Unusual Rogue Builds?

[CyberThread]

Now when we come to rogues, we usually end up with Critters, skill monkeys, social faces and the hash of magically aware types that climb out of the role and proceed down stealth gish.


Are their any prc's that break this sort of built it thoughts we have traveled on , anything off the beaten path?

[Snowbluff]

You could do an Iaijutsu rogue...

Rogues are boring, use a swordsage instead so you can have Gloom Razor.

[avr]

As came up recently in a different thread, the flask rogue - throwing alchemists fire(/ice/acid/whatever) for fun and profit - is a valid combat role, assuming 3.5e.

There's feats to use sneak attack to debuff.

Basically though, the reason to play a rogue is because you want to use skills. If you wanted something else you'd play a different class.

[Werephilosopher]

You can find more variations in builds using the Psychic Rogue, a base class on WotC's website (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b). Certain PRCs requiring psionic sneakiness heighten the "face" role into an effective infiltrator. Psyren has an excellent guide for it (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234327).

Off the top of my head I can't think of anything else you might be looking for, sadly.

[Curmudgeon]

You can make a straight combat character. You can use skills to get a guaranteed +5 to attack and damage vs. all creature types in the game by about level 14; that comes from Education + Knowledge Devotion + Skill Mastery + Savvy Rogue. You'll stack regular +5 weapon damage, Knowledge Devotion bonus damage, sneak attack damage, Craven sneak attack bonus damage, and 2 points of STR damage on every hit. Everything except for the sneak attack dice gets multiplied on criticals, and you threaten on 15-20 with a keen rapier. With a flanking partner you'll still do most of this damage (including the STR damage) to undead, constructs, and other critical-immune foes. With Staggering Strike your enemies are treated as staggered for a round every time you hit them.

A Combat Rogue ends up being much more effective than a charger in tight spaces. With all the bonuses you'll hit more often than full BAB characters.

[eggynack]

My favorite rogue build is rogue 0/factotum 20. It's just a generally true thing. Rogues definitely have some advantages, so it's not just a case of them being obsolete, but factotums just generally seem more interesting, and more geared towards the skill monkeying role.