Help on a rogue?

[Particle_Man]

4d6! You lucky lucky bastard!

If you rolled 4d6 drop the lowest and got those stats, I would strongly recommend you play a monk. You will likely never get good enough stats to play a monk again. And monks are good in combat (well, they are with THOSE ability scores) and can be good at sneaking. Put the 14 in Chr, 18s in Str and Con, and be a half-orc (free darkvision!). Get HIde/MS/Spot/Listen/Tumble/Balance (for example). Instead of Staggering Strike get Improved Natural Attack from the MM. Also see if the DM would allow Tome of Battle feats, as there is one that lets you do damage as a monk four levels higher. Quick Reconnoiter and Combat Acrobat are still nice to have. Weapon Focus (unarmed) never hurts.

An LE monk would actually be quite interesting. At 12th level you are immune to poison (a common worry for rogues) and have Spell Resistance. Your movement rate is insane, as is your number of attacks per round on a flurry (no penalty to hit at this level!). I suppose you could go for TWF feats to make even more attacks per round.

 

[kapa]

i just went full rogue, thx for the advice tho guys ^_^. Improved feint is so fun to use with sneak attack

 

[Arkhandus]

Dang. I would've suggested a Rogue 3/Ranger 6/Shadowdancer 3, or Rogue 3/Ranger 2/Shadowdancer 7, or Rogue 7/Ranger 2/Shadowdancer 3.

You'd become a pretty nasty two-weapon fighter this way, and a pretty sneaky one at that, with a Shadow or two following you around silently, passing through walls and floors, moving into flanking position as you prepare to unleash two-weapon fury on enemies. You'd also be pretty awesome with skills, though a bit behind a pure Rogue or Bard.

Probably take Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Kukri) and Improved Critical (Kukri), to deliver frequent critical hits as well as sneak attacks. You'd have a Base Attack of +10/+5 or +9/+4 this way, so only a little behind a pure Fighter in attack frequency/accuracy. Going with Human for race, you'd probably take Dodge and Mobility at 1st-level, Combat Reflexes at 3rd (to qualify for Shadowdancer as soon as possible), Exotic Weapon Proficiency at 6th, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting at 9th (or Weapon Focus with the Kukri, if you go with the Ranger 6 setup, which would provide Imp.TWF for free), Improved Critical at 12th.

With Str 18 and a pair of +2 kukri, you'll get something like an attack sequence of +16/+11/+16/+11 or +15/+10/+15/+10, before considering the +2 flanking bonus you'll likely have with your Shadow companion(s) and/or animal companion, dealing 1d4+2+4+2d6(or 4d6 with the Rog7/Rgr2/Shd3 setup) damage with the two primary-hand attacks each round and 1d4+2+2+2d6 damage with the two off-hand attacks each round.

Your Favored Enemy ability would of course include Humans as the first favored enemy, though I don't know what good 2nd favored enemy you could choose if you went with the Ranger 6 build (not sure what kinda urban campaign it will be). Two +1 humanbane kukris would be even better if you could afford them (without sacrificing too much in the handy-magic-items department). In place of kukris, though, you might go with a two-bladed sword, or perhaps an orc double axe, yielding more raw damage with most hits, but you'd rarely get crits this way (not sure whether that would matter so much though with these builds).


.....of course, a Rogue 3/Monk 9 ninja-like half-orc build would be pretty cool too, with Str 20, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 18, and Cha 12. Buy up some good Bracers of Armor, a good Ring of Protection, and Amulet of Natural Armor, maybe a Monk's Belt or maybe not, and you'd be pretty formidable. And one scary-arse ninja!

 

[Dargon]

get the Adaptable Flanker Feat from PHB2 and a spiked chain. That Sneak attack is a killer.

 

[nittanytbone]

Do you want a trapfinder or a sneak-attacker?

The former is an essential function every party needs.

The latter is just a way to kill things.

For the former, I'd suggest Rogue 1/Cloistered Cleric 11. Because clerics rock just that much. Keep disable device and search maxed out through your career. Use Extend Spell --> Persistent Spell --> DMM Persistent spell to make Divine Power run all day. Bam, you're a better fighter than the fighter, and you have a bunch of skills and spells to boot. Awesome. You can even be an effective TWF with Divine Favor and Magic Weapon running plus your +1d6 of SA, or you can see if your DM will let you be a "Feat Rogue" and trade that 1d6 SA for a feat (UA variant).

For the latter, I'd suggest something more like:

Ranger 2 (for free TWF), Rogue 4 (for +2d6 SA, skills, evasion, and uncanny dodge), Swashbuckler 3 (for INT to damage and free Weapon Finesse). Then top off with the PrC of your choice (Assassin is an obvious choice, but anything with SA is good) or go up to Ranger 6 or more Rogue levels if PrCs are discouraged in your game. The key is to keep building bonus damage, which will accrue on each hand when you're Two Weapon Fighting. Be careful with your will save with this sort of build; it'll probably end up being terrible, so you might want to take the Iron Will feat (ugh) or find some other way to boost it.

 

[nittanytbone]

i just went full rogue, thx for the advice tho guys ^_^. Improved feint is so fun to use with sneak attack

Actually... They really don't work together at all.

Improved Feint limits you to a standard action (one attack).

Sneak Attack is at its best when you get multiple attacks, preferably through Rapid Shot or TWF.

So... Feinting precludes you from SAing effectively. The only way it is worthwhile is if you can do it as a Free action (There's a PrC, the Invisible Blade, I think, that allows you to do this).

 

[Machiavelli]

Or use Dual Strike [PHBII] with TWF to make 2 attacks as a standard action. That's double the sneak attack damage. Yummy!

 

[Shellman]

Tumbling Feint feat from one of those Wotc 3.5 books gives you a bonus on bluff checks to feint after u tumble into melee.

 

[Darklone]

Or use Dual Strike [PHBII] with TWF to make 2 attacks as a standard action. That's double the sneak attack damage. Yummy!

No, it's not. Bounding Assault does. Dual Strike mentions explicitely that extra damage is only applied once... and you only make on attack roll IIRC.

Full attack actions with feints: Invisible blade PrClass.

 

[Machiavelli]

I must have been thinking of Two-Weapon Pounce. Dual Strike is... well, it just plain sucks.