Search skill useful for a rogue?

[Lord Pendragon]

My favorite is the forcecage/summon monster VII combo.

Thats just plain wrong.

For a cheaper CR, just use a pit trap and a SM VII or Nature's ally pairing.

Haven't personally encountered any of these yet. And believe me, I won't be mentioning them to my DM!

After trying to disarm the Phantasmal Killer trap twice, and making the will save (barely) twice, a very shaken-up rogue had to ask the druid to burn his only Dispel Magic. Nasty, nasty stuff...

 

[Ma'varkith]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Search skill useful for a rogue?

Really? All the people I know who've played rogues (including yours truly) went for high dex and int. It's never occurred to any of us not to have an int of less than 14. Minimum. Huh. We've all emphasized int over wis. *shrugs*

Yup. There are far too many "must have" skills on a Rogue's list, even with the 8 points per level!

Nearly every Rogue I've seen played in 3e has had INT as one of his three highest stats. Like others have pointed out, there are several ways to get around encumbrance (make the Fighter carry the loot!) and Sneak Attack w / flanking gives much better damage than an extra point or two from strength. Having a high Wis and Con is nice (I usually take Con as my third-highest stat) for Saves and such, but skills are the Rogue's specialty!

The reason I mentioned taking 10 instead of 20 is that it doesn't take any extra time to do so.

 

[Petrosian]

INT bonus rogues are also common in my games...

 

[UD]

My favorite is the forcecage/summon monster VII combo.

Thats just plain wrong.

For a cheaper CR, just use a pit trap and a SM VII or Nature's ally pairing.

Ive lost a rogue to this trap... *huffs*

 

[shilsen]

Yes, they can, but remember it takes 40 minutes for every 5 ft square. You will run into other problems eventually (like monsters seeing you while you are unable to stop them since you are paranoid about traps, going for their buddies, and soon you have the whole dungeon at once)

And about the int: I think int is the most important stat. The rogue I am currently playing has stats 10,15,14,16,11,12. Ok, at lvl 4 I will be raising my dex so it gets at the same level as int. I could raise int later, since it is not retrospective and I needed those 7 extra skillpoints I am human, and have one skillpoint less than the maximum possible, and I am still short in them.

You're wrong about the time taken for every 5 ft square. It's a full round (6 seconds) to search a 5 ft square, so taking 20 takes 20 times as long, or 2 minutes. It still tends to add up, and makes taking 20 on Search next to unusuable for anything other than on a treasure chest.

And I agree with you and everyone who's posted before about the importance of Int to a rogue. I'm playing an elven rog/rgr, and I have a 16 in Int. That's 105 ranks over 8 levels! And having a good Search score has saved the party many a time.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If I will ever play a fulltime-rogue (and not a Dragon Star Pilot who just took the levels for the skill points), I really think about getting Skill Focus (house-ruled to +3 bonus) Search and Disable Device, perhaps even Use Magic Device.
No room for "combat related" feats, but who cares? I can still flank and sneak, that is dangerous enough...

 

[Christian]

Re: Re: Re: Search skill useful for a rogue?

I know Detect Secret Doors does not detect traps, but once that spell is known the other main reason for continuing to improved the seach skill is gone. Perhaps my DM is unusal - dc's for traps at 1st lvl started out at around 20, and at 8th lvl are around 26. What were simple pit traps are now multiple dart traps, each treated with poison.

Making it all the more imperative to avoid the trap rather than suck up the consequences. In any case, trap DC's shouldn't get a whole lot higher than you're seeing now ...

We also use the point buy creation method (28pts). Since rogues highest score is usually dex, you need a good strength to say only lightly encumbered, you need a good con (in part to resist poison) and a good wis for listen and spot, rogues with int mods are rare.

Very shortsighted. Ability bonuses to skills are swamped by skill ranks pretty quickly-but to add ranks to all the skills you might want, 8 points per level doesn't cut it. Encumbrance shouldn't be a big issue beyond low levels (what does a rogue really need to carry, anyway?), and an extra point or two of Con bonus to saves does not come anywhere near making up for the poor Fortitude save progression. If you're really worried about that, blow a feat on Great Fortitude-but don't sacrificie Intelligence points at character creation.