Radiating Gnome
Adventurer
Velenne said:
Your party may expect you to pick locks or disable traps, but let the mage figure it out with a Knock spell, or just let a Summoned Creature open the door. Sure, there will be times when s/he may not be able to do that, but when you get to higher levels, it's more often than not a wasted skill.
The one thing I would say to this is that spells come in fairly limited supply, and you can use your skill all day. Don't make open locks/disarm traps a priority, but work at them some. If you have to choose between the two, short Open Locks, with which you can take 20, and work on disarm traps, with which you cannot, usually.
So you're priority list for skills should be something like this:
Tumble
Move Silent
Hide
Search (Need to find stuff)
Spot (Need a good spot if you're going to be able to take advantage of sneak attacks in a surprise round)
Use Magic Device
Then you can fill in with some options:
Bluff - if your rogue is any sort of b@lls@tter, this is what he wants.
Jump/Climb/Balance - coupled with Tumble to make the rogue as mobile as possible
Disable Device/Open Locks - see above
Pick Pocket - can also be used to hide items on your person, palm small items, etc, whcih can be very uselful.
Listen
Sense Motive - you need this to spot someone else's bluff
Disguise - all sorts of ways this can be handy
Escape artist - this is another good one to have -- escape artist can be used in lieu of a strength test when you're trying to get out of a grapple.
and so on . . .
See? Even with a high INT there just aren't enough skill points to go around.
-rg