Which Feat for this Tiefling?

The Cardinal · Mar 13, 2002

the PC in question is a female Tiefling

Str 12
Dex 20
Con 12
Int 14
Wis 8
Cha 12

who just went from Rogue 2 to Rogue 3. Her starting feat was Weapon Finesse (Rapier), and she is a swashbuckling catburglar type of rogue. She never uses bows or crossbows, but she loves dagger & darts. So far, her key equipment is a mithril chainshirt, a masterwork rapier, and a set of Eyes of the Eagle - she just aquired a (still unidentified) magical dagger. She will probably remain a straight rogue for the rest of her career.

Question: What feat would you recommend for her new 3rd level?

pontus · Mar 13, 2002

How did you manage to get Weapon Finesse as a starting feat when you're a rogue?

JacktheRabbit · Mar 13, 2002

Iron will for sure. Otherwise that 8 wisdom is going to just kill your long term survival.

StealthyMark · Mar 13, 2002

Iron Will is good. And it helps you to qualify for Holy Liberator.

Your low Con suggests to stay out of melee. If continue using daggers/darts, consider Point Blank Shot, Far Shot, Quick Draw and Precise Shot. And Rapid Shot. What about some Fighter levels?

novyet · Mar 13, 2002

Well since you want to stay straight rogue all the way, then consider feats that help your rogue skills, like stealthy, or that boost your bluffing skills for feinting in combat. Feats like flick of the wrist, quick draw, improved init (if you really want to max out your init score). I think song and silence has a feat called acrobatic, which gives +2 to tumble and either balance or jump, I don't remember which. Since you're not the true melee type you could work your way up to spring attack, and attack on the move. The archery feats would help since you mentioned your character likes daggers. At 6th level hamstring isn't a bad feat for you to take.

Mustrum_Ridcully · Mar 13, 2002

if the following things apply, use my advice below:
a) The rogue has to find and disable traps very often.
b) You`re group houseruled Skill Focus to give a +3 skill bonus.
Get Skill Focus on Search or Disable Device (the first will "gurantee" that you find traps, the second that you disable them without killing yourself...)

In all other cases, it is difficult to say what is best for you...
Perhaps Iron Will will really do you good. (Though I believe most player characters that are being affected by will based effects are fighters and barbarians. They are the obvious threat...)

jollyninja · Mar 13, 2002

i am an advocate of throw anything and the various missile weapon based feats point blank, precise shot for rogues. that way you can pick and choose when to take advantage of flanking warriors and still help out in combat while you wait, or dodge, working your way to spring attack, alot of your enemies will do more damage per attack then you, it's allways nice to pop in and out quickly for flanking sneak attacks, leaving them the warrior type who you just flanked with as the more appealing target.

if the party is big, i would go with the missle weapon tactic, if it's small, i would go with dodge (as you will probably be forced into melee combat more often) on your way to spring attack. anything that ups a rogue's AC is a nice bonus to have. you'll never have great armor (skill penalties really limit the class) and will need to move around, sometimes through threatened squares to flank and make yourself useful. this makes dodge, mobility and spring attack gold to your character's long life.

that said, that wisdom might become a problem later but for now, i would not focus on it, i might use my stat raises on wis though just to get rid of the penalties to spot and listen as well as the save. being hiddeen is great but if you can't find your enemy, you are totally screwed.

thatdarncat · Mar 13, 2002

I'd also suggest either skill focus +3 to one skill or a +2 to two skills.

that said, iron will would also be a good choice - as a DM I love characters will low Will saves

strongbow · Mar 14, 2002

I would move towards Flick of the Wrist by picking up Quick Draw. When you say she is going to remain a rogue, I hope you mean rogue type. There are some pretty nice rogue prestige classes out there. Since you have an Int of 14, you probably like a lot of skills. Check out the spymaster prestige class in Song & Silence. It has both Reflex AND Will as the good saves, gets the full 8 +Int modifier skills per level, and has undectable alignment as a class ability at 2nd level. Even beyond that, there are a few classes that you don't have to give up too much to qualify.

The Cardinal,If you don't have access to Song & Silence or would like more advice, post here again

Gromm · Mar 15, 2002

If youre going for a swashbukcler type, head towards spring attack, all the feats are pretty good along that line (though mobility will be less useful once your tumbling gets really high), and spring attack lets you maximize your sneak attacks easily.

Don't worry about your skills so much, in my experience around level 10 or so rogues are basically invisible and silent all the time, just pick up a cloak/boots of elvenkind and your rolls will be higher than any non-rogue can probably have a chance of detecting (+25 will do that, min DC 26- most characters are lucky to get a +4).