Rogue Guide

I've never ever had to manually click search to find anything except for that door in KoTB opening. Every secret door automatically appears whenever I get close. And I never use anything but humans.

 

For those of you who dual wield, what do you use? Two short swords?

 

I always like the brigand build, part rogue, part fighter. Even with just two levels of fighter, you get two feats, martial weapons and armor. They are real beasts with the sneak attack, especially if you have pairs to work on flanking. For solos, I go combat expertise and improved feint, which gives you sort of a rogue smite ability, which works off your bluff skill, which is plentiful for a rogue. A successful feint catches your opponet flat footed.

For pure rogues, try the longspear mixed with a high dex and combat reflexes. Plus as a twohanded weapon you get 1 1/2 str bonus. A ring of invisibility is a great help too. Max out your magic device skill and buy scrolls from Burne. Sling some fireballs and cloudkills into a crowded room and wait for the wounded to stagger out and clean them up with sneak attacks brought on by greater invisibility.

I find rougues one of the best classes for solo adventures and have beat the game many times with just a pure rogue, and seleted tactics.

 

To dual wield I use two short swords until I get a magic dagger.
The assassin's weapons are also good as is Larth's magic club.

 

I dual wield two longswords always. I used to always make my rogues strictly light crossbows but it takes away all challenge from every combat aspect of the game once you reach a certain level. My rogue in my first run through of 5.8 has 2 longswords, again. I don't handle change well.

 

Myself I enjoy my dwarven ranger using either a long and short sword or two longswords. That extra little bit helps in the early stage and the absence of a shield is not too detrimental. Later on it is really handy.

 

You could. Although I suppose long+shortsrd would be better, unless you go the finesse route.. Otherwise the rogue will be useless against undead and some other crits with DR. I had a fighter DW shortswords once, he would hit balor for 0-5 damage only, despite the fact that his swords were really beefed up.

 

I guess I should have stated in my initial post that I normally dual wield and the rogue seems to do poorly. Initially, I used two long swords, though you get a stiff penalty since they are both not considered small.

Then I moved down to shortswords (or anything classified as a short sword) since they are both small (removes the penalty) and I can do a weapon focus with short swords for a bonus. The problem is that short swords do 1d6 damage, so its not a huge amount of damage with each attack. I dont use the assassin's rapier because it is a different 'class' of weapon and dont get the weapon focus bonus, but I did use the washaki (sp?).

Do you need to be sneaking to do a sneak attack, or do you just need to be behind them or on their flank?

 

The master maxer has spoken but I think I may have something to add that has not been mentioned.
GLITERDUST
It blinds enemies as an area of effect. This spell, besided severly gimping any fighter's ability to hit anything, also causes enemies to be flatfooted, thus loosing dex bonus, and most importantly, vulnerable to sneak attack damage. Its only a 2nd level spell to.

Spam it, check which enemies failed their save and watch your rougue bring hell to the enemies.

Btw, I agree with everyone else. Never make a straight rogue if your goal is a mechanically effective damage dealer. The dc's for traps and the like simply aren't high enough to nececistate it.

 

I go the melee route. Take a level of barbarian or fighter early for HP and weapon feats, then rogue until the nasty feats are achieved.

I have better luck with single wielding (better to-hit) with greatswords (big damage). My experience with archery is that hitting is harder, and getting AoO'ed when it's crowded.

 

Dex DC bonus is denied, or you flank them, either one.

 

I had used this build in previous games, but dont anymore. Its too good and ruins the fun:

• 3 levels of rogue for 2d6 sneak attack.
  
• Levels in fighter for feats -- weapon focus Glaive, combat reflexes, improved crit, weapon specialization, etc.
  
• I was always flanking for sneak attacks and I'd also get lots of AoO. The AI is fairly careless with moving through threatened areas.

With a Holy Glaive, I remember doing 60+ dmg with a crit and sneak attack.

I've recently tried making a dual wielding melee rogue, but found the he almost never hit anything, even when flanking and buffed. At higher levels it may be possible to make it work by crafting the right items and keeping the best buffs on him. I'm not sure all that effort is worth it. Might as well buff my fighter/paladin/cleric, they do good damage and can take a lot more punishment.

I'm using a ranged attack rogue in my current game. With point blank shot and precise shot, she hits occaisonaly. I'll take 5 levels of rogue and then switch to fighter for the remainder.

I think I'll skip having a rogue in my next playthrough.

 

When dual weilding I never use two large weapons, it just seems wrong.
If it's a fighter or ranger I use a longsword and a short sword or hand axe.
I don't use a longspear with a rogue as it seems like a curious weapon to use when skulking in the undergrowth.

 

I decided to give a dual wielding rouge a try and so far I really like the sneak attack bonuses.
Since my knowledge of the game still has a few major holes, maybe you guys could anwser a few questions for me:

- Why can't I choose exotci weapon prof. - bastard sword on a rouge?

- My weapons of choice would be two magic rapiers+2, I wanted to have a feat improved critical because it would go very nicely with them, but sadly a rouge doesnt get the +8 base attack even on lvl 10 so I can't get it. My other idea was to add a keen mod on them by crafting but I don't seem to meet the requirements [I have keen edge spell] Is it because keen can be only applied to slashing weapons? [read that somwhere]

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Edit: Quint you are probably right, my rouge doesn't have 13 STR so that would explain it.
About the keen mod: I finally got my crafter to lvl 10 and keen does work with rapiers (yay) Also thanks for the tips with the glitterdust and greater invisibility, they work great.

 

I'm fairly sure that the exotic weapon proficiency feat has a +1 Base Attack Bonus requirement and he also may need a 13 strength for a Bastard Sword or Dwarven Waraxe.