Stormrunner
Explorer
12d6? Unless you've somehow found a light weapon that does 2d6 base damage, you must be talking Epic-level rogue now. First 2nd level, then 10th level, now Epic-level... since I don't have the Epic book nor intend to get it, let's nail this example down to 10th level, since most campaigns are likely to progress that far.
Assuming a moderately-maxed but not totally munchkin character, let's make him a halfling (to maximize his Ac and attack bonus) who rolled an 18 for Dex and put both his attribute increases into it as well, for a total Dex of 22 (18 +2 for race +2 increases), which is a +6 Dex modifier. 10th level rogue has a BAB of +7/+2, his size gives him +1 on AC and attacks, so he has a touch AC of 17 and an attack (not counting weapon bonuses) of +14/+9. He has four feats, you specified Acrobatic, Two-Weapon Fighting and Skill Focus:Tumble; we'll say the fourth is Dodge (he's working towards Spring Attack).
As a 10th level character he has 49.000gp to spend. Multiple low-bonus items are cheaper than a single high-bonus item, so we'll give him magic armor, a magic buckler, a ring of protection, an amulet of natural armor, and gloves of dexterity. Since he's a sneak-attacker, he'll want a sword of subtlety (22,310 gp). With the rest he can get a mithril shirt +3(10,100gp), darkwood buckler +2(4,205gp), ring of protection +1(2,000gp), amulet of NA +1(2,000gp), and gloves of dexterity +2(4,000gp). This leaves him with 4,385 gp - he could buy a cloak of resistance +2, or a +1 cloak and a +1 short sword for his off hand. Let's go with the latter.
With equipment bonuses added in, our halfling rogue has AC 31 (18 touch +5 armor/shield +5 enhancements +1 ring +1 amulet +1 Dodge) and attack of +16/+11 (+19/+14 when sneak attacking), or with TWF +14/+14/+9 (+17/+17/+12 sneak). Most CR10 critters have AC in the 18-25 range, so this is pretty darn good, practically a guaranteed hit against most foes. A halfling-size short sword does 1d4: we'll assume no Str bonus since his high stats should have gone into Dex, Int, Wis, and Con, so his sneak attacks do 1d4+5d6+4 with the sword of subtlety and 1d4+5d6+1 with the off-hand blade. This is an average of 24(primary) or 21(secondary) damage, max 38 or 35. Without sneak attack, his damage is only average 6.5 or 3.5, max 8 or 5. Average hit points for a lvl10 rogue with Con 12 are 47.5, rounded to 48.
Opponent #1: centaur Barbarian 1/Ranger 6 (CR 10, ECL 13). It's tempting to put her 18 in Str, but since centaurs habitually fight in the nude she's better off putting it in Dex to pump her AC. The total of her centaur hit dice and class levels gives her 2 stat increases and 4 feats, just like the halfling: we'll use the stat increases to raise her Wis from 11 to 12 and her Con from 17 to 18. She ends up with Str 24, Dex 22, Con 18 after racial bonuses. Her BAB is +10/+5, size gives her -1 on Ac and attacks, so with no equipment she has touch AC 15 (+6 Dex -1 size) and attack +17/+12 melee(+ 2 hooves at +13/+13), +16/+11 ranged. Her feats are Dodge, Weapon Focus(hoof), Power Attack, and Quick Draw. Her ranger levels also give her Track, Endurance, Two-Weapon Fighting, and Improved Two-Weapon Fighting as bonus feats. To keep things simple we'll say she has no animal companion; since this nerfs her a bit we'll take halfling as her second favored enemy to compensate (giving her a +2 to damage vs our rogue). With ITWF her melee attack becomes +15/+15/+10/+10, plus two hoof attacks at +11/+11.
Equipping her is tricky - do we give her the equipment of a lvl7 PC, a lvl13 PC, a lvl10 NPC, a CR10 monster, or what? I'll say lvl 10 NPC, which gives her a mere 16,000 gp. We'll arm her with a longsword(30gp), a shortsword(20gp), a mighty(Str 24) composite longbow(1,600gp), and 40 arrows(4gp). All these are Large versions, so their base cost doubles (though the costs of masterwork and enchantment do not). This leaves us with 14,346gp. Making the swords and the bow masterwork costs another 900 gp; enchanting both swords to +1 is another 4,000gp, leaving us with 9,446. She takes bracers of armor +1(1,000gp), ring of protection +1(2,000gp), gauntlets of ogre power +2(4,000gp) and amulet of natural armor +1(2,000gp). Note that under 3.5 the amulet stacks with her racial natural armor (in 3.0 it did not). With all equipment bonuses her AC is 21 (touch 15, natural +3, bracers +1, ring +1, amulet+1) and her melee attack is +19/+14(hooves +14/+14), with ITWF +17/+17/+12/+12(hooves+12/+12).
Damage per hit is 2d6+9 for the longsword, 1d8+5 for the shortsword, 1d6+4 per hoof, giving averages of 16, 9.5, and 7.5 respectively, max 21, 13, and 10. Average hit points are (8+3d8+1d12+6d8+44)=99.
(some spreadsheet work later) Against the rogue's AC of 31, the centaur is better off using ITWF, dealing an average of 14.6 damage/round (16.8 counting the favored enemy bonus). If she can make a full attack each round, it will take her only 2.85 rounds to kill him. If she rages, she does 22.9 (25.1 with FEB), 2.1 rounds (1.9 with FEB).
Against the centaur's AC of 21, the rogue's chance to hit is considerably better, especially if he catches her flat-footed the first round. First round he tumbles and sneak attacks for an average of 22.8 (remember, he might still miss on a roll of 1), then if he can make a full set of sneak attacks every round he deals an average of 52.65 damage/round, killing the centaur in another 1.45 rounds (1.83 if she rages). So IF he can surprise her, then follow up with 2 rounds of full sneak attacks, she's dogfood. But if he can make only 1 sneak attack per round, that's only 20.4 damage/round (3.74 or 4.72 rounds to make the kill, plus the first surprise round).
Actually, I forgot to add in the effect of criticals, but the centaur, being stronger and wielding larger weapons, would benefit more from crits. So the contest is even closer.
It essentially comes down to who gets initiative. If the rogue rolls higher (and remember, she has the same Dex, and neither one took Improved Initiative) AND can somehow arrange for his second full attack sequence to be sneak attacks, he will win more often than not, but loses about half his hit points in the process. Otherwise, he's toast.
Of course, nothing says that she HAS to go toe-to-hoof with him for three rounds. If I was her, and a tumbling rogue landed 3-4 sneak attacks on me for half my hit points, I'd Withdraw on my action, putting me 120 feet away (double move, racial speed 50 +10 for barbarian). Then hit him with an Entangle - he'll save, but it still limits him to half-speed, so it'll take three or four rounds for him to get out, enough time for 6-8 arrow shots. And her arrows do 2d6+7 per hit.
Assuming a moderately-maxed but not totally munchkin character, let's make him a halfling (to maximize his Ac and attack bonus) who rolled an 18 for Dex and put both his attribute increases into it as well, for a total Dex of 22 (18 +2 for race +2 increases), which is a +6 Dex modifier. 10th level rogue has a BAB of +7/+2, his size gives him +1 on AC and attacks, so he has a touch AC of 17 and an attack (not counting weapon bonuses) of +14/+9. He has four feats, you specified Acrobatic, Two-Weapon Fighting and Skill Focus:Tumble; we'll say the fourth is Dodge (he's working towards Spring Attack).
As a 10th level character he has 49.000gp to spend. Multiple low-bonus items are cheaper than a single high-bonus item, so we'll give him magic armor, a magic buckler, a ring of protection, an amulet of natural armor, and gloves of dexterity. Since he's a sneak-attacker, he'll want a sword of subtlety (22,310 gp). With the rest he can get a mithril shirt +3(10,100gp), darkwood buckler +2(4,205gp), ring of protection +1(2,000gp), amulet of NA +1(2,000gp), and gloves of dexterity +2(4,000gp). This leaves him with 4,385 gp - he could buy a cloak of resistance +2, or a +1 cloak and a +1 short sword for his off hand. Let's go with the latter.
With equipment bonuses added in, our halfling rogue has AC 31 (18 touch +5 armor/shield +5 enhancements +1 ring +1 amulet +1 Dodge) and attack of +16/+11 (+19/+14 when sneak attacking), or with TWF +14/+14/+9 (+17/+17/+12 sneak). Most CR10 critters have AC in the 18-25 range, so this is pretty darn good, practically a guaranteed hit against most foes. A halfling-size short sword does 1d4: we'll assume no Str bonus since his high stats should have gone into Dex, Int, Wis, and Con, so his sneak attacks do 1d4+5d6+4 with the sword of subtlety and 1d4+5d6+1 with the off-hand blade. This is an average of 24(primary) or 21(secondary) damage, max 38 or 35. Without sneak attack, his damage is only average 6.5 or 3.5, max 8 or 5. Average hit points for a lvl10 rogue with Con 12 are 47.5, rounded to 48.
Opponent #1: centaur Barbarian 1/Ranger 6 (CR 10, ECL 13). It's tempting to put her 18 in Str, but since centaurs habitually fight in the nude she's better off putting it in Dex to pump her AC. The total of her centaur hit dice and class levels gives her 2 stat increases and 4 feats, just like the halfling: we'll use the stat increases to raise her Wis from 11 to 12 and her Con from 17 to 18. She ends up with Str 24, Dex 22, Con 18 after racial bonuses. Her BAB is +10/+5, size gives her -1 on Ac and attacks, so with no equipment she has touch AC 15 (+6 Dex -1 size) and attack +17/+12 melee(+ 2 hooves at +13/+13), +16/+11 ranged. Her feats are Dodge, Weapon Focus(hoof), Power Attack, and Quick Draw. Her ranger levels also give her Track, Endurance, Two-Weapon Fighting, and Improved Two-Weapon Fighting as bonus feats. To keep things simple we'll say she has no animal companion; since this nerfs her a bit we'll take halfling as her second favored enemy to compensate (giving her a +2 to damage vs our rogue). With ITWF her melee attack becomes +15/+15/+10/+10, plus two hoof attacks at +11/+11.
Equipping her is tricky - do we give her the equipment of a lvl7 PC, a lvl13 PC, a lvl10 NPC, a CR10 monster, or what? I'll say lvl 10 NPC, which gives her a mere 16,000 gp. We'll arm her with a longsword(30gp), a shortsword(20gp), a mighty(Str 24) composite longbow(1,600gp), and 40 arrows(4gp). All these are Large versions, so their base cost doubles (though the costs of masterwork and enchantment do not). This leaves us with 14,346gp. Making the swords and the bow masterwork costs another 900 gp; enchanting both swords to +1 is another 4,000gp, leaving us with 9,446. She takes bracers of armor +1(1,000gp), ring of protection +1(2,000gp), gauntlets of ogre power +2(4,000gp) and amulet of natural armor +1(2,000gp). Note that under 3.5 the amulet stacks with her racial natural armor (in 3.0 it did not). With all equipment bonuses her AC is 21 (touch 15, natural +3, bracers +1, ring +1, amulet+1) and her melee attack is +19/+14(hooves +14/+14), with ITWF +17/+17/+12/+12(hooves+12/+12).
Damage per hit is 2d6+9 for the longsword, 1d8+5 for the shortsword, 1d6+4 per hoof, giving averages of 16, 9.5, and 7.5 respectively, max 21, 13, and 10. Average hit points are (8+3d8+1d12+6d8+44)=99.
(some spreadsheet work later) Against the rogue's AC of 31, the centaur is better off using ITWF, dealing an average of 14.6 damage/round (16.8 counting the favored enemy bonus). If she can make a full attack each round, it will take her only 2.85 rounds to kill him. If she rages, she does 22.9 (25.1 with FEB), 2.1 rounds (1.9 with FEB).
Against the centaur's AC of 21, the rogue's chance to hit is considerably better, especially if he catches her flat-footed the first round. First round he tumbles and sneak attacks for an average of 22.8 (remember, he might still miss on a roll of 1), then if he can make a full set of sneak attacks every round he deals an average of 52.65 damage/round, killing the centaur in another 1.45 rounds (1.83 if she rages). So IF he can surprise her, then follow up with 2 rounds of full sneak attacks, she's dogfood. But if he can make only 1 sneak attack per round, that's only 20.4 damage/round (3.74 or 4.72 rounds to make the kill, plus the first surprise round).
Actually, I forgot to add in the effect of criticals, but the centaur, being stronger and wielding larger weapons, would benefit more from crits. So the contest is even closer.
It essentially comes down to who gets initiative. If the rogue rolls higher (and remember, she has the same Dex, and neither one took Improved Initiative) AND can somehow arrange for his second full attack sequence to be sneak attacks, he will win more often than not, but loses about half his hit points in the process. Otherwise, he's toast.
Of course, nothing says that she HAS to go toe-to-hoof with him for three rounds. If I was her, and a tumbling rogue landed 3-4 sneak attacks on me for half my hit points, I'd Withdraw on my action, putting me 120 feet away (double move, racial speed 50 +10 for barbarian). Then hit him with an Entangle - he'll save, but it still limits him to half-speed, so it'll take three or four rounds for him to get out, enough time for 6-8 arrow shots. And her arrows do 2d6+7 per hit.
