Rogue

The Pros and Cons of a Rogue

The rogue has more nicknames among veteran players than any other character class. They can be called locksmith, excellent treasure finder, sneak, just plain "thief," or any of a host of other colorful titles. Depending on how you create your rogue, any of these monikers could fit your character.

Rogue Assets

The rogue offers a useful array of game abilities that provide lots of room for customization. You can create a smooth-talking con artist, a cat burglar, a tomb breaker, or almost any kind of character in between. Below are several assets you have going for you when you choose a rogue.

• • Good Initiative Bonus: A rogue should have a high Dexterity score, primarily because Dexterity provides her first line of defense and governs many of her best skills. But a high Dexterity score also gives her a high initiative bonus. As a result, rogues can get the drop on their opponents most of the time and are seldom caught unawares.

• • High Skill Points: With a whopping eight skill points per level, even a rogue with a poor Intelligence score has plenty of skill points to spend.

Broad Skill Selection: The rogue has a long list of class skills, which enables her to excel at character interaction, stealth, movement, perception, and more.

Good Reflex Saves: A rogue uses the best save progression in the game for Reflex saves (see Table 3-1 in the Player's Handbook). This natural grace helps her avoid most effects that deal damage or entrap a creature, such as area spells, entanglement, and many traps.

Many Class Features: The rogue gains lots of useful and deadly class abilities. The most infamous of these is the sneak attack, which allows her to hit opponents where it really hurts.

Rogue Weaknesses

As with any class in the D&D game, the rogue's advantages come at a price. Here are a few of the disadvantages you should keep in mind if you're considering a rogue character.

• • Poor Fortitude and Will Saves: Rogues have the worst progression for Fortitude and Will saves in the game (see Table 3-1 in the Player's Handbook). Thus, they aren't good at shrugging off effects that attack their bodies or minds.

• • Fairly Low Hit Points: The rogue's 6-sided Hit Dice give her only a moderate number of hit points. Since her sneak attack ability is wasted if she doesn't get into at least the occasional fight, death is never far away.

• • Fairly Low Armor Class: The fact that a rogue has proficiency with only light armor and none with shields leaves her with only a mediocre Armor Class. The combination of modest hit points and middling Armor Class usually means that a rogue can afford to fight a little, but she doesn't have much staying power in a pitched battle. A rogue can improve her defenses in various ways, but all of them deplete her resources.