Ogluk the Bugbear was keeping a sharp lookout. His troop had been warned that an intruder had entered the cave complex and he meant to feast on the flesh of this outsider. Suddenly, Ogluk felt a wave of cold just before a chunk of what looked like ice grazed his shoulder. Before the shock wore off he saw across the cave a gnome. Snarling with rage, Ogluk raced towards the gnome that just wiped out half his troop and had the nerve to hurt Ogluk himself! But just as suddenly as he appeared, the gnome just disappeared right before Ogluk's eyes. Ogluk looked but there was nothing for the gnome to hide behind; it just disappeared into thin air! Ogluk looked quickly around the room, but saw nothing save melting ice and dead bugbears. Suddenly, Ogluk saw lights flash from across the cave! That gnome had suddenly reappeared. "How did it get over there without me seeing it?" Ogluk thought just as those lights slammed into Ogluk's chest killing him instantly. "I just love this" the gnome thought to himself as he once more wrapped himself in shadows and moved deeper into the cavern complex.
The Shadow Wizard is my attempt to create a Wizard (my favorite class) with the power of Hide in Plain Sight. The ability to cast a spell, disappear and reposition to cast again is both great fun and very powerful. I have tried using Rogue and Monk levels to meet the prerequisites of the Shadowdancer class but have been disappointed by the hit my spell casting took due to those extra levels. Then I noticed that the Harper Mage has Hide, Move Silently and Tumble as class skills, along with full caster progression. Without further adieu, here is the Shadow Wizard for your comment and enjoyment.
Race: any (one nice thing about this build is that you can use any race, regardless of favored class, and not worry about multiclass experience penalties)
Stats (assuming human): Str 10, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 18 (final:36), Wis 8, Cha 8
Skills: On Wizard levels, maximize Concentration, Lore and Spellcraft and save the remaining points. On Harper Mage and Shadowdancer levels, maximize Hide, Move Silently and Tumble. Spare points can be used as you like, but I prefer Listen and Search.
Advantages: Hide, Move Silently and Tumble at 42 skill ranks. Hide in Plain Sight! Evasion! Uncanny Dodge! What more could you ask for?
Disadvantages: Caster level of only 38, but this is compensated for by the Spell Penetration feats.
Notes on class progression. I always start a character in the NWN OC, and because of the XP script in the OC this character will progress faster if he leaves his Wizard level at 5 for as long as possible. This is why I use two Harper Mage levels before the first Shadowdancer level. If you do not use the NWN OC, feel free to substitute the first Harper Mage level with another Wizard level and move that Harper Mage level later to reduce the number of Wizard levels between Harper Mage levels. You could delay the second Shadowdancer level for later if so desired, but I think that a class which throws around fireballs would benefit from getting Evasion ASAP (I know I sometimes get accidently caught in the blast radius of my own fireballs).
Please let me know what you think. I would especially appreciate any insight in improving the character, especially feat choices. Thanks.
One additional note on skills. Harper Mage has Discipline as a class skill. Given the usefullness of that skill it is probably worthy of rating as the fourth skill to try and maximize on Harper Mage levels.
If you take one more harper level pre-epic (w14/hm4/sd2) pre-epic, your level 15 feat becomes epic.
You can also get the practiced spellcaster feat if you want to get an extra 2 levels of spell power.
Thanks Mr. Raider.
I was also thinking that by changing the 18th level Harper Mage into a Wizard level and by taking two more Shadowdancer levels at 19th and 20th level, the character would enter Epic with three attacks; and would still have 9th level spells. The trade-off is probably worthwhile.
The Practiced Spellcaster feat would be a very good addition with 4 Shadowdancer levels. Now I only need to figure out what feat to give up for it.
I'd drop maximize. Empower is almost as good (in some cases better), and with extend, silent and still you can cast the same spell many times over.