Sneaky totemist help

[iTreeby]

I'm having some second doubts about a character I've mades direction. Currently I am a azurin rogue 1/totemist 2. When I made the character my intent was to prestige into umbral disciple for three levels to get embrace of shadows because it seemed really good for a rogue-ish build using mantacore belt to get sneak attack. Embrace of shadows would come on at level 9. I now realize that shadow mantle, a soulmeld with a similar seeming ability would come online at level 10 if I went straight totemist. The embrace of shadows seems better because I could see beyond it but it hurts not advancing my binds and soulmelds known. Any advice?

[sleepyphoenixx]

Pick up a Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis (ToM) for HiPS.

[iTreeby]

That's not an option. Also it doesn't give me an area of darkness. I guess you are implying I should go straight totemist and not take umbral disciple?

[sleepyphoenixx]

It's not like you need darkness to sneak attack. You just need to be able to hide from your enemies.
And unlike a sphere of darkness HiPS (+Darkstalker) also works against blindsight and other special senses. It also synergizes very nicely with your soulmelds, some of which give pretty big boni to hide/ms.
Not to mention that a big sphere of darkness isn't exactly stealthy.

Still, if you insist and the collar won't work there are other item-based options to get an area of darkness and see through it.
How about the Darklight (SoS)? It needs to be fueled by 1 pp per day, but you can get those cheaply with a Manifester shuriken if your party has no psionics users.
Combine that with Darkvision (which you can easily get from soulmelds) and a Ring of the Darkhidden (MIC) and you're golden for 2500gp.

But yes, i'd suggest not going Umbral Disciple because what you'd get out of it isn't worth what you're giving up.

[PunBlake]

How are you keeping Hide and Move Silently as class skills to avoid cross-class ranks?
Human + Able Learner?
Strongheart Halfling + Halfling Totemist substitution levels?

If neither, I'd suggest the Guerrilla Warrior feat (HoB). You could use this while using any race.

Comparison: Totemist 20 gives more essentia than Umbral Disciple 10, and Umbral Disciple loses your Soulmeld and Chakra Bind progression as well. Umbral Disciple gives more class-only essentia receptacles, one of which requires investment to gain HiPS. This causes your essentia to be spread more thin.

If you want HiPS, you could just as easily dip Shadow Dancer 1 and lose less essentia and class features. I'd go something like Rogue 1 / Totemist 18 / Shadow Dancer 1 (with the Shadow Dancer dip somewhere mid-build) before I used Umbral Disciple. I'd use items to boost sneak attack dice, and those items usually just require 1d6 sneak attack.

[iTreeby]

I'm not sure I need hide in plain sight. My plan is to get Woodland archer, with that I should be able to hide in the darkness of the shadow mantel.

[PunBlake]

Since you have a level of rogue, and presumably ranks in UMD, you could always grab a wand (or eternal wand) of Ebon Eyes (SpC) to see inside and outside your own magical darkness.

[sleepyphoenixx]

I'm not sure I need hide in plain sight. My plan is to get Woodland archer, with that I should be able to hide in the darkness of the shadow mantel.

Nobody needs HiPS. It's just really nice to have on a sneaky character and the Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis is a steal.

As for hiding in the Shadow Mantle's darkness, yeah, that's enough unless your enemies have blindsight, tremorsense or something similar. Which happens more often as levels increase.
But you'll also have to wait until level 10 to get it, take up one of your five soulmeld slots (and one of only two chakra binds) and invest essentia into it that you really want to pump into your Manticore Belt. That's a pretty big hit on your damage potential.

In addition to that HiPS also gives you reliability (with Darkstalker), and as a ranged sneak attacker that's something you really want since you don't get Penetrating Strike and can't flank.
A sneak attacker who can't sneak attack is effectively useless and you'll want to minimize the chance of that happening.

[iTreeby]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the feedback, I'll try to get an item for hiding in plain sight.