all around skilled, incredibly stealthy, hard to hit and gets a second chance at virtually everything shadowdancer. This build is also heavy on strategy and a hell of a lot of fun to play.
skills to max out: (rogue) appraise disable trap hide lore move silently open lock persuade search tumble use magic device
(shadowdancer - save extra skill points to max out rogue skills later) hide lore move silently
racial abilities : fearless : +2 vs fear spells and effects good aim : +1 to attack with thrown weapons lucky : +1 luck bonus to saving throws skill affinity - listen/move silently : +2 to listed skills small stature : bonuses to hide, attack rolls and ac when dealing with larger creatures
Breakdown : strengths - naked this character has a hide of 65 and a move silently of 67, as well as an ac of 28, 34 if expertise is used. this ac is touch, so even touch spells have a hard time breaking through to hit him. it is capable of doing large ammounts of damage to a single person, using it's shadow to flank so it gets sneak attacks. when it sneak attacks, it steals 2 points of strength per hit, as does the shadow if a fortitude save is not made. as for large groups, going in the middle of them in stealth mode and improved whirlwind attacking allows for large ammounts of sneak attack damage on the group and 2 points of strength damage to everyone involved. he can use monk items to boost his ac without wearing dexterity restricting armor, it's a dead shot at long range with darts, can use bucklers to gain more ac with a minimal reduction to stealth skills, and works best while holding a shortsword. it's reflex save is horrendously high (39 naked at 40th level) and so makes excellent use of the defensive roll feat to make up for a small ammount of hit points. This combined with epic dodge makes it harder to kill then the low ammount of hit points would first make you guess, and when death is imminent it can run away, hide in plain sight, and drink potions to heal/buff up as necessary, returning to sneak attack again. shadow evade is 16/+6, and the shadow is a 24th level fighter, with whirlwind attack as well.
weaknesses - ok, this character is TERRIBLE against undead, as are most rogue builds. it tends to not get hit often, but deals very little damage (due to the low strength), and the shadow is no help until 25th or so level, after which he gains a lot of power very quickly. Oh, and the reason he needs a buckler, a short sword and monk armor is that besides that, too many pebbles in his pocket slow him down. (maximum weight - 100 lbs) get a strong pack mule... I mean cohort. then tell them to wait at the entrance of the dungeon, because this character actually does worse when he has help.
Variants : you can cut back on some of the skills you use less (appraise and persuade come to mind) and switch them for set trap and craft trap. traps and hiding are really nice, especially if you replace opportunist for skill mastery, hide in plain sight and set traps while people are fighting to catch multiple opponents in a deadly trap.