Bulldrek v3.0

For NWN, I'm planning on creating a combat-based shadowdancer with levels in rogue, shadowdancer, and a high BAB class. Here's where I'm a bit confused on numbers - I could deal with this easily enough in PnP, but NWN has a couple of limitations - the ranger gets cool things like auto-dual wield, favored enemies, animal companions, the hide/move silently skills, and so forth, but the fighter still gets the always-nice bonus feat every even-numbered level.

The idea here was to create a SD with high disable/set trap skill, high stealth, a goodly amount of sneak attack coupled with high BAB and high damage. For the race, human, elf, or halfling, though I'm definitely leaning on the halfling. For the sake of pure style, said SD will either be using a rapier/dagger setup or a dual kukri setup - weapon finesse is almost a must here. Because I'm not sure how rogue-based defense works, the SD will mostly be using light armors like leather and studded, which makes me gravitate towards the ranger, but the SD also needs a good amount of combat skills - power attack, cleave, disarm, improved disarm, knockdown, spring attack, combat reflexes, and so forth, which makes me gravitate towards the fighter. If I could go ranger/fighter/rogue/shadowdancer, I could, but NWN limits a PC to three classes, including the PrC.

My combat style has until now mostly been the 'full plate and packing steel' archetype: you'd need a can opener to rip through her AC kind of thing. So this'll be my first dex-based defensive build. This'll also be the first character I'll have who'll use traps. Suggestions?

Go with the ranger instead of fighter, there's enough dex increasing items that will help making up for wearing light armor. If you have enough money, check out the armor available at the shop run by the Druid in the 2nd part of the NWN. There's some nice stuff there for rangers.

You mean Nyatarr in Neverwinter? Yeah, he does have some nice stuff. Here's the thing, tho: with heavy armor, there's a limit to how much the AC bonus from dex kicks in. Most of the time, my full-platers doen't even bother with more than 10 dex unless they're going for disarm/expertise. How well does the dex bonus to AC work with light armors like studded leather?

I'm somewhat concerned because my henchmen, who are partially developed on a smiliar plan - light armor/high offense - get capped a lot. Mostly it's due to stupidity, but when Daelen get his ass kicked in what he does best (melee), I have to wonder if the AC bonus to dex is really all that.

I don't remember offhand, but I know that the light armors generally allow Dex Bonus 4+. You may want to consider stocking up on things that offer natural armor since that's stackable with the bonus from dex and armor. Also, keep in mind that dex affects your reflex save, the higher your dex the higher your reflex save is.