I'm working on a character for a new game and am leaning towards:
1 (something with bonus damage)
2-6 focused conjurer
7+Unseen Seer
That "something" is the question. Right now it is a toss up between Spellthief and Scout. Assume I'll be using spells mostly for battlefield control, etc. and either a reserve feat (acid one) or more likely something like Cloud of Knives (caster level + int to hit) to generate ranged stuff with some moderate bonus damage while I'm running about tranpositioning folks, greasing, whatever.
If I go with Spellthief, I get some more useful skills ... I'm not going to be a trap monkey. I also get Master Spellthief as an option, which lets me cast in light armor. My dex will be around 14 and I look at this as basically saving me a spell (no having to cast mage armor / etc.) every day. Downside is the extra damage is less easy to kick off, requiring me to deny them their dex. Once I am bombing around with improved invisibility it's all good, but until then I'm having to grease folks, whatever.
If I go with Scout I get more skill points, but less of the useful arcane skills for the character. What I do get is an easier-to-activate bonus damage function (just have to move) ... but I'll have to spend spell resources on armoring myself.
Opinions?
a) mid-late game, you'll be using Hunter's Eye (SpC) to get extra SA. It grants SA, not SA or Scirmish. Therefore, you'll have to qualify for SA anyway in order to get it.
b) Master Spellthief and the ability to thieve higher level spells is pretty smooth.
if you really want to tack on some extra battlefield control, take the feat Staggering Strike from CAdventure. It staggers a foe whenever you do SA damage. Staggered is kind of like Slowed, which is really good. If you keep attacking the same foe, you can permanently deny him a full attack or full round action. That's a pretty baddass debuff that you essentially tack on for free each hit. Sure, they gotta make a save, but after you add spell damage to SA damage, you shouldn't have an issue getting a DC in the 40s or so by mid level, and 60+ by high level.
I be not the rogue.
Good thoughts Wyvernhand. Anyone I grease is going to have no dex anyway. The other thing sneak has going for it is that it allows me to turn my little demi-god wizard into a cleric (in that I can adopt the tactic of "make you helpless and then coup-de-grace").
*sigh* I remember the days when nearly every 5th level cleric carried a scythe ...
Prevailing consensus is that Spellthief doesn't mix especially well in a multiclass build,
Just a point of note, with Master Spellthief, spellthief works really well for arcane builds, at least as a one level dip.
Spellthief 1/Arcane Caster 4/Unseen Seer 5/Other Arcane-Rogue +10
Has 19th level casting with a CL of 21 for divination, a minimum of +9d6 sneak attack with hunter's eye, and the ability to steal (though not cast) 9th level spells from casters, all while wearing light armor. It's pretty boss.
I've got a friend playing a daggerspell mage right now (using a variation of the above) around 10th level, and he's loving it. Stealing True Seeing from your opponents memory while you have Superiour Invis up, is the win.
Just a point of note, with Master Spellthief, spellthief works really well for arcane builds, at least as a one level dip.
Spellthief 1/Arcane Caster 4/Unseen Seer 5/Other Arcane-Rogue +10
Has 19th level casting with a CL of 21 for divination, a minimum of +9d6 sneak attack with hunter's eye, and the ability to steal (though not cast) 9th level spells from casters, all while wearing light armor. It's pretty boss.
I've got a friend playing a daggerspell mage right now (using a variation of the above) around 10th level, and he's loving it. Stealing True Seeing from your opponents memory while you have Superiour Invis up, is the win.
:P I mentioned I've not seen a Spellthief played. Thanks for clarifying, pithica. I'll read up on Master Spellthief.
Apply it to the lower caster level (Spellthief) to add 5 to your wizard CL instead of just one. Sure it's probably just one more die of SA, but hey...
Also, add Divine Oracle for another +2 to CL to your divinations due to the Oracle domain
.And I'm not interested in skills ... don't care if I have them other than to qualify for PrCs (and both of them can get me in to Unseen Seer at 7 ... I'm going 5 levels of wizard/ for spontaneous divination.
Anyway ... I'm still leaning towards sneak as more useful in more situations, but skirmish is still enticing as I can generate it reliably from RANGE, and keeping my squishy d4 hit dice not in melee.