Rogues, next to Fighters, are the best base class in my humble opinion. I beat the original NWN campaign with a pure rogue, and every expansion or mod I have played since then I have used some type of rogue (HotU I finished with a Rogue/Fighter/Weapon Master). They are the second-most flexible base class, without any kind of restrictions, and can be the hardest to kill.
First, we should examine their weaknesses. They are notoriously weak-willed and are susceptible to any kind of magical mental domination effects and also to shiny objects. It goes with the territory, a person doesn't become a rogue if he is able to overcome temptation.
They are not very strong of body, either. They have only d6 for hit dice, and usually have low Fortitude saves. This is the price you pay for being agile and limber, I suppose.
They only get average feat selections up until level 10 (1 every 3 levels), unlike the Fighter who gets one feat every other level plus the standard alottment.
Rogues have the same AB progression as clerics, bards, druids and monks. Fair to middlin'. By level 20, they get 3 attacks per round.
Rogue weapons are rather pitiful without taking feats to improve their selection.
Now, knowing the weaknesses of the class, let's look at the strengths.
The weasly rogue has a fantastic reflex save. While the fighter bulls his way through fireballs and lightning bolts, taking the full impact of most area effect spells, the rogue dances his way through such hazards with nary a scratch. After level 10 and Improved Evasion, this is doubly true.
Where the fighter gets "too many" feats, the rogue gets "too many" skill points. And just about everything is a class skill for a rogue.
There are three major draws to playing a rogue: avoiding damage, avoiding detection, and sneak attacks. While the big, bold, heavily armored fighter runs up and engages the enemy head-on, taking the brunt of the enemy's attacks, the rogue sidles up behind and unleashes death from afar. The 20th level rogue can do more damage, on average, with the same weapon as a 20th level fighter if he uses it properly.
Example: +5 longsword
20th level half-orc fighter, STR 24, longsword +5 (using a shield) d8 + 7 (strength bonus 1-handed) +5 (weapon enhancement) +1d4 (Dirty Fighting feat) +2 (weapon specialization) = max 26 damage (52 on a critical)
20th level halfling rogue, STR 12, longsword +5 d8 + 1 (strength bonus) +5 (weapon enhancement) +10d6 (sneak damage) = max 74 damage (88 on a critical)
So the little sneaky rogue, half the size and with half the strength of the mighty half-orc fighter, does nearly 3 times the damage using the same exact weapon.
This is, of course, assuming that the engagement ever comes to a melee showdown. The rogue has many tricks up his sleeve to avoid this kind of unnecessary violence.
He can set dangerous, deadly traps and lure his opponents through a maze of death, weakening them horribly or even killing them outright before they ever come close enough to hit him. With his ability to fake the qualities of other classes and races, he can use powerful magic scrolls, wands, rods, staves, etc.
Next to fighters, rogues make the best archers. The rogue is the run-and-gun type: sneak in unseen, fire off a few rounds at the enemy's back, and run away really fast, preferrably through a maze of wicked traps.
Rogues do not need big, powerful weapons to score huge damage. A rogue with a little dagger is just as deadly as a huge fighter with a greatsword or a scythe. The rogue just has to be smarter.
Rogue bonus feats are devious and brutal. Improved evasion is a personal favorite, especially when fighting against "fireball" sorcerers. There is a level of satisfaction that comes with being completely missed by a deadly infernal explosion that utterly destroys everything around you. Slippery Mind is the mental version of physical evasion, allowing re-rolls on failed Will saves. In the Epic levels, Epic Dodge is one of the best feats going. That guy that keeps Dev Critting you over and over again will be gritting his teeth in frustration as you duck out of the first attack completely and then run away using Blinding Speed before he can get the second attack to land.
Creating an effective rogue can be difficult, as each stat has its own important role to play.
STR is important when using large weapons, but can be bypassed with Weapon Finesse or by using ranged weapons. An average STR score (10-12) is probably adequate.
DEX is probably the most important Rogue ability, *** most Rogue class skills are either DEX- or INT-based. You will likely want this to be as high as possible.
CON is of fair importance because of the low HP and mediocre FORT saves. 12-14 is probably sufficient, though you may want to go higher.
INT is very important. You will want an INT score of at least 14 to qualify for feats like Expertise, and to get as many skill points as possible. You have a lot of skills to fill out.
WIS is about as important as STR, in my opinion. You may wish to compensate for the abysmally low WILL saves by dumping points into WIS, but personally I never bother. I generally leave WIS at 8. It is only used for 2 Rogue class skills (Spot and Listen) and can be compensated for by taking the feat Alertness and by maxing it out with skill points.
CHA is used for Use Magic Device. On a RP server, you probably want a fairly high CHA score (14-ish) to seem more believable when you are denying your misdeeds. On a PvP server, CHA is far less important to the rogue. UMD functions by ranks and you are not likely to spend much time using the Bluff skill.
There are several different styles of rogue you can play.
The Thief is the sort of "base" rogue, with lots of points in stealth and detection abilities, and the ability to pick pockets.
The Thug is a hard-hitting miscreant who can deliver devastating blows from points of opportunity. The focus here is on the sneak attack. Fighter/Rogue or Barbarian/Rogue is the best bet here.
The Artful Dodger is the epitome of avoidance. Combining the rogue's abilities to avoid physical danger and detection with magical abilities is a handy way to stay alive for longer. Rogue/Wizard, Rogue/Sorcerer, and Rogue/Shadowdancer are good examples of these. Concealment and evasion are powerful allies and frustrating opponents.
The Finesse fighter: Rogue/Fighter/Weapon Master, Rogue/Fighter/Assassin, Rogue/Bard, Rogue/Monk... quick and nimble, using light weapons to devastating effect.
I have found that rogue mixes well with just about every class. In a roleplaying sense, they are simply the most fun to play. In a PvP sense, they are often the most frustrating opponents because they are so dodgy and hard to hit, and when they get in behind you, you often don't realize it until you are dead.
slight disagrement with you on the archer part.... rogues are better! good dex with uncanny dodge and sneak attack is alot more usefully than good dex without uncanny dodge and WS.
of course Arcana Archer builds are naster, but a rougue/fighter make a good archer character, plus it a rogue!
Also you might want to talk aboot the heavy/medium rogue/fighter style character in this topic. _________________ the number of questions people ask that could be simply answered by looking in the manual is simply amazing....
of course Arcana Archer builds are naster, but a rougue/fighter make a good archer character, plus it a rogue!
There is nothing wrong with a rogue based Arcane archer. In fact it's the way I prefer to go if I make a rogue archer. _________________ There are no facts, only interpretations.
I'm new to NWN and still haven't played sou or hotu but I was told that I wouldn't be able to get my char past lvl 18, that the campaign is too short. So how do you finish hotu with 3 different classes? Is that possible, if it is great. I mostly play online but if I can get my char to lvl 40 on the campaigns I'll start playing them again.
Thanks
You can finish any of the official campaigns with 3 classes. In the original game, you can get a single-classed character up to level 20 (I ended it with a lvl 20 rogue). SOU is a lot shorter, and you end up around lvl 12 (broke tradition and used a wizard for this). HotU starts at lvl 15 and finishes around lvl 25 (used rogue/fighter/WM). The only way to finish these campaigns with lvl 40 characters is to use a separate mod to create the character you want to use.