Starting a Rogue

The role of the Rogue in DDO is different than in most games. Rogues, even with their sneak attack, cannot match the damage potential of a properly built fighter or wizard. Instead, they have several abilities that make them essential to every dungeon crawl, namely Disable Device, Listen, Open Lock, Search, and Spot. Other class skills that can be character defining but less essential are Hide, Move Silently, Tumble, and Use Magic Device.

The Rogue is one of the most versatile classes in the game. They receive more skills and more skill points than any other class available. Rogue builds are, therefore, as varied and versatile as the class itself. That being said, the two rogue builds often played are those that focus on skills and those that focus on damage. Every other rogue build tends to fall somewhere in between these two extremes.

The following builds will focus on the two extremes, but should equip you with enough knowledge to confidently build a more moderate rogue if you wish. 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.

Read up on the Rogue's job before starting a character, so you'll know what challenges you should be planning to face.

Skills Build
Humans will always excel far over every other rogue for every skill build. It is true, elves receive racial bonuses to Listen, Search, and Spot, while halflings receive the same in Hide and Move Silently. However, humans have access to the racial enhancement Human Versatility, which gives a bonus to all skills and will eventually vastly surpass all other racial skill bonuses that the other races are blessed with. Also, humans can increase their intelligence with a racial enhancement, to get even more skillpoints.

Attributes
STR 10 DEX 16 CON 14 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 8


 * Level 4: +1 DEX
 * Level 8: +1 DEX

Feats
You have a lot of flexibility here. Even a rogue focusing on skills can be a moderately good combatant. At the very least you will want to pick up Weapon Finesse if you ever hope to hit anything in melee combat. As a human with the proper enhancements, your skills will generally be very high and if you are looking to spend feats on skill boosts, consider augmenting skills that cannot be influenced by specific enhancements, such as Use Magic Device.

Recommendations: Dodge, Mobility, Nimble Fingers, Two Weapon Fighting, Use Magic Device, Weapon Finesse

Skills
Without a doubt keep Disable Device, Listen, Open Lock, Search, and Spot at their maximum level. I also suggest the same for Hide, Move Silently, Tumble, and Use Magic Device. With 14 INT and the extra skill points granted to the human race, you will be left with two skills to possibly maximize. I took Balance and Jump. Some prefer Swim, but with the ready availability of water-breathing magical items and potions, I consider this skill obsolete. Feel free also to keep some of the less essential skills at less than their maximum level, spreading points out between several skills.

Enhancements

 * Human Versatility
 * Skill Ingenuity
 * Skill Perception
 * Rogue Action Boost

Human Versatility V will give you +5 to all of your skills, Skill Ingenuity V and Skill Perception V will collectively give you +7 to Disable Device, Open Locks, Search, and Spot. Finally, Rogue Action Boost V will give you +11 to all skills five times between every rest period. You may consider swapping out Rogue Action Boost for Skill Stealth or another enhancement, but without it you cannot reach the skill cap of 40 which may be necessary for some of the later elite traps and locks.

Weapons and Armor
You will want to (optimally) carry around a rapier (piercing), sickle (slashing), light mace (crushing), and some type of bow (ranged). I prefer to use a weapon and buckler for the extra defense, but others may prefer to use two weapons or to forego melee combat as much as possible in favor of ranged. If this is the case, consider taking the feats Rapid Reload and one of the exotic repeater crossbow proficiencies (for crossbows), or Point Blank Shot and Rapid Shot (for bows). There are a lot of arguments for or against melee versus ranged rogues, and even for or against repeater crossbows versus bows. At this point I believe it all boils down to style and preference. Note however that many of the higher level encounters (giants, mephits, etc.) do point-blank area of effect damage. You can avoid this damage by tumbling away or by proper positioning, but even so there is still a strong argument in favor of ranged attacks because they are safer.

Wear the best light armor that you can find, but be aware that a chain shirt hinders the wearer with a -1 Armor Check Penalty, which gives -1 to all of your skills. For this reason I tend to look especially for studded leather armor.

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. The proper use of this skill is one thing that seperates competent rogues from great rogues.

The Difficulty Check on wands is 18 + [2*level], where level is apparently the level a wizard would have to reach to have access to the spell. For example, the DC on an invisibility wand (a level 2 spell granted to level 3 wizards) would be 18 + [2*3], or 24. To be reliable then, Use Magic Device must be spiked as high as possible. This is why it is recommended to take the Use Magic Device skill augment feat. With this feat you can hope to reach a Use Magic Device skill level of 25, even with a Charisma of 8 (13 from trains, 5 from equipment, 5 from Human Versatility, 3 from the feat, and -1 from the Charisma modifier).

Wands are plentiful in this game, and collecting them will enable you to fill holes or otherwise supplement your party's abilities. In a well-balanced group this can mean conserving your casters' spell points for more vital activities. In an unbalanced group (no cleric or no arcane caster), you can bring buffs, damage, or healing to a group that would have otherwise had to make do without.

To be clear, this skill won't turn your rogue into a cleric or a wizard. That being said, it will add a whole new dimension to your rogue that will probably make him more fun and exciting to play, as well as more useful to your party. If you want the skill to be more central to your character theme, dump more points into Charisma as character creation (freeing them from Strength and Constitution). However, I didn't feel that raising an ability score (Charisma) solely for the benefit of a single skill was enough to warrant lowering other abilitiy scores.

Damage Build
"Shield-block, kiddies, and let the master do his job"

Your role in the team is to follow behind a heavily-armored Fighter or Paladin. As soon as a nasty takes a swing on him, you leap behind it and make it dead. You've got excellent melee damage, except in the case of monsters without discernable anatomy (undead, slime, constructs, and elementals). When those creatures attack, you must fall back to less flamboyant support combat.

Halfing is good for this build. Humans (as always) get an extra feat, but halflings have +1 to hit and +1 AC, which is like getting two Feats (Weapon Focus and Dodge) for free. The +2 dex is useful too.

Attributes
Str: 13 +1 to hit and damage. You can probably find Bracers of Ogre Power by level 3, which brings you an additional +1 damage. A slightly lower Str is ok, for a halfling. (Going below 12 puts you in danger of becoming overloaded by loot, which slows movement and cuts your dex AC bonus)

Dex: 16 to AC and Reflex Saves. Going down to 15 would be OK, but any lower and you lose Two Weapon Fighting. A halfling can have 18. The best armor for you is a Mithril Chainshirt (the strongest Light armor, and Rogues CANNOT wear more than Light or lose their Evasion), which has a max dex bonus of 6, so aim for 22 dex at level 10 (you can get 2 at levels 4 and 8, 3 from class enhancement, and 2 from race enhancement)

Con: 12 +1 to HP/level and Constitution Saves. Feel free to add/remove 2 points from con and shift them to Int (for skills) or Wis (for Will save)

Int: 14 +2 to Skills and Search / Disable. You have got to be able to handle traps to make it as a Rogue, even if melee kills are your real goal. Going above 14 is fine, making you a slightly more traditional "burglar" rogue.

Wis: 8 -1 to Spot and Will.

Cha: 8 -1 you can probably manage aggro fine with skillful movement and hitting. But if you do want to try Diplomacy or Bluff, the skill points from a higher intelligence will help more than a charisma modifier.

Feats
The two prime feats you want are Weapon Finesse (so your huge dex bonus goes into melee attack rolls) and Two Weapon Fighting, so your huge Sneak Attack bonus applies to two attacks instead of just one. Consider taking one or two levels of fighter to get +1 BAB, +4 hp, and another combat-oriented Feat (such as Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, or Improved Critical)

Weapon Finesse does have some drawbacks: you can only use slightly less-powerful weapons (unimportant, since most of the damage comes from Sneak Attack, not the weapon itself), and fewer of the magical weapons you find will be effective for you. If you decide against Weapon Finesse, then move a few points from dex into str, and consider 1 level of barbarian instead of fighter.

Skills
For your prime melee-killer job, skills don't really help. Instead put your points into the core rogue skills of Search and Disable Device (and to a lesser degree, Open Locks). Hide and Move Silently may be tempting to help you avoid initial aggro and start combat from surprise, but you can really live without them. Tumble and jump, however, can be helpful to move around the battlefield and either get a rear-facing attack bonus, or escape monsters that attack you.

Enhancements
Rogue Action Boost is a must. Your Disable Device is not as good as other Rogues, so you'll want to turn on Skill Boost for help disarming any important traps. If you've got Boosts left over by the time you reach the mission's final enemies, you can turn on a damage improvement to kill them even faster. You'll also want to improve dexerity, as discussed above.

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.