on the fence

[Teufel_Hunden]

ive been toying with a monk/rogue ninja/assassin. i cant decide which would be "better". I dont have 32pt on my new server yet.

i was looking at the 13/7 R/M, drow, ass II, NS I. for SS bonuses and, and this is a personal/flavor thing, Shuriken. with the drow shuriken and thousand stars and quickdraw, it would be an interesting first strike. Something like snowstar. Whats a ninja without shurikens?

or

14/6 M/R (or 13/7, 12/8 whichever next tier of rogue SA). Halfling, ns II, ass I. Dragonmarks, HC/HG.

Drow - more rogue levels, more shortsword-y. More SA b/c more rogue. flavor shruikens. More rogue haste boosts and adept of wind.

Halfling - more self sustaining, more fisty, faster (master of wind, R. Haste II). more HP, higher con, more tortise HP.

dunno, tough call. any anecdotal thoughts?

[Dirichlet]

There's nothing wrong with buffing Shurikens a bit; you've got to range sometimes. The 13R/7M will have three spare feats after the mandatory ones, and Quickdraw is an obvious choice even without the benefit to thrown speed. Furthermore you'll probably want Wind II to begin with, so Thousand Stars is like 1 AP. That's totally worth it.

You might want to consider the new Shuriken Expertise with one of those spare feats. Given that you'll want 17 Dex from base + inherent just to meet the prerequisites of the TWF line, you'll easily see 25-30 after gear and buffs, depending on how many Dex enhancements you pick up. So you can see SE as a 25%-30% damage increase at range. For comparison, Rapid Shot is a 20% increase and takes two feats. Imp Crit: Ranged is a tiny increase.

I doubt that'll put TS to the level of Manyshot for burst dps builds, but it'll at least make ranged fighting that bit less painful.

The bit I don't like though is the Shortswords. Even with only 7 Monk Handwraps will be better; they attack faster than any other weapon, and you get your full Str bonus to off hand attacks. I realise you're looking for bang for buck on the Drow racial enhancements, but I wouldn't bother.

I prefer that split to Ninja II / Assassin I. Touch of Death will have a poor DC without full Monk levels and high Wis, so it'll be doing half damage most of the time.

[Teufel_Hunden]

makes sense, thanks. the more i think about it, the more im leaning toward 13/7 R/M. I have 2 full monks, halfings, thats why i was contemplating 12/8 M/R.

plus, drow get the shuriken expertise for free, so its like TS was made for them.