Shadow Dancer/Assassin/Rogue

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Has anybody tried this build yet?
Death attack stacks with Sneak Attack and with Hide in Plain Sight, one can simply backstab a host of non-sneak attack-immune creatures to death.

Use a rapier with weapon finesse, make it keen, take improved critical for a critical threat range of around 11-20. Dual wield them with Improved Two Weapon fighting for greater death and destruction. Add Acid Damage to your rapiers later on.

When you're tired of backstabbing them, run them through a gauntlet of deadly traps for more laughs.

This is the second character I'm taking through HOTU and so far he's proving to be a lot more effective than a Weapon Master in battle. Which should not be the case, since he has no levels at all in combat classes.

 

I am thinking that you may have a hard time later in the game, because many of the enemies will be immune to critical hits, and sneak attack. I am not sure how good traps are and how you make them, but if you can make and set good ones I bet that could help you get through many of the tougher bosses. Sounds fun, and what levels are you going to have them at?

 

Against golems, there's this short sword that deals criticals and applies sneak attack damage to them in chapter 2. If you killed the fairy queen in chapter 1, you can pick up two light maces from her corpse. Those tear constructs apart.

Against undead? That's what Use Magic Device and fireball wands are for. Bring along a few cleric scrolls for Sun domain spells to toast those rotting buggers. After all, an Epic character is rarely short on $$.

Everything else dies to Hide In Plain Sight followed by 5 Sneak/Death Attacks with dual Keen Acidic Hasted rapiers augmented by Improved Critical, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, and Weapon Finesse. If you're feeling particularly nasty, poison your weapon.

A rogue character outdoing a fighter character in battle is just wrong. Of course, in PVP, all the Weapon Master has to do is activate a gem of True Seeing or use a similar item/effect and the backstabber is toast.

BTW, that character is built thus:
Assassin 2 (for Death Attack and Poison Mastery)/Shadow Dancer 4 (for Shadow Evade and Hide in Plain Sight)/Rogue X for mad skills and sneak attack.

Of course, a Monk/Rogue/Shadow Dancer might be more combat worthy but with less skills and tricks up his sleeve/

 

Hehe, i'm just watching Rurouni Kenshin anime again. And Sagara Sanouske (a monk btw) is really cool.

So i'll take him next time i'll go through


About that build... It really will be a problem with golems/undead/... Chapter 2
Of course you could take Daelan with you. He'd just chop everything, problem solved. But it's no fun doing so


Oh, btw... How many of you folks killed the Demilich in your first try? (Not knowing there is one ahead of course)

 

I killed it in my first try with my lvl 20 Sorceress. I am not sure, but I think it took me two Time Stops and three or four Greater Missile Storms.

 

i got so scared when i saw it that i paused the game and just laughed histerically for about 3 minutes or so. Setup my missle storm, unpaused, and was amazed to see it take him down to near death. the second one finised him off, and pounded his rolling head about 4-8 more times for good measure. didnt' use ANY defensive spells of any kind. i don't recall what it TRIED to cast, but whatever it was, it wasn't fast or strong enough.

 

Shura. How do you make a weapon "keen"?

Do think that this character would be ok as a non-human?

And, he is CE alignment correct?

 

The Blacksmith in the Underdark is able to add the Keen Property to Melee Weapons (At least Sowrds, didn't try anything else)
Or you could use the spell, but not with this build.

I liked your Idea, so I created a new Rogue. She started Chaotic Evil, but, well, I am not the evil type, so I will actually play her like a Chaotic Good Character. I think it's going to be interesting to see how far the alingment switch will go.

However, at the moment she is having quite a hard time against those stupid goblins at the beginning...

 

there is a character in cht. 2 and another in cht. 3 that can modify weapons, that includes all types.... well, not sure about a staff, but I have used pretty much every other type of weapon, including whips and bows. that should help with the keen.

does that build HAVE to be CE? while i like playing evil characters, games are, more often that not, set up to give extra points for good behaivor.

 

Shura. Did you manage to take this character all the way in Hordes? I remember you not recommending a Rogue in Hordes...

 

Firstly, the character is Neutral Evil. Any character can be an Assassin as long as his/her alignment is evil. It does not have to be Chaotic Evil. Yes, I beat HoTU with him.

With Use Magic Device, my character is essentially a mid-level wizard. Undead? Fireball and Flamestrike wands, Sunburst scrolls. Golems/Constructs? The shortsword in the Maker's dungeon solves the problem.

He's not a pure rogue. He's a Shadow Dancer with Hide in Plain Sight and Shadow Evasion.

Meph just stood there stupidly while I filleted his red ass with acidic rapiers.

A pure rogue could probably get off a single sneak attack, after which Meph would squish him/her.

 

That character is fairly similar to my ranger 1/shadow dancer 1/rogue x. I eventually found that dual wielding wasn't that great as I would usually just recloak after the initial strike with my main hand weapon. If I were doing it again I would probably take assassin levels instead of ranger and stick to one rapier.

What people don't seem to realize is that while constructs and undead may be immune to criticals and sneak attacks it doesn't really matter if they can't even see what is repeatedly hitting them and recloaking.

As I said in another thread, I couldn't seem to hit the demi-lich with my keen-acidic-+10 rapiers so I just kept hiding, throwing holy water bombs and rehiding. Result - one dead lich with my character completely unharmed.

Another thing is that if a fight is going badly you can just hide in shadows and heal yourself or let yourself regenerate if you have the appropriate magic items. After enchanting my rapiers and having greater/epic amulets of ?health? I think I was regenerating at a rate of 10 HP/ round. The enemies just stand there waiting for you to get back into the fight and stab them in the back.

 

Thanks for the clarification Shura. I am gonna make a copy of your character and let him/her rip. Dunno if I will make it human though...

 

I got a question.
When the rogue is using the "Use Magic Device" skill, to use a magic wand against his enemies, does the "Concentration" skill need to be considered too?

 

Wands cannot be interrupted. Scrolls can, IIRC.

 

I've never had a scroll reading interrupted by a concentration roll. On the other hand, they are much tougher to use successfully now with the change to the rules. You have to have a +33 to UMD to make sure that you only fail on a roll of 1.

True Seeing wrecks Shadow Dancers.

 

What you say about UMD is odd...I only rarely fail to suceed at using a scroll.

What attributes would contribute to a successful check?

 

I made a drow female version for Hunt Through the Dark. So far so good. Maybe she will end up in Hordes...

But is there any point in getting more than one level in Shadowdancer, since I wanted the cool hiding thing? The other abilities don't appeal to me...

 

Shadow evasion might be nice if you plan on standing and fighting toe to toe with someone (i.e. someone who actually uses true sight - not that very many computer conrolled opponents seem to do so). Personally, I never missed the extra shadow dancer levels in my ranger 1/shadow dancer 1 / rogue x.