Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Hey everyone,

I'm a huge fan of rogues but I struggle with getting a solid one going. I've RcRed a couple of times now and thought I should plan out ahead to avoid a third time.

So here are two builds I made that I've made and am considering. I would love it if the community gave me some input on them. Which one seems to fit my needs better and what can be improved about them.

Rogue/SD/Fighter
http://nwn2db.com/builder.php?id=193750

Rogue/Assassin
http://nwn2db.com/builder.php?id=193522

My absolute musts in my rogues are: Crippling Strike, Hips, Opportunist.

I like to go the route of explosive sneak attack damage that has a high chance of hitting, hence the Opportunist feat. I'm trying to get my ab/ac as high as possible while retaining high sneaks. I realize this limits my options, that's how I came up with these two builds. They're very similar and I hope you guys can point out their individual strengths and how to possibly improve them.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and providing your feedback, I appreciate it.

I thought Opportunist only gave you +4AB when an enemy provokes an attack of opportunity from your toon (from combat movement, drinking a potion or casting a spell without defensive mode activated). Ie. it isn't a permanent buff to your AB, nor does it apply to sneak attacks or flatfooted opponents. Useful if you're not gunna choose impr evasion, slippery mind or defensive roll I suppose. I just don't see how it assists "explosive sneak damage."

It gives you a +4AB to attacks of opportunity, which sneak attacks are.

Echo-01 wrote:It gives you a +4AB to attacks of opportunity, which sneak attacks are.

The opportunist feat does not give you +4AB on sneak attacks.

Attacks of opportunity are those attacks made when the opponent you are in combat with, tries to move or cast a spell or any other action that provokes attacks of opportunity.

Exactly as I said. An Attack of Opportunity occurs only when that blue writing floats above your head when the criteria for it are met as stated above. You can get a sneak attack on an attack of opportunity if you are flanking the enemy when that attack of opportunity occurs (mostly via flanking a wizard who casts a spell or flanking an enemy who moves position while focused on attacking an ally).

Hence why I have almost always bypassed this Rogue bonus feat as being mostly useless (but +4 AB on an AoO is still nice if you don't want to choose one of the other bonus feats).

Thanks for correction guys, I don't know how I got the idea that sneak attacks were attack of opportunity. Were they in NWN1?

That changes things a bit, if I dont take Opportunist I may just use the extra feat to get something else and not another rogue feat.

To have a rogue build with decent AB/AC might I suggest these. You'll want Able Learner feat to build your rogue skills across all the levels:

Dual-wield Dex build: Rog10/Ass8/Ftr12
(9 Ftr levels are taken in the Epics for the bonus feats)
or
Two-hand STR build: Rog11/Ass8/Ftr6/WM5
(HiPS for PVE combat only really, feat options are pretty much defined to qualify for WM)

Both are crazy powerful with the right weapon options.

Echo-01 wrote: That changes things a bit, if I dont take Opportunist I may just use the extra feat to get something else and not another rogue feat.

You can always use it for Improved Evasion. If you want Epic Dodge, you need Defensive Roll and Improved Evasion.

The best split for a Rogue (PvE now that Uncanny Dodge is fixed) IMO is: Ro16/Asn9/IB5. This allows you to get Epic Precision, Epic Dodge, Expose Weakness, as well as having decent AB/AC and plenty of damage. Best Race is Strongheart, which gets extra AB/AC due to size, as well as sneak bonuses and the additional Feat.

Thorsson wrote:The best split for a Rogue (PvE now that Uncanny Dodge is fixed) IMO is: Ro16/Asn9/IB5. This allows you to get Epic Precision, Epic Dodge, Expose Weakness, as well as having decent AB/AC and plenty of damage. Best Race is Strongheart, which gets extra AB/AC due to size, as well as sneak bonuses and the additional Feat.

+1 I have a 21st rogue with this split and it does just fine, as far as rogues go.

Only drawback of the Halfling build is that you get a penalty to max encumberance. If you want to make the most of IB, while still getting Epic Dodge, you need to put Strength in the tank. 12 Strength Halfling only get 97 encumberance.

I prefer tiefling for that kind of build.
http://nwn2db.com/build/?175324

AFAIK encumbrance modifiers for racial size was not implemented in NWN2...

Thorsson wrote:AFAIK encumbrance modifiers for racial size was not implemented in NWN2...

Seems like that's the case yep.