Modifying a Rogue: What this worth?

[Vymair]

Does anyone know what page this is on? All I can find is the wilderness rogue variant.

p 58 Unearthed Arcana. It's a one-page rundown of other class variants that follows the section where you found the Wilderness Rogue.

 

[Tessarael]

Okay, for the most part, the rogue class is the only class that can find and remove traps but what would it be worth if you removed that class ability?

What about removing sneak attack?

Trapfinding is a weak ability on it's own. You need the Search skill as well. I don't think it's unbalanced to just let everyone find traps with Search without needing any Trapfinding ability. The Rogue doesn't need compensation for this in my opinion.

Sneak Attack ... The Sneak Attack mechanic strikes me as somewhat weird, so I've thought about removing it. As I understand it, 3E combat was balanced assuming that Rogues get to Sneak Attack much of the time. i.e. Rogues are meant to be dangerous in combat. Ok, so let's get rid of Sneak Attack and gives Rogues BAB 1/1. With Power Attack, +1 BAB buys you +2 damage all the time, so we'll say this is roughly worth 1d6 of Sneak Attack. Hmmm, then the Rogue is still down 5d6 Sneak Attack - give him feats instead, I'd even allow Weapon Specialization (ala Arcana Unearthed style access to Weapon Specialization for everyone).

On a similar note, Uncanny Dodge and Improved Uncanny Dodge are worth about one feat each.

Let's take a look at what this would look like, to check that it is balanced:

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Abilities
1st +1 +0 +2 +0
2nd +2 +0 +3 +0 Evasion
3rd +3 +1 +3 +1 Bonus feat, trap sense +1
4th +4 +1 +4 +1 Uncanny dodge
5th +5 +1 +4 +1
6th +6 +2 +5 +2 Trap sense +2
7th +7 +2 +5 +2 Bonus feat
8th +8 +2 +6 +2 Improved uncanny dodge
9th +9 +3 +6 +3 Trap sense +3
10th +10 +3 +7 +3 Special ability
11th +11 +3 +7 +3 Bonus feat
12th +12 +4 +8 +4 Trap sense +4
13th +13 +4 +8 +4 Special ability
14th +14 +4 +9 +4
15th +15 +5 +9 +5 Bonus feat, trap sense +5
16th +16 +5 +10 +5 Special ability
17th +17 +5 +10 +5
18th +18 +6 +11 +6 Trap sense +6
19th +19 +6 +11 +6 Bonus feat
20th +20 +6 +12 +6 Special ability

Re: Swashbuckler

Yep, Swashbuckler is not that great in my opinion either. Look at Unfettered in Arcana Unearthed instead - that class seems about equal to a Fighter in my opinion.

Just my thoughts ...