Hi guys, my spirit shammy just got corrupted by a dark artifact and became an NPC, so I'm going to bring in a combination of two classes I've never actually played in my 8 years of 3rd/3.5 edition. Rogue/Cleric, starting level 4.

He's a follower of a lawful neutral goddess who enforces the separation and transition between life and death. Liches and immortals of all sorts are on the hit list of her curch.

I'm aiming for the Shadowbane Stalker prestige class, mainly because it's awesome, and the DM has strongly recommended that over 20 levels I have no more than 15 caster levels, since the game environment is fairly low-magic and I tend more toward character optimization than the other guys in the game. I'm totally cool with this.

Our party is a stealth-centric group that tends toward infiltration and dungeon crawl missions, generally relying on strong group tactics. The two surviving characters are a Rogue 1/Fighter 3 and a Scout 4.

A few of the rules: All Complete X books are available as are Races of the Wild and Races of Destiny, in addition to Core and the Player's Handbook II. Paladins do not exist, Clerics are extremely rare and not available until after second level. Other WOTC sources may be considered by the DM after a successful Diplomacy check.

Now, the problem.
I've got a LG Human Rogue 3/Cleric 1 of a LN goddess of Dreams and the Passage to Death. Domains available: Glory, Protection, Repose, Trickery
Attributes are assigned from 84 point direct buy, only one 18 allowed, only two total stats of 16 or higher allowed. My character is starting off with 7,861 (90% of previous exp), which puts him firmly at level 4. I want to progress to Shadowbane Stalker at level 6.

What feats should I take?

At a loss for any better feats to pick up, I've grabbed Improved Initiative, Blind Fight and Divine Vigor (from complete Warrior). I plan on him being secondary melee, generally flanking with the fighter/rogue.

Here's my character sheet as he currently stands.

- Practised Spellcaster (CDiv, CArc) is a no-brainer, if you want your spells to have at least some power.

- the shadowbane stalker doesn't continue to improve your turning abilities, so you might want to think about divine feats (CDiv and others) to actually use these turn attempts for something.

- Retrieve Spell (CChamp) might be an option, turning turn attempts into recalled spells (which you can then use to fuel the shadowbane's class abilities) but is requires another two divine feats as prereq.

Thanks! Yeah, I plan on grabbing Practiced Spellcaster at level 6, and right now I'm thinking of going with Razing Strike (from Complete Adventurer) at level 9, and then after that it's divine feats for the win. By then I'll probably have some improvements to charisma so that those feats are actually worth-while.

Can you think of anything better from him to take at level 1 than Improved Initiative and Blind Fight?

You might switch the Cleric level to first level and go with Practised Spellcaster instead of blind-fight.

Otherwise, I think there were some feats that allowed you to trade some dice of sneak damage for an effect (mute, blind, prone, etc), which might be useful, starting level 3 (and remain useful, since sneak damage continues to increase).

Imp. Initiative is a useful feat for a sneak-damage character and I'd probably keep it.

Weapon Finesse might be worth considering, too.

Or maybe a tactical feat ? I think there was one well suited for a rogue type, changing sneak damage dice to other effects. Com.Scoundrel, maybe ?

I'll leave the conclusions to you