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Three, though oddly you can't get them in Chapter Four.


8.5 WEAPONS
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I'm not going to go into very much detail at all in this section.  There are too many Rogues wielding too many types of weapons to make this a useful section.
Instead, I'll talk about a few common and easy-to-acquire weapons that you can consider.

First, Marrok in Neverwinter will make VERY cheap magical weapons if you can but find or afford the base +1 magical weapons that he starts from.  Good choices for Rogues include Nemarra (+1 rapier plus 75% Daze DC-14) that he will make from a +1 rapier or the very similar Feyduster (+1 short sword plus 75% Daze DC-
14) that he will make from a +1 short sword.  Some Slasher Rogues might very well wield both of these weapons at once.  Slashers with Weapon Proficiency
(Exotic) might enjoy his Uthgardt Ceremonial Sword (+1, keen two-bladed sword; keen weapons have twice the chance of inflicting a critical hit) simply because a +1 two-bladed sword to start from is so easy to find: one is beneath
Tanglebrook Estates in the Peninsula District near Lady Tanglebrook's body, guarded by a pair of stink beetles and some easy-to-disable traps.  The ironwood for that Marrok needs to complete the job is also one of the first smith components you'll find in Chapter One.  Marrok's Astral Long sword is a +1 weapon that also does sonic damage, which very few creatures have any resistance to, and his Sword Saint Katana is eventually upgradeable to +4 quality plus sonic damage... but neither of these can be used with the Weapon Finesse Feat, so Slashers will need to look elsewhere.  Marrok's weapons can be upgraded in
Chapter Three to very similar weapons of roughly double strength.

Gunship Rogues should be looking for their first composite bow (and their second, and their third, and their forth).  The Elven Court Bow is +3/+3 composite longbow, is a good mid-level choice, and is pretty easy to find.
Taralash, which is impossibly rare but is the ultimate Elven Rogue composite longbow, is +4/+4 and features a constant Haste and a Spot bonus.  However, it requires Level 19 to wield.  Crossbow lovers will be waiting to put their hands on Graceblood (+5 to hit and constant Haste).  For short bow wielders, the
Phantom Bow is +3/+3, Haste, and can cast Phantasmal Killer once per day.  By
Chapter Four, you can purchase +3 composite bows of both the short and long variety.  Your choice of bow will therefore be dictated by whether you can find something superior to what you can purchase.  Remember to stay well stocked on every type of magical arrow, and vary the arrows you use based on the resistances of the creatures you're fighting!  In the general case, though, just go with Piercing or poison arrows.

Thugs should keep in mind the fact that two-handed weapons add 150% of your
Strength bonus to their attack, not 100% as one-handed weapons do.  Therefore, the smart Thug will have at least three weapon configurations quick-slotted: a big mean two-handed weapon of some kind in one, a one-handed weapon and a shield in one, and a missile weapon (possibly with a shield) in the third.  Great swords are probably the best overall two-handed weapons, though of course you'll need Weapon Proficiency (Martial) to wield them.  I have encountered one Scythe- wielding Rogue; one has to wonder how something that enormous could be used for a sneak attack.  ;-)

In general, most Rogues should simply go with the best weapon they can find that meet their racial and weapon proficiencies.  Go for high to-hit bonuses over high damage: when you add a multiple-d6 sneak attack bonus, even a lowly dagger is a terrifying weapon in the hands of a Rogue.  Stay flexible, and use whatever is the best weapon to come along!  Unless you are a Gunship Rogue, the fact that you haven't focused on any particular weapon will serve you well.


8.6 MISCELLANEOUS MAGIC
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Leave one of your six tabs open for potions and the Cleric scrolls usable by all classes (Remove Blindness/Deafness, Remove Disease, the various Restorations,
Neutralize Poison).  Once you've cleared a tab, stock up!  Rogues should never go into any major fight in NWN without at least four or five potions sloshing around their bellies.  Good choices are Speed, Cat's Grace, Bull's Strength,
Bless, Invisibility, and Aid.  The single most useful potion to Rogues, though, is Barkskin.  Keep a Barkskin on tap for virtually every fight starting in
Chapter Two and for the rest of the game.  This potion lasts until the damage resistance is gone, and so can protect you from fight to fight to fight for long periods of your day.  You can buy quantities of these potions limited only by your character's budget and your personal resistance to repetitive strain injuries from your character's local Druid.

A multiclassed Rogue will also start collecting scrolls.  Sell or trade ones that don't deal large amounts of direct damage or preferably, summon creatures, elementals, or outsiders.  A multiclassed Rogue's arcane spells should be saved for those that enhance abilities or provide protections.  Remove your armor, cast them, put your armor back on, and only then open the door behind which death awaits!  Rogues in armor should not generally bother with memorizing direct damage spells -- there are few things more frustrating than watching a big buildup toward that Fireball or Ice Storm, only to see nothing happen except the text "Spell failed due to arcane spell failure!" in the status box.  Save yourself the frustration and until you can confidently enter combat without armor, use scrolls as your direct damage capability.

Even better, start collecting rods, staves, and wands, and use these.  Either multiclassed Rogues or Rogues with high Use Magic Device skills will find a lot to recommend the Wand of Fire and the Wand of Summoning, particularly early in the game.  The other Wands are generally not worth holding on to.  Find and keep at least one Rod of Ghostly Visage.  This rod lets ANY class cast Ghostly Visage once per day (10/+1 damage resistance plus immunity to 0th and 1st level spells) per rod in inventory.  Watching magic missiles bounce off this spell is amusing, and it is useful all the way up to character Level 20.  Rogues that have multiclassed into Clerical abilities will have access to the Wand of the
Heavens, an excellent direct damage Cleric item.



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9.0 ROGUE TACTICS
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Possibly one of the most enjoyable things about playing a Rogue in D&D is the fact that Rogues are never bored.  They're always in motion, always have a job to do, always right out at the forefront of the action, no matter what's going on.  Be it battle, puzzle, trap, treasure, negotiations, information gathering, laying an ambush, or surviving a siege, the Rogue is right in the middle of it.
They're easily the most diverse character in both D&D and in Neverwinter Nights.

Rogue tactics do not start when the initiative dice roll and end when the battle is done.  If anything, this is the smallest part of the Rogue's job (see Combat
Tactics).  A correctly and well-played Rogue will be more active between the fight scenes than during them, and you should keep this in mind whether playing your Rogue in the NWN single-player game or in the longest, most diverse campaign.


9.1 IN-TOWN TACTICS
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Particularly in the single-player game, Rogues often have the most work to do in town.  There are people to talk to (and Persuade), quest items to return, and loot to sell.  Virtually every quest in the single-player game has a Persuade option at the end for more money.  Unless for whatever reason you want to bump your alignment higher into the Good category (and honestly, what's the point?), feel free to click every one of these little Persuade options.  The only ones to avoid are ones where dead relatives are involved.  For some reason, the authors of the single-player scenario feel that swindling relatives of the dead is a hyper-evil act.  So, unless your alignment IS evil, don't do it.

On the other hand, if your alignment is evil, there are lots of NPCs that have a threaten conversation tree.  These usually start out something like, "Have you paid your protection tax this month?"  No, it's not very subtle, and honestly, it's not very profitable.  By Chapter Two, the money you'll get for this kind of thing is really not even worth your time.  But if you're really looking to drive down the ol' good/evil number, this is the fastest way to do it.  Knock yourself out.

If you are a chaotic Rogue (and who isn't?) and you see a chest, crate, barrel, bookcase, bag, or anything else that is clickable anywhere at all, it is your duty to loot it.  Lawful characters might see something wrong with seeing what's in the peasant family's chest in the back bedroom, but you shouldn't.  Some of those peasants have some pretty agreeable loot.

Speaking of clickable objects, holding down the Tab key on your keyboard will highlight all clickable objects in the area.  You'd be surprised at the kinds of things that are clickable in town.  As far as I can tell from working with the
Toolset, just about any object can be set clickable.  There are even a couple of clickable TREES in the single-player game.

In the single-player game, things that you drop will stay where you drop them, and Rogues generally have a limited carrying capacity.  Therefore, if you don't need it or can't equip it right this second, feel free to set it down somewhere.
It'll be there when you get back.  Incidentally, you can greatly increase your carrying capacity when using the Stone of Recall by removing and dropping your normally equipped armor.  This will usually give you at least another 15 pounds of carrying capacity and the armor will be waiting for you when you use the portal to return.  Obviously though, if you don't intend to return to the location you're recalling from, you shouldn't do this.  ;-)

You will be tempted to hold on to a bunch of items "just in case I need them."
Don't.  Your carrying capacity is probably small, and precious.  If you can't see any reason to equip it, you probably won't.  The major exceptions are things like Rings of Regeneration or Scholar's Rings or Rods of Reversal... things with a specific task that they perform for you at designated times.  What I'm talking about here are the two extra daggers you're holding on to because you can't quite bring yourself to sell them, but you can't quite bring yourself to equip them, either.  That's called marriage to an item, and it's something Rogues shouldn't do.  Sell it!  Be brutal!  More loot will come along.  It always does.

The instant you can afford it and find one for sale, buy a Bag of Holding (or two, or three).  These make the best loot bags for the obvious reason.  When filling them, armor first, weapons second, everything else last.  Use the little stuff to plug the holes left by big, heavy stuff.  The main reason to keep a Bag of Holding is to eliminate weight, not volume.  Yes, the 12 scrolls you're carrying are messy, but put the single 15 pound set of Studded Leather +2 in there instead.  Don't bother to start filling the bag until you get close to your weight allowance, so you have a good variety of things to fill it with.
Magic Bags are a decent alternative, but don't bother buying them unless they're of at least the -60% weight variety.  But, if you find smaller ones in your travels, feel free to use them until a Bag of Holding comes along.  Every little bit helps.


9.2 SCOUTING TACTICS
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First off, scouting is primarily a tactic to multiplayer games, so I will cover multiplayer aspects first.  However, there are several situations in single- player games that you'll want to scout as well.  I'll cover those afterwards.

The 5% of the time the party expects to enter combat, the Fighters and such will be up front.  The other 95% of the time, YOU will be.  It's called scouting, and it's what you get paid for.  Here's a tip: immediately go into Stealth mode, or if you can, go Invisible.  The advantage of being Invisible is that the spell lasts until your first attack, no matter how long that is.  Therefore, if you simply do not attack, you can remain Invisible for long periods of time.  If you're not an Elf, go into Search mode as well.

After a while, you will start to get a pretty good feel for whether the area you're in is trap-intensive or guard-intensive.  Few module writers or DMs are cruel enough to include both, because using both really slows down forward progress and isn't much fun for the players.  As a result, after you've decided what type of area this probably is, you can turn the Skill you won't need off.
If it's trap-intensive, it's safe to turn Stealth mode off.  If it's guard- intensive, it's safe to turn Search mode off (except around doors, chests, and those interesting burned spots on the floor!).  The end result is that you'll probably average about walking speed when scouting.  Make sure the party understands this and doesn't blunder into your back!

Your primary job when scouting is to identify dangerous spots ahead of the party's path of advance, and either mark them, or deal with them.  Never leave a locked door in your wake.  Never leave an unflagged or unrecovered trap in your wake.  At each door, non-Elven Rogues should go into Search mode long enough to determine if there is a trap on that door.  If there's a single guard, and it looks like you can take him, do it.  If there are multiple guards, use the message bar (called "shouting") to give the location to the party, then see if you can slip behind the guards in Stealth mode.  If you can, wait for the rest of the party to arrive, then move to Combat Tactics, below.  ;-)  If you fail a roll, you'll know it -- the bad guys will start reacting.  Based on their types and numbers, it might be a good idea to see what your friends are up to.

Remember that your very high Listen and Spot skills allow you to see things nobody else in the party will notice, hear things they are not hearing.  Don't assume that because you know about it, they do!  Shout about what you see and hear; don't keep it a secret.  This is particularly true for traps if your party is close by.  Immediately assign a custom text macro to one of your quick slots.
This custom text macro should simply say "TRAP!"  Hitting the function key you assign to this macro will quickly and efficiently let even the slowest-witted member of your party that there is danger present.

How far ahead of the party should you stay?  Different Rogues have different opinions on this, but I like to stay about four or five rounds running distance ahead of the main group, or one corner away, whatever distance is longer.
That's far enough ahead that the party won't blunder into anything that I'm working on, and close enough that I can be within the party's Wizard/Sorcerer cover fire umbrella pretty quickly.  Keep a potion of Speed quick slotted (or better still, find an item that confers Haste) for high-speed escapes.  If you're discovered and someTHING has decided to make you its lunch, check your speed against the thing's -- you're probably faster, even without the Speed potion.  Most things are pretty slow, fortunately.  If you are faster, stop every few steps and loose an arrow or other missile weapon back into it.  This will keep the thing amused and interested, and allow you to lead it back into your party's waiting arms.  Your Fighters might even complain that you didn't bring more of the things back with you.

Remember that after you've scouted an enemy-filled area, your party doesn't have the information you do about creature placement.  As covered in Combat Tactics below, you should consider yourself your party's General.  Look for good places