Rogue Advice

[StoneCipher]

So, would it be worth it to put the effort into obtaining Savvy Rogue, maximizing AoOs and eventually obtaining Sneak Attack of Opportunity? The idea is flanking the frontliner with a gazillion attacks and stabbing the Christ out of said beasty on other people's turns.

I've not seen a rogue build around here yet and to me that seems delightful, but you all manage to build such better stuff than I, you walking D&D encyclopedias you.

[A.A.King]

No, it wouldn't be worth it. Savy Rouge states that you can only use Crippling Strike once per creature per round.

[StoneCipher]

Crippling strike is really used that often? I never took it because it didn't seem worth it since it was so limited in use. I mainly wanted to take Savvy Rogue to just sneak attack as much as possible while it isn't my turn.

[A.A.King]

The thing with Savvy Rogue + Crippling Strike + Combat Reflex (not mentioned, but obvious) is that if you want to use Crippling Strike as often as you can make AoO each round then you have to face a lot of monsters. And if you face that many monsters then you probably don't need the extra Sneak Attack damage any way since the monsters aren't much of a threat.

The best Rogue Special Ability is Skill Mastery, but most of the time people multiclass or prestige class out and they never reach that stage.

[StoneCipher]

I figured most people didn't take that much in rogue, which is what prompted the question. I just feel that y'know around 6-8 extra sneak attacks for just standing next to something being hit was pretty good. But, I didn't know if some other build vastly out-performed it. I failed to mention I was using opportunist as well.

[Sith_Happens]

The problem is, even with Savvy Rogue you can't use Opportunist more than once per opponent per round.

[Curmudgeon]

If you can find the feats you might be able to make this work, but it'll be tough slogging. However, in Epic D&D where there's a will, there's likely a way.

Double Hit (Miniatures Handbook, page 25) lets you make both main and off hand attacks on any AoO. You'll need Two-Weapon Fighting and Improved Two-Weapon Fighting as well as Combat Reflexes and Improved Combat Reflexes [Epic]. Doubling the damage on any AoO seems like a decent return on the investment.

A RAW legal but very cheesy way of getting extra feats is by using the Dark Chaos Shuffle (convert any feat you've got for another one you qualify for) on all the following:

Weapon Proficiency: Elves receive the Martial Weapon Proficiency feats for the longsword, rapier, longbow (including composite longbow), and shortbow (including composite shortbow) as bonus feats.
Any intelligent and evil creature can swear service to an elder evil if the creature knows of its existence. Doing so grants the creature one bonus feat, plus an extra bonus feat for every five character levels or Hit Dice.

With a good form of Hide in Plain Sight and maxed out Hide skill you'll also be able to get your own AoOs, but AoOs are limited to your reach. A Silthilar Flexible Spine graft (Lords of Madness, page 216) will make your body flexible and qualify you for Extended Reach feat (Savage Species, page 34) to increase your natural reach by +5'. Inhuman Reach feat (Lords of Madness, page 180) can extend reach by a further +5', but at a cost of -1 to all melee attack rolls; you'll need either Aberration Blood feat (Lords of Madness, page 178) or Mourning Mutate [Aberrant] feat (Dragon # 359, page 110) as prerequisite. If you go for that you can choose the flexible options for either prerequisite feat and skip the Silthilar Flexible Spine. Having 15' reach at Small or Medium size, and not ever being seen, will give you a decent chance of staying alive at Epic levels.

Craven, Crippling Strike, and Savvy Rogue will combine to make your damage good if every hit succeeds on each AoO. However, 3/4 BAB and TWF and Inhuman Reach penalties make that an issue. To compensate, Education feat (Eberron Campaign Setting) makes all Knowledges class skills, and Knowledge Devotion feat (Complete Champion) plus Skill Mastery plus Savvy Rogue will let you guarantee a +5 bonus to hit and damage vs. every creature in D&D.

(weapon damage + nd6 + character level + STR bonus +5 + 2 STR damage) x 2

With Lightbringer Penetrating Strike ACF (Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, page 208) you'll halve the sneak attack dice against sneak-immune creatures you flank; that includes creatures with 100% Fortification. Against Undead and Constructs, the Greater Truedeath and Greater Demolition weapon augment crystals in Magic Item Compendium will let you deal full sneak attack damage.