Rogues So, you think you want to be a rogue, do you? Or perhaps you are already
a rogue, and want to learn more about the craft. Sit down by the fireplace,
let me fill my candy bowl, and let me tell you what I know about rogues.
No, don't sit on the table, sit on that nice soft cushion. There, isn't that
nice? That cushion? Oh - I pick things up here and there.... Where was I?
First, we should begin with what kind of person makes a good rogue. If
we look at the statistics that make a person who they are when they are born,
we find certain things in common with all the better rogues. For example,
rogues will do a lot of sword swinging. So, strength is a requirement of
rogues that want to do well. Of course, discipline and aura, being useful
for mind and body should also be high. The other statistics depend on your
race and your chosen path.
I didn't tell you about paths? Hmm, must be getting forgetful in my old
age. Quiet whispers to you, I just turned 76 last night. [Editor's note,
this is true hobbit age, he has only trained 42 times as of the time of this
writing.]
Ok, I have seen three paths for rogues. Being a rogue is easy the first
20 years or so, just like it is for them sword swinging fighter types. But
then it gets harder, so the good rogue has planned out where he wants to
be when he, cough or she, is 30 or 40, or even 50 trainings old. The paths
I have seen fall into three categories:
There are features in common to all rogues:
Only single in body development. Those hit points will max out soon enough,
and those extra development points will be more useful elsewhere.
At least single in perception and pickpocket. They are both so inexpensive
and useful, find room for singling.
The two weapon skill is very costly, considering you are giving up a large
amount of defense for that second attack. As you get older, nothing can be
killed with two attacks, so spend the points somewhere where it will be useful.
When you have left over points, train in climbing (you will be amazed
how often this will come up as you get older), a little swimming, mana share,
trading, and first aid. Don't bother double training in any of them.
All rogues should double in ambush (the skill that distinguishes a rogue
from other professions), and at least double in hide.
Always give full training (double) to your primary weapon form. One handed
edged is he cheapest, but is by no means the only choice.
This rogue doubles in Combat Maneuvers. Some advocate doubling in
armor and shield also. I don't personally think the shield skill is worth
doubling in, but other swear by it.
Remaining points to be distributed to lockpick, disarm, pickpocket, a
second weapon form (like two handers) as suits your personality.
Lady Nyte is an example of the Ambushing Fighter.
This is a rogue that specializes in opening chests. Lock Picking
and Disarming get double or triple training, perception gets double, armor
and shield get single trained. CM is either single or double trained as points
permit.
Remaining points to be saved up for magic. Why? the lesser elemental list
has some spells that aid the lockpicker, and you get some nice defensive
spells thrown in. The spells are expensive, but will pay off all the way
down the line.
This path has difficulties, but I suspect Lord Auterio follows this path.
The magical ambusher is a rogue that is somewhat confused if he should
be a ranger, bard, or thief. He specializes in magic as an aid to his ambushing.
The lesser elemental list has various defensive magic available in addition
to various other useful spells. This rogue wants to have spell 425 (True
Strike) by 50th level. Note that this is a spell every other level! So this
requires allocating 40 mental points per level to magic. You will typically
only have 40 mental points, so you will be converting physical points to
mental at a two to one cost. This rogue should put high numbers into the
mental stats like intelligence etc.
This rogue will at most single in armor, no shield, very little lock and
trap (if any). You might not even have points left over for combat maneuvers,
but this should be given priority to have at least some CM. Strangely enough,
this may be the most powerful rogue of all, under the current environment.
Legend Jesh is an example of the Magical Ambusher
There is a compromise to the Magical Ambusher...
This rogue stops at 410 (e-wave) and only tries to get a spell every 3
levels. He gets e-wave at 30th level this way, about the time where the
non-magical thief is having problems hunting. E-wave is a great equalizer
spell in a large number of situations. The numbers and training path is very
much like the Magical Ambusher presented above, but you will have a few spare
points to use for locks and CM.
After E-Wave has been learned, those points can be applied to picking,
disarming, mana sharing etc as fits the personality of the rogue.
Legend Aurien and Lord Quiet are examples of the compromised Magical Ambusher
Quiet, stops, drinks from a large mug of steaming chocolate milk, and
looks off into the fire.
Ambushing. There is a skill for you. I remember the days when... well,
Quiet smiles, you don't want to hear my old stories. Let me tell you about
ambushing.
Fighters have their method of ambushing. We have ours. They may seem the
same to the outside observer, but they are as different as night and day.
The fighters gets all stoked up, steam pouring from his nostrils, and aims
his sword, or whatever is in his hand, and the head of the poor creature.
Poof - no head. Neat trick that, Quiet mumbles.
Rogues don't do it that way. Nope. You got to hit pretty hard to smash
a head. Rogues do it with skill, not brute force. Finesse! Have you ever
seen a rogue ambush? He hides. This takes a while looking for just the right
spot where you can do the most good. I have trained a fair touch so I rarely
fail in my hiding, but it still takes me at least 3 seconds to hide. Then
I carefully pick my target and swing, just after the creature has done something.
This is kindof like stance-tagging, but better! You see, after I attack I
am really really open to a counter attack for at least 5 seconds. I am hoping
the monster will be vulnerable to attack for the same time, or longer so
he don't swing at me. This don't work so well when there are a group of monsters
against you, so be careful.
Oh, I almost forgot, where to aim. I have watched tall rogues, you know,
humans and other vertically challenged races, swing directly at the head
or neck. Both are good targets for the instant kill. I can rarely reach that
high. So I aims for their legs. Funny thing, but when a creature loses their
leg, they usually fall down, stunned for a short while, making my next attack
even easier. And that attack, I can reach their head.
Some creatures don't lose their leg. For example, some undead don't have
no legs. Seems I am always running into these. Well, many don't know it,
but you can do some extra damage if you aim at some sensitive spots, like
the back. The back is nice too, they often fall down.
You want to know details of how this works? Ok. Half your skill in ambush
goes towards your targeting. So if you have a 100 skill (say you are 10th
level) you would have a 50% chance of hitting where you aim. If you miss,
it might hit somewhere else, or it might leave you looking at a creature
you have just made angry. The other 50% of the skill is the special part
that only works when you hide and ambush. It increases the critical damage
of the attack. First, you have to hit hard enough to critical at all. This
means you have to do at least 6 points of damage. Then the half of your ambush
skill gets added to the combat roll for the determination of the severity
of the crit. So you might do 6 damage points with your weapon, but slice
off the hand, causing an additional 30, and he drops his weapon! Them smelly
fighters can't do that!
You want to know about lockpicking? Hmm - I have picked a fair pocket,
cough, cough, I mean chest in my time... There are two steps to picking a
chest: traps (disarming), and locks (picking).
You don't want to be opening no chest that you haven't disarmed the traps.
Even if your best friend assures you there is no trap on it, it is your face
and hands that will get melted off, not his. It is really simple to find
traps, too. Not so simple to remove them though, or I wouldn't have made
as much money as I did.
The first thing you do is disarm the chest. "Disarm my chest", assuming
you are holding the chest in your hand. You need good perception and disarm
skill to find the trap. When you are young, you don't have the skill. Trust
me. You will find some. You will miss some. Worse yet, you will fire off
some traps right in your face. I suggest waiting till you are at least 5,
and perhaps 8. (Assuming you are double training. If you single train, be
older. If you triple train, be younger) Then, try to find traps multiple
times if you don't see them the first time. Not all chests have traps. But
if you have tried 3 to 5 times and don't see one, then you have a good chance
of living through it.
This brings up another point. Try to find a place to open chests away
from a lot of people. You will occasionally activate a trap. Some of the
traps affect everyone in the room. Lots of people in the room, mean lots
of people dead or hurt. These people will all know you did it, and will not
be happy. Some traps will release a cloud. So, you might even want to be
a few rooms away from people until you are very sure of yourself.
Ok, you have found a trap, and want to disarm it. Well, you do the same
darn thing again. "Disarm my chest" Sometimes you won't do it. You can keep
trying. For those that like numbers:
Disarm_Skill + Wisdom_Bonus + Lore (if any) + Trap + d100 > 100
The Disarm_Skill is your skill in disarm that you have trained in.
Wisdom_Bonus is the number you see with a + or - when you get "info" on your
character after the wisdom stat. Lore is from the dsenhance on the lesser
elemental spell list. You get 5+ half your level if someone throws it on
you. You get 10+your level if you throw it on yourself. You get 0 if you
don't have this spell active. Now, they been talking of changing this, but
it hasn't changed yet.
You have either removed the trap, or there was no trap to begin with.
You are ready to pick the lock. Let me tell you now, you are going to break
a lot of lockpicks. Expect it. Don't invest so much money into lockpicks
you can't afford to replace them. Them things are worth more than gold. Well,
you'll see. Get that lockpick in your hand, and "pick my chest with my lockpick".
Again for those who like numbers:
(Lockpick_Skill + Stat_Bonus + Lore (if any)) * Pick_Multiplier + Lock
+ d100 > 100
Lockpick_Skill is your trained skill in picking locks.
Stat_Bonus is the bonus of some stat or combination of stats. It might
be wisdom. I am not sure. (Sorry)
Lore is just like disarm, but the spell is pkenhance. Same numbers
Lets talk about lockpicks. Lockpicks have two attributes: strength and
the multiplier. Notice the multiplier magnifies even the smallest of skills.
The common lockpick has a multiplier of 1.0. The alum lockpicks available
from the locksmith in the back room, have a multiplier of 2.4. These are
the best you can buy over the counter. Sometimes special lockpicks can be
found on monsters, or special merchant. I have never seen one better than
2.5, but have hear of one or two in the 2.6 range.
The problem is, lockpicks are fragile. And any time you don't open a chest,
it checks to see if the lockpick breaks. If there is no hope of you opening
the box, because the lock is way above your skill, the lockpick has an even
greater chance of breaking. Worse yet, 1% of the time, you will fail, even
if the chest is a trivial chest to your skill.
So what can you do to avoid those chests that are above your skill? As
it turns out, this is not that hard. If you know the age (level) of the creature
that dropped the chest, you have a fair idea of the hardness of the chest.
The hardness goes up every time the creature's age goes up by 10. So all
creatures age 0-9 have the same GENERAL hardness. When you are 8, and have
double trained, stick to these chests. Creatures 10-19 have the same general
hardness. Again, you should be around 12 to 15 before dealing with these
chests. It seems that if you are good, you can pick chests from creatures
slightly above your age. (And I suppose if you triple trained, you could
do this much faster.)
Funny thing about picking, you can learn from it, but only if you have
a chance of failing. So those easy chests you open in no time? They give
you no experience. So the better your skill, the less you can learn.
I have heard that kneeling improves your disarm and lockpicking skill.
Well, it may be because I am so short, so don't need to kneel to get closer
to the chest, but I have never seen any advantage to picking with my knees
in the cold dirt.
Chuckle, you seem to have dropped your coin purse into my seat. Here,
have it back. No, count those coins. I don't want anyone thinking I take
coins from a guest. No sir!
You want to know how I COULD pick your pocket? Hmmm. Tis really easy.
I just "steal Thieves guild? Yep - there is a thieves guild. I am a member! What is
it? Hmm. Well, we have some informal rules, you know. We want thieves that
have honor. So none of those thieves that steal items. None of those thieves
that steal chests. Thieves that steal coins are ok, of course. We are not
an assassins guild, but there are assassins in our guild. No, we don't do
vendettas for guild members, but we have been known, in the past, to band
together to stop an invasion of people that demanded we not pick inside the
town limits. Yep, *blush*, well that was actually before my time, you know.
You want to know how to join? Oh, well, hmmm. You should make sure you
are an honorable thief (not just following those rules I said, but in all
ways) and make yourself known by guild members. You don't know any guild
members? Sure you do... You know me. You want to know others? I seem to have
forgotten their names, sorry. Quiet smiles a sheepish smile.
Quiet looks down at his empty mug of chocolate milk, his empty bowl of
candy, and the fire starting to go out. I think it is time for this hobbit
to sleep. I should mention that I am the oldest hobbit rogue I know of. [Oldest
player hobbit rogue - Editor] Being a hobbit and a rogue is not very easy.
Hobbits are not so strong. We are agile and dexterous, but it is easier to
be one of the elves or even a human rogue. I read a story once about a Bilbo
Baggins hobbit. Well let me tell you, he never existed in this world. Nor
did Frodo or any of the others. I have heard being a dwarf rogue is almost
as hard. Not sure we ever had a Lord or Lady dwarf rogue. That would be a
sight. Of course all dwarves are thieves. Have you seen the prices they been
charging...
That's right. Sorry to have kept you. I know you have to get home. Good
Night.
Lord Quiet, Rogue, Voln Master
aka
Steven Colborne
by Lord Quiet
Ambushing Fighter, The Locksmith, and The Magical Ambusher
The Ambushing Fighter
The Locksmith
The Magical Ambusher
Return to the Rogue Gallery