pointless or powerful: pure rogue?

[disastro]

OK so I was thinking of some more "alternative" builds when I thought of perhaps going pure rogue. definitely limited in effectiveness to sneak-able creatures, but with all the feats in place you could deal 30d6 damage per swing (dual wield for extra credit).

however generally there's no point in getting more than 13 or so levels in rogue. anybody have experience with pure rogue (or pure classes in general, I know some are getting a buff soon)?

it's hard when you can imagine a vastly more powerful toon with just 5 levels in any of several classes, but it could be an interesting concept.

[CrazyJ]

There is at least one mid-epic pure rogue on Prime. She has some good traps, but from what she's said, the combat performance is not very hot.

[Mr. O'Dearly]

Cade Thorngauge is a lvl 37-38 ish pure rogue.
Pure rogue is tough to play. AC/AB isn't spectacular. your hp will likely be pretty low. In most pvp you will have difficulties because after your initial attack you probably wont get any more sneaks, if even then.

... and yeah, 5 lvls of Shadowdancer and you get boosted to sneaks pretty much every round and the ability to escape combat. Throw in a bow and you dont even have to get too close to em.

... did i mention your fort save is gonna be horrific?

[JesterOI]

And, Will Saves, horrific.

[disastro]

And, Will Saves, horrific.

well with slippery mind you get to fail every will saving throw twice!

[Squikker2001]

So would that make it twice as horrific?

[KradetheRed]

Hey, a question I can answer. Pure rogue is a very hard class to play. prepare to die alot. at level 38, I have around 22d6 for sneak attack. on the dwarven home plane, I routinely do 60-186 damage. on other plane I do 6-60 damage since most mobs are immune to sneak attack. I'm all dex and my ac is around 56, which is pretty low compared to people in my party. 20% conceal from feats helps, and I can use II scrolls to get it to 50% ab is fairly good since I took weap finesse and have approx 40-46 dex depending on buffs. Reflex save is aweson, and i never take damage from any spell that requires them. Other saves are terrible, however there are feats you can use to help this a little.

Solo: At level 34, I could finaly solo Ice giants. Of couse, i could still die with 2 crits. unless you want to delevel your character, don't solo anything exept artic wolves. Pure rouge excells when someone else can take the hits and give you a flanking bonus. Don't stay on the same target too long though or it will decide to hit you and kill you before you can click that potion hot key.


Traps: Don't take this feat. not only because it means less trap components for me, but also because it is totally useless in PVE.
When you set a trap, you automatically become visible. Therefore your plans of setting a trap trail and running mobs through them are wasted after you set the first one.
At higher levels, mobs will be immune to or unafected by your traps. ie epic frost and epic gas have absolutley no side affect on dwarves in the planes. "IF" they do fail their saves, the damage is minimal and/or only one mob will be affected at all.
Getting people to save trap components for you is expensive, time consuming, and makes you feel like a burden to the players who are holding on to those components for you untill you log on.
Traps are not party friendly. while you party wont set your traps off, the traps will affect anyone in the area.
On the plus side, Traps are great when you se AO starting thier raids and you can get to your relic before they do to trap the zone. (Do this where mobs don't walk though, even nuetral mobs such as dogs and ravens will set traps off.

Hope that helps, If I had to do it again, I would but as a druegar, deep gnome, Earth Gen, or possibly Gith.

[Sspm]

If you do it right you can have epic dodge and self-concelment 5 by lvl 40. Something you don't want to miss out on a pure rogue. I can type up the build here if you need some help.

[Nolan Silvermoon]

id stick with rogue with 5 lvls of shadow dancer, not a pure build true, but alot more survivable, but if you like dying, go ahead and go pure.

[TGPO]

Its not always about the living and the dying. Sometimes its about the challenge or just the fun of doing something different. Back in NS3 (and before SoU) my signature character was a pure class halfling barbarian, just because it was different enough to stand out in most situations.

[JesterOI]

Personally, I think a lot of ppl build rogues to fail. They choose a path that makes them hard to play.

Why can't a rogue use a towershield? (the non-little-ppl ones)

Why can't a rogue use fullplate?

Why do they always have to use a ranged weapon or dualwield?


Here's a thought. Build your rogue like you build a melee tank.

Until their DEX AC is high enough, use the heavy armor.

Make their primary weapon a morningstar to help skip past a lot of the dmg immunity that would shrink the massive dmg from their sneak attacks.

Pureclassed compared to a fighter, a rogue should have more survivability over all. The only thing that a rogue doesn't have that a warrior class has is HP, AB, and a different set of primary saves.

[Sspm]

The terms of battle are decided by the rogue not the enemy. He will set traps ouside the VISIBLE range than sneak it, unleash a few attack than run to his trap and BOUM! Damaged and dazed from the gas he finish them off.

It takes time an prepartion but the reward are well worth it knowing a well executed plan as been completed. You don't just charge in like a fullplated fool.

[JesterOI]

You don't just charge in like a fullplated fool.

Why not?
It's possible to do so.
It works.
It keeps you alive way longer in the first levels till your DEX becomes high enough to provide useful AC.

[Sspm]

This thread is about a pure rogue. They only get light armor as a free feat.
Why would you pay 2 feats for something you will only use for a few lvls?

[WillDearborn]

the other thing is you wouldnt want morningstar cause it isn't a finesse weapon. the tower shield isn't something you have to abandon though. you can using it throughout. and if you have a group of friends, pure rogue probably is a lot of fun.