Starting a Rogue

The role of the Rogue in DDO is to do damage and to provide utility by using rogue specific skills. The key to doing good damage is sneak attack which gives you a huge damage boost when you attack something that is not attacking you. Utility is provided by using rogue skills, specifically Disable Device, Search, Use Magic Device, Open Lock, and Spot. With the caveat that Spot is extremely useful for new players and useless for veterans.

The Rogue receives more skills and more skill points than any other class available. Rogue builds can therefore have a bunch of variety. That being said, the two rogue builds often played are those that focus more on skills and those that focus more on damage. As a Rogue you will be expected to provide good dps and good trap disarmament regardless of your specific build. There are some specialty builds, that allow for very high AC and tanking, and plenty of multi-class builds as well, these types of builds typically will be outside the scope of this page. Always pick 'customize' for your path.

When building your Rogue regardless of your focus you should get MAX ranks in the following skills Use Magic Device, Search, Disable Device and Open Lock. Jump and Spot are honourable mentions. Also Balance should get some points but doesn't need to be kept at MAX. Put a minimum of 1 point into tumble because it's fun, and the rest of your skills you can play around with based on personal taste. One nice thing about Rogue is that they get so many skill points that if you screwed up which skills to take (like not taking UMD) you can just devote tons of points in that skill later on and catch up easily so there is no need to re-roll.

In terms of starting stats, you are going to put 6 points into dex, 6 points into con, and 6 points into str. This is 18 of your points that are mandatory, the other 10 are discretionary. Wisdom and Charisma are dump stats for a rogue and you shouldn't put any points into them. You will want to put some points into Int. You may be thinking ouch for the -1 will save but really you will be better off spending your points elsewhere. Spending your stat points wrong is probably the main reason for having to re-roll.

To do damage you will be dual wielding. There are two options for getting your hitroll high enough to hit things, have high strength so that you can get decent hit roll, or have high dex and take the weapon finesse feat which converts your dex into hit roll. The advantage of using the high strength method is you will get higher damage. The advantage to the high dex method is that it's easier for you to get your dex high because 17 base dex is required anyway for the two weapon fighting feats and you get class enhancements that raise dex. Here's a rule of thumb but by no means required, if you want to focus more on damage go for str and if you want to go more for skills go for dex. You need to make this decision in your head at character creation, or you will mess up your toon and end up re-rolling.

As you read the builds, remember that this is your game and your character. What ultimately matters is your gameplay experience, so feel free to deviate in race, feats, etc. That said, this is the newbie guide so it's going to focus on what's fun, satisfying, and not going to make you re-roll over and over trying to get it right. Do not under any circumstances go crazy with a skill build forsaking all hope of dps. All builds are 28-point builds with no tomes, because that's what noobs have available to them.

In terms of choosing a race, you should pick Human, Dwarf, or Halfling. Yes, other options are very viable and even great, but you should pick one of those three and you will be guaranteed to be happy with your choice.

Skills Focused Build
For a skills focused build, Human or Halfling are great choices. Human is nice with human versatility and bonus feat, with Halfling you can pump your int up to 16 for extra skill points and one more skill point higher in search and disable device from the higher int. These builds are pretty versatile and you can easily switch to a more DPS focus later on by changing your enhancements. Halfling gets extra sneak attack bonuses so their dps doesn't suffer from the -2str also. These are very safe choices.

Attributes
Every four levels put your stat points into DEX
 * For Halflings, to get power attack, you need 13 base strength, if you want to hedge your bets here that you might want to switch to a dps rogue later, go with 13str/17dex/14int.

Skills
Keep Disable Device, Open Lock, Search, Use Magic Device, Jump and Spot at their maximum level. Feel free also to keep some of the less essential skills at less than their maximum level, spreading points out between several skills. Don't waste points in Listen, Swim, Bluff or Intimidate. As mentioned earlier, it's easy to change your mind on skills since you can catch up easily. Also, if you need for some reason to skimp on one of your core skills, Open Lock doesn't really need to be maxed. If you choose to take Diplomacy you should max it, half ranks isn't going to cut it.

Feats
Choose Two Weapon Fighting for your first feat Choose Weapon finesse for your second feat (Available at level 3, even for Human) If you are human and get a bonus feat, go nuts and pick anything that sounds good. Toughness, Power Attack or and

Feats can be exchanged but it's expensive so be careful on your other selections, but typically you are going to want to take the fighting feats that improve two weapon fighting.

Enhancements
The nice thing about enhancements is that you can reset them pretty cheaply once every three days so you can't wreck your character by choosing the wrong ones. Play around with these and see what you like. A couple of enhancements are worth pointing out for the skills rogue. Rogue Disable Device, Spot, and Search are worth putting some ranks in, and Rogue Skill Boost in addition to Human Versatility (if you're human) are must haves.

Gear
You will be using a rapier in main hand and a shortsword in offhand. You need a light weapon in your offhand in order to not suffer a to hit penalty, and when you get weapon finesse it will only work with rapiers and weapons marked "(Light)" (not just short swords). For Undead you'll want a sickle or handaxe (slashing) and a light mace (crushing), and a bow for pulling. Ranged weapon are weak in the damage department overall, you'll be meleeing to do your dps. You'll want to use light armor.

There's gear that will raise your skills so you'll want to wear it to improve your disable device, search and spot. You can get +3 in Korthos areas, +5 at level 5 up to +15 eventually from drops or the AH.

Damage Focused Build, DEX Based
For a damage focused dex build, Human or Halfling are great choices. The extra feat from human is huge. Halflings get bonus damage on sneak attack which is huge too. These builds are pretty versatile and you can easily cover your rogue skills (although you may be more dependent on skill boosts and gear).

Attributes
Every four levels put your stat points into DEX
 * For Halflings you need 13str to get power attack, and you want a very high dex to get enough hit to use it.

Feats
Choose Two Weapon Fighting for your first feat Choose Power Attack for your human feat if human Choose Weapon finesse for your second feat (Available at level 3, even for Human)

Feats can be exchanged but it's expensive so be careful on your other selections, but typically you are going to want to take the fighting feats that improve two weapon fighting. Also, you won't use power attack until later because your hit roll will be low, but it's good to get the feat in anticipation of further use.

Skills
Keep Disable Device, Search, Use Magic Device, Jump, Spot, Tumble, and Diplomacy at their maximum level. Take at least some balance and Open Lock. Don't waste points in Listen, Swim, or Bluff or Intimidate. As mentioned earlier, it's easy to change your mind on skills since you just need to max everything.

Enhancements
The nice thing about enhancements is that you can reset them pretty cheaply once every three days so you can't wreck your character by choosing the wrong ones. Play around with these and see what you like. A couple of enhancements are worth pointing out for the skills rogue. Rogue Disable Device, Spot, and Search are worth putting some ranks in, and Rogue Skill Boost in addition to Human Versatility (if you're human) are must haves. Other than that, pick skills that will help you do more damage.

Gear
You will be using a rapier in main hand and a shortsword in offhand. You need a light weapon in your offhand in order to not suffer a to hit penalty, and when you get weapon finesse it will only work with rapiers and shortswords. For Undead you'll want sickles (slashing) and maces (crushing) and a bow for pulling. Ranged weapon are weak in the damage department overall, you'll be meleeing to do your dps. You'll want to use light armor.

There's gear that will raise your skills so you'll want to wear it to improve your disable device, search and spot. You can get +3 in Korthos areas, +5 at level 5 up to +15 eventually from drops or the AH.

Damage Focused Build, STR Based
Dwarf or Human, if you are dwarf you'll be using dwarven axes and if human you'll be using Khopesh. You'll use oversized two-weapon fighting to let you do this. You'll still be able to handle traps, but you'll be light on skills in general and will have to pick and choose. Still though, this is a great build.

Attributes
At level 4, put one stat point into DEX Every other four levels put your stat points into STR

Feats
Choose Two Weapon Fighting for your first feat Choose Exotic weapon: Khopesh for your human feat if human Choose Oversized two-weapon fighting for your feat at level 3

Feats can be exchanged but it's expensive so be careful on your other selections, but typically you are going to want to take the fighting feats that improve two weapon fighting. And slashing feats which benefit your weapon. You will be a little light on feats in general, and most dwarves take 1 level of fighter. This is a big boost and the current capstone for rogue is lackluster, however I recommend progressing some before making the call, maybe to level 8 before deciding.

Skills
Keep Disable Device, Search, Use Magic Device, Diplomacy at MAX. Throw some points into balance and Open Lock and Jump. You are going to have to rely on your groupmates, experience, or luck to know when to hit search since you won't have spot. If that doesn't work for you try to work in spot... Don't waste points in Listen, Swim, or Bluff or Intimidate. As mentioned earlier, it's easy to change your mind on skills since you don't need to max everything.

Enhancements
The nice thing about enhancements is that you can reset them pretty cheaply once every three days so you can't wreck your character by choosing the wrong ones. Play around with these and see what you like. Since you'll be a little weaker early on in the skills dept, Rogue Disable Device, Spot, and Search are worth putting some ranks in, and Rogue Skill Boost in addition to Human Versatility (if you're human) are must haves. Other than that, pick skills that will help you do more damage and dump those utility skills when you get higher level and want to pump out the dps.

Gear
You will be dual wielding dwarven axes or khopeshes after level 3. For Undead you'll want some maces (crushing) and a bow for pulling. Ranged weapon are weak in the damage department overall, you'll be meleeing to do your dps. You'll want to use light armor.

There's gear that will raise your skills so you'll want to wear it to improve your disable device, search and spot. You can get +3 in Korthos areas, +5 at level 5 up to +15 eventually from drops or the AH. You will be fairly reliant on this to allow you to tackle the traps.

Multiclassing
The flexibility of this build lends well to adding in levels from other classes. You give up the top-tier enhancements and Improved Evasion (until the level cap is extended). Taking more than 2 levels in another class will dilute your core skills more than you may want since your primary role will still be Dealing with traps.

Some classes that combine well with this Rogue are:


 * Wizard: One of the best choices. With INT 14 you'll be able to cast 12(!) spells per rest periode. Arcane spellfailure isn't a problem because of your light armor. Among the 1st level spells are great spells for rogues like Mage Armor, Shield, Tumble, Jump and more. Take the Extend Spell feat to further increase the duration of your buffs.
 * Ranger: You can get Two Weapon Fighting, Rapid Shot, and Bow Strength as 'free' feats. Decent skill synergy.
 * Fighter: For a more a-la-carte Feat selection.
 * Barbarian: For Damage Reduction, Rage and general melee and trap survivability.

Use Magic Device
This skill is useful and complicated enough to warrant its own discussion. With this skill, you can use clerical and arcane wands and scrolls. You can also, with this skill, bypass race requirements on certain equipment.

The Difficulty Check on wands is quite high (for more information, see Use Magic Device). To be reliable for wand usage then, it must be as high as possible. There are a few items in the game that can raise your Use Magic Device skill, of particular note being: Runic Gloves (which provides a +1 bonus), available as Unique chest loot from the Necromancer's Doom quest on Korthos Island, the Golden Cartouche (which provides a +3 bonus), only available as an end reward to the Delera's Tomb quest sequence, and the Seven Fingered Gloves (which provides a +5 bonus), available as an end reward from the raid The Titan Awakes. Additionally, items that have Command (item enhancement) or Persuasion are useful as they provide a bonus to all charisma based skills, Use Magical Device included. Since this sort of enhancement is so rare, make sure you train your Use Magical Device skill as high as possible while you are leveling.

Conclusion
To say "This is not your father's Rogue" would be getting the point across, but it would be inaccurate. Chances are, this IS your father's rogue. DDO plays like the Pencil and Paper version, which means that the rogue implemented here is the more traditional version, and if you're not used to it, it's because wherever you played a rogue before strayed from the original concept. Abandon your preconceived notions from other games and give it a try. Your trap-disarming, lock-opening, danger-avoiding and treasure-spotting skills are unique to the class, and a good rogue has a place in any party. Now that you have a build, read some suggestions on how to play it.