Good Rogue Feats

[Draik Tempest]

I start this thread because I'm starting to make my favorite class more often, and I just want to know, What good feats, for rogue's, are their besides Nimble Fingers and Weapon Finesse?

My friend was talking to me about a feat called Cutpurse, and I couldn't find it anywhere.

[BlackMage2549]

I believe one of the Psion books has a feat called "Deadly Precision" which allows you to reroll any 1's on your sneak attack damage(But only once).

[Telonius]

Complete Scoundrel is your source for feats dealing with Sneak Attack. Savvy Rogue, also from CSco, is nice; it improves several of your Rogue special abilities.

Cutpurse is in Dragon 322, page 37.

Flick of the Wrist, from Complete Warrior, is another decent melee Rogue feat.

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

I believe one of the Psion books has a feat called "Deadly Precision" which allows you to reroll any 1's on your sneak attack damage(But only once).

Increasing damage by less that half a point per die is a really sub-par.

[BlackRabite]

I forget the book, but there is a feat called Craven that lets you add your level in damage to each SA. Also one called Staggering Strikes that applies the Staggered debuff to anything you SA. Staggering Strikes allows a fort save equal to the damage done on the SA so combining it with Craven is pretty nasty.

Nasty enough that my DM made me drop Staggering Strikes because it was giving me too much control over BBEG fights.

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

Craven is from Champions of Ruin.

Staggering Strike can be found in Complete Adventurer.

[Lolzords]

There's a feat somewhere that lets you use dexterity for climb and jump, like a cat does.

Also, tactile traptician (can't remember the exact name) in complete scoundrel is good, as it lets you use dexterity for search and disable device.

[Person_Man]

Cutpurse is from the Dungeon Compendium Vol. 1. It allows you to pick pockets during combat. I personally think its a poor feat. An easier way to get the contents of an enemy's pockets is to kill him.

This is a great thread by Fixer that should help you.


Rogue feats that I like:

TWF or archer tree: More attacks.

Savvy Rogue: Improves all your Special Rogue abilities. Comp Scoundrel

Maiming Strike: Replaces Sneak Attack with Cha damage on a 2d6 for 1 basis. Some enemies have piss poor Cha. If they have high Cha, they often depend on it to cast. Exemplars of Evil.

Staggering Strike: When you Sneak Attack an enemy, they must Save or be Staggered for one round, limiting them to a single Move or Standard action. Comp Adventurer.

Craven: +1 Sneak Attack damage per character level. Champions of Ruin.

Double Hit: Allows you to make two attacks when you make an attack of opportunity. Miniatures Handbook.

Frightful Presence: Good for social Rogues with high Cha. Enemies must Save each round or be shaken. Fear effects stack, so if your enemy fails two Saves, he tries to run away. Draconomicon (also available through a graft in Races of the Dragon).

Undo Resistance: Sneak Attacks lower Spell Resistance. Great for high level characters. Fiendish Codex II.

Darkstalker: Lets you Hide, even if your enemy has scent, tremorsense, see invisibility, etc. Great for builds that can pick up Hide in Plain Sight. Lords of Madness.

Lion Tribe Warrior: Gives you limited Pounce without having to multi-class or PrC. Shining South.

Neraph Charge: The first time you charge an enemy, he is denied his Dex bonus. An easy way to qualify for Sneak Attack without Flanking. Neraph get a superior version of this ability for free. Planar Handbook.

Dragonfire Strike: Allows you to convert Sneak Attack into energy damage. This solves Rogues' problems with undead, plants, etc. Dragon Magic.

[Talya]

There's a feat somewhere that lets you use dexterity for climb and jump, like a cat does.

Agile athlete (RotW). It's only really useful if you plan to rely heavily on those skills (catburglar), but have great dexterity and crappy strength.

[Draik Tempest]

Wow, didn't expect to get such an awesome response in the span of a few hours.

My friend reffered to the Tactile Traptician (not at home so no access to the book) as the 'MacGuiver' Rogue because he can make traps without the necessary materials. I will remember this thread when I begin to populate games with my stealthy troops. And if anyone has further advice on rogue stuff, I'd be happy to hear it.

[CASTLEMIKE]

I like the Psychic Rogue variant with the Hidden Talent feat (EPH) from one of the Hidden Houses (CP) to personal taste which is really nice with the Master Spellthief feat with the Transparency rules. Magic in the Blood feat with a template or lots of spell-like abilities. Spellfire Wielder feat from MoF. Some of the Fey and Fiendish Presence and Legacy feats in Complete Mage for some spellcasting abilities. One of the numerous cantrip feats can be nice at lower levels and trained away at higher levels.

A 1 to 3 level dip in Factotum gives a lot of specials using IPs that cannot be acquried any other way in game.

In a FRCS campaign the new Mercantile Background (PGtF) or Godsight (LEoF) can be nice.

Leadership for a PC thieve's guild.

[Wordmiser]

Able Learner and Daring Outlaw are great if you're into the whole multiclassing thing.

Elusive Target (CW) is nice if you can stomache the prerequisites.

If you're playing Faerun, Swift and Silent and Otherworldly are good for the scout role Rogues often fill.

Improved Initiative and Quick Reconnoiter (CV) boost your Initiative, which is handy for obvious reasons.

[BlackMage2549]

Increasing damage by less that half a point per die is a really sub-par.

I'll bite - Why does it only increase your damage by <1/2 a point per die? Doesn't the reroll allow the die to come up between 1&6 like normal?

Or rather, are you looking at the whole of the Sneak Attack, and factoring in the change against that?

[bugsysservant]

I'll bite - Why does it only increase your damage by <1/2 a point per die? Doesn't the reroll allow the die to come up between 1&6 like normal?

Or rather, are you looking at the whole of the Sneak Attack, and factoring in the change against that?

I'm not quite sure what you're asking, but this is why it increases it by less than .5 a point:

Well, the average damage done by a d6 is 3.5. Now factor in that any reroll will statistically come up with that value and calculate the newer average. (3.5+2+3+4+5+6)/6=3.917. You're spending a feat to do an additional .4 damage per die, which is pretty suboptimal.

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

I'll bite - Why does it only increase your damage by <1/2 a point per die? Doesn't the reroll allow the die to come up between 1&6 like normal?

Or rather, are you looking at the whole of the Sneak Attack, and factoring in the change against that?

It increases your average damage by less than half a point.
Your roll 1d6 and if you roll a one you get to roll 1d6 again.

The average of 1d6 roll is 3.5.
The average of 1d6 (re-roll once if 1) is 3.91666....

[TempusCCK]

Wait, hold on, that feat only lets you reroll a 1 on damage rolls? That's asinine.

I could see if it was a 1 on a to-hit roll, but most of the damage from sneak attack doesn't come from any single die, just the stacking of all the dice together....

Perhaps it would be useful if you rolled many of your dice as a 1, other than that, pass on that piece of crap.

[Draik Tempest]

I don't know about your guy's damage rolls are like, but usually end up with an average of 4 or higher. The d6's love me, the d20's don't.

[Darrin]

Staggering Strike: When you Sneak Attack an enemy, they must Save or be Staggered for one round, limiting them to a single Move or Standard action. Works phenomenally with archer builds, which allow you to target multiple opponents. Comp Adventurer.

I have a question about this one... Is the DC for Staggering Strike set just by the sneak attack damage, or by the entire weapon damage? As in, does the damage from strength bonus, enhancement bonus, power attack, frost energy, favored enemy, etc. raise the DC?

[CthulhuM]

While you're building your rogue, you should also look into alternate class features. In particular, either Penetrating Strike from dungeonscape (give up trap sense, deal half sneak attack damage to creatures normally immune to sneak attack) or Disruptive Attack from PHBII (give up uncanny dodge to gain the ability to replace sneak attack damage on one attack with a -5 penalty to AC for one round, usable even against creatures immune to sneak attack). Those are the two best options I know of for remaining useful against undead and constructs and such.

I have a question about this one... Is the DC for Staggering Strike set just by the sneak attack damage, or by the entire weapon damage? As in, does the damage from strength bonus, enhancement bonus, power attack, frost energy, favored enemy, etc. raise the DC?

It's all the weapon damage. Heh, I even had a DM let me count rend damage... I spent a lot of time polymorphed into a cave troll in that campaign.

[Person_Man]

I have a question about this one... Is the DC for Staggering Strike set just by the sneak attack damage, or by the entire weapon damage? As in, does the damage from strength bonus, enhancement bonus, power attack, frost energy, favored enemy, etc. raise the DC?

The DC is equal to damage dealt. So if you can find a way to work 1d6 Sneak Attack into your build, you can take Staggering Strike, and improve the Save DC by other means.

Although looking at the feat again, I just realized that its limited to melee attacks. So it can't be used with archer builds, as I initially thought. My apologies.

[serow]

Dragonfire Strike: Allows you to convert Sneak Attack into energy damage. This solves Rogues' problems with undead, plants, etc. Dragon Magic.

Doesn't this require the target creature to be SA-able in the first place?

[Zain_Thorngallow]

Darkstalker: Lets you Hide, even if your enemy has scent, tremorsense, see invisibility, etc. Great for builds that can pick up Hide in Plain Sight. Lords of Madness.

I wouldn't classify Darkstalker simply as a "good" feat... it is the Rogue's feat equivalent of Natural Spell for Druids, in my experience. If you don't take it, you are crazy.

With Darkstalker, you can potentially hide from anything except Psions with Touchsight active. (Or, at least, that's what my current DM rules.) Faerie Fire and Glitterdust can still be a problem once combat has begun, but when (or if) this event occurs is almost entirely under the Rogue's control.

Playing a Small or Tiny Rogue, with full ranks in Hide / M.Silent and some sort of natural or equipment based camouflage bonus, coupled with Darkstalker, results in practically *nothing* around your Challenge Rating (and many things far above it) being able to spot you. Which for a Rogue, isn't just nice... it is critical.

[Stabby]

If you are using a high crit weapon, Telling Blow from PHBII is nice. Add SA damage on a crit, even if you would normally not get sneak attack.

[Draz74]

If you are using a high crit weapon, Telling Blow from PHBII is nice. Add SA damage on a crit, even if you would normally not get sneak attack.

Lame, unless you are in a solo campaign or have some disfunctional group that refuses to flank. Even then, you may be better off buying a Bag of Tricks, or buying a Ring of Blinking and taking the Pierce Magical Concealment feat, rather than wasting a feat on Telling Blow.