Rogue (Apath)
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Perceived as a weak class, the rogue has been spruced up.
Alternate Skill Bonuses
This should allow the rogue to focus more on a few attributes, reducing multi-attribute dependency.
Rogues benefit from having alternate attribute modifiers to their skills; choose either one. This ability is free for rogues and available as the Alternate Skill Technique talent to others.
| Skill (Subskill) | Normal Key Ability | Alternate Key Ability |
| Acrobatics | Dex | Str |
| Appraise | Int | Wis |
| Bluff | Cha | Int |
| Climb | Str | Dex |
| Craft (Smith of any kind) | Int | Str |
| Craft (Fermenting) | Int | Wis |
| Craft (Any other) | Int | Dex |
| Diplomacy | Cha | Wis |
| Disable Device | Dex | Int |
| Disguise | Cha | Wis |
| Escape Artist | Dex | Con |
| Fly | Dex | Con |
| Handle Animal | Cha | Wis |
| Heal | Wis | Int |
| Intimidate | Cha | Str |
| Knowledge | Int | Wis |
| Linguistics | Int | Wis |
| Perception | Wis | Int |
| Perform (comedy, dance, keyboard, string) | Cha | Dex |
| Perform (act, percussion, oratory, wind, sing) | Cha | Con |
| Profession (courtesan, gambler, innkeeper) | Wis | Cha |
| Profession (farmer, miner, soldier, woodcutter) | Wis | Str |
| Profession (other) | Wis | Int |
| Ride | Dex | Cha |
| Sense Motive | Wis | Cha |
| Sleight of Hand | Dex | Cha |
| Spellcraft | Int | Wis |
| Stealth | Dex | Con |
| Survival | Wis | Con |
| Swim | Str | Con |
| Use Magic Device | Cha | Int |
- You can't add the same ability score to a particular skill twice. This limits the combinations with effects like the Intimidating Prowess feat.
- A skill that changes what attribute it is connected to is counted as a skill of the new attribute when making skill checks, but not for other purposes. See Paizo errata. Note that a skill that has a primary key attribute that is Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution suffers from armor check penalties, even if used with another attribute as an alternate key ability. An effect (such as rage) that prevents the use of skills tied to a certain attribute always refers to the original attribute of the skill.
- Skills with several subskills (Craft, Knowledge, Perform and Profession) have certain subskills with different alternate key abilities. If a specific subskill has a different alternate key ability, you cannot use it with the common alternate key ability.
Sneak Attack
Taking a bigger view of Sneak Attack, the motivation for this ability lies in the hit point mechanic. Rogues are to be back-alley men and should be able to do things like knock others unconscious with a sap. The hit point mechanic makes this impossible to do. Enter sneak attack, which partially counters the hit point mechanic and lets a high-level rogue have a similar chance of knocking out a high-level opponent that a low-level rogue has of knocking out a low-level opponent.
A rogue can sneak attack any target, including one that has any degree of concealment or is immune critical hits. Only defenses that specifically mention sneak attack work.
Rogue Talents
Standard rogue talents with a limited number of daily or weekly uses lose this restriction and can be used an unlimited number of times. There are some exceptions: all talents described here as well as Major Magic, Hunter's Surprise, Redirect Attack.
Talents marked * after the title are revisions to existing rogue talents.
Ambush (Ex)*
This is from the Bandit archetype.
Benefit: A rogue with this talent becomes fully practiced in the art of ambushing. When she acts in the surprise round, she can take a move action, standard action, and swift action during the surprise round, not just a move or standard action.
Cunning Trigger (Ex)*
Prerequisite: trapfinding.
Benefit: A rogue with this talent can use an immediate action to set off any known trap within sneak attack range (usually 30 ft.). This requires a Disable Device check against the disarm difficulty of the trap. It is even possible to set off a trap the rogue only suspects is there or one that has been disarmed or is recharging, but not one that has been triggered and cannot reset itself.
Disarming Talent (Ex)
Benefit: A rogue with this talent learns the Improved Disarm feat.
Distracting Attack (Ex)*
Benefit: A rogue with this talent can make attacks with subtle flourishes that disorient and distract her enemy. When she hits a creature with an attack she can make a Bluff check against the creature's Sense Motive or 10 + Base attack bonus + Wisdom bonus (whichever is higher) to cause the creature to become flat-footed against one target of her choosing until the beginning of her next turn. The rogue cannot designate herself as the creature gaining the benefit of this talent.
Evasion (Ex)
Benefit: This is the same as the 2nd level rogue class ability of the same name, made available to archetypes that give up this ability.
Hold Breath (Ex)*
Benefit: A rogue with this talent can hold her breath twice as long as normal. For most rogues this is Constitution x4 rounds.
Iron Guts (Ex)*
Benefit: A rogue with this talent has a cast-iron stomach. She gains a +1 bonus on all Fortitude saves and a +4 bonus on all saves against ingested poisons and drugs, including social drugs such as alcohol, as well as on saves against all spells and effects that cause the rogue to be nauseated or sickened.
Lethal Trapsmith (Ex)
Prerequisite: Trapfinding, Quick Trapsmith, Trap Sense
Benefit: Your traps cause double hit-point damage and no longer suffer a saving throw penalty for being extraordinary.
Nimble Climber (Ex)*
Benefit: A rogue with this ability does not lose her Dexterity bonus to armor class when climbing. When a rogue with this talent fails a Climb check by 5 or more, she can immediately make another Climb check at the surface’s base DC +10. If successful, she stops her fall by clinging onto the surface. The rogue does not take falling damage when she stops her fall in this manner.
Outsmart Traps (Ex)
Prerequisite: trapfinding.
Benefit: A rogue with this talent can bypass a trap without triggering it. After successfully disabling a trap, he can opt to bypass it (with his party) and leave it in place, armed and ready to be triggered. If he attempts to disarm or to use the cunning trigger rogue talent on the same trap again within 30 days, he is automatically successful.
Poison Use (Ex)
Benefit: A rogue with this talent is trained in the use of poison and cannot accidentally poison herself when applying poison to a blade.
Powerful Sneak (Ex)*
Benefit: A rogue with this talent can elect to take a –2 penalty on all attack rolls until the start of her next turn. If an attack during this time is a sneak attack, she treats all 1s on the sneak attack damage dice as 2s.
Rumormonger (Ex)*
Rumormonger is a basic rogue talent.
Sapping (Ex)*
This is adapted from the sapper archetype.
A rogue with this talent can inflict great harm on objects. When striking an unattended object, or when sundering an item of an opponent that is flat-footed or denied the use of their Dexterity bonus to armor class, the rogue can inflict sneak attack damage to that object. The sapper must be in sneak attack range (normally 30 ft.) to use this with a ranged attack.
This also increases the digging/tunnel building speed of the rogue; each dice of sneak attack the rogue has increases the digging speed by 50%. With 1d6 sneak attack, the rogue digs at 150% speed, and 2d6 sneak attack he digs at 200% speed and so on.
Sneaky Sniper (Ex)*
The range of the rogue's sneak attack increases to 10 ft per rogue level. When behind cover against all opponents and firing a bow, firearm, or crossbow, this increased sneak attack range is doubled to 20 ft. per level.
Slippery Mind (Ex)*
Slippery Mind is now a basic rogue talent.
Benefit: This ability represents the rogue's ability to wriggle free from magical effects that would otherwise control or compel her. If a rogue with slippery mind is affected by an enchantment spell or effect and fails her saving throw, she can attempt it again 1 round later at the same DC. She gets only this one extra chance to succeed on her saving throw.
This works in parallel with Hard to Fool and other things that give additional saving throws, possibly giving you more than one additional roll in a round.
Stealthy Sniper (Ex)*
Stealthy Sniper is a basic rogue talent.
Quick Trapsmith (Ex)*
Prerequisite: trapfinding.
Benefit: You can use the ranger trap ability, and you know how to set all the exceptional traps, but no supernatural ones. There is no limit on the traps you can set daily, but you must supply components for each. You can spend the equivalent of a number of uses of the ranger's traps ability on each trap equal to your Intelligence bonus (minimum 1). You can trigger a trap you have set as an immediate action when within sneak attack range of the trap-normally 30 ft.
Trapfinding (Ex)
Benefit: This is the same as the 1st level rogue class ability of the same name, made available to archetypes that give up this ability.
Trap Sense (Ex)
Prerequisite: trapfinding.
Benefit: This is the same as the 3rd level rogue class ability of the same name, made available to archetypes that give up this ability.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex)*
Benefit: This is the same as the 4th level rogue class ability of the same name, made available to archetypes that give up this ability.
Advanced Rogue Talents
Distraction (Ex)*
Adapted from the burglar archetype.
Benefit: When a rogue with this talent is detected while using Stealth, she can immediately attempt a Bluff skill check opposed by the Sense Motive skill of the creature that spotted her. If this check succeeds, the target assumes that the noise was something innocent and disregards the detection. This only functions if the creature cannot see the rogue. This ability can only be used once during a given Stealth attempt. If the same creature detects the rogue’s presence again, the ability has no effect.
Normal: A Bluff check can cause a distraction as above, but the rogue must spend a standard action.
Expert Sniper (Ex)
Prerequisite: Stealthy Sniper
Benefit: When a rogue with this talent uses the Stealth skill to snipe, she suffers no penalty on the Stealth check, instead of –20.
Expert Trapsmith (Ex)
Prerequisite: Trapfinding, Trap Sense, Minor Magic, Quick Trapsmith, Lethal Trapsmith
Benefit: Your traps deal quadruple hit point damage and you know how to set all supernatural traps and can set a number of supernatural traps each day equal to your class level.
Improved Evasion (Ex)*
Prerequisite: Evasion
Benefit: This works like evasion, except that while the rogue still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, she henceforth takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless rogue does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Hide in Plain Sight (Ex)*
Benefit: A rogue with this talent can select a single terrain from the ranger’s favored terrain list. She is a master at hiding in that terrain, and while within that terrain, she can use the Stealth skill to hide, even while being observed.
Special: A rogue with a favored terrain can use Hide in Plain Sight in that terrain, in addition to the one terrain gained when selecting this talent.
Spot Weakness (Ex)*
Benefit: A rogue with this talent can discover a weakness in his enemy’s defenses as a swift action. His next successful sneak attack hit in the same round ignores all of the foe’s damage reduction or hardness for that attack.
Steal the Story (Ex)*
The following rogue talent may be chosen by any rogue who qualifies, though it is more common among kitsune rogues.
Prerequisites: Obfuscate Story
Benefit: After muddling another's account using obfuscate story, the rogue may make another opposed Diplomacy check to alter the details further in order to discredit, insult, or humiliate the target. If the check succeeds, those who heard the altered story become hostile towards the target. See the Diplomacy skill for the effects of being hostile.
Thoughtful Reexamining (Ex)*
Benefit: A rogue with this talent can spend a minute to reroll a Knowledge, Sense Motive, or Perception skill check to try to gain new or better information from the roll. This reroll can be made any time during the same day as the original check.
Trick Feint
Benefit: A rogue with this talent can make a Bluff check in place of a combat maneuver check when attempting a disarm, dirty trick, or reposition combat maneuver.
Optional Rule: Skill Point Compensation
If using the common (around here) option to give all characters 2 additional skill points per level, rouges get a small boost to compensate for the lessened uniqueness of their large number of skill points.
With this option, a rogue gets an additional advanced talent at level 5.
External Links
- Revised Rogue talents - these are not in play but good inspiration.
- Rogue Eidolon's Guide to Rogues
- More swagger than you're comfortable with - A Guide to the Rogue by kcmorris
- Death from the Shadow A Guide to the Ninja by Jb200 - Ninja are almost-rogues.