Pathfinder rogue help

[aheront]

Hello everyone,

I'm going to play Pathfinder with friends and I want to play a rogue in our campaign. We are only allowed to use the Core rules.

The character will be Elf or Dwarf (can't decide yet).
We are starting at lvl 5.

Do you think is it better to play meele or ranged rogue?
I will probably play ranged one, with feats like Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot etc...

Main roll will be to remove traps and do some dmg, so I would like to see if anyone have any other advice about feats and talents about next couple of lvl ?


I appreciate any help! tnx

[Gnaeus]

Hello everyone,

I'm going to play Pathfinder with friends and I want to play a rogue in our campaign. We are only allowed to use the Core rules.

The character will be Elf or Dwarf (can't decide yet).
We are starting at lvl 5.

Elf probably beats dwarf. Rogue needs int and dex, but not wisdom. The con penalty hurts a lot though, so human, half-elf and half-orc probably beat elf (if you care).


Do you think is it better to play meele or ranged rogue?
I will probably play ranged one, with feats like Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Precise Shot etc...

Ranged rogues took 2 big stealth hits in pathfinder. You can't sneak attack with splash weapons. And you can't sneak attack with Blink.

As a rogue, you need a way to regularly do sneak attack damage. The easiest way to do this at low level is in melee. Tumble or move to flank an enemy and you are golden. They also benefit from Weapon Finesse as a rogue bonus feat, and from Improved Feint. If you have other Melee types in your party, this may be the way to go.

For a ranged sneak attacker in core PF, you need a good way to reliably get concealment. For that, you need spells. In 3.5 you could get there with an Assassin dip, but PF also nerfed assassin. Consider the following:
1. A 1 level dip into Wizard or Sorcerer, combined with a casting stat of at least 14. Then you can use any arcane wands. Buy a wand of Blindness, and later a wand of Greater Invisibility, at the first opportunity. If an enemy can't see you, you can sneak attack them.
or
2. Max your Use Magic Device. Consider taking Skill Focus: Use Magic Device if your charisma is low. Ask your DM if you can get a masterwork tool for Use Magic Device. By level 5, your UMD bonus should be between +8 and +15, so you could use wands between half and 3/4 of the time. Then refer back to #1.

Last thought, you can split the difference. Take Weapon Finesse as a rogue talent. Take Two Weapon Fighting and Quick Draw as feats. Then, if you can get a flank, you can do good damage in melee, or if you can get concealment versus an opponent, you can do good damage with thrown weapons. In this case, Weapon Focus: Dagger could also be worth spending a talent on.

[aheront]

Elf probably beats dwarf. Rogue needs int and dex, but not wisdom. The con penalty hurts a lot though, so human, half-elf and half-orc probably beat elf (if you care).

Well for race, i was thinking about dwarf coz of darkvision, but half orc should be ok too then.


Ranged rogues took 2 big stealth hits in pathfinder. You can't sneak attack with splash weapons. And you can't sneak attack with Blink).

But I can sneak with bow ? (I will play first time Pathfinder so i dont know if they make any new rules about sneak attacks)

I will max UMD, forgot to write that ofc, and later in the game just to buy wand of Greater Invisibility and that will be great.

Rolls from lvl 1 are : 16 16 15 14 13 11 , so I will max Dex as much as I can, any other advice maybe ?


tnx

[9mm]

to get sneak attack you must either flank, which is melee only, or they must be denied their dex bonus, denying dex usually means attacking when they don't know where you are, this usually means exactly 1 shot with sneak attack at range before invisibility, greater; but yes you can use a bow so long as your within 30ft.

[Gnaeus]

But I can sneak with bow ? (I will play first time Pathfinder so i dont know if they make any new rules about sneak attacks)

You can sneak attack with bow, if opponent is blind, or surprised, or you are invisible or otherwise concealed. You just can't flank with it, and flanks are much easier to get in most games. Less monsters in PF are immune to sneak attacks, so that is a big + for you. But on the other hand you probably won't have access to all the feats and items in 3.5 that help ranged rogues sneak attack (like the feat that lets you do SA damage whenever you crit, or all the cheap items that let you become invisible as a swift action).



Rolls from lvl 1 are : 16 16 15 14 13 11 , so I will max Dex as much as I can, any other advice maybe ?


I would probably go Dex/Int/Con/Cha/Str or Wis. Put your level 4 attribute point into the 15. See if your DM allows regional traits from the pathfinder world, as many of them are almost as good as a feat.