Spectactularly Ordinary Thug-type

[Tacticsplanner]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I've been hitting my head against the wall trying to nail down the specifics of my newest 3.5 Play-by-Post character and so I find myself here.

The Setting

The campaign is a bit unique, which is a source for a good portion of my difficulties. The setting is Earth, present day. All that is magical, supernatural, etc. is kept secret from the rest of the world. This makes for a very Harry Dresden/Potter type world where the main characters have to be able to operate without flashy and unexplainable effects if it'll expose them.

This campaign follows another where the party owns a Private Detective agency that handles the stuff others can't and eventually find themselves on an Epic (genre, not level) quest to save the world. This understandably makes it difficult to handle the mysterious murder in Chicago while they're sealing up space-time holes caused by wild magic in 1571 Moscow. To handle the smaller cases the party hires help, which begins this 2nd campaign.

Creation rules

28 point-buy
Must be able to fit into a normal human society. Warforged have artifical skin, Elves often have ears reshaped, etc.
Starting Level: 6
Starting Wealth as per level 6
Pretty much any WotC 3.5 books. Don't have access to Dragon mags, but DM owns the Compendium.

Additional Things to Consider

This is a small party, two members. As the other player has settled on a stealth-focused halfling rogue and admitted they simply don't care about optimization, combats have been left to me to handle. I haven't managed to get a good feel for the overall campaign's style, but early posts seem to place it more in the mystery-style of things. With me focusing on combat and the mentioning of a party face to the rogue invoking laughter, things should be interesting.

The Build - Theory

Given the modern setting I excluded spellcasters early on. Looking at what I could use, I found gang-type weapons (e.g. Pipes, lengths of chain, knives, etc.) good candidates. I would have included guns, but they have been implemented as reflavored crossbows and I imagine that without a meat shield I should assume that I'll be threatened more often than not.

Since I haven't played many non-casters, I cracked open Tome of Battle to see what options I had. I recalled that Swordsage has a popular Unarmed variant, and that Setting Sun Ninja's 1st level would be a good path to self-sustainability. I also worried about a bit of fluff that mentioned Swordsages as being the flashiest of the martial adept classes.

The Build - Practice

After pursuing the Monk's Handbook in said subforum, I tentatively assembled the following build stub.

Human Unarmed Swordsage 7/Fist of the Forest 3/Setting Sun Ninja 1/Initiate of the Draconic Mysteries 9
Superior Unarmed Fighting and Monk's belt for UA damage of a 17th level monk, plus 4 size increases from class levels.
Giant's Stance and Fang Ring/Improved Natural Attack for 2 more size increases.
Keeps minimal strength and relies on UA progression for damage so it can advance defensive ability scores.

When I took this to my DM, I got the UA variant and a reflavoring of FotF approved. I mentioned Monk's AC Bonus and Swordsage's AC bonus potential stacking and the combo of Moment of Alacrity maneuver with Adaptable Style feat, which were rejected. We then stumbled on what the UA damage progression was, which remains unresolved.

I'm still largely unfamiliar with maneuvers and desperately lost as to how to make a compelling argument for, much less build, a particular UA progression. Equipment has always been troublesome for me and I have yet to consider the remaining feats or a level-by-level breakdown. I also remain worried about the availability of maneuvers one could use in front of "mundane" people, recovery of maneuvers as the small party size will likely lead to longer/more taxing encounters, and durability of the character.

*Clicks Preview* Well, um, better too much information than too little, right? *Inserts spoiler tags*

[bearsarebrown]

Monk and Swordsage Wis to AC can't stack anyways. Read Swordsage carefully, it only applies when wearing light armor, not light armor or less.  There is a Q&A that says this was an accident, but that same Q&A tells you that they're considered the 'same source' and don't stack with each other. So no matter how you play it, they aren't stacking.

And Swordsage might not be the best for you. It's so flashy and magicalsupernatural!

Unarmed Brawler barbarian variant is something to look at.

[altpersona]

imo just about anything would work... w/ assistance.. as long as its mostly humanoid 

nothing says casters have to cast, at least in public.. full casters do every party roll better than any other..

a hat of disguise or ring of invis go along way..

i formally recommend a thug pixie.

[Havok4]

Nice Build, it looks like it would be fairly good for a primarily unarmed character. I suggest a factotum for your character instead as it can do lots of neat things non-magicly as well as having no small amount of magical omph.

[DerWille]

If I'm understanding the campaign right, it's going to be more important to be versatile than have power to pierce the heavens. How about a Factotum? It fits with the detective agency thing. You'll have access to different types of magic, when you need them, but you'll also be able to fight. It'll also allow you to partner up with your buddy in the stealth department.

I'd go with something like

Human Factotum 7/Chameleon 10/Free 3

[The_Mad_Linguist]

If you're going factotum, see if you can convince your buddy to take spellthief instead of rogue.  The class combo is good stuff.

[Havok4]

I'd go with something like

Human Factotum 7/Chameleon 10/Free 3

You should never stop before the 8th level of factotum for the extra standard action awesomeness. A good build could be Factotum5/chameleon 2/ Factotum 3/ Chameleon 8/ other 2 with at least 4 font of inspirations. The chameleon floating feat covers a lot of versatility and you are a neat spell caster with access to every spell list. If you can swing it play a Changeling and take the Changeling rogue substitution level at the first level as one of the other classes.

[DerWille]

Ah sorry, I thought the extra standard action ability was at level 7. My bad.

[Havok4]

The 11th level ability is nice as well, it lets you bypass SR and DR automatically for a round, which can be insanely good but given the setting it may not be worth the chameleon levels it costs using this kind of build.

[Optimator]

Swordsage doesn't have to be flashy and supernatural.  I think it would work wonders for the character concept while being quite a competent fighter.

[DavidWL]

I don't exactly address the swordsage questions, but here are some random thoughts:

What level are you starting at?

Note:  For the other player - the changling rogue substitution level in races of eberron is really nice.  Especially in a mystery campaign.

Personally, I'd play a "caster". 
1)  Psionic -> no obvious display
2)  The feat Invisible Spell -> no one knows (Cityscape)

A beguiler would also be a good choice (note - this would steal the other player's thunder, so is probably not politically correct).

Jordain Vizier is cool for knowledge related stuff.

The "Dreamtelling" feat would also be cool.

I agree with others that the flexibility of the Factotum would be useful.

Best,
David