Cirrylius
2013-01-18, 11:23 PM
What the title says. Anyone in the downtown Toledo Ghostwalk campaign stay out, please. :smallredface: I like my privacy.
Okay. I'm playing a rogue in a Ghostwalk campaign very soon, and I gots some questions about optimizing for survival, setting, and character concept in general. I wouldn't normally ask such generalized questions, but I'm in kind of a rush, I've never played a full rogue before, and I'm not hugely knowledgable about the campaign world. Plus, I know a lot of you guys really get your kicks off of this stuff, so the GitP Hivemind seemed my best bet. I've got access to pretty much whatever books I want, but for simplicity's sake I'd like to keep away from Variant Classes (i.e. altered core classes), Stances, or Skill Tricks. PHB, DMG, Complete Scoundrel, Complete Warrior, Arms and Equipment, and Magic Item Compendium are probably all I'll be using.
Concept: Human female, CN or CG, 8th level, playing up to epic. Stealth specialized. Youngest child in a major merchant prince/minor noble house who blew off her responsibilities to the business because she liked to sneak off and spy on people. Stuck in the city of Manifest, which creeps her right the f**k out, after being compelled to travel there for unknown reasons. Chief character concepts are stealth, voyeurism, curiosity, flightiness, and mobility.
Party role: Only rogue. Other players include barbarian, necromancer, cleric, Blackguard.:smalleek: and one unknown other. As the rogue, I'm expecting to be the tunnel-rat and de-trapper, but personally I'm not really invested in that. Kind of worried about being a solo sneaker if the party wants to use my skills like that, 'cause I've always been under the impression that that's a good way to get killed. Tippy-toeing around is her forte, and in combat I'd prefer to utilize more battlefield control/mobility (when possible), strategic mook-offing, and flank-granting; I'm not interested in dealing insane sneak attack damage.
Attributes: ST 11, CON 15, DEX 21, WIS 11, CHA 16, INT 18
(Our DM is big into excesses:smallredface:) I'm allowed to trade off points on a 2 for 1 basis, i.e. I could drop ST to 9 and raise CHA to 17.
HP: 64 (maxed HD)
Skills:Hide, Move Silently, Spot, and Tumble 11. Listen 10. Bluff, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, and Search 8. Balance, Disable Device, Open Lock, Sense Motive, and Sleight of Hand 7. Disguise 5. Appraise, Forgery, and Gather Information 3. Climb 2. Knowledge (Nobility, Arcane), Perform (Dance), and Profession (Commerce) 1. At each level I'm more or less keeping all new skill points in the first 14 skills. I'm worried about sinking too many points into skills that are non-applilcations past a certain point, but I haven't done enough with rogues to know what those are off the top of my head.
4 Feats: This is the really tough one. I know I need Weapon Finesse (I have to hit sometimes). I seem to remember reading that the Skill Focus and 2 skills +2 Feats aren't worth it, unless they're prerequisites. Spring Attack seems worthwhile, but that's a lot of Feats to get there, and with a good enough Tumble I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. I don't know what Ghostwalk-specific Feats might be useful.
Prestige Classes: Part of the character's concept was originally going to be that she had some kind of extradimensional experience as a child, or in the womb, and her curiosity and wanderlust were a manifestation of her... planar claustrophobia, I guess; her desire to return to outside, and the reason she was in Manifest in the first place. Eventually she'd be able to make herself so not-there that she faded out of the world entirely. I really, really wanted to go Shadowdancer, but then I realized the prerequisites are painful and the class in general is just awful, especially for rogues. Eventually I'd like to go Perfect Wight, but in the meantime I don't know of any rogue PrC's that fit into that vein.
Equipment: Starting with 60k worth of money/items. (Ahem. Excesses) Off the top of my head, I was thinking two +1 daggers, one adamantine, Cloak of Reistance +3, Boots of Striding and Springing, a +1 Buckler, Gloves of Dexterity +4, Hewards Handy Haversack, and a Vest of Escape. Some moderately expensive poisons (I don't trust either of our fighters at all). Darts, a cosh. If you've got any suggestions on fun rogue gadgets/alchemical/masterwork items, I'd appreciate that. I'm torn on armor; I wanted to go with +2 mithril chain, but right off the bat my Dex is so high that even that is restricting movement, and my Dex will only continue to get higher with time. Bracers of Armor or a Ring of Protection would be better, obviously, but those are brutally expensive at the levels I'd need, and I was hoping to use my starting wad for more... interesting things.
Thanks very much for any/all advice, and I'm sorry if this is overly vague or disjointed; I'm in a hurry and kind of outside my baliwick here:smallredface:
Edit: Oops. Unearthed Arcana and Complete Adventurer are also available.
Okay. I'm playing a rogue in a Ghostwalk campaign very soon, and I gots some questions about optimizing for survival, setting, and character concept in general. I wouldn't normally ask such generalized questions, but I'm in kind of a rush, I've never played a full rogue before, and I'm not hugely knowledgable about the campaign world. Plus, I know a lot of you guys really get your kicks off of this stuff, so the GitP Hivemind seemed my best bet. I've got access to pretty much whatever books I want, but for simplicity's sake I'd like to keep away from Variant Classes (i.e. altered core classes), Stances, or Skill Tricks. PHB, DMG, Complete Scoundrel, Complete Warrior, Arms and Equipment, and Magic Item Compendium are probably all I'll be using.
Concept: Human female, CN or CG, 8th level, playing up to epic. Stealth specialized. Youngest child in a major merchant prince/minor noble house who blew off her responsibilities to the business because she liked to sneak off and spy on people. Stuck in the city of Manifest, which creeps her right the f**k out, after being compelled to travel there for unknown reasons. Chief character concepts are stealth, voyeurism, curiosity, flightiness, and mobility.
Party role: Only rogue. Other players include barbarian, necromancer, cleric, Blackguard.:smalleek: and one unknown other. As the rogue, I'm expecting to be the tunnel-rat and de-trapper, but personally I'm not really invested in that. Kind of worried about being a solo sneaker if the party wants to use my skills like that, 'cause I've always been under the impression that that's a good way to get killed. Tippy-toeing around is her forte, and in combat I'd prefer to utilize more battlefield control/mobility (when possible), strategic mook-offing, and flank-granting; I'm not interested in dealing insane sneak attack damage.
Attributes: ST 11, CON 15, DEX 21, WIS 11, CHA 16, INT 18
(Our DM is big into excesses:smallredface:) I'm allowed to trade off points on a 2 for 1 basis, i.e. I could drop ST to 9 and raise CHA to 17.
HP: 64 (maxed HD)
Skills:Hide, Move Silently, Spot, and Tumble 11. Listen 10. Bluff, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, and Search 8. Balance, Disable Device, Open Lock, Sense Motive, and Sleight of Hand 7. Disguise 5. Appraise, Forgery, and Gather Information 3. Climb 2. Knowledge (Nobility, Arcane), Perform (Dance), and Profession (Commerce) 1. At each level I'm more or less keeping all new skill points in the first 14 skills. I'm worried about sinking too many points into skills that are non-applilcations past a certain point, but I haven't done enough with rogues to know what those are off the top of my head.
4 Feats: This is the really tough one. I know I need Weapon Finesse (I have to hit sometimes). I seem to remember reading that the Skill Focus and 2 skills +2 Feats aren't worth it, unless they're prerequisites. Spring Attack seems worthwhile, but that's a lot of Feats to get there, and with a good enough Tumble I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. I don't know what Ghostwalk-specific Feats might be useful.
Prestige Classes: Part of the character's concept was originally going to be that she had some kind of extradimensional experience as a child, or in the womb, and her curiosity and wanderlust were a manifestation of her... planar claustrophobia, I guess; her desire to return to outside, and the reason she was in Manifest in the first place. Eventually she'd be able to make herself so not-there that she faded out of the world entirely. I really, really wanted to go Shadowdancer, but then I realized the prerequisites are painful and the class in general is just awful, especially for rogues. Eventually I'd like to go Perfect Wight, but in the meantime I don't know of any rogue PrC's that fit into that vein.
Equipment: Starting with 60k worth of money/items. (Ahem. Excesses) Off the top of my head, I was thinking two +1 daggers, one adamantine, Cloak of Reistance +3, Boots of Striding and Springing, a +1 Buckler, Gloves of Dexterity +4, Hewards Handy Haversack, and a Vest of Escape. Some moderately expensive poisons (I don't trust either of our fighters at all). Darts, a cosh. If you've got any suggestions on fun rogue gadgets/alchemical/masterwork items, I'd appreciate that. I'm torn on armor; I wanted to go with +2 mithril chain, but right off the bat my Dex is so high that even that is restricting movement, and my Dex will only continue to get higher with time. Bracers of Armor or a Ring of Protection would be better, obviously, but those are brutally expensive at the levels I'd need, and I was hoping to use my starting wad for more... interesting things.
Thanks very much for any/all advice, and I'm sorry if this is overly vague or disjointed; I'm in a hurry and kind of outside my baliwick here:smallredface:
Edit: Oops. Unearthed Arcana and Complete Adventurer are also available.