The Rogue is an iconic and important class, and nearly any party is wise to include one. With the longest skill list and most skill points of any class but the Factotum, Rogues can fill the roles of Face, Scout, and Striker.
Table of Contents
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which tend to be more consistent than 3.5 handbooks. Because so little of 3.5 is available on the SRD, I will attempt to tag items with a superscript indicating their book of origin. For help identifying sourcebook abbreviations, see my Sourcebook Abbreviations Guide.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
It’s important to note that I generally omit campaign-setting specific content. I am of the opinion that those options are intended to be limited to campaigns run in those settings, and as such they don’t really apply to a generic campaign. Those options also tend to be wildly unbalanced and rarely receive errata. I also omit the use of “Flaws” since they allow a massive increase in power with essentially no cost to the character.
Rogue Class Features
: d6 hit points is hard, especially because so many Rogues go for melee builds.
: 2/3 BAB is hard for characters so dependent on weapon attacks for damage, especially for Two-Weapon Fighting builds, but with decent planning (and with Flanking) Rogues get by just fine.
: The Rogue’s only good save is Reflex, and with Evasion they’re very good at Reflex saves. Unfortunately, the Rogue doesn’t have any built-in means to overcome their poor Fortitude and Will saves.
: Simple weapons offer lots of options, but your go-to choices will be the Dagger, Short Sword, Rapier, and Shortbow for most builds.
: Short of the Factotum, the Rogue has the best skills in the game. Unfortunately, 8+ skill ranks isn’t enough to cover everything that a Rogue can do, even with substantial Intelligence.
: The Rogue’s primary source of damage output. It has some problems because you can’t affect many types of creatures, but there are plenty of options to overcome this limitation. Sneak Attack can be further customized and improved with Ambush Feats
: Not useful in absolutely every campaign, but absolutely essential in campaigns with traps.
(Ex): Fantastic for surviving fireballs and other AOE effects which would normally run through your shallow pool of hit points with ease.
(Ex): Very situational.
(Ex): Situational, but it allows you to do silly things like Fight Defensively every round while you’re walking around for an easy AC boost.
(Ex): Very situational.
: Special Abilities are interesting, but they’re just not flashy and powerful enough to keep most people in single-class Rogue long enough to reach them.
- (Ex): Like an Ambush Feat, this adds a rider effect to your Sneak Attack. It doesn’t cost Sneak Attack damage dice, so it’s easy to combine with other rider effects. Strength Damage is a surprisingly good option. While it won’t outright murder things, large enemies with lots of Strength will become pitifully ineffective, and weak enemies with very poor Strength will be quickly incapacitated.
- (Ex): You should very rarely need this, and those rare times that you do your Cleric should have Revivify by this level.
- FF (Ex): You could live in the Frostfell full time, and this would still be mediocre at best.
- (Ex): Tempting and flashy, but by this level your Dexterity should be so absurd that you hardly ever fail Reflex Saves. I would honestly rather take Lightning Reflexes to improve the reliability of Evasion and to protect against non-damaging Reflex save effects.
- (Ex): If you have a flanking partner (and you should if you’re in melee), this is a fantastic option to boost your damage output.
- : There are very few skills where this is particularly useful. Tumble seems tempting, but at this level your Tumble bonus can easily outpace even the most difficult DC. UMD is probably your best bet, but by this level you should be very reliable with UMD if you plan to use it at all.
- (Ex): Only affects one school of magic. Enchantment is one of the scariest schools, but it’s too situational to justify spending a Special Ability to deal with it.
- : Feats are always a good idea.
Alternate Class Features
- CC: Appraise is garbage. Hire an NPC to appraise things, or cast Identify.
- DM: Even in dragon-heavy campaigns this isn’t particularly great.
- CC: Penetrating Strike is strictly better for melee Rogues, but Death’s Ruin works with ranged attacks.
- PHB2: A -5 to the targets AC is a heft penalty, especially if you have follow-up attacks or if you have allies who also make attack rolls. I have used this to great effect with a TWF Rogue.
- EoE: Suddenly becoming useless as an immediate action takes you out of a fight at least temporarily, but you gain immunity to a substantial list of effects which can outright kill you. Given the choice between spending your next turn waking up and dying this turn, which sounds worse?
- DotU: Depending on your interpretation of the rules, the “Drow Rogue” alternate class feature is available to all Rogues. Poison can be a lot of run if you really emphasize it, but giving up Trapfinding hurts when you can take Poison Expert as a feat.
- CC: High level, costly, and it only applies when your allies are standing adjacent to you.
- CC: Only worthwhile in extremely undead-heavy campaigns.
- EoE: Buy a hat of Disguise.
- DS: I have never seen a trap disabled in combat. If it happens, it doesn’t happen enough to justify this.
- DS: Absolutely essential for TWF Rogues.
- CM: Very few spells require attack rolls, which makes this much less useful than Evasion.
- CM: Very few spells require attack rolls, and there are much better things which can replace Trap Sense.
- DM: Even in dragon-heavy campaigns this isn’t particularly great.
- UA: Potentially helpful depending on your campaign, and very thematic for Ranger/Rogue builds.
Substitution Levels
- Planar RoguePH:
- : Very situational, and spellcasters can cast Anticipate Teleportation for the same effect.
- : One round once per day can’t match the potential of a Rogue Special Ability.
- : Buy a scroll of Blink, and use UMD.
Abilities
Rogues are conceptually SAD because they rely so heavily on Dexterity, but in reality they are about as MAD as a Fighter if they intend to do more than stab things.
: Even for melee builds, you can usually get away with dumping Strength. The Rogue’s damage dervices mostly from Sneak Attack, so a -1 or -2 from Strength won’t matter much.
: Every Rogue’s primary ability. It adds to almost everything the Rogue does.
: Essential for melee builds, but less so for ranged builds.
: Essential for filling out the Rogue’s enormous skill list.
: Take a bit to boost your poor Will saves.
: Take a bit if you plan to be a Face, but if someone else can do the talking you can dump it.
Races
Dexterity is crucial. Darkvision is nice to have, but not essential. Medium size is nice if you plan to be Reduced, but hardly essential.
: Darkvision is really the only thing which the Dwarf offers the Rogue. As nice as Darkvision can be, there are plenty of ways to get it on another race.
: Decent, especially with the Dexterity bonus, but not as helpful as Halfling or Human.
: Can’t compete with Halflings.
: Awful.
: Darkvision is really the only thing which the Dwarf offers the Rogue. As nice as Darkvision can be, there are plenty of ways to get it on another race.
: Small size grants a fantastic +4 to Hide, and the Halfling’s other racial bonuses work very well for Rogues. The bonus to Dexterity and penalty to Strength also work very well for Rogues
: A bonus feat and bonus skill points are both great for Rogues. You can become permanently Reduced to get the Halfling’s racial ability bonuses.
Skills
- (Int): Too situational.
- (Dex): Too situational.
- (Cha): Helpful for a Face.
- (Str): Too situational.
- (Int):Too situational.
- (Cha): Essential for a Face.
- (Int): Remove traps, sabotage siege engines, dismantle locks.
- (Cha): Too situational. Buy a Hat of Disguise.
- (Dex): Too situational.
- (Int): Too situational.
- (Cha): Helpful for a Face.
- (Dex): Essential for Scouts.
- (Cha): Helpful for a Face.
- (Str): Too situational. Buy a potion of Jump for 50gp.
- (Int): Nice for identifying Humanoids, and for many plot elements.
- (Wis): Not as important as Spot, but still very useful.
- (Dex): Essential for Scouts.
- (Dex): Open Lock makes sense, but you can use Disable Device to disassemble locks most of the time if your DM allows it, or you can UMD a scroll of Knock.
- (Cha): You are not a Bard.
- (Int): Essential for Scouts.
- (Wis): Helpful if you plan to play the Face.
- (Dex): Too situational.
- (Wis): Essential for Scouts.
- (Str): Too situational.
- (Dex): Situational. Useful if you like to rely on Fight Defensively, or if you like to move around a lot.
- (Cha): Arguably the most powerful skill in the game. With a bit of Charisma, this opens up a lot of very powerful magical options.
- (Dex): Too situational.
Feats
- Ascetic RogueCAd: Worthless for Rogues, and barely worthwhile for Monks. Note that the short description of the feat is wildly inaccurate.
- CoR: Arguably the most powerful feat ever written for Rogues. It’s a massive boost to your damage output, and because it keys off of your character level it continues to scale if you multiclass.
- PHB: Area control isn’t a thing that Rogus do, but Combat Reflexes opens up some other interesting feats. Combined with Savvy Rogue and the Opportunist Special Ability, this can get you a pile of extra attacks.
- PHB2: For TWF rogues flanking is a foregone conclusion, so Vexing Flanker is a
very frequent +2 to attacks.
- PHB2: Helpful if you’re having trouble staying in position to flank, but hardly essential.
- PHB2: This feat is the only way that crossbows are even slightly appealing.
- CS: Daring Outlaw is a cool option, but it’s considerably better for the Swashbuckler than it is for the Rogue.
- LoM: Absolutely crucial if you want to be stealthy at high levels. As you advance in level, more and more creatures will have abilities like blindsight and tremorsense. This negates those abilities, at least to the point that you can still hide from them and invisibility will still get you Sneak Attack. It has no prerequisites, so pick it up as soon as you can spare the feat and special senses start to be a problem. It notably doesn’t work on Lifesense and a couple of other obscure senses, but Lifesence can be negated by Hide From Undead.
- EPH: Rerolling 1’s is tempting, especially if you have bad luck, but it only amounts to about half a point of damage per Sneak Attack die.
- CAd: If you want to ignore armor bonuses as a standard action, grab a wand of Acid Splash.
- CAd: Rogue/Paladins can be a fun build, but it’s not particularly important to the Rogue.
- CM: There are many more enemies with resistance to fire than enemies with enough DR to stop your Sneak Attack damage.
- PHB: Critical hits are worthless for Rogues.
- EoE: Critical hits are garbage for Rogues, and this isn’t good enough to justify two feats.
- PHB: Going first is very important for Rogues because acting while enemies are flat-footed allows you to Sneak Attack early and often.
- ToB: There aren’t a ton of great maneuvers for the Rogue, but some of the
Shadow Hand options are potentially useful.
- ToB: Assassin’s Stance adds another 2d6 Sneak Attack, and opens up Shadow
Blade.
- ToB: Short Swords are a Shadow Blade weapon, and they’re your go-to option for many TWF Rogues. Adding Dexterity to your damage is a huge pile of damage for nearly any Rogue. Note that this is in addition to Strength, so your dumped Strength score still cuts into your damage a little bit. The short description in the feats table is totally inaccurate, but was not been corrected by errata. The full description directly conflicts, so default to the full description.
- ToB: Assassin’s Stance adds another 2d6 Sneak Attack, and opens up Shadow
Blade.
- DotU: Essential if you want to use poison more than once during combat.
- PHB: The basis for every archery build.
- PHB: Bows have plenty of range already.
- PHB: Essential if you have other allies in melee.
- PHB: Even better than Precise Shot, and it lets you ignore pesky effects like Blur.
- PHB: A huge boost in damage output for archer builds, on par with Two-Weapon Fighting.
- PHB: Very situational. Standing and making a full attack is considerably more effective.
- CS: Poison is a great option for some characters, but unless you’re really
built for poison it’s a very expensive hobby.
- CS: Improving the damage of poison makes it much more appealing.
- BoED: The difference between d6 and d8 damage is pitiful, and it only works against evil enemies.
- CS: Tempting, especially as you reach very high levels, but unless you have at least two Special Abilities, the benefits really aren’t worth a feat.
- CAd: Staggered isn’t a completely debilitating condition, but its great for enemies who rely on making full attacks. The DC should be absurd because your Sneak Attack damage should be absurd, but this won’t work well with Ambush Feats. If you take this and ambush feats, try to apply them on separate attacks.
- CS: 4 levels of Scout is an awfully big class dip for Skirmish damage which generally falls far behind Sneak Attack damage. If you’re going for Swift Ambusher, just play a straight Scout.
- PHB: Two-Weapon Fighting is a great option for high-DPS melee and throwing
builds, and it’s probably the most common Rogue build. Sneak Attack is a
great on-hit effect, so more attacks are always welcome.
- PHB: More attacks means more potential damage, but with 2/3 BAB you’re going to have a lot of trouble hitting
- PHB: Improved Buckler Defense is miles better.
- CW: Improved Buckler Defense is still better.
- PHB2: Take a level of Barbarian for real Pounce if you really want it.
- PHB2: 1d6 damage plus 1.5 strength is pitiful compared to Sneak Attack.
- PHB: The obvious choice for melee builds, but Feycraft Weapons make it redundant if they are available.
Ambush Feats
Ambush feats works by replacing some of your Sneak Attack damage for one attack. You can combine as many Ambush Feats as you can afford with your current Sneak Attack dice, which can allow for some very potent combinations.
- CW: Bleed effects aren’t terribly effective, but for only 1d6 Sneak Attack damage it can prove very useful in long fights against enemies with lots of hit points.
- CS: How often do things make Intelligence and Wisdom checks in combat? Never.
- CS: Only useful against spellcasters, and even then not very effective.
- CS: This is very tempting, but you need to use a slashing weapon and rogues don’t really have any good slashing options.
- CS: Really only interesting if you’re a Rogue/Caster, but even then there are much better ways to handle Spell Resistance.
- DotU: Only available to races with Darkness as a spell-like ability. If you can get it, 20% concealment for all of your allies is a nice defensive buff.
- CW: Reducing your targets speed by half includes all of their movement types, which is pretty great when you’re fighting highly mobile enemies and enemies which like to use annoying tactics like Fly-By Attack.
- CS: Confused is a very unreliable condition, and using a bludgeoning weapon severely limits your options.
- CS: This is only useful if you or someone in the party is using maneuvers like Trip and Disarm.
- EoE: Charisma damage is tempting because so many enemies have awful Charisma, but 1 point of damage is going to take a very long time to disable your target.
- CS: Get a sap.
- CS: Only useful is psionics-heavy campaigns.
- CS: Tempting, but you should really have a reliable way to Sneak Attack. The best use case I can think of is a Rogue/Caster who begins from Invisibility, then uses this to cast Sneak Attack spells every round without needing to hide or become invisible.
- DotU: Sickened can be a really great debuff if you have someone else in the party to hit the target with a Save or Suck effect to take advantage of the target’s weakened saves. The penalties stack with those from Shaken, so Terrifying Strike combines with Sickening Strike very easily.
- DotU: Shaken is a good debuff, even if you can’t use this for fear stacking. Combines very well with Sickening Strike.
- CS: Deafening Strike is better, which is pretty sad.
- DotU: The biggest problem with poison is the poison’s DC, so any boosts you can find are welcome. If you plan to use poison extensively, this is a great choice.
Weapons
- : Versatile, portable, and always handy. Carry a few for utility purposes even if they’re not your primary weapon. Because Rogues get their damage from Sneak Attack, daggers are frequently better than short swords because of the ability to throw them.
- : Crossbows are terrible, and making one smaller isn’t any better.
- : Crossbows are terrible.
- : The “best” melee option for the Rogue based solely on its stats, but critical hits are worthless for Rogues, so it’s basically a longer short sword.
- : Use a matching set for TWF. You can’t throw them like daggers, but they have a slightly larger damage die. If you plan to pick up Shadow Hand maneuvers, the Short Sword is your best bet.
- : The Rogue’s best ranged weapon.
Armor
Armor is presented in the order in which you should acquire it, rather than alphabetical order.
- : Starting gear
- : Your armor solution until you can get a +10 or better dexterity bonus.
- : Essential for ranged builds, and single-weapon melee builds.
- : Once you hit +10 dex bonus thistledown padded offers a total +1 more AC than a mithral shirt. At that point enhancing it for AC becomes somewhat silly. If you have someone in the party who can cast Mage Armor, either call dibs on one of their 1st-level spell slots for a while, buy them a Pearl of Power 1, or buy a wand of Mage Armor and have them use it on you. Enhance your Thistledown for the magic effects, not for the AC bonus. If you want more than the +4 AC from Mage Armor, upgrade to an Eternal WandMIC of Greater Mage ArmorSpC, which is 10,900 GP and provides as much AC as 25,000 GP +4 padded armor for a total of 10 hours per day.
Magic Items
Weapons
- DMG2 (+1): +1d6 Sneak Attack damage. This seems like it should be a great idea, but compare it to 1d6 fire damage which always applies, or sneak attack damage which you need to work for.
- DMG2 (material): A little-known material out of DMG2, Feycraft weapons allow you to use a weapon as though you had Weapon Finesse without spending a feat. For 1500gp, it can save you a feat. The loss of damage is laughably small. I would get this before I started buying magic items.
- DMG2 (2000gp): This ability really needs to be an enhancement bonus, because it’s considerably too good to be a flat 2000gp. It depends on your Charisma for both DC and for uses/day, but if you have as much as +2 bonus this is worth of consideration. Stunning enemies robs them of their turn, and makes them exceptionally easy to hit, opening them up for a pile of sneak attacks.
- DMG (Unique): Very pricey, but a +4 to attacks and damage makes this effectively a +5 weapon for slightly more than the price of a +3. Certainly not a go-to option, but nice if you have someone in the party to craft one for you.
Weapon Crystals
- MIC: You’ll already get a pile of d6’s from Sneak Attack, but more never hurt.
- MIC: Not terribly exciting, but stealing health from enemies you hit in combat can get you the extra hit points you need to get through a fight.
- MIC: The Least version removes the need for Quick Draw, which is helpful for throwing builds and for TWF builds if you get caught with your weapons sheathed.
Armor/Shields
- MIC (+2): Since you’re not proficient with shields, the best you probably want to get is an animated darkwood shield (no ACP). A +1 animated darkwood shield costs 9257gp, and at a +3 AC bonus it’s reasonably inexpensive at high levels.
- MIC (+1): You should never put this on anything that has an ACP after being masterwork, so this is functionally identical to a normal +1.
- MIC (+1): Helpful for melee builds which don’t want to go all the way to Spring Attack.
- MIC (+5000gp): A bit of extra speed helps get around in combat, and this triggers the improved effect on the Ring of Entropic Deflection.
Armor/Shield Crystals
- MIC: A splash of DR on your armor/shield. For 500 GP the lesser version is basically 10 hit points per day. Fantastic for melee builds, but skippable for ranged builds.
Rings
- MIC: For such a cheap price, Darkhidden is extremely abusable. If you have darkvision, this is basically permanent improved invisibility in the dark. It also prevents enemies from sneaking up on your while you’re unable to see.
- DMG: Improved Invisibility is better in combat, but a Ring of Invisibility is the gold standard of scouting, infiltration, and surprise. I’m tempted to suggested an Eternal Wand of Invisibility or two (you can afford 4 for less than the cost of a single ring), but 8 uses per day just can’t compete with near-perpetual invisibility.
- DMG: A bit of extra AC is always welcome for melee Rogues.
Wands
- PHB: Fantastic for scouting, and with hours/level duration an eternal wand will last all day.
- PHB: Smokesticks are for suckers. Fog Cloud is a great escape mechanism.
- PHB: When your Dexterity exceeds a +6 bonus, Mage Armor becomes your most cost-effective armor solution. With a 1 hour duration, a wand of mage armor can get a ton of mileage. Of course, if you have a Wizard in the party who can spare a 1st-level spell for you, it will save you some gold. If your Wizard needs that slot for himself, buy him a pearl of power 1 for 1000gp.
Wondrous Items
- MIC: Short-range teleport as a Swift Action afew times per day. It’s a great way to get out of grapples, or to move into flanking position.
- MIC: Blindsight is the pinacle of senses. You are only aware out to 30 feet, but that’s your Sneak Attack range, so in combat that’s all you need. Blindsight also eliminates concealment, which is the easiest way for targets to become immune to Sneak Attack. You can also carry around something with Deeper Darkness cast on it (days/level duration), pull it out in combat, and you have a massive advantage over nearly everything but demons.
- DMG: Charge as a Standard Action and since you’re wearing gloves of dexterity, you can charge through allies and difficult terrain. Unfortunately you can’t use them during surprise rounds because you don’t get a Swift action to activate them.
- DMG: Tempting, and they make sense thematically, but your Move Silently bonus is likely already very high without wasting gold on this.
- DotU: These are very good. Profane bonuses are exceptionally rare, so they’ll stack with almost anything, and once you’re high enough level to get access to Improved Invisibility they become very reliable. Rerolling 1’s on Sneak Attack only nets an average of 1/2 a point of damage per die, so it’s nothing special, but when you’re throwing Sneak Attack 4+ times per round it feels pretty great. If you decide to prestige class into Assassin/Avenger the +2 bonus to your Death Attack DC is one of very few ways to boost the DC.
- DMG: Tempting, and they make sense thematically, but your Hide bonus is likely already very high without wasting gold this.
- ToM: Provides some excellent bonuses for stealthy characters for 10 minutes per day. Especially useful for snipers who are having trouble finding cover.
- DMG: A great defensive option, but remember that it can’t be used to hide in plain sight.
- DMG: Vest of Resistance is identical and takes up a much less useful slot, but since Rogue’s Vest is so appealing, a cloak might be the way to go.
- CMG: A +3 bonus to Charisma-based check across the board gives you all of the important functions of a +6 Cloak of Charisma at sligtly more than a price of a +2 cloak. This is an easy way to make up for low Charisma if you need to be a Face or if you plan to use Use Magic Device.
- DMG: Dexterity is the Rogue’s bread and butter. Get these early, and enhance them often.
- MIC: If your DM allows you to move your Dexterity-boosting item to another slot (MIC suggests arms or feet are acceptable slots), this is a great way to cut down on the feat tax of the TWF tree.
- MIC: At only 4000 gp, the Horned Helm grants you a free natural weapon. Every extra attack means a potential pile of Sneak Attack damage.
- MIC: The big draw is the bonus Sneak Attack damage, but the skill bonuses are nice, too.
- MIC: Same cost as a cloak, and takes up the largely useless “torso” slot. Unfortunately for Rogues, it has to compete with the Rogue’s Vest.
Permanent Spells
- PHB: Darkvision is essential when so much of your skillset requires sneaking around in the dark. Of course, an Eternal Wand of Darkvision costs 4420gp (compare to 5000gp to pay an NPC to spend 1000 experience to cast Permanency and Darkvision), can’t be permanently removed by Dispel Magic, lasts a total of 6 hours per day, and you can use it with a UMD check.
- PHB: If you’re medium you can reduce yourself for an easy +2 to Dexterity.
- PHB: With no built-in way to handle invisible creatures, the ability to always see them is a fantastic benefit. You can’t Sneak Attack targets with concealment, so See Invisibility is a much better option than effects like Glitterdust which only allow you to locate invisible creatures, but don’t remove their concealment.
Multiclassing and Prestige Classes
- DMG/Web: Assassins are best known for their Death Attack ability, and while it’s certainly a great ability, it’s not nearly as interesting as the Assassin’s spell list. Despite very few spell slots, the Assassin gets a lot of very unique and powerful spells which offer a lot to the Rogue. Unfortunately, they give up a lot of the Rogue’s skills and skill points per level, but you can make up for the lost skills with some clever spell use.
- PHB: Fighter is a great option for getting weapon and armor proficiencies and some bonus feats. Many Fighter alternate class features work very well Rogues, and the Thug variant out of Unearthed Arcana makes it a bit easier to maintain your Rogue skills, especially if you’re a Face.
- PHB: Ranger/Rogue builds are a lot of fun because you get tons of skills, and there’s a lot of room for optimization.
- PHB: If you just want a free feat, a single level of Swashbuckler is better than a level of Fighter because you get 2 more skill points on a skill list which more closely resembles that of the Rogue. Daring Outlaw is a cool option, but it’s considerably better for the Swashbuckler than it is for the Rogue.
- ToB: One level gets you a few maneuvers and a stance. RAW you select maneuvers and stances based on your total initiator level (initiator class levels plus 1/2 non-initiator class levels), so delay this class dip until you have 8 other levels under your belt so that you qualify for Assassin’s Stance. Island of Blades is another great stance option, and the Cloak of Deception maneuver is a fantastic way to get Sneak Attack, or to get into position unnoticed.
