

There's 2 feats that are almost always useful when you're not sure what to take. Quick Draw and Improved Initiative. And as Kaelaroth said, take Weapon Finesse.

[Kaelik]

Open Mind-Useless nine times out of ten.
Ambidexterity-Does not exist.
Negotiator-Largely useless unless you are really trying to pump skills for certain things, then still probably not as good as Skill Focus.
Lightning Reflexes- Probably don't need it with a High Dex and Reflex progression in two classes. Don't Waste a feat.
Weapon Finesse- Definitely if you go rapiers, probably useful with just the whip.
Quick Draw- If you see yourself changing out weapons mid combat then grab this.
Improved Initiative- Useful if you have nothing else.

What you need are TWF feats if you go with the rapiers. If you don't then I'd say Combat Reflexes with that Whip.

[Tach13]

Two Weapon Fighting I'm guessing will come from taking that path with the ranger, but unless I'm mistaken, you can't treat a rapier in your off hand as a light weapon, so it will give you a bigger to hit penalty for no added damage over a short sword (or something similar). Remember that when choosing weapons.

Open Minded is good if you have a lot of skills you want filled to max faster than you could do it without, but it limits your combat ability somewhat. That's a choice you'll need to make, combat heavy or skill heavy.

Weapon Finese is excellent if you have a much better Dexterity than Strength. Considering the choice of rapier, I'm guessing you do. If not, weapon focus may be more useful.

Negotiator is a possible choice, if you want good bluff and diplomacy, but other groupings may fit the character better. Athletic, stealty, alertness, each has a good combo of bonuses that if you want both are better than skill focus (+4 split between two skills instead of +3 to one), but again, these are for being a skill monkey and won't help much in combat (usually).

Dodge and Combat Expertise are gateway feats. Decent feats that open up very useful trees, although I'm not sold on their immediate usefulness.

[CASTLEMIKE]

If you can get it the Spell Fire Wielder feat from Magic of Faerun. IMO one of the best feats in the game. Good at all levels particularly lower levels and definitely worth taking a flaw for.

Magic in the Blood increases all single daily spell like abilities to 3/day each.

Godsight from Lost Empires of Faerun.

Psionics Hidden Talent if you get bonus PP for leveling up to power Astral Construct or Charm Psionic.

Complete Mage has some interesting heritage feats like Fey or Fiendish Presence or Legacy which are nice if bumped up with Magic in the Blood particularly for a noncaster.

Leadership can be good depending on the game.

As a Drow Noble Wisdom Breeds Caution from Underdark could be useful.

Lolth's Meat more for fluff than mechanics.

Highborn Drow allows your PC to use Detect Good, Detect Magic and Levitate once a day as spell like abilities.

[earlblue]

Personally, I would suggest Jack of all trade. Basically, it allows you to use almost all skills modified by stats.

It is not the most powerful, but it is the most useful of all the feats.

With almost every other player overflowing with power, a feat that makes you useful will let your characer stand out.

O'BeQuiet UWannaBe.

[Saucy_Ninja]

This is kind of off the topic question, but...

...albino drow?!

[Machete]

Weapon Finesse- If your character's Dex is 4 or more higher than your STR then yes. If your character's Dex isn't, well it won't matter either way because your character will be road pizza on the third round of melee. That's ninja life.

That one that lets your Ki power last longer than usual. I think Sword and Fist has it or Complete Adventurer or maybe Complete Scoundrel

That one that gives you extra uses of Ki power.

Cumbrous Reflexes from Savage Species- if you are going to burn a feat on Lightning Reflexes (if you decide to do this, MAX OUT TUMBLE for an easy stand up)

Quick Reconnituer (SP?)


Other things:

A flaw from Unearthed Arcana and the Trait that gives you 10 extra move. This will help you get further up walls later and give you a bigger move when you are invisible.

A level of Shadowdancer gets you Hide in Plain Sight which keeps with your theme.

[Kaelik]

Oh right, and Check Complete Adventurer and Scoundrel for any Ninja/Ranger synergy.

Also check the Ninja Fighter one. If I'm not mistaken you don't even have to take a level of fighter to get it, so you can just make a Ninja that also receives fighter bonus feats at the cost of one standard feat. (You need a level in something that gives you martial weapon proficiency, or you need to take it as a feat.)

[Jannex]

If she's trying to pass herself off as a surface elf, then I'm going to assume she'll be taking Daylight Adaptation; "the daystar, it burnsss usss!" isn't exactly standard pointy-eared-freak behavior, after all.

[horseboy]

This is kind of off the topic question, but...

...albino drow?!

Yeah, like the one in the Maztica trilogy.

[tannish2]

finally... someone playing an EVIL drow... craft(poison) is a good skill to take if your getting ninja levels. simply because it lets you be effective in combat with the BBEG and remember to take a few ranks in bluff.

[Gmmaster42]

This is kind of off the topic question, but...

...albino drow?!

It's a rare type of drow that looks exactly like a surface elf. Except they have red eyes, which is easily fixed. They make the perfect spies.

Thanks for the advice guys. Of course, my first feat is Daylight Adaptation. Weapon Finesse is always nice. Are there any feats that could increase my combat usefulness? Although now that I think about it I'm going to be pretty useless combat wise for a good while. I'm going to have 2 HD at 4th level, and I planned on going 2 levels of ranger (for Two Weapon Fighting) then straight to the ninja. Shadowdancer does sound nice. Any other ideas?

[Fax Celestis]

It's a rare type of drow that looks exactly like a surface elf. Except they have red eyes, which is easily fixed. They make the perfect spies.

Thanks for the advice guys. Of course, my first feat is Daylight Adaptation. Weapon Finesse is always nice. Are there any feats that could increase my combat usefulness? Although now that I think about it I'm going to be pretty useless combat wise for a good while. I'm going to have 2 HD at 4th level, and I planned on going 2 levels of ranger (for Two Weapon Fighting) then straight to the ninja. Shadowdancer does sound nice. Any other ideas?

You could take the Drow Paragon class, which'd let you save the Daylight Adaptation feat because of its second level ability.

[tannish2]

get some use magic device and a scroll of permenancy, then get arcane sight cast on you so that you can have BLUE eyes, still a red flag (>>>>>ADVENTURER WITH MAGICAL ABILITIES<<<<<) but it doesnt say "drow here, hi, kill me please" oh, and LA buyoff is good.

[Gmmaster42]

That's another three levels that I won't be in a character class on top of my +2 LA though. Right now the rest of the party is second level. The DM made a special thing that I can play this if I split up the LA. I will think about that option though.

EDIT: I wonder if I could get special contacts made in Menzoberranzan that gave me Daylight sensitivity or immunity? I'll ask my DM.

[Kaelik]

That's another three levels that I won't be in a character class on top of my +2 LA though. Right now the rest of the party is second level. The DM made a special thing that I can play this if I split up the LA. I will think about that option though.

EDIT: I wonder if I could get special contacts made in Menzoberranzan that gave me Daylight sensitivity or immunity? I'll ask my DM.

Drow Paragon is a Character Class, and a very good one at that. All the Paragon's are pretty nice. Though I suppose if you don't have any casting some of them are less useful. (Argue for it stacking with Ranger casting even before you get it.)

[Gmmaster42]

True, it is a good class. I'll do it if my DM allows it. I don't think he'll go for the spellcasting for the ranger deal. That would be really cool though.

[CASTLEMIKE]

That's another three levels that I won't be in a character class on top of my +2 LA though. Right now the rest of the party is second level. The DM made a special thing that I can play this if I split up the LA. I will think about that option though.

EDIT: I wonder if I could get special contacts made in Menzoberranzan that gave me Daylight sensitivity or immunity? I'll ask my DM.

Don't forget the LA buydown rule option which is pretty viable for +1 and +2 LA templates.

[Overlard]

Oh right, and Check Complete Adventurer and Scoundrel for any Ninja/Ranger synergy.

Also check the Ninja Fighter one. If I'm not mistaken you don't even have to take a level of fighter to get it, so you can just make a Ninja that also receives fighter bonus feats at the cost of one standard feat. (You need a level in something that gives you martial weapon proficiency, or you need to take it as a feat.)

You are mistaken. Taking that feat doesn't give you bonus fighter feats, it lets your ninja & fighter levels stack for the purposes of determining whether you can take feats that require a certain fighter level (such as greater weapon focus, or the weapon supremacy type feats from PHBII).

[Kaelik]

You are mistaken. Taking that feat doesn't give you bonus fighter feats, it lets your ninja & fighter levels stack for the purposes of determining whether you can take feats that require a certain fighter level (such as greater weapon focus, or the weapon supremacy type feats from PHBII).

Really? Hmm. If true that would make a lot more sense and be completely useless just like most of the other synergy feats.

[AtomicKitKat]

Combat Reflexes doesn't really work with Whip, if memory serves, since it doesn't threaten outside your turn.

[Gmmaster42]

Yeah whips are kinda useless, but it's ok. Ok, I have my character's levels pretty much planned out. Ranger4/Bard2/Drow Paragon3/ then I can't decide whether to go rogue, monk, or ninja for 3 levels. After that, I'm going to go into shadow dancer. It may not be the most powerful, but it will be fun.

[ocato]

I suggest the whip-dagger if you're really keen on whips. Takes a feat but its not bad. Improved trip is nice too. Especially if you're going to be doing a lot of sneaking. I mean, if you trip em and whip em on the sneak, they have to get back up and you're going to get them again. I'm not familiar with the ninja class, but if it grants sneak attack, that'll be pretty neat. I'm no expert on sneak attack, but doesn't prone = sneak attack? That right there is a good rogue combination, especially since Improved Trip gives +4 to the check and therefore helps with the 'its hard to trip with low STR' business. Actually this seems like a neat kind of infiltrator. Quick draw if you can fit it in so that after you trip 'n whip em, you can get ontop of them with the two rapiers and seal the deal. Definately pick up the trait that gives you +10 move speed and -1 hp per level. Flaws will probably be useful too if your DM is okay with them.

[Gmmaster42]

That's a good idea, although it won't be very effective until late levels and it would take several feat slots. Unfortunately, my DM doesn't allow either traits or flaws. A flaw would definitely help.