TGDB.net - Game news, cheats, solutions, walkthroughs, trainers, saved games and much more!

Feats: TWO-WEAPON FIGHTING, WEAPON FINESSE, AMBIDEXTERITY, IMPROVED TWO-WEAPON
FIGHTING.  Slasher Rogues are quick and nasty in-fighters who like to dart in close when the bad guy is otherwise engaged and hit with multiple small attacks.
While these attacks seem puny, each one generally carries a sneak attack bonus, meaning even the tiniest dagger flick is soon doing 20 or 30 points of hurt.
Slashers should emphasize this by concentrating on getting as many of these "small" attacks in as possible, and taking high to-hit bonuses over high damage weapons.  If you have a choice between using a +5 dagger and a +2 rapier, use the dagger, which has a 15% better chance to hit.  Once you add a multiple-d6 sneak attack bonus, the damage difference between the two weapons is insignificant.

A Slasher's favorite weapons will be the rapier, short sword, mace, dagger, or other weapons usable with the Weapon Finesse feat.  Slashers don't generally bother with Improved Critical or Weapon Focus; they're not particularly monogamous to one type of weapon, preferring to stay flexible and use the best small weapons that come along -- meaning the ones with the best magical to hit bonuses.  However, if you MUST focus on a weapon, choose rapier (for Elven
Rogues) or dagger (for all other Rogues).  Rapiers have the best critical bonuses of the smaller weapons, work well with the Weapon Finesse skill, and do decent damage.  Daggers have similar strengths, as well as one surprising strength: some of the best magical weapons in NWN come in the dagger form.  A mace is a good backup weapon choice for attacking creatures that are immune to sneak attack and/or resistant to slashing or piercing attacks.  Have Marrok create a Mace of Disruption for you (upgradeable to +2, +5 versus undead) and it will serve you well through the whole single-player game for these situations.

Select Two-Weapon Fighting as your first Feat, but don't bother using it.  Not yet, not until character Level 3.  At Level 3, Weapon Finesse will become available to you.  Select it immediately.  From now on, you are officially a two-weapon Dexterity-fighter, not a Strength fighter.  Choose your weapons based on the selection given in the Weapon Finesse Feat for your race and size.
Ambidexterity will reduce the off-hand penalty when you pick it up (hopefully at 6th level), and Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (available to Rogues at around 12th level) will give you four or more attacks per round.  However, drop to single- weapon fighting against "bosses" if you find your sneak attacks missing the target.

A close reading of the rules will tempt you to use the Two-Weapon Fighting Feat to wield two rapiers.  After all, the rapier is classified a "light" weapon, does d6 damage, has excellent critical hit capabilities, and works with the
Weapon Finesse feat... right?  Wrong, as it turns out.  :-/  There is a bug in
Neverwinter Nights -- although the rapier should qualify as a light left-hand weapon for the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, it doesn't.  However, rapier/short sword works, as does rapier/dagger.

Multiclass Rogue/Rangers make the best Slashers because picking up even a single level of Ranger gives you the Ambidexterity and "Dual Wield" Feats for free.
Slashers should strongly consider this option, and I'll discuss it a bit more in the Multiclassing section.


GUNSHIP ROGUES
Feats: POINT BLANK SHOT, RAPID SHOT, IMPROVED CRITICAL (LONGBOW/SHORTBOW),
COMBAT CASTING.  Gunship Rogues are like Apache helicopters in battle: close- support that generally stays out of the main fight and can escape or change tactics quickly at need.  Many people aren't aware of this, but Rogues get their sneak attack bonus on ranged attacks made from distances of 30' or less (about five character-widths in NWN), so take advantage of this.  In addition,
Rogue/Wizard or Rogue/Sorcerer multiclassers make the best Gunships, peppering the enemy from afar with either arrows or direct damage spells.

Elves make particularly good Gunships because they get a racial longbow weapon proficiency, but the short bow is almost as good.  Like Slashers, Gunships should concentrate on multiple small attacks, which means getting as many arrows into the melee as possible.  Use Rapid Shot against everything except "bosses."
Also, you WILL be annoying one or more enemies who WILL decide to get in your face.  For this reason, Point Blank Shot is a good Feat (and is required for
Rapid Shot anyway).  Obviously, only multiclass spell-casting Rogues will benefit from Combat Casting, but if you don't want to multiclass into some kind of spell-casting, don't be a Gunship.  ;-)

Look for an item to boost your Strength bonus (Belts of Giant Strength are the best choice here) and upgrade to a composite bow for the damage bonus (while other missile weapons can be used by Gunships, bows have the best strength damage and critical bonuses).  In addition, start using magical arrows as soon as it is financially viable.  The Improved Critical will double the already excellent critical capabilities of the bow weapon.  There are few things more gratifying than watching a critical hit sneak attack arrow go in, then follow with five or six points of lightning or fire damage...

Finally, since you are sadly already married to your bow, don't get married to where you are standing when the fight starts.  Gunships are the most mobile of
Rogues, and should "swing around" (see Tactics below) frequently to get the best flanking and/or spell-casting angles.  Gunships tend to have the fewest hit points of the Rogues, so you're not going to want to stay in one place for very long.  Risk the attack of opportunity if you get cornered and open up some distance.  Chances are the bad guy will turn to less mobile opponents, turning their back to you almost immediately.  And Rogues know what to do when they see a back.


5.2 GENERAL ROGUE FEATS
-----------------------
As Rogues generally advance in levels more quickly than the other classes -- despite the supposedly equal amount of experience needed for all classes, Rogues seem to get more "credit" in NWN for defeating tough foes for some reason -- and because they tend to multiclass, they generally have more Feats available than all but single class Fighters.  As a result, many Rogues will be of more than one "type" above, alternating between being a Slasher or a Gunship based on circumstance, for instance.  For that reason, I won't get into any more specifics about the Feats mentioned above with the three Rogue combat types.
See the descriptions of these other types of Rogues for the benefits of their
Feats.  If you don't want to do multiple Rogue types, there are many general
Feats that are also Rogue-friendly:

DODGE.  Granting a +1 armor class bonus against the target the Rogue is currently engaged with, this is a particularly helpful feat to Thuggish and
Gunship Rogues.  Thugs tend to be more closely engaged with the bad guys than the typical Rogue.  Gunships tend to have the lowest hit point counts, and every little point of armor class helps.

MOBILITY.  This one is helpful to Gunship Rogues, who tend to provoke more attacks of opportunity than the typical Rogue, granting a +4 armor class bonus against such attacks.

ALERTNESS.  This is a very decent Feat selection for any type of Rogue, giving
+2 to Spot and Listen checks.

KNOCKDOWN.  Thuggish and Slasher Rogues like this one, which make those close in targets all too easy to swing around behind and sneak attack.  However, don't bother using it unless the bad guy seems fixated on you and won't turn to another target no matter what you do.  It's usually easier to get nearly the exact same benefit of a Knockdown by simply running away for a half round, waiting for him to engage someone else, then returning for a sneak attack (swinging around, in other words; see Tactics, below).

EXTRA TURNING.  The odd Cleric/Rogue should definitely pick this Feat up.  You can't sneak attack the undead, so you may as well get them to fall down any way you can, as quickly as you can.

GREAT FORTITUDE.  Non-Dwarven Rogues tend to have rather poor Fortitude saving throws and as a result, can benefit from this Feat.

IRON WILL.  Non-Elven Rogues will benefit from this Feat, as mind-affecting spells are probably the number one cause of premature Rogue death.

TOUGHNESS.  All Rogues can benefit from this Feat, but don't bother taking it until you're at least 15th level and have already taken any other desired Feats, as you're unlikely to notice any difference until then.

STILL SPELL.  Rogues that multiclass into arcane spell-casting like this feat, as it allows them to keep their armor while still making them viable combat spell-casters.  Only memorize and use Still versions of direct damage combat spells.  Everything else should be cast after taking off your armor and before you enter harm's way.

SILENT SPELL.  Rogues that multiclass into arcane spell-casting and do a lot of scouting like this one, allowing you to cast a spell without necessarily revealing your presence.  Particularly gratifying: using this Feat to drop a
Fireball into a crowd of monsters, virtually guaranteeing havoc among the nice motionless targets.  However, if you are in Stealth mode, you WILL be kicked out of it, so do not count on remaining unseen once you begin casting.

WEAPON PROFICIENCY (EXOTIC).  The katana, kukri, and shuriken are all excellent
Rogue weapons, particularly for Thugs or as backup weapons for Gunships (or multiclass Rogue/Monks).  Shuriken in and of themselves are not impressive, but there are many interesting varieties of magical shuriken in NWN.  In multiplayer games, particularly, these types of exotic weapons tend to go unclaimed and have relatively low resale value, so Rogues can often pick them up with little or no argument from the other players.  Finally, many Slasher Rogues go in for the two-bladed sword, which is an exotic double weapon.

IMPROVED CRITICAL (PICK).  When in doubt about Feat selection, go with this one for your favored weapon.  By the time it becomes available (around 6th level for
Rogues), you will probably find yourself concentrating on one or two weapon types for most attacks.  As noted above, there are few things more satisfying than watching a critical hit sneak attack land.  ;-)  However, it does tend to marry you to the weapon type chosen, which is usually a bad call for a Rogue.
In multiplayer games in particular, let the Fighter and Cleric types get married to specific weapons; that leaves all the weapons they reject for your personal use.

WEAPON FOCUS (PICK).  Finally, if you have every other Feat you want, this is an acceptable selection, giving a +1 attack bonus with the selected weapon.  It is not exciting or glamorous, but it is useful... however, it does tend to marry you to a single type of weapon, which is generally a bad call for a Rogue.  See
Improved Critical.


5.3 FEATS TO AVOID
------------------
ARMOR PROFICIENCY (HEAVY).  Most of your skills and some of your best multiclassing options become worthless.  The only exceptions to this are
Rogue/Fighters, and they receive this Feat for free.

CALLED SHOT.  You're not here to wound people, you're here to send them home in a box.  A sneak attack and a called shot are obviously mutually exclusive things.

DEFLECT ARROWS.  Ahem.  This looks great on screen and everything, but it's more fun to listen to archers scream as they fall down from sneak attacks.  If the archers are shooting at you and hitting you, it's because you made some kind of larger tactical or strategic mistake.  Correctly played Rogues don't generally draw missile fire, or if they do, it doesn't hit them.

DISARM.  There are two schools of thought on this Feat.  The first school of thought: see Called Shot.  Take his weapon after he's dead.  You have too few attacks to go using them on things that do no damage.  The second school of thought: a disarmed "person" (human, orc, etc.) provokes attacks of opportunity if he or she doesn't produce a backup weapon, and a disarmed monsters WON'T be able to produce a backup weapon.  ;-)  Select this Feat or not based on your personal feel on this matter, but remember, Disarm both must be selected before use AND gives a pretty sizable attack penalty!  For this reason, it's probably going to be of the most use to Thuggish Rogues.

METAMAGIC in general (for Rogues that multiclass into spell-casting).  Other than Still Spell and maybe Silent Spell... you're a Rogue, not a specialist
Wizard.  If at all possible, use your Wizard bonus Feats for this.
Rogue/Clerics may take Empower Spell.

IMPROVED DISARM.
IMPROVED KNOCKDOWN.
IMPROVED PARRY.
IMPROVED POWER ATTACK.
IMPROVED UNARMED STRIKE.  Except in rather specialized circumstances
(Rogue/Monks, say), all of these are bad Feat choices for any type of Rogue.

LIGHTNING REFLEXES.  You already have, far and away, the best Reflex saving throws in the game.  Don't bother.

SAP.
STUNNING FIST.  Also bad calls.  Let someone else do this to the bad guy, then you sneak attack it.  ;-)  Your smaller numbers of attacks are much better spent trying to kill things, not stun them.

SKILL FOCUS.  You already have the most skill points of any class in the game.
Don't bother.

WEAPON SPECIALIZATION.  This Feat is not available to Rogues (except for
Rogue/Fighters).  Even if it IS available to you, marrying a weapon to this extent would be a bad call.  Stay flexible.


5.4 ROGUE-SPECIFIC FEATS
------------------------
Finally, at 10th level, Rogues get access to some specialized Feats not available to other classes.  While many of these Feats are of limited use, there are a couple that are very nice to have.  Here they are in the rough order that you should consider selecting them:

IMPROVED EVASION.  Excellent Feat that allows you to stand in the middle of
Fireballs, Cones of Cold, dragon breath, and anything else that requires a
Reflex saving throw while those around you scurry away in fear.  A successful
Reflex saving throw negates all damage from these wide-area forms of attack, and by 10th level, when this Feat becomes available, your Reflex save will be +10 at a minimum.  Even if you fail the saving throw, you take only half damage from wide area attacks with this Feat.

SLIPPERY MIND.  Mind-affecting spells are one of the three banes of the Rogue