Rogue help, again

[VirOath]

Once again I come here looking for help, because I'm faced with a problem I'm lost on.

I'm currently in a 3.X campaign that is running with all books open save MiC, everything has to be passed by the DM but any 'Cheese' brought into the campaign will be tossed back tenfold. The other note is that he has houseruled the ECL rules, LA accounts for Racial HD, so a LA +2 is an ECL +2 even if it has 22 RHD. Another house rule is that Ranged Weapons can flank (Yes, a logic DM...)

And I'm playing my favorite class again, Rogue. Though this time I played it because the party was lacking a skill monkey. Doppleganger by the way, with a level of Warshaper, and eight levels of rogue (Houserules ECL 13, LA+4/8rog/1warshape). I'm playing a non optimized build for flavors of Roleplaying and skills, but as to date we've gotten only a single in game day in a town before being rushed off to the next dungeon, and every since instance that my skills could have been useful the DC number was in the epic difficulty charts (IE, 45, 50, then 55 in three consecutive checks to disable a trap, at level 10). With ways to bypass it by other non skill means (Wall of force, etc.)

So I'm finding myself sitting with combat after combat, with a character that isn't supposed to be a combat whore by design. A character loaded with social skills and trap monkeying first, because a base rogue is very effective in combat if they play it smart, AKA creating and using advantages through items rather than feats and skills. And feat selection was built around being a showoff, able to switch from ranged combat to melee flanking seamlessly.

But this is the problem, I'm not enjoying this very much. The DM sees the Rogue class as being Haley, AKA Thief that hides and shoots arrows all the time. As such I'm feeling the character doesn't fit.

So I'm looking for options for advancement. My feats are borked, skills useless and all I'm left with is sneak attack. PrCs? Items? Anything?

Or am I stuck with scrapping the character and bringing in a fresh start (With a shafted WBL, since the party has gotten a high amount of wealth to this point.)

[Ent]

Have you been investing in UMD, or are you close to a level where you could sink your next 8+ skills into it?

[The Gilded Duke]

If you would like to still play the same character, you could use some of that money, and some of your xp to pay for a Psychic Reformation XPH 127. It costs 50 xp per level and you have to split the xp cost between you and the caster, but it allows you to change feats skills etc.

Otherwise, did you happen to pick up a decent score in UMD and a good charisma? You could focus on getting sneak attacks in with wands, making touch attacks instead of normal attacks, or using magic to insure that you get a sneak attack just about every round. Anything that gives people a miss chance to hit you makes you count as an invisible attacker. Unless they have uncanny dodge, they lose their dex bonus to ac, and you get +2 to attack.

There are also a few spells like gravestrike and I think golemstrike that let you sneak attack undead and constructs. If you are using wands regularly, see if you can get a wand sheath built into your weapons and shields. It adds +350 gp to the cost of a shield or a weapon but lets you store a wand in that item, letting you cast the spell in it while the shield or weapon is equipped.

Also, some of the spells like gravestrike are swift actions, according to rules compendium casting spells from wands that are normally a swift action only requires a swift action.

If you are using two weapons you could put a wand in each and then put a wand in a single masterwork buckler. You still get the -1 to attack on the offhand, but you get the +1 shield bonus and another wand ready to use, or you could get one of those animated shields instead.

[VirOath]

Heh, I'm writing up "Notes of a Dancing Rogue" but I'll admit I'm no expert.

I'm a UMD advocate, so I do have the skill cranked to max with a high Cha. And Quickdraw, because it has the habit of benefiting the Rogue class more than any other. And I can Shapechange for more arms, if only to have more hands to hold things. Besides, he's a fencer type, like I said 'show off'.

And I'm lacking the TWF feats. Most of the feats chosen are pointless now since I was forced to shift focus and half of the party brought in new characters of a greater powerlevel. (I purposely took the Improved Feint as a power dump to bring myself in line with the rest of the party at the start of the campaign, and to fuel his showmanship side. Funny enough my DM thought it was a good idea to help me get sneak attacks. Yeah, I've been proving point after point that he knows nothing about rogues...)

The DM is working to balance things out, and has already fixed the 100hp+ hit point gap because they picked races that had a lower LA than HD. And has boosted my Sneak attack damage to that of a 13th level rogue.

But I've been looking at picking up wands anyways, just lacking the funds to fill even a quarter of my list. I got self concealment covered too.

But what book are those spells out of? (And my UMD check is 16 from ranks and another 4 from stat, for the record.)

[The Gilded Duke]

I'm actually not much of a fan of two weapon fighting rogues, I favor either going for a brute high strength two handed weapon rogue or a ranged attack rogue, either using a bow and some snipers shot or using some lesser orbs of x wands.

Golemstrike and Gravestrike are in complete adventurer and spell compendium.

If you want to go with ranged weapon sneak attacks there is sniper's shot, a level one swift action ranger spell that removes the sneak attack range limits from Spell Compendium.

Would the GM approve Psycic Reformation or some other method to let you switch your feats around?

[VirOath]

I can assume so, and I can easy properly pick my feats for it seriously this time. But any suggestions are nice, haven't had the complete list of books open before.