I would like to play a character who can bind the vestige Desharis, the Sprawling Soul, while also having the master of doors capstone feature of the silver key prestige class. The only way to do both is to be a 10th-level binder1/10th-level silver key (binder is from Tome of Magic, silver key is from Dragonmarked).
For the most part, the silver key requirements are not too onerous—you have to be a dwarf, waste a feat on Dodge, get some skill ranks—several cross-class for a binder but the ranks required are low, all of that is quite manageable.
But then it requires trap sense +1. You know, the nearly-useless class feature that barbarians and rogues get at 3rd, or more accurately, desperately seek a replacement for at 3rd? That trap sense.
Turns out that trap sense didn’t get used all that much past the PHB. Probably because it’s awful. There are a few prestige classes that get it at 1st, so a one-level dip in something could get me trap sense—but then I would have to either forgo the 10th level of binder and be unable to bind Desharis even with Improved Binding, or else forgo the 10th level of silver key and miss out on master of doors. That doesn’t work for me.
So then, I am wondering if there exist any options that can get me trap sense on the following conditions:
Must be available before selecting my 11th-level class, at the latest. This build is taking part in non-epic play, that is, there is literally no amount of XP sufficient to reach ECL 21st.
Must not interfere with the ability to bind Desharis, the Sprawling Soul.
Desharis is a 6th-level vestige, requiring effective binder level 12th—which means that with Improved Binding (+2 effective binder level for the purposes of which vestiges you can bind), an effective binder level of 10th is just barely enough. No soul binding class offers trap sense, so this requirement almost certainly means that we need to get trap sense from something that doesn’t involve any levels.
Must be available to some sort of dwarf.
Must not use so many feats that it prevents meeting the requirements for either Desharis or silver key.
You may assume the Flaws variant if necessary, but please note this. If you need additional bonus feat shenanigans on top of flaws, please note that too. My own assumption here is that you will have three feats to play with, five with Flaws: one feat on Dodge for silver key, and the binder bonus feat at 4th used to pick up Improved Binding for Desharis.
Must be from official D&D 3.5 material, defined as WotC-published and WotC-endorsed materials (so WotC books and web articles, plus Dragon, Dungeon, stuff like Oriental Adventures, even Athas.org I guess). Note that, per the rules, 3.0 material is 3.5 material so long as it hasn’t been replaced by a 3.5 update, so that is allowed. Please cite sources, and make a note if a source is 3.0 or otherwise “weird” (like Athas.org).
Temporary sources of trap sense are acceptable, since per the Dungeon Master’s Guide I only need trap sense for the moment I want to select my first silver key level. However, please note how small a level-up window we’re looking at.
Must be valid, per the rules as written. RAW shenanigans are acceptable, though using less of that will make for a better answer. There is no good hard-and-fast way to define limits here, but I’ll say this: if fewer RAW shenanigans make for a better answer, answering with Pun-pun makes for a particularly poor answer. I have a very high tolerance for cheese for this purpose, but I want non-trivial answers, and Pun-pun is the trivial answer to every mechanical question.
So, does anyone know of any way to do this?
- Or probably more like 5th-level binder/5th-level knight of the sacred seal. Point is, 10 levels that advance soul binding.