by Toby Q. Hargis

The rogue is one of the most versatile characters in the whole game. The skills you have access to can make your options as a player limitless. Most party members are excited about having a rogue join the group and have great expectations from the addition to the ranks. Unfortunately we have all been disappointed in the past by a rogue who could not pick the lock or disable the trap or just did not know what to do when the combat started. Some players also do not know how to choose from the diverse selection of rogue skills and I think the biggest problem most come across is that they try to cover a tidbit of each and every skill offered by the class. While this concept may cover all the bases you will never master any specific feilds. When you go to make a rogue get it in your head what you want to excel at and focus on a few extras rather then try to make the “Jack of all Trades”. With this article I will show you one of my favorite rogue character builds and how I have utilized his feats and skills to make him stand out from all the other rogues in the world of DnD.

The first build concentrates on disable device and open locks. It allows you to be able to do both on a DC 40 by 8th level. All my characters are made on a 28 point buy. This character started with a 14 dexterity and a 14 Intelligence then added his bonus points at 4th and 8th level to his Dexterity making it 16 by 8th. He is a human so he had access to 2 feats at 1st with additional feats at 3rd and 6th for a total of 4 feats. I selected skill focus: Open lock(dex) and skill focus: Disable Device(int) at 1st level. At 3rd level i selected Nimble Fingers. This build will work for different races as well but you have to buy the feats in order by 6th level. At character creation make certain your Open Lock and Disable Device are at 4 ranks each(max). With each level make certain you also devote 1 skill point to each as well. Now lets check our math… at 8th level you should have 11 ranks in each skill; 2 extra on each from Nimble Fingers feat; 2 from our dexterity and Intelligence(actually our dex is +3); 3 from our Skill Focus Feats; 2 from our masterwork thieves tools for a grand total of + 20 to each skill… =) This character build is an expert dungeon crawler who will be the praise of the whole party. Make sure you read the rules for these two skills also the rules for taking 10s an 20s before you tackle that trap/lock… it never hurts to brush up on the rules and it will make you more comfortable with your skills and how they work.

The second build focuses on spell casting… Yes, I said spell casting. Read the rest of this entry »