Shadowdancing...DENIED!

[Death Rabbit]

I must be missing something. Just bought SoU last week, and right now I'm working on creating a Shadowdancer prestige class character. The requirements are 8 in Move Silently, 10 in Hide, 5 in Tumble, and the Dodge and Mobility feats. It says nothing about class or alignment restrictions, though the description does mention that warriors often choose this path.

My character, at 3 Ranger and 3 Rogue met all these requirements (without magic items), yet I wasn't able to select the prestige class when my 7th level came up. I picked another level of Ranger, boosting all the above mentioned stats even highter. But for some reason I think I'm missing something else.

Or...are the descriptions just wrong?

Thanks for any help.

[Iago]

Don't you have to be level 10 ?

[Death Rabbit]

I didn't think so...do you?

[JSBB]

Don't you have to be level 10 ?

No, I was able to start taking shadowdancer levels as soon as I had met the skill requirements. I am not sure but I think my character was a ranger1/rogue5 at the time.

If no one else has figured the problem out by then I will check my saved game files tonight and see if anything comes to mind.

[Frostbite]

I don't have the game, and haven't read much about the prestige classes. But could it be alignment resctrictions? Though, as I say, I really don't know much about it, so don't take my word.

[Zorac]

Remember that it is your number of ranks in each skill and not the total modifier that counts. The 10 in hide assures that you can't take this class until you have reached level 7.

[Death Rabbit]

I'm sorry Zorac, could you elaborate a bit? That totally zipped by me...

[Zorac]

If you during game call up the character sheet you will see your total modifiers for each skill.

During level up you will note that these are different. These are your ranks in each skills and the pre-reqs are all about those ranks. You max rank in any class skill is 3+level. So to have hide 10 you need to be level 7, it is a way to ensure that no one can take the class earlier than that (instead of having an explicit level req).

So you have to have "bought" all the skill pre-reqs with the skill points you receive at level up. Having a good Dex for example don't help in regards to the skill pre-reqs.

[Blackthorne TA]

You must have 10 ranks in the Hide skill, meaning you must have spent 10 points on it. You can put 4 at level 1, and only 1 more per level after that, so level 7.

Your Dexterity modifier is added to your ranks to get your skill ability though, so even though you show more than 10 in the skill due to I assume a high Dexterity, (as well as your Ranger's Trackless Step possibly) the number of ranks you have is less than 10.

[Death Rabbit]

Gotcha. Thanks man, that really cleared up the confusion. Didn't know any of that. Well, I should finish hacking my way through the Beggar's Nest tonight, which should bump me up a level, and I'll let you know.

[Iago]

Well, in this case I could try a prestige class.

[Death Rabbit]

Spoilers.....maybe

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Now that I'm well on my way, does anyone have any tips regarding Shadowdancers? Right now I have Daelan as my homie, and my equipment consists of Studded Leather +1, Large Shield +1, and the Desert Wind Scimitar +1 (from Marrok). I was recently dual-wielding the Astral Blade +1 and the Feyduster Short Sword +1 (both from Marrok also), but I'm not sure the penalties for dual-wielding in NWN are worth it, considering it doesn't give you an extra attack.

Anyway...advice? I've only been as far as the end of Chapter 2, so please don't tell me anything after that. I've only played through once (up to that point), and it was with a kick-ass single-class Elven Fighter. Now I want to give the sneaky-snake strategy a try, but am not sure totally how to go about it.

[Blackthorne TA]

What do you mean it doesn't give you an extra attack? You should get one attack with your offhand weapon at your BAB, and as many with your main hand as your BAB provides for. If you get the Improved Two-Weapon Fighting feat, you get another attack with your offhand weapon at your BAB -5.

Also, for your Ranger in light armor, you should have only a -2 penalty if you have the shortsword in your offhand.

[JSBB]

Well there are two main strategies that you can use with a shadowdancer based around the hide in plain sight ability. The first is the one I prefer as the second makes the game way too easy.

(1) hide in shadows, walk up behind the bad guy, sneak attack, "dance" a few steps away from him and hide in shadows again, sneak attack etc. until the bad guy is dead.

With high hide in shadows, move silent and tumble you should have no problem darting in and out of combat and hiding.

(2) hide in shadows, walk until you can just see the enemy, fire an arrow, immediately take one step and then hide in shadows again, fire another arrow, take another step and hide in shadows etc.

[trillex]

Info from the official SoU forum:

Shadow Dancer

Move Silently: 8 Ranks
Hide: 10 Ranks
Tumble: 5 Ranks
Feats: Dodge, Mobility

earliest you can be a shadowdancer is level 7 if you have hide as a class skill.

so rogue 7, bard 7, monk 7, ranger 7 or anything mullticlassed with them up to character level 7 and take one of those 4 classes as the 7th level. that will let you get 10 ranks in hide.

so you can take shadow dancer as the 8th character level in these cases.

if you are not one of those 4 classes and get hide as a cross class skill, you'd need to be level 17 before you managed to get 10 ranks in hide.

so you can take shadow dancer as the 18th character level in these cases.