Rogue Handbook: Pathfinder Class Guide – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

An iconic and important part of any party, the Rogue is an iconic Scout and Striker, but can also serve as the party’s Face. Rogues are the line from which Scouts are measured, and their Trapfinding ability and affinity for stealth are fantastic. The Rogue’s biggest problem is that they frequently cease functioning when situations make it difficult or impossible to use Sneak Attack.

This guide is for the vanilla Rogue. For the Unchained Rogue, see my Unchained Rogue Handbook.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Rogue Class Features
• Abilities
• Races
• Traits
• Skills
• Feats
• Weapons
• Armor
• Magic Items
  • Weapons
  • Armor/Shields
  • Rings
  • Wands
  • Wondrous Items
• Permanent Spells

Disclaimer

We support a limited subset of Pathfinder’s rules content. If you would like help with Pathfinder options not covered here, please email me and I may be able to provide additional assistance.

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Rogue Class Features

Hit Points: At d8 hit points, the Rogue isfairly squishy. Because many Rogues work best in melee, hit points are aserious concern and Rogues need to be sure to keep their AC high.

Base Attack Bonus: 2/3 BAB is difficultbecause many Rogues depend on two-weapon fighting, but flanking and highDexterity can make up the deficit. Debilitating Injury also allow you debuffand enemy’s AC, which can go a long way to compensate for your relatively lowBAB.

Saves: Good Reflex saves, high Dexterity,and Evasion make the Rogue exceptionally good at Reflex saves, but they oftenhave issues with Fortitude and Will saves.

Proficiencies: Limited to simple weapons,hand crossbows, and a handful of martial weapons, Rogues have very fewoptions. Fortunately, they get all of the ones that they really need to getby.

Skills: 8+ skill ranks and the longest classskill list in the game. Rogues can do a lot of things, but even with 8+ skillranks it can still be difficult to cover all of the essentials. Be sure tocoordinate with your party to know you’re going to need to invest your skillranks.

Sneak Attack: A pile of d6’s to drop on yourfoes. Sneak Attack is the Rogue’s primary source of damage, but because it canbe hard to bring into play, Rogues occasionally find themselves useless incombat.

Trapfinding: The bonus to disarming trapsis good, but the ability to disarm magical traps is the key component of thisfeature.

Evasion (Ex): With your high reflex saves,Evasion will save you from a lot of damage.

Rogue Talents: Basically Rogue-only feats,Rogue Talents offer a huge number of excellent ways to customize and improveyour Rogue. For help picking talents, see myRogue Talents Breakdown.

Trap Sense (Ex): The bonus scalesreasonably well, but the use is highly situational.

Uncanny Dodge: The ability to never becaught flat-footed is nice, but somewhat situational. If you are expecting tobe attacked, you can do silly things like using Full Defense every round untilyou get attacked.

Improved Uncanny Dodge: This will basicallynever come up.

Advanced Talents: Add an extra list ofconsiderably better Rogue Talents.

Master Strike: Basically the Assassin’sDeath Strike ability. This ability is fine, but Ninjas and Slayers can take itas a talent at level 11.

Abilities

The Rogue is very frequently MAD, especially if the party has very few other skills and no Face.

Str: Only useful for a bit of damage, andRogues depend almost exclusively on Sneak Attack for damage. Dump to 8, butdon’t dump to 7 unless you really need the extra points.

Dex: In light armor, Dexterity is absolutelycrucial. All but the strangest Rogue builds depend on Weapon Finesse or rangedweapons, so make sure to put a lot of resources into dexterity.

Con: Essential for Fortitude saves and hitpoints, especially if you’re in melee.

Int: Essential for skill ranks. 8+ seemslike a lot, but it’s nowhere near enough.

Wis: Essential for Will saves.

Cha: A little bit of Charisma is great ifyou plan to play a Face, but otherwise you can dump Charisma to 7.

Races

Bonuses to Dexterity are essential, and bonuses to Intelligence or skills are nice too. Darkvision is especially nice at low levels before you can get Darkvision from spells.

Dwarf: Not particularly well-suited to theRogue, but Darkvision is certainly tempting.

Elf: Bonuses to Dexterity and Intelligenceare fantastic, and some of the Elf’s other racial abilities are helpful. TheElf favored class bonus adds additional uses to the minor magic and majormagic talents, but unless you really plan to use those talents it won’tmatter.

Gnome: The penalty to strength hurts ourdamage a little bit, but small size doesn’t hurt rogues much, and providesnice bonuses to Stealth, attacks, and AC. The bonus Charisma helps a bit,though not as much as a bonus to dexterity. The slow speed also hurts a bit,but can be overcome with items, and careful positioning.

Half-Elf: The flexible ability score bonusgoes into Dexterity, but many of the other racial traits can be swapped outfor more useful options. The Half-Elf favored class bonus is garbage, so takethe Elf or Human favored class bonuses instead.

Half-Orc: The flexible ability score bonusgoes into Dexterity, the bonus to Intimidate is a nice perk, and you getDarkvision. The favored class bonus is garbage.

Halfling: Bonuses to Dexterity and Charismamake the Halfling a natural Rogue. The Fleet of Foot alternate racial traitallows you to overcome the slow speed, and the bonus to Perception is welcomeon any character. The bonus to saves also helps improve the Rogue’s weakdefenses. Unfortunately, the favored class bonus is terrible.

Human: As usual, the Human is a greatoption. A bonus feat and an extra skill rank per level open up a ton of greatoptions, and the flexible ability score bonus can go right into Dexterity. Thefavored class bonus grants additional Rogue Talents, which adds a lot of greatoptions.

Traits

• Hidden Hand (Combat): Especially usefulif you multiclass into Assassin or otherwise gain a Death Attack abilitywhich is typically used during a surprise round.
• Reactionary (Combat): Initiative bonusesare great for Rogues.
• Resilient (Combat): Bonus to a badsave.
• Indomitable Faith (Faith): Bonus to a badsave.
• Inspired (Faith): Since Rogues spend somuch time using skills, you have a lot of opportunities to use this.
• Magical Talent (Magic): If you plan topick up the Minor/Major Magic talents, this fits very well thematically.Pick up a utility option like Mage Hand or Prestidigitation.
• Pragmatic Activator (Magic): If you’re nota Face, but you still want to use UMD, this can get a you a huge bonus byignoring your 7 Charisma in favor of your high Intelligence.
• Life of Toil (Social): Bonus to a badsave.
• Forlorn (Elf Racial): Bonus to a badsave.
• Elven Reflexes (Half-Elf Racial): The sameeffect as Reactionary, but doesn’t take up your Combat trait.

Skills

• Acrobatics (Dex): Great to move around incombat without getting killed. The DC is the threatening creatures’ CMD, andthe enemies which you care about avoiding will have a high CMD so if youplan to use Acrobatics you need to have enough ranks to make it work.
• Appraise (Int): Too situational.
• Bluff (Cha): Helpful for any face, andfeinting is a nice way for melee Rogues to get some self-sufficiency incombat.
• Climb (Str): Too situational.
• Craft (Int): Craft (Alchemy) can beuseful if you like to use alchemical weapons, but you can do just finewithout it.
• Diplomacy (Cha): Essential for anyface.
• Disable Device (Dex): Essential for Scoutswho need to handle traps.
• Disguise (Cha): Too situational. Buy a hatof Disguise.
• Escape Artist (Dex): Too situational.
• Intimidate (Cha): Helpful for anyface.
• Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int): One ofthe most important Knowledge skills.
• Knowledge (local) (Int): Useful foridentifying humanoids and for plot stuff in some campaigns.
• Linguistics (Int): Have someone casttongues.
• Perception (Wis): The most-rolled skill inthe game by a huge margin.
• Perform (Cha): You are not a Bard.
• Sense Motive (Wis): Helpful for anyface.
• Sleight of Hand (Dex): Too situational.
• Stealth (Dex): Essential for anyScout.
• Swim (Str): Too situational.
• Use Magic Device (Cha): This can open upa lot of great options if you like to use wands and scrolls for tricks thatyou can’t do without magic.

Feats

• Bookish Rogue: Generally when you setyour Minor and Major Magic talents, you select options which are importantto your build.
• Dastardly Finish: Fear stacking can bevery effective, but Rogues have very few mechanics to do it on theirown.
• Extra Rogue Talent: Rogue talents arefantastic, and many of them offer better options than feats.
• Talented Magician: The Elf can get just asmany extra uses with two levels worth of favored class bonus.
• Shadow Strike: Usually it’s a betteridea to remove the concealment, but if your party likes to use effects likeFog Cloud, this can be a huge advantage in combat.
• Twinned Feint: Very situational, and youneed to have a bunch of Improved Feint feats for it to matter. You won’treasonably be able to use this until you pick up Improved Two-WeaponFeint.
• Combat Expertise: Not useful on its own,but it opens up a lot of other great options.
  • Improved Feint: Allows you to Feint andattack in the same round, allowing you to use Sneak Attack withoutflanking or hiding. However, if you’re in melee you are almost certainlyusing two-weapon fighting, so Two-Weapon Feint is likely a better choicefor you.
    • Deceptive Exchange: Amusing, butridiculously situational. I would let someone do this with a Bluffcheck without requiring a feat.
    • Disengaging Feint: The Withdrawaction lets you move twice your speed, affects all opponents whichthreaten your current square, and doesn’t require a Bluff check. Ifyou don’t want to move in a straight line you can use Acrobatics totumble.
      • Disengaging Flourish: Just useAcrobatics to tumble.
      • Disengaging Shot: Thisallows you to Feint, attack, then move all in one turn.Certainly a tempting option, but situational.
  • Two-Weapon Feint: Functionally thesame as Improved Feint, but a better option for two-weapon fighters.
    • Improved Two-Weapon Feint: Thismakes feinting and two-weapon fighting a viable combination. Itsucks to give up one of your attacks, but your opponent loses theirdex bonus to AC for an entire round, and not just for yourattacks.
  • Surprise Maneuver: Combat maneuversaren’t typically a good choice for Rogues, but if you want to use themthis will get you a hefty bonus.
• Sap Adept: +1 damage per Sneak Attack die,but you can only deal nonlethal damage.
  • Sap Master: Double your Sneak Attackdice with Saps. It’s nonlethal damage, but your Sneak Attack damage is(roughly) 1d6+1 per Rogue level, which is fantastic.
• Sneaking Precision: Critical feats aren’t agood choice for Rogues. Leave this one for Slayers.
• Strangler: With 2/3 BAB combat maneuversare hard for Rogues, making Grapple an unlikely choice. If you combine thiswith Agile maneuvers and Surprise Maneuver, you might be able to make thiswork, but if you can make grappling work it’s more effective to pin andrestrain the target.
• Two-Weapon Fighting: TWF Rogues have been astaple for a long time, and for good reason. Rogues have little use forshields, and two attacks means two piles of Sneak Attack damage.
  • Double Slice: Worthless.
    • Two-Weapon Rend: Your damage fromSneak Attack will completely eclipse this.
  • Improved Two-Weapon Fighting: 4 totalattacks can mean a huge amount of damage.
    • Greater Two-Weapon Fighting:With 2/3 BAB and TWF penalties, it’s very difficult for a Rogue tohit with their third iterative attacks, so it’s perfectly acceptableto skip this feat. Debilitating Attack will provide a scaling ACpenalty against your attacks which might make this viable forUnchained Rogues, but for standard rogues you should lookelsewhere.
  • Two-Weapon Defense: Dodge is strictlybetter.
• Weapon Finesse: Essential for any meleerogue. You may choose to take the Finesse Rogue Talent instead of spending afeat, but if you’re a melee Rogue you almost certainly want this at firstlevel. Even if you’re using two-weapon fighting at first level, the relativebonus from using Dexterity for attack rolls will almost certainly be largerthan the +4 effective bonus from Two-Weapon Fighting.

Weapons

• Dagger: A good choice for two-weaponfighting and for throwing. Regardless of your primary weapon, carry some forutility and as backup weapons.
• Hand Crossbow: Cool, but not veryeffective. You can dual-wield hand crossbows, but you will need to class dipinto Alchemist or Witch to get something which allows you reload whiledual-wielding.
• Light Crossbow: A good ranged option, andit doesn’t care about your Halfling Rogue’s 5 Strength.
• Rapier: Critical threats aren’t veryimportant to Rogues, but the rapier is the biggest melee weapon available tothe Rogue.
• Shortsword: A common choice for two-weaponfighting because you can use them in both hand and only take Weapon Focusonce.
• Shortbow: The obvious choice for archeryRogues, but remember that Strength penalties apply to bow damage, so acrossbow may be a good choice instead.

Armor

• Studded Leather: Your starting point.This should last through early levels. Don’t bother enhancing because you’regoing to get a Mithral Shirt pretty quickly.
• Masterwork Buckler: If you’re using aranged weapon or doing two-weapon fighting, a masterwork buckler offers acheap way to boost your AC if you’re willing to pay the -1 penalty toattacks.
• Darkwood Heavy Shield: If you’re inmelee using a single weapon, a Darkwood Heavy Shield has no armor checkpenalty, so it’s a cheap and easy way to boost your AC without cutting intoyour damage output.
• Mithral Shirt: Mithral Shirt will be yourbest bet for AC until your Dexterity bonus hits +10, which will be extremelyhigh level.
• Haramaki: Strictly better than paddedarmor. With no maximum dexterity bonus, you can afford to make yourDexterity absurdly high without restriction, and can still keep enhancingyour armor.
• Mage Armor: A wand of Mage Armor gets you+4 AC for an hour at a time. For the same 9150gp for +3 Haramaki, you canbuy 12 wands, netting you a total of 600 hours of mage armor. If you have awizard in the party, buy them a pearl of power 1 for 1000gp, and they canget you hours/level of mage armor for essentially nothing.

Magic Items

Weapons

• Dagger of Doubling (10,302 gp): If you’re goingfor a thrown weapon build, this is your best bet. Pick up Quick Draw andduplicate the daggers after each attack. Unfortunately you won’t be able togo past +1 without your DM allowing you enhance the weapon beyond itsdefault stats, but without this your best bet is buying dozens of +1 daggersanyway, so you come out ahead either way.
• Sword of Subtlety (22,310 gp): Very pricey,but a +4 to attacks and damage makes this effectively a +5 weapon forslightly more than the price of a +3. Certainly not a go-to option, but niceif you have someone in the party to craft one for you.

Armor/Shields

• Animated Shield (+2): It may bedifficult to find time to activate your animated shield because rogues leanso heavily on full attack actions. Still, it can be a very welcome AC boostfor melee rogues.
• Celestial Armor (22,400 gp): Unless youhave heavy armor proficiency and a Dexterity modifier of at most+5, Celestial Armor is the best armor in the game if all you need from yourarmor is AC. For more, check out myPractical Guide to Celestial Armor.
• Murderer’s Blackcloth (12,405 gp): Notworth the gp cost.

Rings

• Invisibility: Improved Invisibility isbetter in combat, but a Ring of Invisibility is the gold standard ofscouting, infiltration, and surprise.
• Protection: A bit of extra AC is alwayswelcome for melee Rogues.
• Rat Fangs: An extra attack is anothervehicle for your Sneak Attack damage.
• Swarming Stabs: +1d6 damage to one attackas a swift action and your can use it twice per day. Not owrth the cost.

Wands

• Fog Cloud: Smokesticks are for suckers.Fog Cloud is a great escape mechanism.
• Mage Armor: See “Armor”, above.

Wondrous Items

• Belt of Dexterity: Dexterity is theRogue’s bread and butter. Get one early, and enhance it often.
• Cloak of Elvenkind: Tempting, and makessense thematically, but your Stealth bonus is likely already very highwithout wasting gold and your cloak slot on this.
• Cloak of Displacement: A great defensiveoption, but remember that it can’t be used to hide in plain sight.
• Cloak of Resistance: Essential on everycharacter every time.
• Headband of Ninjutsu: Ignore the name:you’re here for the +2 insight bonus to attack rolls with sneak attacks.
• Sniper Goggles (Regular or Greater): Forranged builds these are too good to pass up. +2 competence bonus foreach sneak attack die is an absolutely ridiculous amount of extradamage. Note that the greater versions only grant the competence bonus onceper sneak attack while attacking at range greater than 30 feet rather thanonce per sneak attack die, so stick to the regular version and get within 30feet whenever you can. Seriously, this item is so insanely good I don’tthink I would allow it at my table because the abuse cases are too easy.
• Vest of the co*ckroach: Get the Resiliencytalent on an item.

Permanent Spells

• Darkvision^PHB: Darkvision isessential when so much of your skillset requires sneaking around in thedark, but at hours per level duration you may be able to convince a partymember to spare you a spell slot every day.
• Reduce Person^PHB: If you’remedium you can reduce yourself for an easy +2 to Dexterity. If you’re small,only do this if you’re fighting at range.
• See Invisibility^PHB: With nobuilt-in way to handle invisible creatures, the ability to always see themis a fantastic benefit. You can’t Sneak Attack targets with concealment, soSee Invisibility is a much better option than effects like Glitterdust whichonly allow you to locate invisible creatures, but don’t remove theirconcealment.