One Thousand Years of Death
A Guide to the Unchained Rogue
Kidney Collection: Mastering the Art of Sneak Attack 23
Circling Mongoose (Cha, Int) 26
Improved Stealth (Cha, Int) 30
The Scout Archetype (Cha, Int) 31
Race (Alphabetical by Race) 41
Your offense is your defense 137
Dealing With Enemies Immune to Precision Damage 138
Enemies with Uncanny Dodge 140
Dealing with Extraordinary Senses 142
Maximizing Multiple Attacks 148
Proving Flanking While Invisible 151
Raine the Tactical Terrifier, Half-Elf Unchained Rogue (Scout, Rake) 153
Falco the Damage Machine, Tengu Unchained Rogue (Scout) 154
Clariza the Unseeable, Elf Unchained Rogue (Scout)/Shadowdancer (2) 155
Tip the Blinder, Elf Unchained Rogue (Scout)/Slayer (Bounty Hunter) (2) 155
Lakitu the Elemental Rider, Wayang Unchained Rogue (Knife Master, Bandit)/Fighter (Eldritch Guardian) (2) 156
Wolf the Sniper, Halfling Unchained Rogue (Bandit, Rake)/Gunslinger (Musket Master) (3) 157
The rogue is one of the most underrated character classes in Pathfinder, so much so that many parties try to go without one altogether. We have a tank. We have a healer. We have a wizard. Surely between their skills we can do everything a rogue would do.
When Gandalf was putting together a party to take on an ancient dragon, did he want more clerics? Nope. More wizards? Nope. Certainly not more fighters (I mean… he had 13). He got himself a burglar. Why? Because burglars kick ass. That burglar wound up being the single most valuable member of that party. He saved their butts more than anyone including Gandalf.
The rogue fills a niche that is expensive at best and impossible at worst for other classes to fill. She will find that secret door other parties will miss. She will open those chests other parties will bash and destroy. She will see and disable the traps that would kill a lesser party. She will scout ahead and let you know about the trolls. When the spellcaster falls, she will employ her Use Magic Device skill and replace him. When she’s fighting, as long as the tactics are good, she will be one of the heaviest damage-dealers in the party.
That “tactics are good” part is what tends to catch people up. Parties that think rogues suck come to this conclusion not because rogues actually suck, but because their party sucks, and it just so happens that their inept combat behavior shines most obviously in the party rogue’s pathetic damage output.
As a rogue, your greatest asset and liability will always be the rest of your party. Often you will find yourself slinking through the dungeon preparing to ambush the bad guys when the fighter comes galumphing up with a bright glowing cleric of Sarenrae in tow and a robed elf reading a scroll “in a loud, clear voice.” You come up with this perfect plan that will deal eighty damage to that mind flayer and it’s ruined because AMIRI WANT SMASH.
Unless everyone in the party is some variation on “Rogue” you’re probably never going to get the drop on your enemies, but that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to suck. Though you will always struggle to sneak, there are a lot of ways your party can help, ways you can’t emulate on your own. With companions who know how to use their own abilities to enhance yours you’ll often be the heaviest damage dealer in the party, and that’s in addition to all the out-of-combat utility you provide. It’s for this reason I wrote this guide to how your friends can help you.
While your effectiveness in battle will hinge heavily on your party’s tactical acumen, you aren’t helpless on your own. There’s a lot you can do to make sure you’re effective even when your friends’ actions aren’t working in your favor. Figuring out how to do that will be the focus of this guide. I’ve written this guide with Pathfinder Society Organized Play in mind and have tried to keep everything PFS-legal. When something is outright illegal in PFS but so awesome that I want to share it anyway (in case non-PFS folk want to use it), I’ve marked it with an asterisk (*).
Blue: Excellent
Green: Good
Orange: OK/Circumstantial
Red: Bad
Widdershins from Thief’s Covenant
The stat arrangement that will serve you best will depend on what sorts of tactics you intend on employing. The Unchained Rogue is mercifully single-attribute dependent, and that attribute is Dexterity. As such, we can start by agreeing that you’ll want your Dex to be as high as possible.
The nuance in your build will lie primarily in what you choose to be your secondary stat. Some tactics will benefit most from a high Intelligence while others will be better served by a high Charisma. Though many tactics rely heavily on charisma-based skills (such as feinting) some of them have the unfortunate prerequisite of the Combat Expertise feat, which itself requires an Int of 13. For this reason, unless your tactic either doesn’t require Combat Expertise or is on the small list of feats that allow Dirty Fighting in Combat Expertise’s place, trying to find a way to apply Intelligence to your Charisma skills will be less costly than trying to pump both Intelligence and Charisma. If, on the other hand, you’re looking to be a more social rogue, you will be better off tanking Int, pumping Cha, and simply employing the fewer (but still very effective) tactics such a build allows (though there are a few multiclass dips you can use to get Combat Expertise without a 13 Int if you really want to, such as the Swashbuckler, Lore Warden Fighter, Brawler, and Spire Defender Magus). We’ll go over the pros and cons of each route as we discuss each tactic and I’ll share some potential builds at the end. That understood, here is what I recommend.
Strength: Strength will be your second least-important stat. The only thing you’re particularly concerned with it for is encumbrance, which can be a pain in the ass but is easily overcome with a Handy Haversack. You don’t need to worry about it for melee combat because your attack bonus and damage will both depend on your Dex modifier. Try to keep it at 10, but if you need to take it to 8, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Dexterity: This is your raison d’être. Most of your skills and combat prowess will depend on dexterity. Make it as high as possible.
Constitution: You will be in frequent melee combat but you lack the D10 hit die of a fighter. Your fortitude save is also quite bad. A high Constitution will help keep you alive. Try to keep it 12 or higher after racial modifiers and absolutely do not drop it below 10.
Wisdom: Your will save sucks and you will need a high perception to find traps. You also need to have a decent wisdom if you mean to use any divine scrolls. Keep it at 12 if you can. Definitely don’t drop it below 10.
Intelligence/Charisma: One of these will be your second-best stat. The other you will need to dump. Choose according to your tactics as we’ll discuss below.
Suggested Stat Distributions (before racial modifiers, swap Int and Cha as needed):
15 point buy: Str 8, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 11, Cha 7
20 point buy: Str 8, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 7
25 point buy: Str 10, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 7
Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit (1977)
Following each paragraph below is a table summarizing the benefits of each race. The awarded score is based on what I consider to be the most optimal combination of racial traits and alternate racial traits. Traits which are exceptional and/or the best any race has to offer receive a “3.” Traits which are not the best but provide strong contributions to your tactics receive a “2.” Merely adequate or common traits receive a “1” and bad traits receive no points. When a race provides access to an exceptional additional ability exclusive to that race, I have included it as a factor in that race’s favor as well.
Though the hit to Con isn’t ideal, the bonuses to Dex and Int enhance your two most important stats. Elves have potential access to the Elven Curve Blade and Elven Branched spear, two of the best weapons for a rogue. Unfortunately, familiarity only makes them count as martial weapons which rogues do not automatically get proficiency for. You will have to dip into a class with Martial Weapon Proficiency or else burn a trait to get Heirloom Weapon, which has some downsides, but is ultimately cheaper than the alternatives. The free access to longbows is a nice perk as well. The +2 racial bonus to Perception through Keen Senses will help you notice traps. Replacing Low-Light Vision with *Darkvision will allow you to achieve concealment in darkness without granting it to your enemies, though this is unfortunately not legal in PFS. Replacing elven magic with Silent Hunter will let you move much faster while using Stealth, or else replacing it with Envoy will give you access to Comprehend Languages and Detect Magic, both of which are valuable utility spells. The favored class bonus grants you more uses of Major Magic (an excellent Rogue Talent and a potential source of invisibility). Lastly, Elves gain access to the Blend spell, which will make Hide in Plain Sight much easier to pull off and constitutes an overwhelming advantage for an elf looking to become a Shadowdancer.
Half-Elves have access to Darkvision through *Drow Blooded, though as with the Elf, this is unfortunately not legal in PFS, leaving us only with Low-Light Vision. The Keen Senses and elvish favored class bonus (or the human one, which is also quite good) allow half-elves to enjoy almost all of the benefits of elves. Adaptability is tempting to put into Use Magic Device, but you’re probably better off replacing it with Ancestral Arms granting you proficiency in an exotic or martial weapon (like the elven branched spear, the elven curve blade, or the wakizashi). If you do wind up using multiple classes, multitalented will give you a favored class bonus in your second class. You have the option of substituting Multitalented for Arcane Training giving you access to one class’s wands without needing to worry about Use Magic Device, but it will cost you all of your favored class bonuses. This won’t usually be a worthwhile trade since your favored class bonus choices are exceptional, but it’s an option.
It’s unclear whether Half-Elves can cast Blend. In the PFS Additional Resources, it reads “Alternate racial traits, racial archetypes, racial evolutions, racial feats, and racial spells are only available for characters of the associated race.” The “Elf Blood” racial trait reads “Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race.” This calls into question whether access to a racial spell constitutes an “effect related to race.” In my opinion, the answer is “absolutely” and I would let you use it at my table. In a rules-as-written interpretation though, the answer is probably “no,” and some GMs will enforce it that way. If you want to cast Blend, be an elf just to be on the safe side.
If you’re more inclined toward the Charisma-favoring rogue, gnome is a contender. With a +2 to Con and Charisma and -2 to strength, while you won’t be enhancing your most important stat, you’ll be enhancing your second and third most important while injuring a (near) dump stat. Their small size gives you a bonus to AC, attacks, and stealth, though at the price of movement speed, which is significant. The small size has the additional misfortune of harming two of the best tactics available to a charisma build: intimidation and blinding. Keen senses gives you the same benefit it does with elves. You can gain access to Darkvision, which is fantastic, though it will cost you your Keen Senses, which is unfortunate. For the low price of the +4 bonus to AC vs giants and the “Hatred” class feature, you can get Gift of Tongues, which will teach you more languages and improve your Diplomacy and Bluff, excellent for a face or feinter. If you don’t take Darkvision, Inquisitive can give you a bonus to Disable Device and Escape Artist in exchange for your Keen Senses and Obsessive. The Master Tinker alternate racial trait is either amazing or useless. If you’re playing a home game, it will allow you to gain proficiency in any weapon, something no other race can match. This is enough to push the Gnome up to good at minimum. Unfortunately, in PFS, since crafting is illegal, you will never be able to exploit this excellent advantage.
Assuming you can’t get Master Tinker these options make the gnome a decent but less than extraordinary choice. The true appeal of the gnome, and the main reason you would consider playing one, is the Fell Magic option. It gives you access to chill touch as a spell-like ability allowing you to target Touch AC and deal strength damage. When you combine touch attacks with everything you do to deny your enemies their Dex bonuses to AC, just about every enemy you face will have an Armor Class around 10, even at higher levels. The only thing that will stop you will be SR. Carry around a wand of Recharge Spell-Like Ability and you will be the most reliable hitter in your party.
While this is a great ability, keep in mind that it can be replicated just as well through the Major Magic talent and almost as well through Use Magic Device and a wand. Since their stat arrangement is less than ideal, they lack solid movement speed, they can’t get proficiency in the weapons you want easily, and other races have superior rogue-related racial traits, I consider them a solid niche option if you want to orient your tactics around touch attacks, but otherwise, there are better options.
With a +2 Dex and Cha in exchange for a -2 Str, Halflings are another contender for a charisma-favoring build. Their small size has all the benefits and downsides of the gnome except, with the Fleet of Foot alternate racial trait, halflings can enjoy full movement speed, albeit at the price of their +2 to acrobatics and climb. The +1 bonus to all saving throws via Halfling Luck is excellent and their Keen Senses are as good as they are with every other race. The Craven alternate trait (+1 to initiative and +1 to attacks while flanking) is pretty neat, though it comes at the price of Halfling Luck. All small creatures can hide behind medium-sized creatures or larger, and Halflings are particularly good at it with *Human Shadow. Replacing Fearless and Weapon Familiarity with Skulker, granting a +1 bonus against enemies denied their Dex Bonus is great.
There is much the Halfling has going for him as a rogue and yet so many issues that make him inferior to the elf and half-elf. The normal vision is a big one. If he wants to use any of the best rogue weapons he must burn a feat to get exotic weapon proficiency. This is especially unfortunate because, given the things he gets bonuses and penalties to, the halfling’s most potent tactic will be improved flanking (which is at its best when using the elven branched spear), but if he wants to use those tactics, he will always be a feat behind the elf. The halfling can’t cast Blend so he will never be quite as good of a Shadowdancer. His small size makes him less capable of intimidating and blinding. His lack of bonus to Intelligence and bonus to charisma discourage him from any tactic involving Combat Expertise, including feinting, and if he pursues such a tactic, his stats will be distributed less optimally. Despite being a race seemingly designed to be a rogue it just seems like elves got higher priority for perks that would help rogues most. That said, just because he isn’t the best doesn’t mean he’s not damn good. A dip into swashbuckler (or a variety of other classes we’ll discuss in the dips section) can free up several of those combat expertise-related feats, and though Unchained Rogues aren’t particularly well-designed for ranged builds (compared to, say, the Slayer), a Halfling sniper can rival any other race attempting such a tactic.
No matter what class you are, you can’t go wrong with humans. Rogues are among the most feat-starved classes in the game so that first bonus feat is quite the boon, as is the extra rogue talent every six levels. The extra skill point a level can help you compensate for dumping Int if you’re going for a Charisma-based build. Otherwise you may want to replace it with Practiced Hunter or Silver Tongued. The Racial Heritage feat opens up a variety of possible options including Angel Wings (Aasimar), Wings of Air (Sylph), Earth Glide (Oread), the Blend Spell (Elf), and Kobold Ambusher (Kobold), though many (and possibly all) of these are unavailable to humans in PFS. Lacking Darkvision or any other racial traits that specifically benefit sneakiness, humans have a tough time competing with your other options, but the extra feats almost make up for it. A solid choice.
The Kitsune can accommodate either an Int or Cha build. Their natural second bonus is to Charisma but you can switch it to Intelligence with an alternate racial trait. With a +2 to your two favorite stats and a -2 to an unimportant one, Kitsune’s stats are solid. They have the same favored class bonus as humans, which is good, as well as a bite attack which could give you another sneak attack in a full attack. The Skilled alternate racial trait is as good as it is with humans, though probably redundant with your already immense skill point pool. You can give it up to get “Fox Shape” for free if you like, which is useful if you’d like to transform into a tiny fox for sneaking purposes, though Fast Shifter is probably better for the purpose of building toward an Intimidation build. The feat Vulpine Pounce is exclusively available to Kitsune and allows you to full attack with a charge. This can be brutal when used in combination with the Scout archetype. Since it requires a 10 BAB though, it will be coming pretty late in your development (and long after your career in PFS), and since it can only be used in combination with your transformation, it will only be usable in the first round of combat unless you grab the Swift Kitsune Shapechanger feat as well. This combo is quite good, especially when used in a two-weapon fighting build, though it comes online quite late in your development. If you’re going this route, look into Startling Shapechanger as well.
Ultimately, the Kitsune lends itself to similar builds as the Tengu, and it achieves those builds quite well, though if you’re going that route, the Tengu pulls them off a little bit better, at least at lower levels. I’ll also note that if you’re interested in being a Master of Disguise (something I don’t recommend, but it’s an option), no one does it better than the Kitsune. The Realistic Likeness trait lets you transform into any human you’ve met providing a +10 bonus to Disguise to appear as that person.
For an intelligence-based build Wayangs are excellent. With a boost to your two most important stats and a hit to one of your least important, they’re among the best on that front. The small size gives you bonuses to AC, stealth, attack rolls, and the option to hide behind your medium friends, though like gnomes they have no built-in means of improving their speed. The lurker trait gives you a bonus to Perception and Stealth, two of your most important skills. They also have darkvision. The Dissolution’s Child alternate racial trait will let you turn invisible once per day in exchange for a racial trait you’ll never be able to use anyway. The Scion of Shadows alternate racial trait subs out Shadow Resistance and Light and Dark to improve your miss chance in concealment. That’s pretty awesome and will free you to save your Major Magic talent for something else. The favored class bonus is the same as humans, so great. Aside from the slow movement speed and the lack of access to the best weapons, the Wayang is one of the best.
With the same stat arrangement as elves and built-in darkvision, Sylphs are a solid choice. As neat as the electricity resistance is, the Like the Wind alternate racial trait granting a potential 35 movement speed is amazing and better than what any other race can offer. The Breeze Kissed trait, which raises your AC against ranged attacks and can be used for a combat maneuver, is just ok, but better than Air Affinity, since you’re not a sorcerer. Whispering Wind, giving you a +4 bonus to stealth, is better for our purposes than casting feather fall once per day. At 9th level sylphs gain access to the Wings of Air feat granting them a fly speed with good maneuverability. Being able to fly is very useful in general and the single best way to deal with tremorsense. The favored class bonus is nothing to write home about, but they can take Mostly Human and gain access to the human one, which is great. Though the price of two feats to gain flight is expensive, flying is powerful and this is pretty much the only way to get it permanently as a rogue in a PFS-legal way. Though they will be the most feat-starved race of all your options, the benefits are exceptional and they earn an excellent rating.
The Ifrit enjoy a decent stat distribution for a Cha build, darkvision, and full movement speed. Both their resistance to fire and the Fiery Heart alternate racial trait replacing it (granting +4 to initiative) are valuable. The ability to cast burning hands as a spell-like ability isn’t great but can help out with swarms, something rogues otherwise struggle to do. You can also trade it in for Efreeti magic to get Enlarge or Reduce Person, the latter of which can occasionally be useful. If you’re going for the Smoke tactics, the Firesight feat allows you to see through smoke with no penalties. It also makes you immune to the Dazzled condition. Fire Affinity is useless but none of its replacements are particularly good. Where the Ifrit stands out are in its access to to the Fiery Glare trait, which allows you to take 10 on demoralize attempts, and the favored class bonus, which provides +½ per level on demoralize attempts and acrobatics checks to jump. You can also take the Mostly Human alternate racial trait to get the human favored class bonus if you so wish. For these reasons, no other race can compete with the Ifrit when it comes to intimidation, so if that’s the build you’re pursuing, it’s definitely worth considering.
With a +2 bonus to Dex and Wis and a -2 to Con, a racial bonus to stealth and perception, built-in proficiency with the Elven Curve blade among other weapons, and a bite attack, the Tengu makes a formidable rogue. Their low-light vision isn’t as good as Darkvision, but it’s better than humans. If you want to dual-wield wakizashis and would rather not burn the feat to get proficiency, Tengu can learn eastern weapons in place of their normal sword proficiencies and are the only race listed here with that option (though the half-elf can do something similar with ancestral arms). Having the choice between being able to feather fall or speak lots of languages isn’t bad either. The favored class bonus isn’t anything special as your critical hits will tend not to be your big source of damage (though since you’re getting dex to damage, it’s not bad). Also be sure to look into the Tengu Wings feat for a 1/day 30’ fly speed. Certainly a good choice and fully capable of thriving, especially in a two-weapon fighting build.
With a +2 to your two most important stats and a -2 to your dump stat, Tieflings have the best distribution of any race in Pathfinder. Their built-in +2 bonus to stealth and bluff, full speed, darkvision, and ability to cast Darkness as a spell-like ability are enough to make any rogue drool. They have the option of replacing their Darkness with a bite, which might be worthwhile in a two-weapon fighting build, but probably isn’t. The Prehensile Tail alternate racial trait is quite useful for retrieving or holding items, especially if you’re dipping into Gunslinger. The favored class bonus sucks so be sure to take the Pass For Human alternate racial trait so you can use the Human one. Though it will be super cheesy in conjunction with the Pass For Human trait, you can also specify your parentage, and if your parents were small-sized, you too can be small, granting you the benefits this entails (without, apparently, the slow movement speed), though in PFS you are assumed to have human parents. Despite having no built-in way of acquiring proficiency with the best weapons their ability to cast Darkness, something no other rogues will be able to pull off, combined with all of the above, puts them over the top. The tiefling competes with the elf and half-elf as the best racial option for a rogue. Too bad it requires a boon to play in PFS.
With +2 to your two most important stats and -2 to your second least-important stat, Ratfolk have a nearly perfect distribution. Like the other small races they enjoy all the benefits their size provides for sneaking while suffering all the weaknesses, most importantly the decreased movement speed (which unlike halflings they cannot naturally overcome) and their inferior potential for intimidation and dirty tricks. Their natural bonus to perception and especially their natural bonus to Use Magic Device are extraordinary, and their darkvision is as excellent as it is with every other race possessing it. Ratfolk can get a built-in natural attack by acquiring a Ratfolk Tailblade which can be great for a TWF build. The true claim to fame of the ratfolk, however, is the Swarming racial trait. Two ratfolk can inhabit the same square and when they do they are always considered flanking their opponents. They are therefore the most reliable sneak attackers in the game. On the downsides, their favored class bonus sucks and making their swarming tactic actually work is no small task. Finding another ratfolk rogue will be an uncommon thing in Society play, and without such a companion the ratfolk are worse than their competition in overall power. You can use the swarming ability with the *Scurrying Swarmer feat out of Dirty Tactics Toolbox, but it isn’t PFS legal. If you’re playing a homebrew game and your friends don’t mind you occupying their squares (or you take the Leadership feat to acquire a ratfolk companion), take all the flanking-related teamwork feats and go to town as one of the most potent rogues imaginable. Otherwise, there are better options.
Goblins are ridiculous. With a +4 to your most important stat and -2 to your two dump stats, their stat distribution is unreal. They enjoy all of the benefits of small size but have a built-in 30 movement speed. They have darkvision and get +4 to ride and stealth checks. They have several options to replace their skill bonus, including Over-Sized Ears for a +4 to Perception, Tree Runner for a +4 to acrobatics and climb, or Hard Head, Big Teeth, granting them a bite attack which can prove useful for a two-weapon fighting build. They have access to the Vandal feat which allows sneak attacking objects. The Tangle Feet feat is kind of cool and definitely worth considering for a Circling Mongoose build. The favored class bonus is mediocre and may prove useful if you’re investing heavily in surprise-round based tactics (something I don’t recommend), but you’re probably better off just putting it into HP. You also gain access to the Roll With It feat, which is fun and flavorful, if providing mixed gameplay usefulness. Goblins are, without a doubt, among the most potent rogue races in the game, but they are not PFS legal.
For the curious, the following chart addresses all core and featured races not already discussed. These races were excluded from the main list for one of the following reasons:
Race | Score | Summary |
*Aasimar | 9 | The Darkvision, full movement speed, and bonus to Perception are good. The Stat distribution is mediocre. The elemental resistances and ability to cast Daylight are good in general but not particularly useful to rogues. They can make for a decent face, but they're far better suited for other classes. |
*Catfolk | 10 | With an adequate stat distribution, full movement, bonuses to important skills with Natural Hunter, decent boons in Sprinter and Cat's Luck, and a favored class bonus that could be useful in a feinting build, Catfolk don't suck. They also have exclusive access to the Claw Pounce feat, though it requires BAB +10. |
*Dhampir | 10 | Good stats, full movement, darkvision, a decent favored class bonus, Manipulative, and a mix of middling traits makes Dhampir adequate. They have access to the Natural Charmer feat which, in an RP-heavy campaign, is amazing for a Face. The negative energy affinity will make healing difficult and earned them a -1 penalty. It’s been suggested a Dhampir Rogue could use an Anatomy Doll to self-heal, though the specification for “negative energy damage” may give your GM cause to end the cheese. Overall, I don’t think they make the best rogues. |
Dwarf | 6 | While Darkvision and stonecunning are decent, the slow movement, mediocre stats, and lack of appealing rogue skill options rule dwarves out. |
*Drow | 16 | You should go into playing a Drow knowing they were designed to be imbalanced with the other races, and they are. Great stats, full movement speed, elven immunities, spell resistance, keen senses, the ability to cast darkness and other spells as SLAs, Darkvision, and a favored class bonus that doesn't suck make drow insanely powerful rogues. The only thing I penalized them for was a -1 for light blindness. They work excellently in a two-weapon feinting build. They're banned in PFS and should be banned by any DM not running an evil campaign. |
*Fetchling | 14 | Another race with an imbalanced RP score that happens to be built around living in shadows, it’s no surprise they make great rogues. Good stats, full movement speed, resistances, good skill bonuses, darkvision, a decent favored class bonus, and several exceptional spell-like abilities. |
Half-Orc | 10 | The full movement speed, flexible stats, darkvision, potential bite attack, and various skill options including enhancements to Perception and Intimidation make the half-orc look ok on paper, and indeed, a half-orc rogue would not be incompetent. However, their score comes from a series of mediocre perks (Darkvision excepted), which I find less appealing than races offering more exceptional options. |
*Hobgoblin | 12 | The Hobgoblin's benefits are few but all great for rogues. +2 to Dex and Con with no downside, full movement speed, Sneaky, and Darkvision all make for an excellent rogue, but it's the favored class bonus that truly shines. It essentially gives you proficiency in whatever weapons you want. Awesome. |
*Kobold | 9 | Oh God those stats. Strength is a dump stat for us, but not that much of a dump stat. With full movement speed in spite of their small size and Darkvision, they're ok rogues. The prehensile tail is better than the armor bonus. They have a variety of skill options of which Spellcaster Sneak is probably the best. The favored class bonus is mediocre. Overall slightly below average. |
*Orc | 4 | With a large bonus to our dump stat, no bonus to our most important stat, and penalties to several of our secondary stats, the Orc has the worst distribution of any race examined. They have full movement speed and darkvision. Everything else is awful. |
Oread | 4 | With no bonus to dex, int, or con and a penalty to charisma, the oreads earn no points for their stats. Despite being medium sized they suffer a slow movement speed. They have Darkvision and a mixture of abilities that together net them one more point. They have no favored class bonus. Oreads make awful rogues. |
Undine | 8 | The stat distribution is workable and they have full movement speed and darkvision. They can perform a variety of spell-like abilities and perform exceptionally well in watery environments. There are worse picks, but by no means is the Undine a good one. |
Panel from Naruto
Sneak attack is the bread and butter of rogue combat. It is the class ability that will make you competitive with the raging barbarian for raw damage output. You can use sneak attack any time you flank your opponent or your opponent is denied his dexterity bonus to AC. The following are some common ways these circumstances can arise.
Though you will encounter all of these on occasion you will never be able to depend on them. The most common are flanking, stealth, and attacking at the start of combat while enemies are flat-footed. All three can be thwarted by some good enemy tactics, a lack of hiding places, or a bad initiative roll respectively.
In order to maximize your combat effectiveness you’ll want to orient your abilities and gear around finding additional means of either flanking or denying your enemies their Dex bonuses. Ideally, we’d like to do so in a way that benefits us, hurts our enemies, and is either benign or beneficial toward our friends. There are eleven tactics that fit this bill and most of them manage to pull it off without relying on your comrades’ cooperation. They are:
There are two “improved concealment” tactics that will require some monetary investment on the part of your comrades. So long as they agree to this and you can reasonably expect to always be playing with the same group of people, they’re solid. They are:
Lastly, there is one tactic that differs from the rest as it works only at range.
In this path, you will be devoting resources into making yourself magically invisible.
Recommended Path: Rogue Talent: Minor Magic -> Rogue Talent: Major Magic (Vanish)
Alternate Path (for Cha builds): Use Magic Device: Wand of Invisibility, Scroll of Greater Invisibility
Alternate Path: Vanishing Wayfinder (see magical equipment section)
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Excellent
Ordinary flanking will be one of your most reliable means of achieving sneak attack, but it isn’t always possible. In this path, you will be finding ways to increase the number of circumstances in which you are considered “flanking.”
Recommended Path: Combat Expertise -> Gang Up
Additional Path: Step Up -> Press to the Wall
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Excellent
Optional tactic to use in conjunction with Gang Up: Acquire a tiny-sized Familiar with hands (Monkey is probably best SEE UPDATE BELOW) and a Tin Imp Figurine of Wondrous Power. Have them sit on your shoulders and equip them each with a longspear. They now have 5-foot reach and count as two threatening allies for activating Gang Up. You will now never not “flank” your targets. Note that some GMs may argue that your familiar and imp don’t threaten adjacent squares since “double 0’ reach is still 0.” If they make this argument, share this thread with your GM to confirm tiny creatures gain 5’ reach when using reach weapons.
UPDATE - a ruling in a FAQ indicates that only certain familiars can wield weapons: “arbiter, brownie, cassisian (in small humanoid form), coral capuchin, imp, leshy (any), liminal sprite, lyrakien, mephit (any), nuglub, pooka, quasit, shikigami, soulbound doll, sprite, xiao, and zhyen.” All of these require the Improved Familiar feat or something similar, so we’re going pretty deep down the familiar tree to use this tactic. Check out the Familiars section for recommendations on which to use.
In this tactic, we will be exploiting our Acrobatics ability along with the Circling Mongoose and Canny Tumble feats to guarantee we can sneak attack on our full attacks. Circling Mongoose allows you to move around your enemy between attacks during a full attack, and when you do, you treat them as “flanked.” You still provoke AOOs with this movement, so you must use Acrobatics. Canny Tumble gives you a +2 bonus to your first attack against an enemy when you successfully use Acrobatics to move through their threatened space. It also denies them their Dex bonus to AC. These feats thus synergize very well.
Recommended Path: Dodge -> Mobility -> Spring Attack -> Canny Tumble -> Circling Mongoose
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Good
Will require Clever Wordplay (Bluff) or Cunning Liar Trait
In this path, you will be improving your ability to feint.
Recommended Path: Two weapon fighting -> Combat Expertise -> Improved Feint -> Two Weapon Feint -> Improved Two Weapon Fighting -> Improved Two Weapon Feint
Alternate Path: Combat Expertise -> Blind Fight -> Improved Feint -> Moonlight Stalker -> Moonlight Stalker Feint -> Greater Feint
Alternate Path: Advanced Rogue Talent: Stalker Talent - Cunning Feint
Alternate Path: Combat Expertise -> Improved Feint -> Greater Feint -> Quick Draw -> Concealed Strike Stalker Talent plus Cloak of Daggers
*Alternate Path: Combat Expertise -> Improved Feint -> Greater Feint -> *Equipment Trick (Smokestick) (Slow Burn + Smoke Strike) (requires one hand to hold smokestick)
Notable Feat: Ranged Feint (necessary if you mean to feint at range, though as mentioned elsewhere I don’t necessarily recommend a ranged build)
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Excellent with the vigilante talent, Good if you were already planning on Two-Weapon Fighting, Bad otherwise
Int requires Clever Wordplay (Intimidate) or Bruising Intellect Trait
In this tactic we will be enhancing our demoralize ability for use with sneak attack.
Recommended Path: Source of Free/Swift Action Demoralize -> Weapon Focus -> Dazzling Display -> Shatter Defenses
Potential Sources of Free/Swift Action Demoralize: Rake Archetype (1st level), Bandit Archetype (8th level), Frightening Ambush
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Good
In this path we will be enhancing our use of the Dirty Trick combat maneuver to blind our enemies.
Recommended Path: Dirty Fighting/Combat Expertise -> Agile Maneuvers or Intrepid Volunteer trait -> Improved Dirty Trick -> Quick Dirty Trick -> Greater Dirty Trick
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Good
With this tactic we will improve our ability to use stealth in combat in order to benefit from sneak attack.
There are two requirements to using stealth: being unobserved and having either cover or concealment. If enemies are looking at you and any part of you is visible, even when you have improved cover behind an arrow slit, you are “being observed” and cannot use stealth. In order to break “being observed” you must break line of sight which necessitates finding total cover or total concealment to hide behind. If no one is watching you but you have no cover or concealment (ie. you’re standing in an open field), you can’t use stealth in that situation either. Note that the Blur spell does not constitute concealment for the purposes of stealth.
The supernatural ability Hide in Plain Sight addresses the “being observed” part but does not address the concealment part. “While in any of his favored terrains, a ranger of 17th level or higher can use the Stealth skill even while being observed.” This is the version of Hide in Plain Sight rogues can acquire through Rogue Talents. If this is all you have going for you, you will still need to find a source of cover or concealment in order to hide, and you’ll only be able to do it on your favored terrain.
Fortunately, the Shadowdancer’s version of Hide in Plain Sight is far superior to the Ranger’s. “A Shadowdancer can use the Stealth skill even while being observed.” There is no mention of any conditions necessary to allow for this. Once you’re a Shadowdancer, observation is never an obstacle to stealth. The second half of the Shadowdancer’s ability concerns the Cover/Concealment element of stealth’s requirements and introduces the only limiting factor. “As long as she is within 10 feet of an area of dim light, a Shadowdancer can hide herself from view in the open without anything to actually hide behind.” As such, a Shadowdancer can always use stealth while being observed as long as she has any cover or concealment, and if she is within ten feet of a shadow, she is considered to have concealment in regard to stealth’s requirements.
For those situations where you’re not near shadows, the level 1 spell Blend addresses the lack of concealment. “This grants you a +4 circumstance bonus on Stealth checks and allows you to make Stealth checks without cover or concealment, but only while you move no more than half your base speed or less.” As such, the combination of the Shadowdancer’s version of Hide in Plain Sight and the Blend spell allows you to use stealth even when you’re out in broad daylight as long as you only move half-speed. Unfortunately, Blend is only available to elves. If you cannot use Blend, consider the Hellcat Stealth feat, which will allow you to hide in plain sight in normal and bright light at a -10 penalty.
Since the combination of these abilities is the earliest and most effective means of always being able to use stealth, it is the approach I recommend pursuing.
Recommended Path: Combat Reflexes -> Dodge -> Mobility -> Shadowdancer (Hide in Plain Sight) combined with Use Magic Device: Wand of Blend or Minor Magic -> Major Magic (Blend)
Alternate Path: Skill Focus: Stealth -> Eldritch Heritage (Shadow) -> Improved Eldritch Heritage (Shadow)
Alternate Path: Advanced Rogue Talent: Stalker Talent - Hide in Plain Sight
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Good
With this tactic, we will take advantage of the Scout Archetype’s ability to use sneak attack via movement.
Recommended Path: Rogue Archetype: Scout -> Level 4: Scout’s Charge -> Level 8: Skirmisher
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Excellent
For many rogue players, once they understand their character’s mechanics and realize how unhelpful their party can be they begin looking into ways to flank without relying on their friends. Often their first thought is “Animal Companion! If I dip a level into Druid my badger buddy and I can flank for each other all day!”
There are numerous problems with this tactic that originally motivated me to omit it from this guide. A dip into Druid or something similar yields the worst of both worlds: an animal companion that never improves plus your own lagging sneak attack progression. If you take the Animal Ally feat, it’s at your level -3, meaning your already sub-optimal companion will be several levels behind where you need it to be. It will rarely hit and frequently die. You can take Boon companion, but now you’ve burned two feats, not to mention any wealth necessary to keep your companion competent. If you go for a familiar, it suffers similar problems and may serve even less combat utility due to its lack of feats.
There is one tactic, however, that is potentially worthwhile. The Pack Flanking teamwork feat allows you to consider yourself “flanking” so long as you and your animal companion (familiars and eidolons do not count) are adjacent to each other or occupying the same square and threatening the same enemy. This reduces the need for one of you to wade into the center of combat while improving your capacity to protect your companion. It furthermore opens up the possibility of using your companion as a mount while emulating the benefits the Ratfolk enjoy via the Swarming Trait. Using a mount can provide superior movement speed, consistent full attack sneak attacks, and possibly even the ability to fly, all while “flanking” your enemies. This section will be oriented around achieving this with the best companion possible for the smallest investment possible.
Recommended Path (Medium-Sized): Vermin Heart -> Figurine of Wondrous Power (Ebony Fly) plus Companion Figurine -> Combat Expertise -> Pack Flanking
Recommended Path (Small-Sized): Figurine of Wondrous Power (Serpentine Owl or Silver Raven) plus Companion Figurine -> Undersized Mount -> Combat Expertise -> Pack Flanking
Note that the companion must have an Int of 3 (probably via a level 4 stat increase) to possibly gain access to the Pack Flanking feat. If your GM rules that since an animal companion can never itself have an animal companion and thus is never eligible for the feat, you must use a Horsemaster’s Saddle, Pack Tactics, Extra Item Slot (Companion Feat) and Ring of Tactical Precision, or dip 3 levels into Hunter.
Alternate (Controversial) Path: Undine Loyalty Trait (Pack Flanking)
We are going with the figurines instead of a normal Animal Companion because it avoids the financial hazards associated with animal companion death (which will happen frequently), the feat cost is less than the Animal Ally feat, the companion’s HD improves according to your character level rather than the class level of a dip, it improves its HD at your level rather than your level -3, and avoiding a dip means it doesn’t disrupt your progression of rogue talents and sneak attack. This is therefore the least expensive and most optimal means of acquiring a companion eligible for Pack Flanking.
Regarding the “controversial path,” the trait reads as follows: “Choose one teamwork feat that requires an ally with the same feat to be adjacent to you. You may benefit from that teamwork feat as long as you have an ally within 10 feet of you (though your ally does not benefit from the teamwork feat unless it also has this trait or a similar ability).” It doesn’t say you need to acquire the feat nor does it say the ally must also have the feat. The only requirement is that an ally be within 10’ of you and you gain the benefits of the teamwork feat. This is insanely overpowered for a trait no matter what teamwork feat you use it with. A GM might also argue that an “ally” and a “companion” are not the same thing thus precluding Pack Flanking, though you could perhaps appease them by still picking up a companion. RAW, this probably works and it’s even PFS legal (if you’re Undine), but expect a lot of flak if you use it. I will write the rest of this section assuming you’re using the recommended path.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Good
Tribal Hunter (Int, Cha)
*Edit* Tribal Hunter appears to have received an errata in Ultimate Wilderness. It’s now pretty much useless to us. :(
In this tactic, we will be using the Tribal Hunter teamwork feat to co-habitate a square with our familiar and gain “flanking” against enemies we threaten (similar to the “Swarming” racial trait of the Ratfolk). In the “Small Size” build we will be acquiring a flying mount and will only “flank” enemies of size medium and larger. In the “Medium Size” build our tiny familiar will sit on our shoulder and we will flank all enemies of size small and larger.
Recommended Path (Small Size): 2 levels of Fighter (Eldritch Guardian) plus House of Green Mothers Pupil trait or Iron Will -> Familiar Bond (any) -> Improved Familiar (Small Aether Elemental) -> Undersized Mount -> Tribal Hunter
Recommended Path (Medium Size): House of Green Mothers Pupil trait or Iron Will -> Familiar Bond (Monkey with reach weapon, Valet Archetype) -> Tribal Hunter
Alternate Path: In place of the means of acquiring Familiar Bond, take the Carnivalist Archetype or Skill Focus (Knowledge Skill) -> Eldritch Heritage (Arcane). Unlike Familiar Bond, this will let you benefit from the bonus granted by your familiar (such as a +3 to Diplomacy with the Thrush). If you are willing to wait until level 10, the Familiar advanced rogue talent works fine too.
*Alternate Path: For Small Size, the *Wasp Familiar feat can be taken without any pre-reqs and is quite an excellent familiar until you can upgrade it to the elemental. Sadly it is not PFS legal.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Excellent
In this tactic, we will be using magical darkness to deny our enemies their dex bonuses allowing for sneak attack.
Recommended Path: Darkvision combined with Tiefling Darkness SLA, Dancing Darkness wand or Major Magic, Wand of Darkness, or Eclipsed Spell’d Continual Flame.
Darkness provides you with concealment allowing you to use stealth, and thus, allowing for sneak attack. In addition, the lighting conditions rules read as follows:
“In areas of darkness, creatures without darkvision are effectively blinded. In addition to the obvious effects, a blinded creature has a 50% miss chance in combat (all opponents have total concealment), loses any Dexterity bonus to AC, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and takes a –4 penalty on Perception checks that rely on sight and most Strength– and Dexterity-based skill checks.”
As such, darkness alone is sufficient to provide sneak attack, even when you’re immediately adjacent to a foe, and so long as you can see in total darkness, it will allow for full attack sneak attacks. This is among the reasons why I valued Darkvision so highly in the Races section.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Good with a willing and prepared party, Bad otherwise
With this tactic we will be creating smoke to provide concealment thus allowing for stealth and sneak attack.
Recommended Path: Means of overcoming concealment via smoke such as a Goz Mask or Fogcutting Lenses plus Smokestick, Smoke Pellets, Wand (or Major Magic) of Obscuring Mist, or Eversmoking Bottle.
How sneak attack works in regard to smoke can be a bit tricky. When only 5 feet within the smoke, you will have concealment, but not total concealment, thus you can make a stealth check but won’t inherently be able to make sneak attacks. If you’re albe to move further into the smoke (10 feet or more) you wlil have total concealment and can make ranged sneak attacks at will. It is thus an excellent option for ranged sneak attacking or attacks with an elven branched spear, but no better than improved stealth for closer melee, which would be limited to one attack per round in most cases.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Rating: Good with a willing and prepared party, Bad otherwise
Ordinarily you can attempt to fire a ranged weapon while hidden and immediately attempt a new stealth check at -20. If you are looking to use Sneak Attack, you are limited to a range of 30 feet. With this tactic we will be improving our sneak attack range while minimizing our penalty for using stealth while sniping.
Recommended Path: Musket (with 3 levels of Musket Master Gunslinger) or Composite Longbow plus Sniper’s Goggles and/or the Sniper Archetype plus two of the following: Stealth Skill Unlock (5 ranks), Swift as Shadows alternate Halfling racial trait, Stealthy Sniper Advanced Rogue Talent, Expert Sniper feat (also available via the Superior Sniper talent).
*Alternate Path: As above, but Composite Longbow only, and in place of Sniper’s Goggles or the Sniper Archetype, *Sniper Shot feat.
Alternate Path: As above, but in place of Musket or Composite Longbow, a Crossbow, and in place of Sniper’s Goggles or the Sniper Archetype, Assassin’s Sight.
Notable Feat: Master Sniper allows multiple sniping shots but requires the Expert Sniper feat.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Rating: Good when paired with Darkness or Smoke, OK otherwise
In this tactic we will be using the Kobold Groundling feat to deny prone enemies their dex bonus to AC and thus achieve sneak attack.
Recommended Path: Combat Expertise -> *Kobold Style -> *Kobold Groundling
Notable Feats: See my Guide to Trip Builds. The *Snowstride trait is mandatory if you can get it.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Rating: OK
Aladdin from Aladdin
Reactionary – +2 initiative. Going first means a better chance at hitting them while they’re flat-footed.
Accelerated Drinker – Makes drinking a potion a move action. Can be useful in various situations (such as drinking potions of invisibility), but probably not useful enough to choose over its competition.
Armor Expert – Reduce your armor check penalty by 1. Think of it as a +1 bonus to your Dex skills.
Blade of the Society – A bonus to sneak attack damage is nice, but there are better options.
Bloody-Minded - +1 to Initiative and Intimidate. Worth considering for the intimidation path if you’re not using another trait to upgrade either of these.
Dirty Fighter - +1 damage when flanking.
Excitable (gnome) - +2 to initiative checks. As good as reactionary, but gnome only.
Hidden Hand - +1 to conceal light weapon and +1 to attack rolls with light weapon during surprise round. A little too circumstantial.
Inspiring Rush - +1 to attack and damage on a charge once per day. Worth considering if you’re using the Scout archetype.
Reckless - +1 on acrobatics.
Resilient - +1 on Fortitude saves.
Slippery - +1 to stealth.
Thunder and Fang Performer - +2 to Intimidate Checks while wielding a two-handed melee weapon. If you’re using an elven curve blade or an elven branched spear and you’re using the intimidation path, this is quite good.
Witty Repartee - +1 to bluff.
Extremely Fashionable – Wear clothes worth 150 gp and get +1 trait bonus on bluff, diplomacy, and intimidate. If you’re a face, this is a must, and it might be worth taking if you’re feinting or intimidating in combat. It’s also great because there are many PFS scenarios where the value of the clothes you’re wearing actually matters.
Heirloom Weapon – If this worked with exotic weapons it would dramatically even the gap between the half-elf and the other races, but alas, it’s martial only, so it only really helps out the elves. Note that the benefits only apply with your starting weapon so you are stuck with it forever. You can cast masterwork transformation on it and thus enchant it, but you will not be able to change materials (to adamantine, silver, or cold iron). You can probably afford to make it Cold Iron when you create your character, which isn’t so bad. It’ll help with fey and demons. In any case, use it for proficiency, give yourself +2 on your dirty tricks, or be better at your AOOs.
Quick Learner - After using a weapon once in combat, you reduce the penalty for non-proficiency by 2. Use with the Arms Master racial trait.
Ease of Faith - +1 to diplomacy.
Fate’s Favored - Increase all luck bonuses by 1. While the rogue class doesn’t inherently benefit from luck bonuses, there are a variety of circumstances in which we might. If we’re a Half-Orc with Sacred Tattoo, benefitting from Prayer, dipping the Bard (Archaeologist) archetype or a Diviner Wizard with Foresight, or if we make use of a Lucky Horseshoe, Four-Leaf Clover, or a Luckstone, we will improve our benefits from all of those. I wouldn’t grab this trait unless you have a specific means through which you will benefit from it, but if you do, go for it.
Indomitable Faith - +1 to will saves.
Inspired – Once per day, roll twice and take the better on a skill/ability check. Could be useful for traps.
Irrepressible – Use charisma modifier in place of Wisdom modifier when attempting will saves against charms and compulsions. Potentially very good if you’re using a Charisma build.
Omen - +1 to intimidate and you can demoralize once per day as a swift action. Good for getting your intimidation chain going.
Spell Intuition - +1 on Spellcraft and Spellcraft becomes a class skill for you. Useful if you have a way of detecting magic (like the Minor Magic rogue talent or the Envoy elf alternate racial trait) and you’d like to know the details of the magical trap you’re disarming.
Dark Archive – Arcane Archivist - +1 to Use Magic Device checks.
Liberty’s Edge – Freedom Fighter - +1 to stealth and +1 to attack rolls during Surprise round.
Scarab Sages – Tomb Raider - +1 to perception and knowledge (dungeoneering).
Sovereign Court - Fashionable – Wear clothes worth more than 80 gp and gain +1 to bluff, diplomacy, and sense motive. Similar to extremely fashionable except sense motive instead of intimidate. Better if you’re not intimidating, otherwise worse.
The Exchange – Gold Finger - +1 to disable device and sleight of hand.
Classically Schooled - +1 to spellcraft and spellcraft is a class skill.
Dangerously Curious - +1 to Use Magic Device.
Green Blooded – Gain a single 0-level Druid spell as a spell-like ability once per day. Casting read magic, guidance, or detect magic (if you can’t do it some other way) might be helpful, but probably not worth a trait.
House of Green Mothers Pupil - +1 bonus to Handle Animal checks. This trait counts as having Iron Will for the pre-reqs of the Familiar Bond feat. If you want to get a familiar, this cuts the feat tax down by a lot.
Magical Talent – Gain a single 0-level wizard spell as a once per day spell-like ability. Grabbing acid splash or ray of frost will let you make a once-per-day ranged touch attack with which you can sneak attack.
Pragmatic Activator – Use Intelligence in place of charisma for Use Magic Device. Vital for Int builds.
Arcane Dabbler (Elf) – Gain a 0-level spell once per day, same as Magical Talent above.
Forlorn (Elf) - +1 on Fort saves.
Warrior of Old (Elf) - +2 to Initiative checks.
Helpful (Halfling) - +4 when you aid another instead of +2.
Intrepid Volunteer (Halfling) – Choose one strength based skill or combat maneuver. You can use your dexterity modifier in place of strength to calculate total modifier for that skill. Incredible for the Blinding path as it lets you use Dex in place of Str without having to take agile maneuvers. I dare say it’s a must-have for that tactic. Remember that you can gain access to this trait via the Adopted social trait. This trait also lets you use your Dex to climb, swim, or another combat maneuver, and that is OK.
Elven Reflexes (Half Elf) - +2 to initiative checks
Tusked (Half Orc) - Gives you a d4 bite attack.
Auspicious Tattoo (Human) - +1 to will saves
Blade Bravado (Human) – When wielding one-handed weapon and nothing in off-hand, +1 trait bonus on acrobatics and bluff checks. Keep this in mind if you’re dipping magus or have some other reason you’re only wielding one weapon in one hand.
Bred for War (Human) - +1 to intimidate and +1 on CMB. You must be at least 6 feet tall. Excellent if you’re using both the dirty trick and intimidate paths.
Carefully Hidden (Human) - +1 to will save and +2 to saving throws vs. divination effects. As good as all the other +1 to will saves but with a minor boost.
Favored Champion (Human, Shoanti) – reroll a failed combat maneuver check once per day.
Glint-Tongued (Human) - +2 on intimidate checks and +1 on all charisma skill checks to persuade other Ulfen. Obviously it’s the +2 that’s the appeal.
Gruff Watcher (Human, Ulfen) - +1 on initiative and perception.
Spirits in the Stone (Human) - +2 to initiative and +1 on saving throws against traps and natural hazards.
Wary of Danger (Human) - +2 on initiative
Fiery Glare (Ifrit) - You can always take 10 on Intimidate checks, even in combat. Amazing.
*Arms Master (Tiefling) - Reduce penalty for non-proficiency by 2. Use with Quick Learner to (mostly) eliminate penalty. Not available in PFS without a Tiefling boon.
*Fiendish Sniper (Tiefling) - +5 trait bonus to your stealth check to snipe. PFS legal so long as you have the boon to be a Tiefling.
Amanandar – Militia - +1 trait bonus on attacks while flanking.
Andoran – Equality For All (Halfling) - +2 to CMB and CMD when facing opponents two sizes larger than you or more.
Andoran – Freed Slave - +1 to will saves
Andoran – Freedom Fighter - +2 to diplomacy with non-slavers, -2 with slavers.
Belkzen – Dominator - +2 trait bonus on all attempts to demoralize opponents in battle. Excellent for Intimidate path.
Belkzen – Linebreaker – When charging, add 10 feet to your base speed. Great for the Scout archetype.
Druma – Glory of Old (Five Kings Mountains) - +1 trait bonus on saves against spells, SLAs, and poison.
Hills or Mountain – Highlander - +1 bonus on stealth checks, +2 in hilly or rocky areas.
Isger – Isgeri Orphan +1 to fort saves
Kaoling - Privileged Slave - +1 to bluff
Katapesh – Cruel Master (Okeno) - +1 to intimidate
Katapesh – Freed slave - +1 to fort saves
Katapesh – Giant Dodger - +3 to acrobatics checks to avoid provoking AOO when moving out of threatened space.
Katapesh – Pesh Addict – Start with half normal starting cash, +1 bluff, knowledge (local) and sense motive.
Lands of the Linnorm Kings – Viking Blood - +1 to intimidate
Lingshen – Heart of Clay - +1 to fortitude saves
Mana Wastes – Mana Wastes Survivalist - +1 to fortitude saves
Minkai – Minkai Advocate - +1 to bluff.
Molthune – Imperial Soldier - +1 to heal, intimidate, or ride
Nex – Giant-Harried - +1 on combat maneuver checks and CMD against enemies larger than you.
Nidal – Uskwood Hunter - +1 to stealth
Nirmathas – Fangwood Diplomat - +1 to diplomacy
Numeria – Blighted Physiology, +1 natural armor in exchange for becoming sickened for one round when you receive magical healing.
Osirion – Antiquities Smuggler - +1 to appraise, bluff, or sleight of hand.
Osirion – Giant dodger - +3 to acrobatics checks to avoid provoking AOO when moving out of threatened space.
Razmiran – Soldier of the Faith - +1 to intimidate
Realm of the Mammoth Lords – Spirit Animal - mammoth, smilodon, or woolly rhinoceros, +1 to fort, will, or ref respectively.
River Kingdoms – Bandit - +1 to escape artist, intimidate, or stealth
River Kingdoms – Sevenarches Seeker (Sevenarches) - +1 to knowledge history and perception to notice secret doors, and Knowledge (History) becomes a class skill for you.
River Kingdoms – The Vessel Between (Daggermark) - +1 on attack rolls that would deal sneak attack damage on a hit.
Sargava – Sargavan Guard – reduce armor check penalty by 1
The Steaming Sea – Hermean Paragon - +2 Initiative
Thuvia – Giant Dodger - +3 to acrobatics to avoid provoking AOOs from moving through a threatened square.
Valashmai Jungle – Valashmai Veteran - +1 Perception (universal) and +1 survival checks in jungle terrain.
Wanshou – Rice Runner - +1 Acrobatics
Any City – Cunning Liar – Use intelligence or wisdom in place of charisma on bluff checks.
Any City – Vagabond Child - +1 to disable device, escape artist, or sleight of hand
Marsh or River – River Rat - +1 damage with dagger and +1 on Swim checks. Worth considering with Knife Master Archetype.
*Forest - Briar Bandit - +2 to stealth and +1 damage on sneak attacks. You must be from a forest where there are lots of kobolds.
Abadar (LN) – Eyes and Ears of the City - +1 Perception
Any Dwarven Deity – Propitiation – At start of day, choose Appraise, Bluff, Craft, Diplomacy, Intimidate, or Knowledge (local). Gain +2 to that skill for the day.
Asmodeus (LE) – Fiendish Confidence - +1 to intimidate
Asmodeus (LE) – Liar’s Tongue - +1 to bluff
Brigh (N) – Nimble Fingers, Keen Mind - +1 to disable device
Chaldira Zuzaristan (NG) – Lessons of Chaldira – Reroll a failed save (before you know the outcome) once per day
Erastil (LG) – Deadeye Bowman – Ignore the +4 bonus to AC provided by soft cover from one person being between you and your target if you’re using a bow. I don’t recommend a ranged build, but if you go for one, this is 75% of the usefulness of Improved Precise Shot available as a trait.
Erastil (LG) – Erastil’s Speaker - +1 to diplomacy
Gorum (CN) – Shield-Trained – Heavy and light shields are considered simple weapons rather than martial weapons for you and heavy shields are considered light weapons. If you want to make a sword and board TWF rogue, this trait makes it possible.
Iomedae (LG) – Purity of Faith - +1 to will saves and +1 on saving throws against all spells and effects from evil outsiders.
Iomedae (LG) – Regal Presence - +1 to diplomacy
Lamashtu (CE) – Deformed - +1 to intimidate
Nethys (N) – Underlying Principles - +1 to use magic device
Norgorber (NE) – Shadow Whisperer - +1 Knowledge (local) and +2 to intimidate checks to demoralize. Excellent for the intimidate path.
Sarenrae (NG) – Ambassador - +2 to diplomacy checks
Sarenrae (NG) – Blade of Mercy – If you deal nonlethal damage with a slashing weapon, ignore the -4 penalty and add +1 to the nonlethal damage you inflict. Won’t happen often, but if you want to knock out an enemy instead of kill them, and you’re using an elven curve blade, this will let you.
Sarenrae (NG) – Illuminator - +2 to diplomacy
Sarenrae (NG) – Strength of the Sun – During the day, +1 bonus to all charisma-based checks. Great for a charisma build. This will probably not help you if you’re using your Int for charisma skills though.
Sarenrae (NG) – Under Siege - +1 on bluff and sense motive.
Thamir Gixx (CE) – Backstabber (Halfling) – When you hit a foe when flanking, deal one additional damage.
Torag (LG) – Defensive Strategist – Have you given up Uncanny dodge through your archetype (like Scout?) Want it back? Torag gives it back.
Zon-Kuthon (LE) – Demoralizing Presence - +2 to Intimidate checks made to demoralize.
Adopted – Pick a race trait belonging to the race of your adopted parents.
Bruising Intellect – Use Intelligence in place of Charisma for Intimidate. If you’re an Int build looking to run the Intimidation path, you need this.
Bully - +1 to intimidate checks
Clever Wordplay – Use Intelligence in place of Charisma for one charisma-based skill. Vital for feint or intimidate builds or else useful for Use Magic Device.
Convincing Liar - +1 to bluff or intimidate.
Criminal - +1 to disable device, intimidate, or sleight of hand
Fast Talker - +1 to bluff
Friend in Every Town - +1 on knowledge local and diplomacy
Influence: +1 on diplomacy, intimidate, or sense motive
Keleshite Princess: +1 to diplomacy and intimidate
Life of Toil - +1 to fort saves
Memorable – When you modify a character’s attitude with diplomacy or intimidate, attitude change lasts 1.5 times longer than it otherwise would. When you create a fear or mind-affecting effect that imposes a penalty or bonus with a duration of at least 2 rounds, it lasts 1 additional round after it would normally end. This is awesome. Basically, if you demoralize a foe and beat the DC by 5, the victim is shaken for 3 rounds instead of 2.
Mock Gladiator – Choose a weapon. You take no penalty on attack rolls when dealing nonlethal damage with that weapon. Once per day, when you score a critical hit with the weapon, you can immediately attempt an intimidate check to demoralize your target. Great for someone using the elven curve blade and the intimidation path.
Seeker - +1 to perception
Student of Philosophy – Use your Int modifier in place of Charisma for diplomacy checks to persuade and on bluff checks to convince others that a lie is true. This bonus does not apply to gathering information or feinting. Not useful for most rogues, but if you’re trying to be competent at social skills while still favoring Int over Cha, this is a means of doing so.
Tireless Logic – Roll twice and take the better once per day on an intelligence-based skill or ability check. It will depend on your DM, but if you’re using Int for your feints, intimidates, or use magic device, I would argue this should apply to those skills.
Trustworthy - +1 on bluff checks to fool someone and +1 on Diplomacy checks.
Unpredictable - +1 on Bluff checks
Lila Bard from A Darker Shade of Magic
Acrobatics – Move through enemy squares, balance, and jump. Vital for positioning for flanking as well as hitting and running. Max it out.
Appraise - Determine the value of items. Unlikely to be useful often.
Bluff – Vital for feinting and the second most commonly used social skill. Max it out if using the feint path or you’re a face. Otherwise ignore it.
Climb – Situations where you have to climb come up occasionally. Invest at least 1 rank.
Craft (Alchemy) - If you’re playing an Underground Chemist and you’re not in PFS (ie. you’ll be able to craft alchemical items), this is mandatory. Otherwise it’s only helpful for identifying alchemical items.
Craft (Trapmaking) – You can use this to repair/reset traps after you’ve disabled them. Circumstantially useful on its own and probably not worth it, but if you’re looking for a day job for PFS, this is one that might actually see usefulness in-game.
Diplomacy – The most commonly used social skill. Otherwise useless. Max it if you’re a face or don’t use it at all.
Disable Device – Open locks and disarm traps. You will probably be the only one in the party who can do this. Max it.
Disguise – Disguise is rarely practical. What problems it solves usually have other solutions and when they don’t there are magical ways to do it better. I’ve rarely seen this used by anyone. If you’re in a weird RP-heavy campaign that will use it, fine. Otherwise, ignore.
Escape Artist – Useful for escaping grapples and getting out of handcuffs. Your CMB will always suck. If you don’t train this, the first enemy you fight that’s any good at grappling will kill you. Don’t take this lightly. Max it out.
Fly - Necessary should you ever acquire a means of flying, which you probably want to. You can’t train it without a means of practicing regularly so look into buying a Glider. Alternatively you could acquire this skill via a Headband of Vast intellect.
Handle Animal - Necessary if you choose an archetype or dip with an animal companion or you make use of a mount. I recommend against both.
Heal - Determine someone’s health status, stop yourself and others from bleeding, heal more hit points when you rest, and some abilities (that you probably won’t use) use it to inflict certain kinds of precision damage.
Intimidate – Vital for the intimidate path and the third most common social skill. Max it if it’s relevant. Otherwise ignore.
Knowledge (Dungeoneering) – Figure out the dungeon design, spot hazards, and identify oozes. Potentially worth investing in for the hazards part. Put in at least one rank.
Knowledge (Local) – Know your way around town, hear rumors, find connections to buy traps and poisons, and identify humanoids. With the release of the Spymaster Handbook, you can also use it to identify feats and class features used by humanoids. That’s pretty neat and might be worth investing some ranks if you have them to spare. Otherwise, just leave it at 1.
Knowledge (Other) - You will never be as good an encyclopedia as the intelligence-focused classes. Knowledge is nice, but other skills, namely Dex-based skills at which you’ll dominate, are better.
Linguistics – Knowing languages is useful for eavesdropping. Otherwise this is not important. Invest in it only as your purposes demand, which may be not at all.
Perception - The most used skill in the game and especially important for you. Use it to hear the bad guys, see the enemy rogue, spot the trap, and pretty much everything. Max it.
Perform – Dance is necessary if you’re a Shadowdancer. If you’re a charisma build, it makes a decent Day Job for Society play. Otherwise pick a craft and exploit your Int.
Profession - Since either your Int or your Cha is likely to be better than your Wis, Craft and Perform will make better jobs for you than Profession. There are a couple professions that provide solid utility, like Profession (Sailor), but it’s probably not worth it.
Ride - Necessary if you’re going to use a mount. Otherwise ignore.
Sense Motive – Detect liars and defend yourself from feinters. If you’re a face, max it. It’s also worth considering because the unchained skill unlocks are among the best. Otherwise leave it to the monk.
Sleight of Hand – Lets you pickpocket or hide objects on your person. Useful if you’re taking talents associated with concealed weapons. I don’t recommend you do.
Spellcraft - If you take Detect Magic as your Minor Magic you can use this to identify items, magical traps, and enemy spells being cast. It’s worth a rank.
Stealth – Though your party will foil you, this is vital for scouting and hiding when you have the chance. Max it.
Survival - Not an altogether bad skill to train since it lets you track, gather food, and avoid getting lost, but it’s best left to a wisdom-focused character. Consider it only if your party needs it.
Swim – Avoid water. If you have to enter water, find magical solutions, like a wand, scroll, or potion of Touch of the Sea or Monkeyfish. Invest 1 rank. No more.
Use Magic Device – Lets you use everyone else’s wands. Unbelievably useful when you train it well. Invest until you have a +19, more if you mean to use scrolls. Note that skill checks are not auto-fail on a 1, and if you succeed on your UMD check with a 1 on the die, you do not lose the ability to use your wand for 24 hours.
At 5th level the Unchained Rogue gains the Rogue’s Edge ability which yields a skill unlock for one of her skills. At 5, 10, 15, and 20 ranks in that skill, you gain some extra abilities. Here’s how they stack up.
Acrobatics – The 5 rank unlock lets you move at full speed through threatened squares while avoiding AoOs by increasing the DC by 5. The 10 rank unlock gives you some protection against trip maneuvers and falling. At 15, you can stand up from prone without provoking. Overall a decent choice.
Appraise – The 5 rank unlock lets you identify magic items without detect magic and spellcraft. The 10 rank unlock lets you identify the most expensive object someone is wearing as a standard action. The 15th rank makes it a move action and allows you to disbelieve an illusion with an appraise check at -10 in place of a will save. The 15 one is quite good, but most of this is useless.
Bluff – The 5 rank unlock halves the penalty to bluffing the same creature after failing. The 10 rank unlock removes the penalty altogether. The 15th rank lets you stop some divination magic from reading you. It’s somewhat useful if you’re a face, but mostly not that helpful.
Climb – The 5 rank unlock allows you to retain your Dex bonus to AC while climbing. The 10 rank gives you a climb speed of 10 feet on surfaces with a DC of 20 or lower. The 15 rank gives you a climb speed equal to your land speed on surfaces with a DC 20 or lower and 10 on all other surfaces. Not bad!
Craft – The unlocks allow you to craft more quickly and less expensively. I could see them being helpful for alchemists, and perhaps Underground Chemists, but for most rogues, not so much. If you’re in PFS this is utterly useless.
Diplomacy – At 5 ranks you can influence creatures and gather information more quickly. At 10 ranks you can attempt to adjust someone’s attitude in one round with a -10 penalty or else make your influence last longer. At 15 ranks you can adjust someone’s attitude in 1 round at no penalty or else change their opinion of you for several days. This unlock makes diplomacy a viable tool in-combat, though you will need to min-max your diplomacy to an exceptional degree to make it functional. I can see this being amazing on a bard with a maxed-out charisma, a headband for it, a circlet of persuasion, and all the bells and whistles. I don’t think a rogue is well-suited for it simply because it makes us more MAD than we’d like and you’ll be diplomancing rather than using your awesome debilitating injuries, but hey, it’s your character! It could work great with the Phantom Thief.
Disable Device – At 5 ranks you can reduce the time it takes to disable a device by taking a -5 penalty. At 10 ranks you can disable magical traps with a -10 penalty even without the Trapfinding ability. If you have Trapfinding, you don’t trigger magical traps on a failed attempt. At 15 ranks you can use Disable Device as an immediate action to reduce the damage from a trap attacking you. Overall a solid pick, especially if you lost Trapfinding due to your archetype.
Disguise – Each unlock reduces how long it takes for you to make a disguise. None of them are worth it unless your character’s all about pulling Looney Tunes shenanigans.
Escape Artist – At 5 ranks you can take a -10 penalty to reduce the time it takes to escape something. Essentially, you turn escaping a grapple into a move action and escaping entanglement into a standard. At 10 ranks, you can attempt to escape any entangling effect as a standard action and you get a bonus if you do so as a full-round action. At 15, you can escape any entangling effect as a move action and you can suppress Slow and Paralysis effects. This is all good.
Fly – At 5 ranks you can make a check to make a 45 degree turn without sacrificing movement. At 10 you can make a check to ascend at a 45 degree angle at full speed and you can reduce your falling damage. At 15 you can make a 90 degree turn without sacrificing movement. If you’re flying a lot, this might be worth considering, assuming your table actually adheres to the rather cumbersome flight rules, I think, overall, there are superior options.
Handle Animal – It provides benefits to creatures you’ve trained. You have probably not trained any creatures.
Heal – Each unlock provides increasing benefits when you treat deadly wounds. If you’re a Phantom Thief with the Healer’s Hands feat, this is a good choice, as you can do some pretty remarkable healing this way. Otherwise, unless you’re playing in some sort of low-magic world, this isn’t worth considering.
Intimidate – At 5 ranks, if you beat an enemy’s demoralize DC by at least 10, the target makes a save or is frightened for one round and shaken thereafter. At 10 ranks, this improves to being panicked for 1 round or frightened for 1d4 rounds and shaken thereafter. At 15 ranks, your enemy cowers, then they’re panicked, then they’re frightened. This is probably the single best skill unlock there is. If you’re using the intimidate path, you’re all about this.
Knowledge – At 5 ranks, when you ID a creature, you get one additional piece of information for every 5 ranks you possess in that knowledge skill. At 10, when you ID a creature, you get +1 competence bonus to attack rolls, opposed ability checks, skill checks, and caster level checks against creatures of that kind. At 15, you can reroll a failed knowledge check at a -10. This is pretty powerful but very circumstantial since each knowledge skill only applies to certain enemies. I could see doing this for Knowledge: Religion since undead are so common. Arcana, Planes, Nature, and Dungeoneering, not so sure.
Linguistics – At 5 ranks you can use linguistics instead of Sense Motive to intercept secret messages and you gain a +1 insight bonus on Perception and Disable Device checks vs. written magical traps. At 10 ranks, you can determine the precise meaning of something written. You can also make checks with spoken language to determine meaning. At 15, you can decipher magical writings with Linguistics, and if you identify a magical trap in this way, you get a +2 to disable it. Not bad.
Perception – At 5 ranks your ability to hear things while sleeping and over distances improves. At 10 ranks your distance perception improves further and you get a +5 to finding invisible enemies. At 15 you remain alert while sleeping and you get even better at perceiving over distances. If your GM actually pays attention to distance rules with Perception this can be quite good. Otherwise, only the invisibility bonus is useful.
Perform – At 5 ranks you can make a Perform check to get a bonus to your social skills. At 10 ranks you get a bonus to emotion and language dependent spellcasting DCs. At 15 you can get a bonus to your caster level. Badass for a bard, not very useful for us.
Profession – You are probably not working a profession besides “Adventurer” in a normal Pathfinder game. If you are, the benefits are OK. In PFS, you are likely to have a day job, but these benefits don’t apply. In short, mostly useless.
Ride – At 5 ranks your mount receives bonuses to avoid fatigue. At 10 spurring your mount makes it go faster and gives it a bonus to Ref saves and AC. At 15 you can substitute a ride check for your CMD. Not bad if you’re doing a mounted build. You’re probably not.
Sense Motive – At 5 ranks you can attempt to sense motive as part of your initiative roll to improve your initiative bonus when you’ve been interacting with the enemy before combat begins. At 10 ranks you can use Detect Thoughts with a sense motive check at a -20 penalty after talking to someone for 1 minute. At 15 you can make a Sense Motive check to get a +2 insight bonus to AC vs an opponent. Wow. I wasn’t expecting this to be this good. It’s worth considering pumping sense motive for and I can even think of some classes that might want to take the feat for that 5 rank unlock alone. Definitely worth considering, especially if you’re choosing lots of abilities that exploit the surprise round.
Sleight of Hand – At 5 ranks you can make a check to get a bonus to your Steal and Disarm CMB. At 10 you reduce the penalty to making a sleight of hand check as a move action. At 15 you can do it as a swift action at -20. The 5 rank unlock is kind of cool, but they’re not maneuvers you’re likely to be doing much.
Spellcraft – At 5 ranks you can ID magic items in 1 full round and you can learn spells from a spellbook faster. At 10 you can identify magic items without using detect magic at +10 DC. At 15 you can ID magic items as a standard action and you can learn from spellbooks even faster. These are clearly built to appeal to a wizard, and as someone who regularly plays a wizard, I wouldn’t take this.
Stealth – At 5 ranks, the penalty for sniping is reduced by 10. This is one of four ways to do this, and probably the cheapest. At 10 ranks, the penalties for moving quickly are halved. At 15 ranks, if you successfully use stealth, your target is denied its Dex bonus against all attacks you make, removing your “one sneak attack per round” limitation. This is magnificent.
Survival – At 5 ranks you reduce your non-lethal damage from heat, cold, starvation, and thirst. At 10 ranks you can track creatures that leave no tracks including flying and swimming creatures with a -20 penalty. At 15 you can make a check to give yourself and your allies Resist Fire 5. The unlock at 15 is awesome, but it comes too late to give this the green.
Swim – At 5 ranks you get a swim speed when the DC is 15 or lower. At 10 ranks your swim speed is equal to your ground speed at DC 15 or lower and equal to 10 when higher. At 15 you ignore the penalties for using slashing or bludgeoning weapons underwater. Not a lot of Pathfinder takes place in the water, but if your game does, this is worth considering.
Use Magic Device – At 5 ranks you can use aid another with a UMD check. At 10 ranks a natural 1 no longer prevents you from using the item for 24 hours. You only suffer a -10 penalty. At 15 you can use the skill to emulate two races or two alignments at the same time. The only one of these that is at all appealing is the 10 rank unlock, and by the time you reach it, you probably have a +19 in the skill. I have no idea why one would ever need to emulate two alignments or two races at the same time.
Jing from King of Bandit Jing
Your choices of language probably won’t matter much. It will generally fall on the wizard or another similarly Int-inclined class to know all the languages and identify all the texts. When they aren’t educated enough to do so, they can usually cast Comprehend Languages. As such, this role will tend not to fall on you, though you can do it if you must.
The next role in which languages play a vital part is if you’re the Face, in which case you’ll be primarily concerned with learning the languages of the various regions you’re visiting. Which languages dominate will hinge on what campaign you’re playing, but Common will cover you most of the time. Tien may be worth your while as well.
It’s often helpful to have an uncommon language known by everyone in your party to prevent enemies from eavesdropping on your tactics. Halfling works well for this as unfriendly halflings are uncommon and rarely will enemies learn the language of such a generally unthreatening race. Celestial is another good choice as most anyone who speaks it will be of Good alignment. If your GM is cool with it, you can have everyone in the party spend a rank of linguistics to learn some sort of Sign Language, allowing for silent communication. Otherwise, Gug is spoken by basically no one.
This all having been said, most of what you’ll be doing as a Rogue that will depend on language will be eavesdropping and possibly intimidation. If you are an intimidator, I recommend starting with the following:
Elementals are one variety of foe against whom you’ll never be particularly effective. As such, if you can talk with them or intimidate them, rather than fight them, so much the better. In a purely tactical sense, these four languages will shore up one of your greatest weaknesses better than any other.
Besides those four, here are the most common languages ranked according to their frequency of appearance in the Bestiaries.
If your primary goal is eavesdropping on your enemies, or intimidating them, prioritizing languages in this order will serve you best.
Lastly, the Linguistics rules have a line regarding Reading Lips. You can put a rank in linguistics, and so long as you can see the person you’re trying to read (ie. they’re either within ten feet or you succeed at a Perception check), you can know exactly what they’re saying even if you can’t hear them. Note that this Linguistics rank is in addition to learning the audible language.
Reynard the Fox from various fables
Ambuscading Grapple - Deal sneak attack whenever you succeed at a grapple. I don’t think you ought to be trying to grapple much as a rogue. It’s not a good long-term strategy. If you’re dipping into rogue to get this as part of a grapple build in another class though, have fun.
Armor Piercer - Lose some sneak attack dice to reduce target’s natural armor bonus. If we go with the rule that +1 to hit is generally worth +2 damage, this takes away more damage than it provides benefit.
Aspexia Mysticism - You gain Psychic Sensitivity as a bonus feat which gives you access to occult skill unlocks for all skills in which you have ranks. All of the occult skill unlocks emulate divination effects and take a long time to do. They’re a nifty additional way to use your skills, but I don’t think they’re that great.
Assault Leader – Once per day allow flanking ally to make melee attack when you miss. Solid way to help the action economy, but once per day hurts.
*Black Market Connections – You can buy stuff more easily. This is a rarely useful ability.
Bleeding Attack – Cause opponents damaged by sneak attack to bleed. I used to think this was mediocre but seeing it in action has changed my mind. At worst, you make them waste a standard action healing themselves. At best, you’re dealing damage every round even when you don’t hit. It’s worth considering.
Camouflage – Bonus to stealth in certain terrains. Too circumstantial.
Canny Observer - +4 to Perception checks. Good bonus but there’s so much better competition.
Careful Stab - When you reduce your target to less than 0 hp via precision damage, you can choose to leave them at -1 HP and stable. It’s useful to take your foes alive and this will help you do it, but personally I’d rather focus more on power and defense.
*Castling - You treat the soft cover you usually gain from other creatures of your size or larger as cover. You still can’t use it to stealth. Essentially, all this does is give you a +2 bonus to reflex saves from threats on the other side of the creatures providing you cover. Your reflex saves are already amazing. This is not that helpful.
Certainty – Reroll skill checks for skills you’ve selected with Rogue’s Edge once per day. Rerolls are nice, but one per day with only a couple skills isn’t worth a talent.
Claimed Turf - You gain renown like a Vigilante in a given community and can acquire various additional vigilante social talents in place of rogue talents. If you want this, play a vigilante.
Cloying Shades - When you use dimension door or something similar (like Shadow Jump), all creatures adjacent to you at the start and end of your teleportation are entangled for 1 round unless they make a ref save. If you’re a Shadowdancer, go for it. I don’t see this being useful for anyone else.
Coax Information – Substitute Bluff or Diplomacy for Intimidate to make them act friendly. Would be worth considering if it worked for demoralize, but it doesn’t.
Combat Swipe – Gain improved steal as a bonus feat. Stealing actually isn’t a bad combat maneuver, but only in certain circumstances, and those aren’t common enough to justify spending a talent. Rely on Dirty Fighting or just risk the AOO if you really need to do it.
Combat Trick – Gain a bonus combat feat. Feats are good.
Cunning Trigger – Set off one of your traps within 30 feet as a swift action. The trapmaking rules in Pathfinder require so much money that they’re largely untenable for PCs. I’ve never seen anyone use them. I can imagine some great stuff with this ability, but not when you have to spend 1,000 GP per CR.
Dampen Presence - Gain the Dampen Presence feat regardless of whether you meet the pre-reqs. Dampen Presence lets you use stealth against enemies with blindsight and blindsense. Fantastic, particularly at higher levels.
Deft Palm – Use sleight of hand to conceal a weapon in plain sight. There are a lot of talents here about concealing weapons and using them in surprise rounds. None of them are good. This is one of the worst.
Developed Poison Immunity - You automatically succeed at all fortitude saves against a specific poison.
Distracting Attack – Cause an enemy hit by your sneak attack to become flat-footed for someone else (does not deal damage). This is OK if you have another party member who can sneak attack. Otherwise it’s too circumstantial.
*Eerie Disappearance - As a full-round action, you can move up to your speed. If you make it into cover, you make a stealth check opposing your enemies’ Perceptions. If you succeed, they have no idea where you went and you can make a demoralize attempt against all enemies within 60 feet. This is better than Dazzling Display. No wonder it’s banned in PFS.
Eldritch Conduit - You can use two potions, two wands, or two scrolls. Both are expended. You gain the magical effects of only one scroll using the caster level of the other. You must still succeed at a UMD check to activate the items unless you have some other means of doing so. I’m sure there is some clever tactic that makes the risk and price of this talent worth it, but I certainly don’t know what it is.
Emboldening Strike – When you hit with a melee sneak attack and deal damage, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus on saving throws for every 2 sneak attack dice rolled for one round. Improve your defenses while doing offense. Very solid choice.
Esoteric Scholar – Make any knowledge check untrained. Even if you have no bard or Int-based class in your party and you really care about knowledge you’re probably better off just putting one rank in each Knowledge skill. Otherwise leave the job to someone who can do it better.
Expert Cypher - Decipher texts faster, use scrolls regardless of your stats, and most importantly, use your Int modifier in place of your Cha modifier for UMD checks. The best element of this is also available as a trait, so spending a talent on it is a little overpriced, but still wonderful, particularly if your wisdom isn’t up to snuff for divine scrolls.
Expert Leaper – Always have a running start for a jump and avoid more damage when falling. If this were a more generalized bonus to Acrobatics it would be great. But it’s not.
*False Attacker - Make a bluff check to convince a victim of your sneak attack that someone else attacked them. If you succeed, you maintain your concealment and stealth. This is both ridiculous and obscenely powerful so understandably banned in PFS.
Extinguishing Strike – Put out non-magical lights carried by enemy when you successfully sneak attack. If you’re a Shadowdancer this has some merit. But only some.
Fast Getaway – Use withdraw immediately after a successful sneak attack. A decent silver medal talent if you want Spring Attack but don’t want to pay the feat taxes.
Fast Stealth – Move at full speed with no penalty when using stealth. This is great. Mobility is one of the most important things about being a rogue and this lets you move without people seeing you. That said, you can move at full speed -5 and still only suffer a -5 penalty to stealth, and there are ways to reduce that. It’s very good, but not the end of the world if you don’t get it.
Favored Terrain - Gain a favored terrain as the Ranger ability. If you’re going to take this, grab Underground or Urban. But don’t take this.
Feint from the Shadows – When you have concealment and feint from within 30 feet using a ranged weapon you cause your enemy to lose their Dex bonus. I don’t think this is the best way to get consistent ranged sneak attack, but it is a way of doing it. You need to commit to a feint build (likely using the moonlight stalker chain), but so long as you properly invest in it, this can be effective.
Firearm Training – Gain exotic weapon proficiency (firearms) (note this is insufficient to use a firearm in PFS). If you want firearms, dip Gunslinger. It’s less expensive in practically every way than trying to do it without the dip, and it’s PFS legal.
Focusing Attack – Choose confused, shaken, or sickened. When you have the selected condition and hit a creature with a melee sneak attack, you no longer have that condition. If this transferred the condition to the enemy it would be great. As it is, it’s way too circumstantial. Carry around cures.
Follow Along - When you make a save against a caster’s enchantment spell you can bluff to play along as if you were affected. So long as you maintain the ruse, the caster is flat-footed to your first attack. This is both circumstantial and difficult to pull off. It ought to be something you can just do naturally with the bluff skill.
Follow Clues - Use Perception in place of Survival to follow tracks. If you have no one trained in survival and never will, this may be worth taking. Otherwise it’s not worth it.
*Fortified Position - When you gain a bonus to ref saves thanks to cover, you get an equal bonus to Fort saves. I take it this meant to go with Castling. It’s better, but not by much.
Getaway Artist – Add Fly, Handle Animal, and Ride to class skills list. The only one of these you’re likely to ever use is Fly, and that will be rare.
*Gloom Magic - You can cast darkness twice per day as a SLA. This darkness does not impair your vision. Though PFS illegal, this is a decent route to using the Darkness tactics (though Dancing Darkness is probably superior).
*Greater Gloom Magic - Cast Deeper Darkness once per day without impairing your vision. Here we have something that will let you use Darkness tactics even against enemies with Darkvision. It is quite good, but I don’t recommend using this unless you’re literally the only person in your party.
Green Tongue - You gain Aklo, Aquan, Auran, Giant, Ignan, Sylvan, or Terran as a bonus language. You can make a DC 15 linguistics check to communicate basic concepts to magical beasts and monstrous humanoids with whom you don’t share a common language. If you’re a face who cares enough about communication to invest a talent into it, you should be getting your languages through other means.
Grit – Gain Amateur Gunslinger and one grit feat. Once again, if you want to wield guns, dip Gunslinger and get all this stuff in one go.
Hairpin Trick - You take no penalty for disabling device with improvised tools and you can use no tools with a -4 penalty. You double the circumstance bonus from masterwork tools to +4 and treat all normal tools as masterwork. This is kinda neat, but I don’t think it’s worth a talent.
Hold Breath – Hold your breath for longer. Too circumstantial and not that great.
Innocent Facade - Cast Innocence once per day as a SLA. Innocence gives you a +10 to bluff checks to convince others of your innocence. This is crap.
Innocuous Servant - +2 bonus to Disguise and Bluff checks to appear as a servant. +2 to diplomacy to gather information from other servants. At 8th level bonus increases to +4. Geez, talk about circumstantial. This has got to be a talent meant for an NPC.
Iron Guts – +1 to saves vs poisons and +4 vs effects causing nauseated or sickened. The saves vs. nauseated and sickened is why this is even worth considering. It’ll help you deal with swarms, stinking clouds, and so on. I don’t think it’s worth it though.
Just a Face in the Crowd - Gain a bonus equal to ½ your class level to Disguise and Perception checks when 10+ creatures of your size are within 30 feet. Circumstantial. It could be useful when chasing someone through a city, but I find it a bit too circumstantial, probably because I don’t think much of Disguise.
Knockout Queen - Once per day, you can create 1 or more doses of drow poison by spending 25 gp per dose with 30 minutes of work. While unconsciousness is devastating and this is relatively inexpensive, the DC is only 13, so it doesn’t scale well, even with multiple doses and especially since its frequency is in minutes. Possibly useful at low level “spy” missions, but definitely not in mid to high.
Lasting Poison – Poison applied to your weapon lasts for a number of successful attacks equal to your dexterity modifier. Saves vs. this poison are made with a +2 due to it being spread out in this way. Would be great if poison in Pathfinder weren’t expensive and didn’t mostly suck.
Ledge Walker – Move along narrow surfaces at full speed using Acrobatics. Great for the circumstance it covers, which is an uncommon one.
Major Magic – Cast a 1st-level sorcerer/wizard spell as a spell-like ability. This is amazing. Good spell choices are discussed below.
Maneuvering Dodge - Gain a +2 to Acrobatics, Climb, Fly, and Swim checks for 1 round when an opponent of your size or larger misses a melee attack. This is, perhaps, a little useful for the Circling Mongoose tactics, but only barely so.
Mien of Despair – When you successfully demoralize or feint an opponent, that opponent loses morale bonuses and cannot benefit from them for 1d4+1 rounds. If you’re using one of the two relevant tactics and the bad guy happens to have a morale bonus, cool! But that’s not going to happen much.
Minor Magic – Cast a 0th-level sorcerer/wizard spell as an at-will spell-like ability. This is also amazing. Spell choices are discussed below.
Multitalented - Once per day, you can use a 1/day rogue talent an additional time. At 10th and 18th level, you can use it an additional time each. This could be worthwhile with something like Assaulting Ally, but spending two rogue talents to use one ability multiple times seems less optimal than selecting one good talent you can already use multiple times.
Nimble Climber – Stop a fall while climbing by making a climb check.
Ninja Trick – Gain a ninja trick. Unfortunately most of the good ones require a ki pool which Unchained Rogues cannot acquire. You can acquire one by dipping monk, but that’s a pain and probably more cost than it’s worth. If you do, you probably want a charisma build and you probably want to go Scaled Fist. See the NInja Tricks section below for suggestions on which tricks are worthwhile if you do pursue this talent.
Obscuring Blow – Once per day, forego sneak attack damage to obscure enemy’s vision, providing concealment for rounds equal to half your rogue level (or 1 round with successful save). Since you only need ordinary concealment to stealth and get sneak attack, this can be excellent, though bear in mind you’ll still need to use stealth limiting you to one attack per round. Worth considering.
Occult Dungeoneer - Cast knock once per day, use wands of detect secret doors, detect traps, knock, locate object, and obscure object as if you were a caster with them on your spell list, and use your rogue level as your caster level with staves. It’s ok.
One of Those Faces - You can use Disguise Self as a SLA for 10 min per level. It’s basically what you’d get if you chose Disguise Self as your Major Magic. If you’re building a character who would benefit from Disguise and the 10 minutes you’d get on a wand isn’t enough time, I think this talent is the way to go. It’s better than all those other disguise-related talents. Once again, for most rogues, focusing on disguising yourself won’t often serve you well.
Poison Use – You can use poisons without risk of poisoning yourself. Poisons are expensive and not very good in Pathfinder. I don’t recommend using them.
Positioning Attack – Once per day, when you hit, move up to 30 feet without provoking an attack of opportunity. Movement must end adjacent to target you hit. This would be great if it were “number of times equal to half your level” or “equal to your Int modifier” or something. But it’s once, so it sucks.
Powerful Sneak – Reroll sneak attack damage rolls of “1s” in exchange for a -2 penalty on all attack rolls. The average on 1d6 is 3.5. The average on 1d6 with re-rolled 1s once is 3.92, which means you’ll get about one more damage per two sneak attack dice. It doesn’t seem worth it to me.
Quick Disable – Disable device in half the time. Useful if you’re about to become a Jill sandwich. That won’t happen often.
Quick Disguise – Reduce time to make disguises. You should never be pressed for time when disguising yourself. If you are, you can probably sneak away and give yourself more time.
Quick Trapsmith – Set a trap as a full-round action. The combo of this and Cunning Trigger could potentially make traps useful in combat, but like I said, the trapmaking rules in Pathfinder make traps extremely inefficient and I’ve never seen anyone successfully use them.
Rapid Perception - Search for invisible enemies as a swift action and halve their bonus to stealth. The other benefit is extremely circumstantial. This isn’t awful but there are better ways to hunt down invisible enemies.
Resiliency – Once per day, when brought below 0 HP, gain temporary hit points equal to twice your rogue level. This is circumstantial but it will save your life. Living is good.
Rogue Crawl – Reduce attack roll and AC penalties for being prone by 2, you can take a 5-foot step while prone, move at half-speed while prone (still provokes AOOs). Being prone really sucks. Being able to deal with it is nice. Stand Up is generally superior.
Rope Master – Move at normal speed when using a rope to climb, take 10 when using acrobatics to move over a narrow surface, and gain a +4 bonus when determining DC to escape the bonds to tie a creature up. Nice bonuses, but too circumstantial.
Scry Slip - Anyone targeting you with a divination attack allowing for a will save must make a caster level check equal to 15- + your rogue level or fail. This is quite powerful, but this sort of scrying is uncommon.
Scrying Familiarity - You are better at resisting and detecting scrying. In as long as I’ve played Pathfinder, I have never been scryed upon. This is probably less useful and reliable than Scry Slip and not worth a talent.
Sczami Smuggler - If you’ve seen a similar document, you get a +8 bonus on linguistics check to forge documents. If you’ve seen a small sample of a person's handwriting, you can forge is flawlessly. You can take 10 on diplomacy checks to offer bribes. At the start of any pursuit in an urban environment, you start with an extra advantage. This may be useful in an intrigue-heavy campaign, but for most rogues it won’t come up often enough to be worth the investment.
Shades of Gray - You can use Undetectable Alignment whenever you like. Useful only to tell paladins and inquisitors to go screw themselves.
Shadow Duplicate – When you’re hit, create a single mirror image of yourself usable a number of times per day equal to 1 + 1 for every 5 rogue levels. Rogues struggle in the AC department but still fight in melee. They need alternative ways to protect themselves. This is one of your better options. It’s basically a worse version of the Ninja’s Shadow Clone, but it’s still blue. Just shows you how good the Ninja’s Shadow Clone is.
Shadow’s Chill - Some of the sneak attack damage you deal is converted into cold damage. This will be a liability as often as it will be a benefit.
Silencing Strike - When you deal sneak attack, render your target mute unless they make a save equal to 10 + ½ rogue level + Cha. Devastating against casters. Useless most of the time.
Slow Reactions – Opponents damaged by your sneak attack can’t make AoOs for one round. Some mediocre battlefield control on top of your damage and a potential means of letting yourself hit and run. Worth considering. Not great.
Spell Storing - Have a buddy cast a friendly standard-action taking level 2 spell on you. Instead of having it take effect immediately, you can store it and have it take effect at a later point. This is an action economy saving measure. You know you’re going to want that buff spell at the start of battle but the wizard’s going to be too busy casting control spells to worry about buffing you. This lets you address that. It’s decent, but it’s a talent that entirely depends on the goodwill of your caster buddy to be worthwhile. If your casters are up for doing this, great. Otherwise, pick something that doesn’t require someone else’s cooperation to work.
Stand Up – Safely stand up from prone as a swift action or stand up as a free action but provoke AOOs. Dealing with being prone is a pain. This lets you make it a non-issue. Worth considering.
Strong Impression – Gain intimidating prowess (strength to intimidate) as a bonus feat. If you had strength this would be great for your intimidation tactics. You probably don’t have strength.
Strong Stroke – Roll twice and take the better on swim checks. Swimming is rare. Situations where you absolutely must succeed at that swim check are rarer.
Superior Sniper - Gain the Expert Sniper feat as a bonus feat. Expert Sniper reduces your penalty to stealth for sniping by 10. If you already have it, you can use this talent to gain any feat with Expert Sniper as a pre-req for which you meet the pre-reqs. This includes Master Sniper. If you’re a sniper and this makes sense, go for it.
Surprise attack – During a surprise round, all opponents are considered flat-footed to the rogue. Also add ½ rogue level to sneak attack damage during a surprise round. This is a great ability during the surprise round. Surprise rounds only last one round (if they happen at all). Battles last much longer. Unless you’re counting on this to start off some chaining tactic you’ve designed, pick a talent that works more often.
Survivalist – Heal and survival are now class skills. You don’t need these.
Swift poison – Apply poison to weapon as a move action. Once again, poison is expensive and not that effective. I don’t recommend using it.
Swift Tracker - Significantly reduces the penalties to tracking for moving faster. Obviously it will be useful on those occasions you need to track someone quickly. Those are uncommon and these benefits are easily replicated via other means (see Tracking Powder).
Terrain Mastery – Gain a favored terrain (+2 initiative, knowledge geography, Perception, Steal, and Survival checks on that terrain). That’s a great list of bonuses but they’re very circumstantial. The “Underground” and “Urban” terrains might be worth considering. Otherwise pass.
The Whole Time - Use wands of Greater Invisibility, Invisibility, and Vanish as if they were on your spell list. If you break invisibility as a result of an attack, you can quickly sheath your weapon and make a bluff or disguise check to appear as if you weren’t the source of the attack. To me, the most remarkable thing about this talent is that “free action sheath weapon.” That’s a hell of an uncommon ability to find. This talent might be somewhat useful in discouraging enemies from targeting you, but in most combat circumstances I don’t see it being that useful.
Thrill of the Chase - Gain run as a bonus feat and one reroll per chase or one reroll per day during a pursuit. Run is not a great feat and the second benefit is circumstantial.
Trap Spotter – Whenever you come within 10 feet of a trap, you automatically get a perception check to see it. This lets you move at full speed through dungeons and will save your ass when a trap shows up where you don’t expect it. Definitely worth considering.
Umbral Gear – When in dim light or darkness, as a standard action, create quasi-real items from the shadow for 10 minutes per rogue level. A neat utility ability, but you’re probably better off just carrying everything you need in a handy haversack.
*Unbalancing Trick - Gain Improved Trip as a bonus feat. At 6th level, you meet all the pre-reqs for Greater Trip even if you don’t. I don’t think a trip build is all that great for a rogue since prone doesn’t deny dex bonus, but damn, this is good. If you’re using a Seven-Branched Sword (which would be inadvisable, since it’s not finessable), or you’ve taken Kobold Style and Kobold Groundling, a trip build can be effective. Given how niche this is though, and since it’s not PFS-legal, I won’t be going into it any further.
Underhanded – +4 to sleight of hand to conceal a weapon. Sneak attacks made with concealed weapon during surprise round deal max damage. Use number of times per day equal to Cha modifier. Another concealed weapon and surprise round ability. This is one of the better ones, but I don’t think any of them are that great.
Underhanded Trick – You gain the improved dirty trick feat as a bonus feat even if you do not meet the prereqs. If you’re going for the “Blinding” path, this is a way to get improved dirty trick. I don’t think it’s a worthwhile talent on its own.
Wall Scramble – Roll twice and take the better on climb checks. You will rarely need to make a climb check urgently enough to justify this.
Weapon Training – Gain weapon focus as a bonus feat. Weapon focus is a good feat. This will also work as a pre-req for Dazzling Display.
Wild Magic - Cast a 0-level spell from the druid list 3 times per day as a SLA. How about that! Another Minor Magic! But a little worse, ‘cause Druid, and limited castings. Detect Magic and Guidance are the obvious picks. If one of the others appeals, go for it.
Detect Magic – Having unlimited opportunities to detect magic will let you catch magical traps you’d have otherwise missed, identify magic items, recognize illusions, and more. Every caster in the party should have this, but if you’re scouting alone or in the front of the line, don’t underestimate how important it can be.
Acid Splash – If you’re looking to be more combat-focused and aren’t worried about traps, this will give you unlimited ranged touch attacks with which you can sneak attack. Those attacks will be the element of the spell, which can be pretty devastating when your enemy has a particular vulnerability. Even if you don’t devote your Minor Magic to this, consider grabbing a wand once your UMD is good enough to use it reliably.
Vanish – Turn invisible for a number of rounds equal to your rogue level (max 5) several times per day. This is overwhelmingly useful and will guarantee you access to sneak attack in most battles you’ll ever fight.
Chill Touch – Touch attacks plus sneak attack are circumstantial but amazingly powerful when they come up. You will be the most reliable hitter in the party. To top it off, you will be inflicting strength damage, which can be brutal. The only problem with this tactic is that your spell-like ability will provoke an AOO when you attempt it. If you already have some other means of turning invisible (such as if you’re a Shadowdancer), this is probably your best option for Major Magic. If you don’t opt for this, keep in mind that you can still do this tactic with a wand. It won’t provoke an AOO to cast that way, but it will be at a lower caster level, so you’ll have fewer touches per casting and you’ll have more trouble overcoming SR.
Blend – A fine choice if you’re a Shadowdancer and not a bad one even if you’re not. Personally, I would keep it in a wand and leave my Level 1 option for a spell I’ll use in combat, but if you want to make sure you always have it available for a long duration, that’s perfectly reasonable.
Dancing Darkness – This spell is superior to the level 2 Darkness spell in every way except in terms of what light spells it can overcome. Essentially, you create four balls of darkness that each reduces the light in a 20’ radius from the ambient level by one step. It’s almost identical to Dancing Lights, except darkness. If you’re in normal light you can use them to take the light level around you down to dim giving you concealment, or if you’re in dim light, you can use it to effectively blind anyone without darkvision.
The big advantage of this spell over ordinary darkness is that if you enter combat and your use of darkness becomes a problem for your allies, you can send the balls away. You can also move them around so they only conceal you or block the vision of a specific enemy you want to target. This is very useful for the Improved Concealment path to avoid pissing off your friends. Note that since light and darkness spells function relative to the ambient light levels of the surroundings this spell does not stack with itself, Darkness, or Deeper Darkness.
Grease – A good spell is a good spell even when it’s cast by a rogue. Make your enemies fall over, make them drop their weapons, or help yourself escape a grapple. Crossing over a grease also causes enemies to lose their dex bonus to AC. You’re probably better off letting the wizard or bard cast it and saving your actions for the things you do best, but it’s worth considering.
Shadowfade - Makes you invisible to enemies with darkvision in total darkness and gives you concealment to them in dim light. It’s a spell that’s probably better used with Major Magic than on a wand due to the duration and the frequency you’re likely to want to cast it. It’s a reasonable alternative to the improved stealth tactics, though not as good since it’s contingent on the presence of darkness.
Shield – Sometimes you need that +4 to AC and immunity to magic missiles. When you do, you probably can’t afford the failure chance with a wand and you want it for a decent duration. If that’s something you’re paranoid about, I can totally see putting Shield in your Major Magic slot.
Snowball - A ranged touch attack that scales with level maxing out at 5d6 damage. The new evocation version is subject to SR, but since you’ll be using your Rogue level to penetrate, it shouldn’t be too bad.
True Skill - Grant yourself ½ your caster level as an insight bonus to a skill you can use. This gets to be a pretty impressive bonus for disabling devices or making that essential acrobatics, escape artist, or stealth check.
Windy Escape - If you happen to be a sylph, this let’s you take an immediate action when attacked to give yourself DR 10/magic and make yourself immune to sneak attack, critical hits, and poison. It’s a great alternative to Shadow Duplicate once you’ve run out of those uses for the day.
Magic Weapon, Reduce Person, Gravity Bow, Heightened Awareness, Detect Secret Doors, Infernal Healing, Abundant Ammunition, True Skill – There are lots of good first level utility spells. The thing about most of them is that their effects don’t improve much with level. Yes, they would all be very useful, but I tend to think they’re more useful as wands. If you really want to have multiple castings per day of some utility spell with a higher caster level, that’s your prerogative. If you really want all these spells that badly though, and you’re not willing to use a wand, consider dipping into a class that casts them.
In this section we will review the various options available through the Ninja Trick talent. I will rate them assuming you have access to a ki pool with a note indicating which ones require it. Keep in mind that Unchained Rogues cannot easily acquire one, so unless your GM is liberal with your access to “chained” rogue talents, you will probably need to dip Monk. Also note that, though it isn’t possible in PFS, the Eldritch Scoundrel can sacrifice spells in place of ki for use with Ninja Tricks.
Acrobatic Master (Ki) - +20 bonus on one acrobatics check for the price of 1 ki point. Meh.
Blood Debt (Ki) - You gain In Harm’s Way as a bonus feat, which lets you jump in front of an ally whom you’ve used Aid Another to protect their AC as an Immediate Action. It’s usually used in conjunction with the Bodyguard feat. When you do so, you can impose a blood debt on the aided ally. You can end this blood debt when another enemy hits you and apply all damage and effects to your ally in your place. This costs 1 ki point. This is extremely circumstantial and uses a feat chain we don’t want. I don’t advise pursuing it.
Breath of the Ancestors (Ki) - Gives you a 15’ cone attack related to an imperial dragon you select (forest, sea, sky, sovereign, or underworld, the last granting a 30’ line instead). It deals damage equal to your sneak attack dice. Consumes 2 ki points. It’s flavorful and I can imagine some decent applications, but I don’t think it’s worth the cost of a talent or the ki.
Choking Bomb - Whenever you throw a smoke bomb, all living creatures in the cloud must make a Fort save (DC 10+rogue level/2+cha) or be staggered for 1d4 rounds. You can also add poison to the smoke bomb. Staggered is pretty debilitating and this doesn’t even cost any ki. I like it for a cha-based build, though the fact it requires two pre-req ninja tricks is a bit pricy (though they aren’t that bad).
Darkvision (Ki) - Give yourself darkvision for 1 hour in exchange for 1 ki point. Darkvision is good! It’d be nicer to have it permanently as there are better things to be spending our precious ki points on, but a good ability is a good ability.
Deadly Range - Increase the range at which you can sneak attack by 10’. Worth considering for a sniper build.
Deflect Arrows - You gain Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat, which allows you to take no damage from one ranged weapon attack per round as long as you have a hand free. Improved Unarmed Strike is a pre-req and you’re not likely to ever have both of your hands free unless you’re going for an unarmed build. Overall, probably not worth it, and if it is, you should probably take it as a feat, not a talent.
Feather Fall (Ki) - You can cast Feather Fall on yourself as an immediate action for the cost of 1 ki point. There’s nothing wrong with Feather Fall. It’s insurance. It will save your ass from certain death. But since it’s such a circumstantial things, you are probably better off buying a Snapleaf rather than spending a talent.
Flurry of Stars (Ki) - Spend a ki point as a swift action before your full attack to attack with two additional shuriken at your highest BAB, but with all attacks at a -2 penalty. Provided you have a means of achieving sneak attack with all of your shuriken (Improved Invisibility, Intimidation, Greater Feint, etc.), this is magnificent.
Forgotten Trick (Ki) - Spend 2 ki points to be able to do a trick that you don’t know for a number of rounds equal to your level. Normally I would scoff at something like this, but since we’re probably going to be pretty limited in the number of Ninja Tricks we know, this is basically a once or twice per day ability to gain the entire arsenal of ninja tricks without being a ninja. I think we’re probably better off investing in whichever specific tricks we like, but this isn’t awful, especially since you can use this to gain a combat feat on the fly via Combat Trick a la Brawler. Look into the Ring of Ki Mastery, and if you’re dipping Monk, Wave Dancer and Scaled Fist archetypes as they’ll help your AC and Ki pool if you’re Cha-focused.
Hidden Weapons - You add your rogue level to your Sleight of Hand checks to conceal weapons and can draw hidden weapons as a move action instead of a standard. I don’t employing hidden weapons is generally an effective tactic.
High Jumper - Halve the DC for your high jumps. Acrobatic Master is a pre-req so you have to have a ki pool even though this doesn’t require ki. Even if that weren’t the case, it’s inferior to its pre-req and probably not worth taking.
Kamikaze (Ki) - Spend 1 ki point to give your attacks the Vicious weapon special ability, which deals an additional 2d6 damage to your target and 1d6 damage to you. Hit points are generally not our strong suit so we tend not to want to deal damage to ourselves.
Ki Block - Whenever you deal sneak attack damage to a target that uses ki, they must make a will save or be unable to use ki for a number of rounds equal to your charisma modifier. Enemies who use ki are too uncommon for this to be worth taking.
Ki Charge (Ki) - Spend a ki point to infuse your thrown weapon with the ability to explode on impact in a 5’ burst dealing 1d6 fire damage +1d6 for every 4 levels above 2nd, DC 10+½ rogue level+cha for half. If your thrown weapon hits your target, that target takes a -2 penalty on its save. I’m somewhat fond of this. You’re spending a ki point to, in addition to dealing your normal damage (which should hopefully include sneak attack), add in some fire damage and harm any allies your target has around them. I think this is a cost-effective use of a ki point. It’s not great, since this is an unusual circumstance, the bonus damage is mediocre, and fire resistance is common, but it’s not bad.
Pressure Points - Whenever you deal sneak attack damage you also deal 1 point of str or dex damage. Fantastic. This is probably the best option among those which do not require a ki pool.
Redirect Force - If you have a feat that allows you to perform combat maneuvers without provoking an AoO, you can elect to provoke one anyway. If you do so and take damage, you can add that damage to your attack roll instead of treating it as a penalty. The only combat maneuvers we’re likely to consider are Dirty Trick and maybe Tripping. While we will need all the help we can get improving our CMBs, I don’t think trading out our hitpoints is the way to do it.
Shadow Clone (Ki) - 1 ki point and a standard action to create 1d4 mirror images of yourself. Fantastic. This is one of the abilities we’re most jealous the ninja gets and we don’t.
Slow Metabolism - You can hold your breath for twice as long before needing to mak Con checks. When you are poisoned, the time between saving throws (poison frequency) is doubled. This is a sub-optimal solution to an uncommon problem.
Slow Reactions - Opponents damaged by your sneak attack can’t take AoOs for 1 round. This is OK, but ultimately a bit too circumstantial.
Smoke Bomb (Ki) - You can throw a smoke bomb as a standard action creating a cloud of smoke with a 15’ radius with a 20’ range increment otherwise functioning like a smoke stick. This is pretty cool. While I don’t think a cloud of smoke is the most effective use of a ki point, our alternative means of doing this are limited and inferior. Smokesticks require a move to draw and a standard to light (assuming we have a tindertwig). The same would be true of an Obscuring Mist wand, and that could only create fog around us, not at a distance. The fog will allow you to gain concealment and thus use stealth, and the upgrades for this ability can make for some decent battlefield control. It’s not my favorite, but it has merits.
Snatch Arrows - You gain Snatch Arrows as a bonus feat. The Deflect Arrows trick is a pre-req. The capacity to send your enemy’s attacks back at them without expending any actions is fantastic, but it’s worth noting the circumstances. The enemy has successfully targeted us with an attack meaning we are probably not invisible or otherwise stealthing. As such, we are unlikely to get sneak attack with this attack, thus, unless we’re enjoying Intimidation or Greater Feint tactics (or something similar), we will do very little damage. Once again, if you’re an unarmed combat rogue interested in doing this sort of thing, you’re probably better off pursuing these as feats than as rogue talents.
Style Master - You can choose a style feat your qualify for as a bonus feat. There aren’t many Style Feats we’re interested in (perhaps Kobold Style), but if you’re looking at one, go for it.
Sudden Disguise (Ki) - 1 ki point for swift action Disguise Self for 1 minute per level. It’s a circumstantial out-of-combat ability. I find this about as impressive as the rest of the disguise abilities discussed in this guide.
Unarmed Combat Training - Gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. If you’re looking to employ unarmed combat for whatever reason, here’s a way to get it as a talent. For most rogue builds (the Sap Master being a potential exception), this isn’t ideal.
Undetected Sabotage - When you use Disable Device to sabotage or disable a device, you can make a Stealth check with a bonus equal to your level to prevent anyone inspecting the device from noticing your work. The circumstance in which this will come into play will be extraordinarily rare.
Vanishing Trick (Ki) - 1 ki point for swift action invisibility for 1 round per level. This is probably the single best ninja trick. If you can gain access to a ki pool, you’re all about this. Note that the Advanced NInja Trick Invisible Blade turns this into swift action Improved Invisibility, which is insane. Sadly it is not possible for an unchained rogue to access advanced ninja tricks RAW.
Ventriloquism (Ki) - 1 ki point to swift action throw your voice as the Ventriloquism spell for 1 minute per ninja level. You are unlikely to need to do this often, and whether you’re using it in combat or in RP, you will be exceedingly vulnerable to GMs arbitrarily saying your efforts fail.
Wall Climber - You gain a 20’ climb speed on vertical surfaces that are not smooth. Climb speeds are nice, though you may run into problems in defining what constitutes “perfectly smooth.” If that means essentially “any artificially worked surface,” which isn’t an altogether unreasonable ruling, this trick will ironically allow you to climb pretty much any vertical surface except walls.
Gray Mouser from Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
*Against the Wall - You’re flanking any opponent adjacent to a stone wall. It’s Press to the Wall but worse since the wall must be stone. I don’t think it’s worth it.
Aligned Disguise - You can choose what alignment you detect as while using Disguise Self. Presumably this is meant to be used with One of Those Faces, though it can be used with Major Magic as well. The fact it must be used as a SLA means no wands. It would be good in any high level deep infiltration mission, but most adventures aren’t like that.
Another Day – Once per day, if you’d be reduced to 0 or fewer hit points by an attack, take a 5-foot-step as an immediate action to take no damage. You are staggered during your next turn. It’s OK, but there’s so much better.
Blinding Strike - You gain Blinding Critical as a bonus feat even if you don’t meet the pre-reqs. Blinding Critical permanently blinds your foe on a critical hit unless they make a fort save DC 10 + BAB. This is fantastic for a blinding build and worth keeping in mind when you choose your weapon for such a build (choose one with a wide crit range like a rapier or wakizashi).
Confounding Blades – When you deal sneak attack, target cannot make AOOs for 1d4+1 rounds. A solid debuff that costs you nothing to do and allows for hit and run tactics. Not bad.
Crippling Strike – When you deal sneak attack, you also deal 2 points of strength damage. Not bad.
Cutting Edge – Select two additional skills to use with your Rogue’s Edge ability. I could see choosing this under circumstances, but I don’t think two more unlocks are generally better than another talent.
Dance of Disorienting Shadows - You can use Perform (Dance) in place of a CMB check when using a reposition maneuver. I don’t think reposition is all that valuable a combat maneuver, but this makes it not only viable but reliable, assuming you invest appropriately in the skill.
Deadly Cocktail – Apply two doses of poison to a weapon. Bad for the same reasons all the poison stuff is bad.
Deadly Sneak – Reroll all 1s and 2s on sneak attack dice. This will give you much higher average sneak attack damage but requires powerful sneak as a pre-req. It’s good, but I don’t think it’s worth it.
Defensive Roll – When you would be reduced to 0 or fewer hit points, make a reflex save to take half damage. I don’t see this being much better than Another Day.
Dispelling Attack – Cast dispel magic when you deal sneak attack damage using your rogue level as caster level. Free dispel magic can be damn good. A bit circumstantial but worth considering.
Double Debilitation – Almost without competition the best of the advanced talents. Inflict two debilitating injuries whenever you use the class feature. This is devastating.
Familiar – Gain a familiar. This is insanely good. Essentially, you’re getting alertness, improved initiative/skill focus, a friend who can constantly aid another, and an assistant scout for the price of one talent. See the familiars section for advice on which ones to consider.
Fast Tumble – When you use acrobatics to move at full speed through a threatened square, the DC does not increase by 10. The unchained acrobatics unlock is almost as good as this. It’s good but it’s not worth a talent.
Feat – Gain a feat. Feats are good.
Founder’s Blessing - Commune with spirits for 10 minutes to receive a luck bonus equal to your rogue level to a skill in which you have no ranks and use that skill as if you were trained in it for 8 hours. It’s a “prepared for anything” sort of talent. I tend to think anything I mean to use I’m going to train, and we have no shortage of skill points, but if you’re worried, there’s nothing wrong with taking this.
Frugal Trapsmith – Pay 75% of trapsmithing costs. This discount is not enough to make trapmaking tenable in Pathfinder. It would need to be 10% to be worth considering.
Getaway Master – Gain a +10 bonus on drive checks. If cars existed in Pathfinder, this might be orange.
Glib Facade - Cast Glibness once per day. Glibness provides a +20 bonus to your bluff checks to convince others you’re being honest. It’s good for a face, but if you’re training Bluff you shouldn’t need a +20 to be overwhelmingly good at it, and the Innocent Facade tax is awful.
*Grazing Shot - Drow only. As a standard action fire a hand crossbow at an enemy who has cover from another enemy and compare your attack roll against both of their armor classes. Each hit deals 1 point of damage. Any special weapon properties or poisons applied to the bolt affect both targets. This is a fairly circumstantial ability that’s heavily reliant on poisons and weapon properties to work well. Most weapon properties we’d be concerned with, like holy, bane, flaming, etc., are circumstantial, and poison has many issues. Since we’re looking at circumstantial effects for an uncommon circumstance, I don’t think it’s worth it.
Hidden Mind - Enjoy the benefits of Nondetection for free. How good this is depends on how your GM rules nondetection works. At minimum, it should render you immune to Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Locate Object, Detect Magic, Detect [Alignment], Detect Poison, and Detect Thoughts. This is ok. If they rule it protects against all divination spells including See Invisibility, it’s blue+ and mandatory. They probably shouldn’t rule that it works against See Invisibility.
Hide in Plain Sight – Strictly inferior to the Shadowdancer’s version. If you want this, you should go for the prestige class or the Eldritch Heritage (Shadow) feats. If you insist on getting this, Underground is probably your best option.
Hunter’s Surprise – Once per day, designate a target. You can always use sneak attack against this target. Not a bad option when all of your other tactics fail. With the Sneaky weapon enhancement you can use this ability one additional time per day.
Improved Evasion – Even on a failed reflex save, you only take half damage. You’re going to be succeeding in your reflex saves more than pretty much any other class, but this is still a solid pick.
Improved Shadow’s Chill - Your sneak attack damage is now all cold damage. As with its lesser version, this is as much of a liability as it is an advantage, though it is a potential means of getting around DR and SR if you’re struggling to do so.
Knock-Out Blow – Once per day, forgo sneak attack to knock opponent unconscious for 1d4 round. Successful fort save (10+1/2 level+Int) reduces to staggered for 1 round. As long as you’re doing an Int build, this is worth considering. The once per day sort of sucks, but it’s a save or die ability that inflicts some “suck” even when they save. If this were a spell it would be in every wizard’s book.
Light Walker – Move at full speed through difficult terrain. Feather Step slippers are 2000 gp. That’s a lot cheaper than a level 10+ rogue talent. I don’t think this is generally worth taking unless you’re going for blade boot tactics, in which case it’s amazing.
Master of Disguise – Once per day +10 to disguise.
Multitalented, Greater – Apply multitalented to advanced talents, aka, use a once per day talent an additional time. Since most of the once-per-day talents aren’t worth it, this isn’t either. If you wound up taking one (like knock-out blow), I guess consider the chain.
Opportunist – When an opponent is struck for damage by another character, make an AOO. Incredible. This is probably the second-best advanced talent after Double Debilitation, especially if you invested in the improved flanking tactic.
Pierce the Darkness - Gain 5’ Blindsense when you’re blinded or in darkness. This would be worth considering if it were Blindsight, and it would be orange. As it is, it’s not helpful enough.
Petrifying Strike - Deal 2 dex damage to target whenever you deal sneak attack. So hey - does this leave them petrified when they reach 0 dex? That’d be interesting. Regardless, you’re debuffing while doing damage. It’s awesome.
Quick Shot – Make a single attack with a ranged weapon as a swift action when you roll initiative. I have an archer who would give a lot for this talent, and if you’re a ranged attacker (especially a sniper), you should take it. It also stacks well with all those “surprise round” talents I’ve hated on throughout this guide.
Redirect Attack – Once per day, when you’re hit, you can redirect the attack to an adjacent creature as a free action. This is far better than Another Day and Defensive Roll since it’s less circumstantial and more harmful to your enemies. It also doesn’t cost you any actions. Pretty excellent, but since it’s once per day, it depends on someone else being close by, and that someone else might be your friend, it doesn’t get the blue.
Reflexive Shadow Shield - Gain electricity or cold resistance equal to have your level as an immediate action once per day. This isn’t bad, and neither is Resiliency its pre-req. You’re always looking for defenses and this will protect you from about half of the energy damage out there without having to know it’s coming. That said, an advanced rogue talent is a lot to pay for saving, at most, 10 hit points once per day.
*Resonating Rumbles - Subtract three sneak attack dice to disable an enemy’s tremorsense. Circumstantial but good. If you’re not dealing with tremorsense through some other means, consider it.
Rumormonger – Take a week to spread a number of rumors equaling your charisma modifier about a town for no mechanical effect except whatever your GM decides. I love the flavor and it’s a cool ability for a face, but for most rogues, this has no business being on your character sheet.
*See in Darkness – You gain See in Darkness, which is essentially Darkvision that works in Deeper Darkness. Hell yes. Too bad it isn’t PFS legal.
Shrinewalk - Cast Word of Recall once per day. It’s a GTFO option which can be necessary from time to time. I probably wouldn’t spend an advanced rogue talent on it (because I’m overconfident) but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do so.
Skill Mastery – Always be able to take 10 even in stressful situations on a number of skills equal to your Intelligence modifier. Beautiful option for any Int-focused builds. Never fail to use a magic device again. Always reliably intimidate or feint.
Slippery Mind – When you fail a saving throw against an enchantment spell, you can take another one 1 round later. Given how much your will saves suck this isn’t a bad option. However, you won’t be the primary target of dominate spells (the big dumb fighter will be), and if you’re really worried about it, grabbing a four-leaf clover or a Cap of the Free Thinker is probably a better investment.
Stalker Talent - There are a lot of amazing Vigilante talents to be had. See the dedicated section below for the options.
Stealthy Sniper – Reduce the penalty for sniping to -10 instead of -20. By now, this should be redundant. Halflings can do this as an alternate racial trait, the unchained Stealth unlock does this, and the Superior Sniper talent does this. If you’re a sniper, you should not be waiting until level 10 to reduce your sniping penalty to 0. That said, aside from the fact it’s competing with a lot of really good stuff, there’s nothing wrong with this talent. It’s as good as everything else that does the same thing.
*Stony Skin - Gain DR 2/adamantine. You can take it additional times to increase the DR by 1 to a max of 4. DR is good and you won’t encounter too many enemies with adamantine weapons, though I don’t think it’s worth going beyond the first talent.
Terrain Mastery, Greater – If you chose a favored terrain, this improves the benefits a lot. I don’t generally recommend choosing a favored terrain.
*Unlock Ki - I’m rather surprised to see this since, RAW, short of dipping Monk, it isn’t possible for an Unchained Rogue to acquire a ki pool. This switches your ki pool to be dependent on your highest mental stat and allows you to spend 2 ki points to gain a skill unlock for any skill of your choice with the appropriate number of ranks for 1 minute. If you dipped into Monk or your DM let you take the Ki Pool vanilla rogue talent, this is wonderful. It also makes the Ninja Trick talent a lot better. Unsurprisingly, this is not PFS legal.
Unwitting Ally – Spend a swift action to make an enemy act as an ally for the purposes of flanking. This is circumstantial, but if you’ve got the ranks in bluff already because you’re a feinter or a face, this is a fine addition to your pool of options.
Weapon Snatcher – Use sleight of hand in place of CMB to disarm an opponent. I can think of circumstances where this would be useful. If you have Dirty Fighting, you’re flanking, and the opportunity is there, and you’ve maxed out sleight of hand, this could be a great option. Ultimately though I think success would require optimizing for disarm, and if that’s what you’re doing, there are better ways to do it than with the rogue, and there are better things for a rogue to be doing than disarming.
Robin Hood from Robin Hood Men in Tights
Acrobat - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to not suffer armor check penalties and to be able to reroll a bad Acrobatics, Climb, or Fly check at a -5. Even if you’re trying to optimize around acrobatics (perhaps for a Circling Mongoose build), I don’t think this is a good trade. You shouldn’t be wearing armor with an armor check penalty to begin with, and even if you’re not looking to be the party trapsmith, there are better archetypes you’re passing up for a mediocre ability.
Bandit – Give up your Uncanny Dodge to take all your actions during a surprise round. The circumstances during which you’ll be both dealing sneak attack and critical hit damage will be uncommon for most builds but reasonable if you build for those tactics, such as in a two-weapon fighting build with Kukris. When successful, you will make your opponent frightened for a number of rounds equal to your charisma modifier. Fantastic for a charisma-based intimidating build, especially since it can be combined with Rake. If you’re making a Sniper and thus won’t be benefiting much from Scout, and you want to intimidate, this is a good alternate way to do it. Also look into the Hellcat Pounce feat.
Bekyar Kidnapper - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to get better at grappling and to gain access to the Grapple feats as Rogue Talents without the prereqs. Specializing in grappling is a pretty difficult thing to pull off in general. If you’re going to do it, monks, barbarians, brawlers, and fighters are all far better at it than a rogue will ever be. If you want to do the grappling sneak attack thing, look into the Strangler Brawler, though I don’t personally think it’s that great compared to other things you can do with grappling.
Burglar - Give up Uncanny Dodge to become more reliable at disarming traps and sneaking. This is decent for a rogue focusing on utility rather than combat. I wouldn’t go this route, but it isn’t bad.
Carnivalist - Give up some Rogue Talents, Sneak Attack progression, and Danger Sense to gain a familiar, the Distraction and Fascinate Bardic performances, a bonus to your Handle Animal skill, and the capacity to have your familiar disable devices and sneak attack. By far the greatest appeal of this archetype lies in exploiting your familiar as a flanking buddy granting both of you Sneak Attack. For starters, look into the Mauler archetype for your Familiar, probably best used with the Fox, Goat, or Compsognathus. Alternatively, when you’re high enough level, look into Improved Familiar, specifically for the Small Aether Elemental, as it has natural constant Improved Invisibility. Not only will it be able to sneak attack almost constantly, the invisibility will shore up its low hit points and defenses, which will otherwise be the greatest liability for anyone using a familiar as a flanking buddy. Beyond this tactic, the archetype gives up a lot for the least useful Bardic performances. My instinct is that you can achieve similar but superior results as a Summoner or Hunter, and that if you really want to fight this way, the Rogue is the wrong way to go about it. That said, the Aether Elemental is tempting.
*Cat Burglar - Catfolk only. Give up Uncanny Dodge to always take 10 on stealth checks, leave no trace of your movement, and you can open locks and disable traps more quickly. This archetype fills the same role as the Burglar archetype but is simply superior. The take 10 on stealth checks alone is reason enough to consider it. Pair it with the Improved Stealth tactics and you’ll be permanently invisible except against the most perceptive of enemies.
Chameleon - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to gain a pool of points you can add to your stealth check equal to your ranks in Bluff. You can also take 10 on stealth checks while in your favored terrain. The latter is a bit tempting since selecting “Underground” will take care of almost all dungeons, which is where you’ll be most interested in sneaking. It’s OK. Consider it if you’re going for the Improved Stealth tactics but you don’t have access to Cat Burglar.
Charlatan - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to slightly hinder enemies’ ability to detect your bluffs and to be able to spread rumors in communities. This mostly sucks. It may have application in some RP-heavy APs, but for most rogues, this isn’t worth considering.
Consigliere - Give up Trapfinding, Danger Sense, Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, and a Rogue Talent to gain the Certainty (Diplomacy) rogue talent (reroll and take the better once per day, more at high levels), your failed diplomacy checks don’t reduce attitude, you can give friends a bonus to attack when you miss your own attacks, access to teamwork feats in place of rogue talents, and at 10th level you can grant a teamwork feat to your allies for a few rounds. Essentially, you’re turning your rogue into a bit of a cavalier. It’s not a bad option, especially if you want to be a face and you’d like to make use of some teamwork feats. I tend to think there are probably better ways to do this, but it’s not bad.
Counterfeit Mage - Give up Trapfinding and a Rogue Talent to get a bonus to your disable device checks to disable magical traps, perception checks to find them, and UMD checks to use scrolls and wands. You also gain a “signature wand” that you can activate without a UMD check, and you can use your Dex in place of your Cha for UMD at 6th level. This is all excellent. Being exceptional at UMD will explode your utility and few characters will surpass the Counterfeit mage. Definitely worth considering.
Cutpurse - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to know your victim’s Perception check before you attempt to pickpocket them and, if you wish, elect to bluff to pretend you had different intentions. You can also steal an item as part of an attack. I don’t think pickpocketing is a particularly worthwhile mechanic to design your character around, but if you want to, this archetype isn’t a bad way to do it. The stealing during combat is appealing. I assume it’s the normal DC 20 to succeed, which is ridiculously easy since it doesn’t increase with CR. You can’t take a wielded weapon, but you can take unattended items, like spell component pouches, holy symbols, alchemical items, rods, etc. The benefits are circumstantial, but in those circumstances, effective.
Dark Lurker - Give up Evasion and several Rogue Talents to gain the ability to make attacks of opportunity against foes with cover and the ability to deal precision damage to foes with total concealment. You also gain the Blind Fight feat chain. The benefits of this archetype are good, but they’re expensive. I wouldn’t consider it an optimal use of your talents, but you could do much worse.
*Deadly Courtesan - Vishkanya only. Give up a Rogue Talent, Danger Sense, and Improved Uncanny Dodge to gain the Fascinate and Inspire Competence bardic performances. At 8th level you can spend rounds of bardic performance to give yourself a morale bonus to your attack. I’m not impressed. If you want to be a blend between Rogue and Bard, there are bard archetypes that do it better (see Archaeologist or Sandman).
*Eldritch Scoundrel – Give up your Armor Proficiency, 4 skill ranks per level, a lot of your sneak attack, and half your Rogue Talents in order to gain access to six levels of spellcasting. This is practically a new class. See the dedicated section below.
Escapologist - Give up Trapfinding, Uncanny Dodge, and Improved Uncanny Dodge to add ½ level to Disable Device and Escape Artist checks. You can also use Escape Artist to break free of mind-affecting effects. At 8th level, you can use it in place of a failed reflex save or your AC (at a -10) to let you avoid the effects of the attack or spell against you, though this leaves you staggered. This is decent. I think there are better alternatives that replace your uncanny dodge and trapfinding, but none of the abilities in this archetype are bad.
False Medium - Give up your Trapfinding, Danger Sense, and a Rogue Talent to improve your Bluff, Disguise, and Sleight of Hand checks in dim light, the ability to fake some Occult skill unlocks (they’re basically divination effects), and the ability to cast some cantrips in dim light. It’s pretty awful. If you want to make John Edward into a Pathfinder character, have at it. He won’t be particularly useful.
Filcher - Halfling only. Give up Evasion, Danger Sense, and Uncanny Dodge to get much better at sleight of hand, a bonus to appraise, the ability to identify the value of an opponent’s equipment in battle, the Improved Steal feat, and the option to use Sleight of Hand in place of CMB to steal. You also get Greater Steal and the ability to take items enemies have fastened to them. As with the Cutpurse, I don’t think optimizing around theft is that great, but if you want to do it, Filcher will make you quite good at it.
Galtan Agitator - Give up your Trapfinding and several rogue talents to become a fairly remarkable Face. You can accumulate renown in a community over time giving you some bonuses, you can notice disguises better, and you get some abilities that make you a strong leader. I don’t think this archetype is useful at all in Pathfinder Society. It could be useful in certain RP-heavy APs, but I don’t find it appealing.
Guerrilla - Give up Trapfinding, Evasion, Danger Sense, Uncanny Dodge (though you get it back), and Improved Uncanny Dodge to get a whole bunch of stuff. You gain a bonus to bluff and can still disable magical traps. You get +5 to Disguise, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth when in dim light or darkness. You can create mundane disguises, and any time you would have concealment, you instead have total concealment. You get a bonus to send and discern secret messages. When in dim light or darkness, you decrease your sniping penalty to stealth by 10. This archetype seems to want to blend Hide in Plain Sight, Darkness, Feinting, and Sniping tactics. If your party’s down for all of that, I could see it serving you well. Just be careful of enemies with Darkvision.
Heister - Give up Uncanny Dodge and a bunch of Rogue Talents to get better at opening locks without tools, the Stealthy feat, the ability to squeeze as if you’re one size category smaller, Hide in Plain Sight while underground and in urban terrain, and those two terrains as favored terrains. Most of that is pretty bad. The only thing worth considering is the Hide in Plain Sight in your two most important terrains. As we’ve discussed, there are better and more universal ways to get that.
Investigator - Give up Trapfinding to get much better at gathering information.
Kintargo Rebel - Give up Danger Sense and Uncanny Dodge to get a little better at Knowledge (Nobility) and conveying secret messages. You can also cast Misdirection on yourself once per day.
Kitsune Trickster - Kitsune only. Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to add your Int modifier to Bluff, Diplomacy, Disguise, and Sense Motive. You also gain access to Charm Person as a SLA. It’s an alternate means of getting your Int bonus to bluff, though unlike Clever Wordplay it adds them together rather than replacing. If you want to be a Face while dumping Cha, this is a way to do it. It’s probably not the best way.
Knife Master – Give up your Trapfinding and Danger Sense to deal better sneak attack damage when you wield knives. You also get better at concealing weapons and improve your AC against light blades. If you’re dual-wielding daggers with a feint, blinding, or intimidation build, this can be brutal. Make sure to check out the Swashbuckler in the multiclass dips section (not to be confused with the Swashbuckler archetype).
Makeshift Scrapper - Give up some Weapon Proficiencies, Trapfinding, Danger Sense, and a Rogue Talent to gain the Catch Off Guard and Throw Anything feats, the ability to give enhancement bonuses to improvised weapons as a swift action, and the Improvised Weapon Mastery feat at 12th level. It could be flavorful, but I don’t think it’s very effective.
Master of Disguise - Give up Trapfinding and some Rogue Talents to get a bonus to Disguise checks, the Quick Disguise Rogue Talent, and the Master of Disguise advanced rogue talent. I don’t think Disguise is particularly useful in Pathfinder.
Numerian Scavenger - Give up Trapfinding and Uncanny Dodge to gain the ability to locate and disable high-tech traps more easily, to deal with glitches in timeworn tech items more effectively, and to ignore robots’ hardness when you deal sneak attack. If you’re in a high tech AP, great. This might be worth considering. For most Pathfinders, it’s not.
Okeno Liberator - Give up Trapfinding, Danger Sense, and Uncanny Dodge to gain a bonus to Escape Artist, provide bonuses to friends to Disguise and Stealth, and the Catch Off Guard feat. Helping your friends sneak is kind of cool, but it will never be enough to make them truly effective, and therefore, it’s not worth the price.
Phantom Thief - This archetype constitutes a significant change to the core mechanics of the rogue. You give up Sneak Attack, Debilitating Injury, Danger Sense, Master Strike, a Talent, and you modify your class skills in order to get a mess of mostly skill-related benefits. Every few levels you can select a skill and gain half your level to checks involving that skill. It is also automatically unlocked as with Rogue’s Edge, and you add half your level to your ranks to determine what unlocks you get. You can select Combat Trick, Minor Magic, and Major Magic as many times as you like. You can take Skill Focus as a rogue talent and may do so as many times as you like. You can select a Vigilante Social Talent in place of a rogue talent. You get bonuses to Sense Motive, Bluff, and Initiative as they relate to surprise. Ultimately, this build is a sandbox you can use to make pretty much whatever you want. Given its early access to the Unchained skill unlocks and its bonuses to skills this archetype is probably the most powerful intimidator in the game. I can imagine extraordinary things being done with dazzling display. Otherwise, it’s effectively a completely different class and most of the advice in this guide doesn’t apply. It’s not a bad archetype by any means, but it’s a challenging one.
Pirate - Give up Trapfinding, Danger Sense, and a Rogue Talent to gain the Sea Legs feat (+2 Acrobatics, Climb, Swim), a great deal more mobility while on a ship, and a bonus to saves vs. fear and mind-affecting effects. The protection vs. mind-affecting effects is quite tempting on its own. If your AP is going to spend a lot of time on ships, you’ll get a lot of benefit out of this archetype. Otherwise, it’s all a bit too circumstantial.
Planar Sneak - Give up Danger Sense and Uncanny Dodge to get a bonus to saves vs. spells with elemental or alignment descriptors and to deal a fraction of your sneak attack damage to elementals. This is the only way I know of to make elementals vulnerable to your sneak attack, and it’s a lacklustre one. If you’re really concerned with shoring up this one great liability the rogue has, go for it, but I don’t think it’s worth it. This is why you travel as part of a party.
Poisoner - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to get Poison Use and the ability to change the type of your poison with a Craft (Alchemy) check. This is one of only a handful of ways to legally craft poisons in PFS. Poisons are generally cost prohibitive and extremely difficult to make effective, but if you’d like to try, the Poisoner + Underground Chemist combo is about as potent as you can get. Check out the poison section below where you’ll find a link to my poisoning guide.
Rake – Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to get some bonuses to your social skills. It’s worth considering for a face or a feinting build. More importantly, it allows you to trade in your sneak attack dice for the ability to demoralize as part of an attack. This makes this archetype almost mandatory for an Intimidation build.
River Rat - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to get better at swimming, improving how you deal with some uncommon difficult terrain, and improving your saves vs. curses, diseases, and poisons. Not worth it.
Roof Runner - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to be able to move at full speed on roofs and use Acrobatics to descend from them. This whole archetype should be one feat, and if it were, it wouldn’t be worth taking.
Sanctified Rogue - Give up Uncanny Dodge to gain a +1 bonus to Fort and Will saves and the ability to cast Augury once per day. The early benefit is a great start. The 8th level one sucks. I don’t think a bonus to your two worst saves is worth giving up all the archetypes competing for your Uncanny Dodge slot.
Scout – Give up your Uncanny Dodge to deal sneak attack damage whenever you charge, and later, whenever you move. This is such a pronounced improvement over Uncanny Dodge that if you aren’t making a sniper or have some other archetype in mind that replaces it, this archetype is almost mandatory.
Scroll Scoundrel - Give up a couple Rogue Talents, Danger Sense, and Uncanny Dodge to be better at Bluff and Diplomacy, some saves vs. spells, attacks against enemies who have attacked you, an unreliable and self-destructive means of making enemies flat-footed, and a means of penetrating DR. I don’t know what exactly the archetype has to do with scrolls, but everything it offers is circumstantial and mediocre.
Sczami Swindler - Give up Trapfinding, Danger Sense, Evasion, and Uncanny Dodge to get a 50/50 shot at a luck bonus you want, a buff to your Sleight of Hand, a bonus to your Bluff, Profession (Gambler) and Sense Motive checks, a bonus to your Will saves, and a reroll. If Cait Sith is your favorite Final Fantasy 7 character, you might like this archetype. Some of the abilities are decent and the whole thing is very flavorful, but at best it breaks even with what it costs.
Shadow Walker – You trade your trapfinding, Danger Sense, uncanny dodge, and one rogue talent for a whole mess of goodies. At first level you gain Darkvision and its range increases every two rogue levels. At 3rd level, you no longer suffer light sensitivity, and also at 3rd level you gain illumination control giving you the ability to cast various light and darkness spells out of an illumination pool equal to half your rogue level. At 4th level you choose a “favored illumination” level in which you get bonuses to initiative, perception, acrobatics, and sleight of hand, and you can always take 10 on stealth checks. This is incredibly powerful, especially in PFS. Though you’re giving up a lot of good stuff, I highly recommend considering this archetype, especially for a Shadowdancer.
Sharper - Give up Trapfinding, Danger Sense, and almost all of your Rogue Talents to get a bonus to Bluff and Sleight of Hand, the Improved, Greater, and Quick Steal feats, a luck bonus to saving throws, and the option to reroll failed saves. The defensive abilities on this archetype are drool-worthy. If you were looking to incorporate theft into your combat anyway, you might consider this, but I think the price for what it offers is way too high.
Skulking Slayer - Half-Orc Only. Modify your Weapon Proficiencies, Class Skills, and give up Trapfinding to get Pass For Human, the option to make a Dirty Trick or Steal maneuver with a bonus in place of any Sneak Attack, the option to take the Surprise Follow-Through feat as a Rogue Talent (deny dex bonus to your second target when you use Cleave), an increase to your damage dice when you sneak attack on a charge, and a bonus to Bluff checks to feint. This archetype’s all over the place in terms of what tactics it seems to encourage. You’ve apparently burned feats on Power Attack and Cleave, so your str is at least 13 and you’re probably wielding a 2-handed weapon, but you’re also feinting, using dirty tricks, and stealing? How the hell do you have enough feats to be good at all those maneuvers? This archetype isn’t inherently bad, but the only way I can see making use of everything it has to offer is if you’re playing a game with a DM who’s modified the Pathfinder feat system to eliminate feat taxes. Otherwise you’re going to have a boatload of tactical options, all of which you’ll suck at. If you do elect to go with this archetype, it goes very well with Scout.
Smuggler - Give up Trapfinding, Danger Sense, and Evasion to gain a bonus to talking to officials, concealing items, and the ability to distract someone searching your person. I can actually think of a couple PFS scenarios in which this would be good. But only a couple.
Sniper – Give up your Trapfinding and Danger Sense to improve your range increments and sneak attack range with ranged weapons. If you’re building a sniper and don’t intend on using the Rake’s intimidating abilities, this is great.
Snoop - Give up Trapfinding, Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, and a Rogue Talent to gain a slightly nerfed version of the Investigator class’s Inspiration ability, access to a smattering of Investigator talents, a bonus to using Intimidate to extract information, and the Rumormonger talent. If you’re your party’s Encyclopedia, Eidetic Recollection and Item Lore are both good, but you probably shouldn’t be your party’s Encyclopedia. Inspired Intimidator can be helpful for an Intimidation build. Underworld Inspiration is OK. The rest of the talents suck. You’re giving up a lot here to get a little bit of what’s cool about the Investigator. Instead, I suggest polarizing. Be a really good Rogue and enjoy your combat abilities or a really good Investigator who knows everything. Splitting the difference isn’t worth the effort.
Spy - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to get a bonus to Bluff (that can’t be used to feint) and Poison Use. If you’re eager to use poisons, the Poisoner is the far better option. If you’re not eager to use poisons, you have absolutely no reason to consider this archetype.
Survivalist - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to go longer without food and water and to be able to cast Endure Elements once per day. I don’t think two of your most signature abilities, which improve with level, are worth a 1/day 1st level spell.
Swashbuckler - Give up Trapfinding and Danger Sense to gain proficiency in any martial weapon, the option to select Combat Trick twice, and a bonus to Acrobatics checks and saving throws against fear. This isn’t bad. It’s especially good if you’re an elf looking for a means of getting proficiency in the Elven Branched Spear or Curve Blade without dipping or using Heirloom Weapon. You’re bound to make ample use of Acrobatics and I’ve definitely wished I could take Combat Trick twice as my rogue’s leveled up. Definitely consider this one.
Sylvan Trickster - Give up Trapfinding, Uncanny Dodge, and Improved Uncanny Dodge to gain Wild Empathy, resistance to the abilities of fey, some DR/Cold Iron, and, most importantly, access to Witch Hexes as rogue talents. This is intriguing, though like the Eldritch Scoundrel, if you want to be a debuffer (which is what witch hexes do best), you’re probably better off being a dedicated witch rather than a rogue with witch hexes. While Evil Eye will stack with your Debilitating Injury, it still consumes a standard action, and generally speaking you’ll be better off using that action to sneak attack. That said, this isn’t bad, and some hexes of interest are listed in the Multiclass Dips section. Be sure to look into the Hex Strike feat.
Tidal Trickster - Give up Trapfinding, Trap Sense, Uncanny Dodge, Improved Uncanny Dodge, and two rogue talents to get a bunch of aquatic benefits. You get your base speed as a swim speed and a 4+½ rogue level bonus to your swim checks. You also gain a bonus on bluff checks and to will saves when underwater. You can deal sneak attack to oozes and creatures with the water subtype usually immune to precision damage (including water elementals). You also gain the ability to create a tidal distortion which can throw a target “off balance,” a state in which they lose their dex bonus to AC, attackers gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls against it, and it suffers a -2 penalty and deals half damage with piercing weapon attacks. The only appealing ability of this archetype outside an aquatic campaign is the sneak attack to oozes and water elementals. I wouldn’t recommend considering this archetype in most games, but if you’re playing Ruins of Azlant or something similar, there’s none better.
Thug – Give up your Trapfinding and Danger Sense to improve the duration of your intimidation and to have the option of making your enemies “sickened” in place of sneak attack damage. It’s a brutal option for an intimidation build. If you can find a way to get around the necessity of Rake (such as through Frightening Ambush, Cornugon Smash, or if your game allows you to use Violent Display), this is a fine option.
Trapsmith - Give up Uncanny Dodge to be better at disabling traps. I tend to think of trap disabling as one of several skills a rogue can contribute to an adventuring party, not the centerpiece ability around which to design my build. I think simply having a good Dex, putting a rank in every level, and grabbing some Masterwork Thieves’ tools is enough investment. That said, if you really want to be all about disabling traps, this archetype lets you do it more reliably, though I think the Burglar’s approach is very similar and a bit more interesting.
Underground Chemist - Give up evasion and your 4th level rogue talent to get your Int bonus and sneak attack added to your use of splash weapons. This is magnificent, especially since it doesn’t preclude taking several of these other archetypes (and evasion is, frankly, overrated). Later in this guide we’ll talk about swarms being one of your greatest weaknesses. Not any more! Now you do 1.5X sneak attack against them. No one in the game is better at dealing with swarms than you are. Most definitely worth considering.
Vexing Dodger - Give up Trapfinding, Uncanny Dodge, and some Advanced Rogue Talents to be able to climb up larger creatures (causing a penalty to hit you), the Improved Dirty Trick feat, a bonus to Acrobatics checks, the ability to move through an enemy’s square without an acrobatics check, the option of making a Dirty Trick in place of sneak attack as a swift action against larger foes, a bonus to attack an enemy you’re climbing, and the potential to inflict nauseated on climbed enemies you sneak attack. There’s a lot to like about this archetype, especially the swift action dirty tricks. Since the abilities favor Int and a small size, it suits Wayangs best, though you can manage it with Halflings and Gnomes. I don’t recommend this route for a Medium-sized race. Use this in conjunction with blinding tactics and you’ll be a devastating debuffer and a decent damager.
Visit any forum on the topic of rogues and you’re bound to come across people raving about the Eldritch Scoundrel. “ZOMG it’s the best rogue ever!” “Finally a rogue that’s a tier 3 class!” In case it’s not obvious, I think it’s overrated, mostly because I find the culture of “casters are the only classes worth playing” wrong and annoying, and thus, the notion that the way to make a rogue better is to make it a caster equally annoying. That said, just because it’s overrated doesn’t mean it’s not still great.
The Eldritch Scoundrel is a sub-optimal wizard and a sub-optimal rogue. It can fill in for both but a pure class in either direction is, in my opinion, superior.
Why is it inferior to a wizard?
The vast majority of the spells we’re interested in can be achieved nearly as well through Use Magic Device and wands. Even if we take this archetype, since we can prepare so few spells per day, we will still be relying heavily on wands to cover most of our situational and long-lasting utility spells. There are definite benefits to be had through achieving some wizard-esque spellcasting, but we were already pursuing those benefits through means that didn’t sacrifice as many roguish benefits, and thus, the benefits of the Eldritch Scoundrel are widely overstated.
Why is it inferior to a rogue?
The appeal of the Eldritch Scoundrel is in the points where the wizard and rogue elements intersect in a way that’s more than the sum of their parts, particularly at points that are impossible (or prohibitively expensive) to achieve through other means.
What makes the Eldritch Scoundrel worthwhile?
In short, the Eldritch Scoundrel excels in out-of-combat utility beyond any other class, including both of its parent classes, and it’s exceptional at a small handful of sneak attacking tactics, namely Darkness, Invisibility, Smoke, and a variation on Blinding. If you want to put the entire battlefield in darkness and shoot acid splashes and scorching rays from a distance, no one will do it better than the Eldritch Scoundrel. If you want to employ literally any other tactic, focusing exclusively on another rogue archetype or making a wizard will serve you better.
Arya Stark from Game of Thrones
We’ve already discussed many of the feats necessary for the various paths. I won’t be bringing them up again here. This section is for additional feats that enhance those paths or are otherwise worth considering.
Accomplished Sneak Attacker - If you’ve taken a dip away from Rogue and want to help your sneak attack progression, this feat will do it.
Anatomical Savant - Reduce any negation against your sneak attacks and critical hits by 25%. Enemies who are immune to sneak attacks and critical hits now only have a 75% chance of being immune. This feat comes very late in your development (BAB 12+) but it’s good.
Butterfly’s Sting – Critical hits don’t do much for you, but they probably do a lot for your fighter buddy you’re flanking with. When you score a critical hit, you can transfer that crit to your buddy. Great feat if you’re already optimizing for flanking tactics.
Bookish Rogue - Carry around a spellbook, or borrow one from a party member, and switch out your Minor and Major Magic rogue talent spells with 10 minutes of study. This provides you with a lot of versatility (in some respects even more than a wizard enjoys) for a very low cost. Definitely worth considering.
Celestial Obedience (Tanagaar) or *Demonic Obedience (Shax) - Neither of these are worth taking very early, but both provide an extra 3d6 sneak attack at level 20. The *Mythic Amulet of the Abyss will let you benefit from your Shax boons earlier, if you can get it.
Cloak and Dagger Style – While wielding a light weapon, you can use a dirty trick combat maneuver as a free action when you attack an enemy in the surprise round. Furthermore, when an adjacent enemy tries to remove your dirty trick effect, you get an AOO. The first part’s not all that appealing given all the means we’ve developed to manage dirty tricks, but that second part is great. This feat isn’t blue only because it requires Vital Strike as a pre-req and because the elven curve blade and elven branched spear aren’t light weapons (not to mention the feat requires being adjacent to your foe, rather than just threatening them, rendering our reach tactics null). If you’re doing some sort of one-handed build with a dip into Magus or Swashbuckler or something, exploiting the Cloak and Dagger feats in addition to the blinding path will be brutal.
*Cloak and Dagger Subterfuge – When wielding your chosen weapon, whenever you make an attack of opportunity you can attempt a free dirty trick combat maneuver. Additionally, whenever you perform a dirty trick maneuver, you can immediately attempt a steal maneuver as well. If you succeed, the target is unaware you stole their item. Basically, you’re pulling their pants down and taking their belt. It’s subject to all the downsides of the whole Cloak and Dagger path, but it’s awesome. Too bad the BAB requirement is so high.
*Cloak and Dagger Tactics – When you hit your opponent when they’re denied their dex bonus, when you flank them, or when you use vital strike on them with your chosen weapon, you can make a dirty trick maneuver against your opponent. If you succeed, in addition to your dirty trick effect, they must make a fortitude save equal to 10 + 1/2 your BAB + INT modifier or suffer an additional effect for one round: stuck to the floor, confused, exhausted, or staggered. Though this suffers the same downsides as Cloak and Dagger Style, this is an incredible free debuff.
Combat Reflexes – You have the dex to make the most of this feat and it may well behoove you to do so. More opportunity attacks mean more damage. The problem is that since AOOs tend to occur on the enemy’s terms rather than yours (usually when they’re moving through your threatened squares), rarely will you be able to inflict sneak attack while doing them. It will be most useful for any build that inflicts dex-denying status ailments for longer than one round, such as intimidation, tribal hunter, pack flanking, and possibly blinding (ideally with a dip into the Bounty Hunter Slayer archetype). It’s most effective for intimidators since it will take advantage of frightened enemies running away. If you’re a feinter, flanker, improved stealther, or something similar, it’s probably not worth the feat.
Conceal Scent - Prevent yourself from being located by enemies with scent. Very useful.
Coordinated Charge (Teamwork) - When an ally with this feat charges, you can, as an immediate action, charge as well. Good way to break the action economy. Works well with the Scout archetype.
Dampen Presence – Use the stealth skill to hide from enemies with blindsight and blindsense. A strong contender at higher levels when those abilities become common among enemies rendering your normal tactics obsolete. I also think the wording of Lifesense makes a strong argument for this feat applying to that ability as well.
Disheartening Display – Whenever you use a dazzling display, enemies who are already afraid increase their fear levels by one step. This can make for some excellent debuffing and battlefield control.
Eclipsed Spell (Metamagic) - Not a feat you’re likely to be using yourself unless you’re an Eldritch Scoundrel or dipped into a casting class, but its potential usefulness is so great that I’m including it here. Essentially, you convert a light spell into a darkness spell. Eclipsed Continual Flame emits darkness in a 20’ radius and lasts forever. It’s far more practical than casting Dancing Darkness all the time provided you can arrange to acquire it. Since it’s a +0 metamagic, a lesser rod of the feat only costs 1,500 gp.
Eldritch Heritage: Shadow - You get a non-lethal melee touch attack 3+Cha times per day. You’re getting this feat as a prereq for the next one, but that isn’t a bad feature in itself as long as you’re using a Cha build.
Equipment Trick (Cloak) - All sorts of wonderful stuff! When you successfully use Intimidate to demoralize, you can increase the demoralize duration by 1d4 rounds. When you attempt a bluff check to feint, you can use your cape to create a diversion and use stealth in place of your feint attempt, denying your opponent their dex bonus to AC (because you used stealth). You can use your cloak to slow your fall with a DC 20 acrobatics check to reduce your falling damage by 20 feet. Wonderful, especially for an intimidation build or for a build where you’d like to feint without investing in Bluff.
Escape Route - A teamwork feat that makes it such that so long as you’re adjacent to an ally with this feat, you provoke no AoOs from movement. Ordinarily this feat is too circumstantial to be useful, however when acquired while having a Valet archetype familiar sitting on your shoulder, you will never provoke AoOs due to movement ever again. Exceptional for a hit and run build.
Expert Sniper – Subtract 10 from your penalty for sniping. Take it if you’re not doing that through some other means.
Extra Rogue Talent – Take it if you need it.
Feint Partners -> Improved Feint Partners - Something to consider if you’re going for a dip into Eldritch Guardian and you have a valet familiar. When your familiar successfully feints, Feint Partners denies the enemy’s dex bonus vs. your next attack and Improved Feint Partners provides you with an AoO. It’s debatable whether this works with Greater Feint, though I would argue it should so long as your familiar has it, and since all of these are combat feats, Eldritch Guardian gives your familiar everything (unlike the Valet archetype, which will only give them the teamwork feats). This achieves the same goals as improved two weapon feint without costing you an attack every round, though if your familiar dies, you will have lost your primary means of denying dex bonuses.
*Flensing Strike - When you deal sneak attack damage and cause them to bleed, remove some of their natural armor and make them sickened. This is quite good, especially since it stacks with itself, so a full attack can render an enemy heavily reliant on natural armor defenseless to you and your allies. You make them easier to hit, you debuff them so it’s harder for them to hit you, and this is in addition to your debilitating injuries. Definitely worth considering.
Fox Style -> Fox Insight -> Fox Trickery – This chain allows you to do dirty tricks as attacks of opportunity, an incredible boon for a blinding-oriented build. Unfortunately entry feats suck. I suppose they let you attempt a feint if you haven’t been buffing your bluff, but in all likelihood, you’re not going to want to. If blinding is the only tactic you’re employing, and as such, you have lots of extra feats to burn, this is worth considering. Otherwise it’s prohibitively expensive.
Frightening Ambush – As a free action, you can attempt to demoralize a flat-footed opponent you attack. If this gave you the opportunity to demoralize against any enemy denied their dex bonus, that would be magnificent. The flat-footed requirement is a lot more limiting. Fortunately, Shatter Defenses makes enemies flat-footed to you, so once you’ve demoralized them the first time, you can use frightening ambush to keep the chain going and save your sneak attack dice for actual damage.
Ghostslayer - Use a swift action each round to make your weapon affect incorporeal creatures as a magic weapon (50% damage instead of 0). If your weapon is +2 or better, it is instead treated as a ghost touch weapon. A feat is a bit expensive for such a circumstantial benefit, but the circumstance is a pretty important one. Incorporeal enemies rob you of your best means of doing damage and they’re pretty common, so it can be worth it, especially at higher levels. Personally, I prefer carrying around some Holy Weapon Balm or Ghost Salt, but this will never run out and doesn’t cost a standard action to apply.
Improved Eldritch Heritage: Shadow – I recommended you dip into Shadowdancer because it gave you hide in Plain Sight a lot earlier than this does. That said, if you didn’t want to burn all those less-than-ideal feats to be a Shadowdancer, this will get you the ability at 11th level. You’ll also enjoy the ability to swap places with an ally as Dimension Door, which can be tactically useful.
Harrying Partners - Another circumstantially useful teamwork feat that’s excellent on a familiar. It allows your Aid Another bonuses to last until your next turn rather than for only on a single attack. This could be useful for either a Valet familiar devoted to aiding another or for a Protector familiar. The latter will get more use out of it, but it will require retraining the 11th level In Harm’s Way feat and taking a feat on the rogue’s side as well.
Hellcat Stealth - In exchange for a -10 penalty, you can hide in plain sight in normal or bright light. This appears to address both the “being observed” and the “requires concealment” elements, but only in bright and normal light. It’s based on a creature that can sort of “blend into” light and render itself invisible, so think of just turning lighting conditions upside down in respect to their capacity to provide stealth in regard to this feat. Yes, I agree that it’s poorly written. Since it essentially provides hide in plain sight for half the conditions you’ll be in, it’s a potential alternative route for the Improved Stealth tactic, and a feat possibly worth taking as a Shadowdancer in order to guarantee yourself coverless stealth in all lighting conditions, especially if you can’t cast Blend.
*Hero’s Display -> Performing Combatant – Swift action dazzling display. Broken as hell. Obviously banned from PFS. If you’re allowed to go this route, look into Master Combat Performer as well.
Hellcat Pounce - When you attack and damage an opponent in the surprise round you may immediately make a second attack. Target is not considered flat-footed against this attack. Extra attacks are good, but these are limited to the surprise round and don’t have built-in sneak attack. If you have some means of making full attacks during surprise rounds (like the Bandit archetype), a means of denying dex bonus throughout the entire surprise round (like intimidation or blindness), and a means of getting up to them before the surprise round begins (sneaking successfully without your party ruining it for you), this can be absolutely devastating. A level 8 2-weapon fighting tengu with boots of speed could hypothetically get 12 attacks this way. How often is that going to be possible? Almost never. How expensive will it be in feats and talents? Extremely. How likely is your GM to disagree with this interpretation and rule that Hellcat Pounce’s “not flat-footed” rule overrides all your means of denying dex bonus, or else only awards you a single extra attack? Pretty damn likely. You probably have better options.
Master Sniper - Lets you take two shots while sniping, similar to Rapid Shot. The rules are ambiguous as to whether you can sneak attack on both of these shots. The fact you are able to use stealth after both suggests that your enemies remain unaware of you throughout the attacks, and therefore, you should get sneak attack on both. Normal stealth and sneak attacking rules, however, would indicate you only get sneak attack on the first attack. I would rule in the rogue’s favor on this, but your GM might not, especially since most folks aren’t that familiar with the intricacies of the stealth rules. If you get sneak attack on both, it’s excellent for a sniper. If only on the first, it’s just OK.
*Multiattack - If you have 3 or more natural attacks, your secondary natural weapon attacks take only a -2 penalty. If you’re a weirdo who visits the “Maximizing Multiple Attacks” section below and tries to do absolutely every single one of them, and you’re not in PFS, you probably want this feat.
Outflank (Teamwork) – If you and your buddy both have these feats, you’ll be giving each other all sorts of extra attacks. Stacks excellently with the Pack Flanking and Tribal Hunter tactics.
Paired Opportunists (Teamwork) – Any time your buddy you’re adjacent to gets an AOO, you get one too. Works great with improved flanking tactics.
Phalanx Formation – If you’re working with the Elven Branched Spear, and most especially if you’re looking to make the most of Gang Up, this will allow you to attack the bad guys when you have a friend in front of you without suffering the -4 cover penalty.
Piranha Strike - Power attack for dex builds. Note that it must be used with a light weapon and does not provide the benefits for two-handed wielding that Power Attack does.
Power Attack -> Cornugon Smash - Power attack lets you subtract from your to-hit roll in order to deal more damage, especially when wielding your weapon two-handed (which I recommend you do). Cornugon Smash lets you demoralize your target as a free action whenever you hit with a power attack. Sounds great, right? The problem is Power Attack’s pre-requisite of 13 strength. That strength provides absolutely no additional benefit to you except for an increased carrying capacity and an inconsequential improvement to your combat maneuver numbers and strength-related skills. What are you giving up to get that? Probably your Int or Cha. Otherwise you’re seriously tanking your Con and/or Wis or else robbing some of your Dex. Making Str your second-best stat closes a lot of doors while providing little benefit outside of this specific tactic. If you really want to go this route with your intimidate tactics, these are fantastic feats, but turning a dump stat into a secondary stat is damn expensive for what they provide. If you do go this route, be sure to look into Surprise Follow Through.
Precise Strike (Teamwork) - When you and an ally who also has this feat are flanking the same enemy, you deal an additional 1d6 damage. Use this in conjunction with the Improved Flanking Tactics, Pack Flanking, or Tribal Hunter.
*Quicken Spell-Like Ability – If you’ve taken Major Magic, this feat will let you use your spell as a swift action three times per day. You know how envious we are of ninjas and their Vanishing Trick? We can finally do it at 10th level. If you opted for another spell, like Chill Touch, now you can cast it as a swift action. Note that this feat isn’t available in PFS.
Shadows of Fear - The first time you hit a creature suffering from a fear effect you can deal sneak attack damage as if you were flanking the creature. This is essentially a poor man’s Shatter Defenses. It’s not as good since it won’t grant sneak attack on all your attacks, but it will allow it once per enemy per round and it’s a lot cheaper. If you’re going the intimidation route I think you’re better off going whole hog, but if you just want it as a secondary option, this is certainly worth considering.
Shapechanging Savage - For you Kitsunes (and Skinwalkers), allows you to feint as part of your Change Shape ability. Not particularly useful unless you have Greater Feint, and even then, only useful if you wanted to change forms anyway. I don’t particularly recommend it.
Slayer’s Feint - Use your acrobatics instead of Bluff to feint in combat. It requires either the Acrobatic feat or one level of Slayer to get it, so if you’re already dipping Slayer and you want feinting as an option, it’s not a bad way to do it. Likewise, if you’d rather not spend a lot of skill points on bluffing and don’t mind burning two feats, this is a way to avoid doing so. Neither approach seems particularly optimal to me, but it’s available if you like it.
Spirit Ridden - After 1 hour of meditation, you get one skill maxed out in ranks for one hour per character level as a spirit inhabits your body. A flavorful and fun feat that grants some decent utility, though considering how feat starved we are and how many skill points we get, I tend to think it’s not the best choice.
Spring Attack – If you’ve already gone through the trouble to get Dodge and Mobility for Shadowdancer, you might as well pick up Spring Attack too, since it’s better than both. It allows you to move before and after attacking, allowing you to move+hide, sneak attack, move+hide, assuming you have Hide in Plain Sight. Pretty much everything you’d ever want to behave like the classical rogue.
Startling Shapechanger - Allows you to use Dazzling Display as a free action as part of your shape change. Chances are, you’re only interested in this if you’re a Kitsune (or a Skinwalker). If you’re rather high level and you have access to Vulpine Pounce, this can be absolutely devastating. You charge in, transform, scare everyone in a thirty-foot radius, and unleash a full attack. Unfortunately this doesn’t come online until quite late in the game (and never in PFS, which is probably the only reason it hasn’t gotten attention and has remained “legal”). You can use it as a move action with the alternate racial trait “Fast Shifter” though, or as a swift action with Swift Kitsune Transformation, which are both better than your normal Dazzling Display and worth considering on their own. Otherwise this feat just reduces your full-round action to a standard.
Surprise Follow-Through - If you’re a half-orc and you’ve taken Power Attack and Cleave, your second foe will be denied their Dex bonus, allowing you to sneak attack. This is good in and of itself, but geez you are playing a MAD rogue.
Surprise Maneuver – For those of you going the Dirty Trick route, this feat will let you get better at it as your sneak attack improves. Unfortunately, combat expertise is one of the pre-reqs, so if you got into the path with Dirty Fighting, you won’t be able to take advantage.
Stealth Synergy - Another teamwork feat that, when put on your valet familiar, lets you effectively roll twice and take the better on all stealth checks.
Swarm Dodger - When a swarm attacks you, you can attempt a reflex save to avoid damage with DC equal to the distraction DC + 10. With success, you avoid poison, blood drain, or similar effects as well. If you have Improved Evasion, this applies to the swarm damage. When combined with a Swarmbane Clasp, this will make you nearly invincible against swarms. I don’t know if it’s worthwhile to devote a feat and 3,000 to one type of enemy, but it is a type that’s otherwise among your most threatening foes.
Taunt - If you’re size small or smaller, you can use Bluff rather than Intimidate to demoralize enemies and you don’t suffer a penalty for your size. Excellent for a small cha build that’s invested in feinting and would like to exploit intimidation tactics as well.
Twinned Feint - Basically, when you successfully feint an opponent, you can immediately attempt a feint against an adjacent opponent. I could see this being useful in a two-weapon feinting build. Say, for example, you kill one enemy with your first attack, this will let you sneak attack on the next guy. It’s a little too circumstantial for my taste, especially given how feat intensive the feint path is, but it’s an option, especially if you saved some feats via the Vigilante talent and your GM allows this feat to work with it.
Twist Away – Lets you use your excellent reflex save in place of your fortitude save at the cost of an immediate action and becoming staggered the next round. Definitely worth considering.
*Violent Display – Lamentably no longer PFS legal, this is the ultimate intimidating rogue feat. Every time you deal sneak attack damage you automatically perform a dazzling display, demoralizing everyone within 30 feet of you. Amazing. You have to have something on your character sheet associated with weretigers, which is somewhat difficult to do, but it’s well worth it.
Visceral Threat - You can use Intimidate rather than bluff to feint. Allows you to exploit a feinting build if you’ve already been using an intimidation build without doubling up skill investment. Would be green except that Intimidating Prowess is a largely useless feat for most rogues.
*Wasp Familiar - You must worship Calistria, though that’s hardly unthematic of a rogue anyway. Gain a flying Greensting Scorpion as a familiar with all the benefits therein. It’s a superior version of one of the best familiar options there is and cheaper than Familiar Bond or a dip into a familiar-granting class. Fantastic.
Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean
Generally speaking you want to avoid dipping away from Unchained Rogue as much as possible. Rarely will another class’s abilities be worth the price you’re paying in reduced sneak attack dice, rogue talents, and delaying your access to Double Debilitation. For some tactics, however, there are a few dips worth considering. If you mean to use these dips, keep in mind that the Half-Elf becomes an even more appealing racial choice.
Alchemist (Crypt Breaker) (1) – If you lost your trapfinding and are looking for a way to get it back, the Crypt Breaker is a fine way to do it. Getting access to alchemist bombs will let you deal excellent damage to swarms. The Alkahest bombs of the crypt breaker do acid damage along with D8s to constructs and undead and d4s to everyone else. I’d personally prefer the normal bombs, so if that’s the feature you’re really looking for, consider the vanilla Alchemist.
The real draw of this archetype beyond restoring your Trapfinding is the Crypt Breaker’s Draught. It gives you a +4 bonus on Perception checks and gives you Darkvision, Low-light vision, or scent. Anyone lacking darkvision should be eyeing this. Unfortunately, it only lasts for 10 minutes and there aren’t any easy ways to extend it. You’ll get access to some extracts such of Cure Light Wounds, Heightened Awareness, Recharge Innate Magic, Detect Secret Doors, and Blend. It’s not the perfect spell list, but they’re nice to have.
*Antipaladin (3) - There’s a lot to like about the Antipaladin, most especially for its potential in an intimidation build. You’ll get a full BAB, fast progression in your two weakest saves, and proficiency in martial weapons (which will help you get your elvish weapons if you’re an elf). Unless you’re playing an evil campaign you’re not likely to make use of Smite Good very often, but maybe it’ll come in handy sometime. Unholy Resilience will apply your charisma bonus to your saves, so if you’re going this route, you’ll definitely want to be doing so with a Cha focus. Touch of Corruption will let you make a touch attack with which you can sneak attack. At third level, you can use this to inflict fatigued, shaken, or sickened on your foes, and Plague Bringer makes you effectively immune to diseases. The big prize of this route, however, is the 3rd level Aura of Cowardice ability. Creatures that are normally immune to fear lose that immunity while within 10 feet of you, allowing you to employ your intimidation tactics on everyone. This is exceptional and there is no other way to replicate it.
Barbarian (Savage Technologist) (1) - Savage technologist gives you the Barbarian rage power, except instead of a +4 bonus to Str and Con, it’s to Str and Dex. I’m sure the appeal there is obvious. You also keep your full AC while raging. It’ll also shore up your Fort save and increase your movement speed by 10’. At 2nd level you get benefits for two-weapon fighting with a sword and gun. That’s probably not something you want to do, but if you are doing that, definitely consider this dip. Look into the Animal Fury, Auspicious Mark, Guarded Stance, Intimidating Glare, Night Vision, No Escape, Power Stance, Roaring Drunk, Superstition, Surprise Accuracy, and Swift Foot rage powers.
Bard (Sandman) (1) – At first level the Sandman gives you Stealspell in place of Inspire Courage allowing you to steal a prepared or known spell from an enemy denied their Dex bonus to AC via a touch attack. It’s a flavorful ability, but probably too circumstantial to use much. Master of Deception is an unusual take on Trapfinding if you lost it to your archetype. It allows you to use Disable Device on magic traps, but instead of giving you bonuses to Perception and Disable Device, you get bonuses to bluff, sleight of hand, and stealth. The biggest appeal is probably the spell list which includes Detect Magic, Abundant Ammunition, Cure Light Wounds, Dancing Darkness, Grease, Heightened Awareness, Tap Inner Beauty, and Vanish. It’s not quite as good of a list as the wizard’s, but there’s plenty that’s useful.
Dark Delver (1) – Grants you bardic lore (+1 to knowledges and roll all of them untrained) and Master Explorer, which is identical to trapfinding. Too bad its saves and BAB suck.
Fighter (Cad) (2) – If you need extra feats and want a fighter archetype that’s as close to a rogue as possible, the Cad is a decent option. With many overlapping class skills and a bonus to your dirty tricks at 2nd level, the dip makes sense for a blinding build. I’ll also mention that if you happen to be doing two-weapon fighting, the Blade and Tankard style option via the Divine Fighting Technique feat is a flavorful alternative to Quick Dirty Trick for getting Dirty Trick in place of one of your attacks.
Fighter (Eldritch Guardian) (2) - Gain a familiar and share all of your combat feats with said familiar. You also get a bonus to will saves against mind-affecting effects. The familiar alone might be worth a one-level dip. The feat sharing is more a concern if you’re looking to do combat with your familiar (such as flanking tactics via the Carnivalist archetype). Generally I don’t consider this effective an approach, but some tactics have potential. You could, for example, give your monkey proficiency in spears via this archetype and have him sit on your shoulder wielding a tiny longspear. If you have the Gang Up feat, this reduces the number of teammates you need with you on the front lines to 1. If you’re using your familiar as a mount, giving it combat feats will make it immensely more fearsome.
Fighter (Lore Warden) (1-2) – If you’re looking for a quick feat and martial weapon proficiency without giving up too many skill points, the Lore Warden’s one of the least bad ways to do it. A second level will give you another feat and access to all feats requiring Combat Expertise regardless of your Int, sparing you the feat tax. It’s one of the least bad ways to get around that feat as a pre-req.
Gunslinger (Musket Master) (3) – You know how great touch attacks are when combined with denying enemies their Dex bonus? That’s the reason to consider a Gunslinger. The Gunslinger gives us access to guns in a PFS-legal way and guns resolve against Touch AC. The Gunslinger also gives us proficiency in martial weapons, so hurray for the elf who wants that curve blade. While this could be a fine switch hitter build, you probably want to be building a sniper.
A sniping Musket Master is probably the best way to go with the rogue, though you can certainly make pistols or even a Bolt Ace’s crossbow work well enough. Though sniping on its own should generally be sufficient to give you consistent sneak attack, I’m a big fan of combining it with the intimidation path. Pick up Sniper Goggles as soon as you can and the Far-Reaching Sight for the Musket. A benefit of the Musket Master in particular is that it doesn’t rely very much on grit, which is important since our wisdom won’t be very high. If you’re working with pistols and running a Cha build, consider using Mysterious Stranger, since she switches your grit pool to be based on Cha.
Inquisitor (Sanctified Slayer) (3) - There’s a lot to love about a dip into Inquisitor. The Domain ability will give you access to a Domain power. There are a ton of them. Check them out in the dedicated section below. Judgments will last the whole battle and give you a mix of useful powers. Stern Gaze will help you out with intimidation and Monster Lore can help you ID monsters. Cunning Initiative will help out your Initiative. The spell list is decent and includes Cure Light Wounds, Heightened Awareness, Hide From Undead, and Protection from Evil. What you’re really probably here for, though, is the Solo Tactics ability which lets you benefit from a Teamwork feat as if any relevant party member possessed it. This opens up a lot of doors: the Pack Flanking tactics, Paired Opportunists, Outflank, etc.
Investigator (1) – Not to be confused with the Rogue archetype of the same name, the investigator’s inspiration ability will help you out on your vital skill checks. Being able to make an extract per day can also be useful. It’s not the greatest spell list, but having a casting of Cure Light Wounds, Heightened Awareness, Recharge Innate Magic, Detect Secret Doors, and Blend without having to make a UMD check can be nice. Note that Investigators cannot use wands (aside from normally via UMD), so as spellcasters go they’re inferior to pretty much every other option. They do have a lot to offer a rogue though, especially if you need to recover Trapfinding.
Kineticist (Kinetic Knight) (1) - Ordinarily a mediocre Kineticist archetype, the Kinetic Knight makes for a ridiculous dip for the Unchained Rogue. The archetype grants you the kinetic blade infusion at first level with zero burn, allowing you to use it infinitely. The kinetic blade qualifies as a light weapon allowing you to use it with Weapon Finesse. The blade deals your kinetic blast damage which, if you choose cold, electric, fire, or void, resolves against touch AC. Essentially, you will have infinite melee touch attacks effective against anyone who doesn’t have resistance to your element (or in the case of void, undead). Your blade will also always do full damage against swarms, allowing you to sneak attack them. What’s more, you count as having Combat Expertise for all feat requirements and you can use your Con score in place of your Int whenever necessary.
Magus (Spire Defender) (1) – If you’re looking for a dip to gain proficiency in the wakizashi, the Spire Defender can help you do that. Outside of that, its proficiencies explicitly exclude two-handed weapons, which means no Elven Branched Spear or Curve Blade. If you’re dipping Magus, you’re going to be using a one-handed light weapon with nothing in your off-hand, so keep that in mind.
The Magus gives us +2 to each of our worst saves and the Spire Defender gives us Combat Expertise and Dodge as bonus feats for free making it a fantastic introduction to many of our tactics. If you were looking for a way to get Combat Expertise without a 13 int, this is a way to do so, though bear in mind that other feats in your chain may still require 13 Int and that the Magus’ spells are based on Intelligence, so if you actually want to use them, you can’t be dumping your Int too far. Being a magus will also give you an arcane pool with which you can enchant your weapon for a minute. Nothing awesome, but it’s helpful at low levels.
The big appeal of the Magus is the access to spells. You will now be able to cast three cantrips including Acid Splash and Detect Magic, sparing you the need to invest in Major and Minor Magic. You will be able to use wands of chill touch, blend, shield, infernal healing, recharge innate magic, and true strike without a UMD check. In addition, while you’ll only get one spell per day, you will be able to cast and attack on the same turn. A +20 true strike on that first dirty trick, or if you have Dirty Fighting, on a disarm or steal attempt, can be absolutely devastating.
Mesmerist (Enigma) (1, 3, or 5) - As a swift action, the Mesmerist can stare at a creature within 30 feet. With the Enigma archetype, that stare causes that creature to treat the Mesmerist as if they were invisible. This can dramatically improve your action economy as compared to, say, using Major Magic to do something similar, though it will only make you invisible against a single target. The class also gives you a +1 bonus to stealth and bluff and you qualify for improved feint and greater feint even if you don’t have Combat Expertise and an Intelligence of 13. If you dip three levels into the class, you will qualify for Psychic Inception Bold Stare, Mesmerizing Feint, and Greater Mesmerizing Feint (the latter two being feats). This chain will improve your ability to feint against non-humanoid creatures and will later allow you to feint even against mindless creatures. The Mesmerist gets some decent spells including Detect Magic, Blend, Grease, Heightened Awareness, Obscuring Mist, and Vanish. Also note that if you dip a total of 5 levels into the Enigma and one level in the Vivisectionist Alchemist archetype you will recover all of your sneak attack progression that you lost due to dipping. Overall, this is an incredible dip for a feinting build.
Monk (Monk of the Mantis) (2) – There’s a famous rogue build called the Sap Master. Essentially you deal absolutely uncanny sneak attack damage with numerous attacks in a way that can’t be matched through any other means. I’m not going to re-write the whole guide here, but having seen this build in action I can assure you it’s quite powerful, and it stacks up very well with intimidation tactics (which you can employ with the Enforcer feat since you’re dealing non-lethal damage). Just make sure you have a backup plan to deal with enemies immune to non-lethal damage and intimidation. You can find the guide here.
Oracle (Waves) (1) - The waves oracle opens up options for you to employ the improved concealment tactics. The Water Sight revelation allows you to see through fog and mist without penalty and Obscuring Mist is on your spell list. Unfortunately, it offers no solution to the problems your tactics will inflict in the party. The spell list is ok and it’s worth considering for a Cha build as long as you can help your friends deal with the inherent problems. For curses, I’d recommend looking at Hellbound for an intimidator, Hunger or Wolf-Scarred for a two weapon fighter, Possessed, Shadowbound, or Toxic Blood if you want poisons.
Ranger (Trapper) (1) – A 1-level dip into trapper will get you all of the Ranger’s weapon proficiencies plus Trapfinding. You’ll also get a favored enemy, Track, wild empathy, a full point of BAB, and a boost to your Fort save. It’s not super exciting, but it’s useful. At 5th level you gain the Trap ability which is the only viable way I know of as a PC to effectively set traps for enemies aside from the Trap Stealer’s Rod. At that point though you might as well consider yourself playing a Ranger, not a Rogue.
Slayer (Bounty Hunter) (2) – The bounty hunter is proficient in all simple and martial weapons, meaning if you’re an elf looking for a way to get proficiency in the elven branched spear, a dip into Slayer will do the trick. You’ll enjoy a better Fort Save, full BAB, and the option to Study your target and improve your rolls, but the real appeal of this dip is the second level Dirty Trick ability. Any time you would do sneak attack damage to a target you’ve studied you can instead attempt a dirty trick combat maneuver. It’s a bit annoying that you have to study it first, but a move action at the start of battle isn’t all that much, and remember that if you deal sneak attack damage you can study as an immediate action. You could open battle with a Scout charge or pop out of invisibility, sneak attack, study, and blind next round. This is the only way I’m aware of to make a dirty trick a swift action. It’s only a little bit better than Quick Dirty Trick, but it is better, and thus, I consider the dip worth it.
I will also note here that if you dip the vanilla Slayer for 2 levels and take Ranger Combat Style (or simply dip two levels of Ranger), that is one way to get Power Attack without meeting the 13 Strength pre-req. This might be worth doing if you’re using an Elven Branched Spear or the Elven Curve Blade.
Sorcerer (Seeker) (Arcane: Sage Bloodline if necessary) (1) – Another option to get Trapfinding back (albeit by a different name), the sorcerer will give you a great spell list and access to a bloodline. If you’re an Int-based build, you will want to use the Arcane: Sage bloodline in order to make your sorcerer abilities derived from Int instead of Cha. This dip essentially gives you your Minor and Major magic abilities plus access to all wizard wands, though if you mean to use it to cast Vanish, make sure to pick up the Magical Knack trait so you can stay invisible for 3 rounds. It will also give you a ranged touch attack force effect with which you can deal sneak attack. If you’re looking for bloodline suggestions, the Orc bloodline gives you Darkvision and the ordinary Arcane bloodline gives you a familiar.
Swashbuckler (1, 3) – The class famous for being the one-dip wonder, the swashbuckler is a desirable dip for a rogue for the same reason it is with anyone in melee combat: opportune parry and riposte. Essentially, this ability allows you to use a point of panache (from a daily pool equal to your charisma modifier) to parry an enemy’s attack against you with an attack of opportunity. You roll an attack roll, and if your result exceeds your opponent’s attack roll, you successfully parry it, and as an immediate action, have the option of attacking your opponent back. Since you’re going to be in the front lines but won’t have the best armor class, this is an exceptional additional defensive option, one which can be devastating when combined with an intimidation, feinting, or any other build in which your enemies are denied their Dex bonuses for entire rounds, allowing you to inflict extra sneak attacks and debilitating injuries. If you’re a knife master and are up for dipping 3 levels into Swashbuckler, the Flying Blade archetype provides Disrupting Counter which inflicts a -4 penalty on your enemy’s attack rolls and stacks with your debilitating injury. If this isn’t tantalizing enough, the swashbuckler gets full martial weapon proficiency as well as Swashbuckler Finesse which allows you to take “combat feats” using your charisma score in place of your intelligence score for any requirements. Your low Int is no longer a barrier to feinting, gang up, or any of the other “Int-based” tactics with a 13 Int requirement barring your entry. If you’re going for a Circling Mongoose build, the Confounding Tumble Deed feat will let you deny your opponent their dex bonus to AC until the end of your next turn. If you’re going for a Blinding build, the Dastardly Trick feat will force them to make a will save to remove their blindness, making it a lot “stickier.” There are many reasons to consider this dip, especially if you mean to employ tactics involving lots of full attacks. Just make sure you’re using a light weapon or a rapier and understand using a larger weapon will preclude using several of the Swashbuckler’s abilities.
Vigilante (Magical Child) (1) - A dip only worth considering if you mean to acquire a familiar, but if you do, it’s crazy powerful. While the archetype is awful on its own, it provides the best familiar of any class in the game. At 3rd level your familiar transforms into any familiar on the Improved Familiar list, and at 9th level, it can transform into any one of its four forms, providing you with the potential utility benefits of four different familiars. Want to have the invisible flanking of an aether elemental and the blindsight of a Caligraphy Wyrm? Here’s a way to do it. What’s more, since they are not becoming “improved” via the “Improved Familiar” feat, they don’t need to give up the ability to speak with animals of their kind, and therefore, are eligible for all of the archetypes. In order to get these benefits, you will need to acquire a familiar through means besides the archetype, like the Familiar talent or the feat chain, so that your levels stack, but you likely meant to do as much anyway. The line “Levels of different classes that are entitled to familiars stack for the purpose of determining any familiar abilities that depend on the master’s level” in the description of Familiars assures that your levels from other classes granting familiars contribute to the development of your Vigilante familiar. Don’t be surprised if this gets FAQ’d out of existence, but for now, RAW, it should work, and it’s great.
Wizard (Foresight Diviner) (1) – Like the Magus, the main appeal of the Wizard is the access to the wizard spell list and the associated ability to use all those wands without a UMD check. You’ll also gain access to a familiar a lot earlier than you otherwise would (see the Advanced Rogue Talents section for why a familiar’s awesome and which ones to consider). Your cantrips include the usual goodies Acid Splash and Detect Magic and your first level spells include Vanish and Chill Touch, both of which are worth preparing. If you take this dip, make sure to consider the Magical Knack trait to push your caster level up by two.
Why the Diviner? The Forewarned ability lets you always act in the surprise round and gives you a +1 to initiative. While I haven’t recommended all those talents oriented around the surprise round, this would at least make them consistently viable, and even if you don’t take them, you can still take advantage of your flat-footed foes. Prescience allows you to roll a D20 and use the result to replace another D20 roll you make on your turn. Essentially, it’s a quasi-reroll you can use 3+Int times per day. It can come in real handy when you really need to succeed at an attack, skill check, or save. As big a fan as I am of the Conjuration Teleporter’s shift ability, for a rogue looking to dip, the Diviner’s a lot better.
Here I will list cleric domains of particular interest. Those listed provide benefits that are minimally contingent on Cleric (or similar class) level and Wisdom bonus since neither will be high for us. They also focus on benefiting you, the rogue, as opposed to an ally.
The following ratings are for one-level sorcerer or similar dips providing only the 1st-level powers. For information on recommendations with Eldritch Heritage, see it in the feat section.
When selecting a familiar, keep in mind the following:
A few familiar rules to keep in mind:
Arctic Hare: +4 PC initiative, +15 stealth
Armadillo: +1 PC natural armor, scent, burrow, Perception +8
Bat: +3 PC Fly, Blindsense 20’, Perception +6, Flight
Cat: +3 PC Stealth, scent, stealth +14
Centipede, House: +3 PC Stealth, Darkvision, +19 Stealth, climb speed
Compsognathus Dinosaur: +4 PC initiative, scent, swim speed
Donkey Rat: +2 PC fort saves, scent, swim speed, Stealth +15
Dwarf Caiman: +3 PC stealth, 5’ reach, stealth +11, swim speed
Fox: +2 PC ref saves, scent, Perception +8, Stealth +10, Str 9 (best mauler)
Hawk: +3 PC sight-based perception in bright light, Flight, Perception +14, Str 6
Hedgehog: +2 PC will saves
*Ioun Wyrd: +1 PC natural armor, Blindsight 30’, flight, ioun affinity
Lemming: +2 PC fort saves, stealth +17
Mole: +3 PC smell, taste, and touch-based perception, burrow, perception +7
Mongoose: +2 PC fort saves, scent, stealth +14
Monkey: +3 PC acrobatics, has hands, climb speed, Perception +5
Owl: +3 PC sight-based perception in shadows/darkness, flight, perception +10, Str 6, Stealth +15
Owl, Snowy: As owl, but +4 stealth in snow
Peacock: +3 PC intimidate, flight (awful), Str 7
Petrifern: +1 PC natural armor, Blindsight, and yes, PFS legal! Note that it has no attacks.
*Petromin: +3 PC stealth, invisible to darkvision, flight, light source, stealth +14, Perception +5
Rabbit: +4 PC initiative, 50’ speed, Stealth +15
Raccoon: +3 PC sleight of hand, scent, climb speed
Rat: +2 PC fort saves, scent, climb speed, swim speed, stealth +18
Raven: +3 PC appraise, flight, perception +6, speech
Rhamphorhynchus: +2 PC initiative, scent, Perception +6, flight, stealth +11
Scorpion, Greensting: +4 PC initiative, darkvision, stealth +15, (flight w/ *wasp familiar)
Sea Krait: +2 PC fort saves, scent, perception +9, climb speed, swim speed, stealth +15
Skunk: +2 PC fort saves, scent, perception +5, Musk
Sloth: +3 PC climb, scent, stealth +17, climb speed (awful)
Snail Kite: +3 PC fly, Flight, Perception +14, Str 6
Snapping Turtle: +2 PC fort saves, scent, perception +5, swim speed
Spider, Scarlet: +3 PC climb, darkvision, stealth +17, climb +21
Thrush: +3 PC Diplomacy, perception +5, flight, speech
Toad: +3 PC HP, scent, perception +5, stealth +21
*Torble: +2 PC craft (alchemy), blindsight, darkvision, climb speed
Viper: +3 PC Bluff, scent, perception +9, climb speed, swim speed, stealth +15
Wallaby: +3 PC acrobatics, scent, 5’ reach
Weasel: +2 PC ref saves, scent, stealth +14, climb speed
Arbiter Inevitable: darkvision, detect chaos, regeneration 2, flight, make whole 3/day, protection from chaos 3/day, commune CL12th, truespeech, stealth +16.
*Augur Kyton: darkvision, deathwatch, perception +7, regeneration 2, flight, mage hand, open/close, commune CL 12th, stealth +17, unnerving gaze can cause shaken.
*Beheaded: darkvision, flight, several abilities if you create it yourself including belching (ranged touch elemental attack), flaming (light enemies on fire with a slam), grabbing (grapple enemies like medusa’s hair), screaming (30’ radius will save or shaken for 1d4 rounds), and swarming (it becomes a swarm). You will, of course, need your GM’s permission to use a beheaded in this way.
Cacodeamon: darkvision, detect good, detect magic, fast healing 2, perception +7, flight, hands, invisibility (self only), commune, stealth +14, 100’ telepathy, and some debuffs that will rarely work and you won’t use. You can also trap a recently dead individual’s soul in a soul gem made in your familiar’s belly.
Caligraphy Wyrm: blindsight 60’, darkvision, perception +7, flight, sneak attack, arcane mark, read magic, erase, secret page, 10’ cone of ink sneeze, and it can turn into a pen. Definitely useful for a rogue.
Chuspiki: darkvision, scent, flight (perfect), alter winds, gust of wind, whispering wind, feather fall, basic aerokinesis, air blast like a kineticist. Since your familiar will have HD equal to your level, it will get full kineticist blast progression, which is quite powerful.
*Dragon, Tidepool: Darkvision, Perception +9, flight, swim speed, fire breath weapon, 3/day freedom of movement (self only), 4 2nd level sorcerer spells per day (slipstream known), 7 1st level spells per day (hydraulic push, obscuring mist), acid splash, dancing lights, daze, detect poison, mage hand, touch of fatigue. The main appeal is the 2nd level spells. You can give it a page of spell knowledge for invisibility or whatever else you’d like it to cast on you and it can do so 4 times per day.
Elemental, Aether: Blindsense 60’, Darkvision, Perception +5, telekinetic throw, flight, permanent invisibility, small size makes it a potential mount for small characters. There’s an entire tactic in this guide built around this thing. It’s amazing.
*Fairie Dragon: Darkvision, Perception +8, flight, swim speed, breath weapon, 3/day greater invisibility (self only), grease, silent image, dancing lights, flare, ghost sound, mage hand, open/close, Stealth +17, Use Magic Device +9, 100’ telepathy. He casts as a 3rd level sorcerer and, using Pages of Spell Knowledge, could theoretically cast 1st-level spells on you like Vanish. If your GM will let you choose his spells known, all the better. It is not normally PFS legal, but scenario #4-05 provides a boon to make it so.
Homonculus: darkvision, telepathic link 1,500’, stealth +12, flight. Since it’s a construct, you can add additional qualities to it, the most promising probably being Exceptional Reach (gives it 5’ reach) or Ranged Attack (gives it a 20’ ranged attack). It can sit on your shoulder and threaten for Gang Up purposes. You can also use 10 potions during construction to endow it with a spell-like ability. This could give it the ability to cast Fly, Invisibility, or whatever else you’d like on you once per day.
Imp: darkvision, detect good, detect magic, see in darkness, perception +7, fast healing 2, flight, invisibility (self only), augury, DC 15 Suggestion, commune CL12, hands.
Katroome: darkvision, web, detect magic 3/day, command dc 12, suggestion dc 14, invisibility 1/day (can be cast on you), stealth +10 (14 in forest). The invisibility is the most appealing quality.
Pseudodragon: blindsense 60’, darkvision, flight, perception +6, stealth +19 (23 in forest), telepathy 60’, 5’ reach. Very useful for Gang Up or Tribal Hunter.
Quasit: darkvision, perception +7, detect good, detect magic, invisibility (self only), cause fear DC 11, commune CL12, fast healing 2, Stealth +16
*Raktavarna Rakshasa: darkvision, detect magic, perception +9, climb speed, swim speed, detect thoughts, comprehend languages, charm person DC 13, suggestion DC 15, commune CL 12, Disguise +16, Stealth +17, change shape, see through the Rakshasa’s eyes. The change shape ability lets it become an object, like a lockpick or whatever you need. You can even use it as your weapon.
Silvanshee Agathion: darkvision, perception +10, fight, know direction, speak with animals, dancing lights, prestidigitation, stabilize, dimension door (self plus 5 lbs of objects only), commune CL 12, stealth +19, truespeech, lay on hands 1/day always as 2nd level paladin.
Decoy - Your familiar is good at bluffing and directing attention away from you. Not particularly useful.
Emissary - Your familiar sits on your shoulder casting Guidance for everything you do, lets you roll twice on your most important will saves, and then gets a domain power. It can also be used with Improved Familiar. Awesome.
Figment - The consequences of its death aren’t as bad and it can get some Eidolon evolutions. Not helpful.
Infiltrator - Your familiar becomes roguish. You’re getting this thing to be better at your job, not so it can steal it.
Mascot - The familiar can sit on your shoulder using Aid Another providing luck bonuses in addition to the normal +2. The spellcasting stuff isn’t helpful. Heart of the Team can be useful since it can change its master and acquire all their skill ranks, allowing it to aid on those skills or provide second opinions, but it comes really late.
Mauler - The fightiest familiar archetype. If you’re looking for someone to be your flanking buddy and not suck at combat, you probably want a Mauler.
Pilferer - It can hop around your enemies stealing items and do so out-of-combat as well. It’s OK.
Protector - Bodyguard builds are damn good and this archetype turns your familiar into one. Buy it some benevolent armor and nothing will ever hit you, and when it does, you’ll take half damage.
Sage - It can learn its own skills in addition to what it learns from being your familiar. It also gets some nice bonuses to its Knowledge checks. Could be useful if you have no Int character in your party. It’s also compatible with Improved Familiar.
School - A lot of rogues aren’t going to have a specialized school so this archetype is moot. That said, the divination power is awesome. This is also compatible with Improved Familiar.
Valet - This is all about the Teammate ability. Your familiar has all the Teamwork feats you have. Unfortunately this doesn’t work with Pack Flanking because it’s not an Animal Companion, but it works with Outflank, Tribal Hunter, Precise Strike, and Blades Above and Below, all of which can be crazy powerful. If you’re going for a valet familiar, make sure to peruse all of the teamwork feats in the Feats section.
Zidane from Final Fantasy IX
Elven Branched Spear – A reach weapon that works with weapon finesse, and a damn fine one at that. The spear has a D8 damage (D6 small), a 20/X3 crit range, and provides a +2 bonus on attacks of opportunity. Since it’s a two-handed weapon, you get 1.5X your dex bonus once you reach level 3. You will need to get proficiency through some means, via the Heirloom Weapon trait (as an elf), the Half-Elf Ancestral Arms racial trait, the exotic weapon proficiency feat, or being an elf and dipping a level of anything with martial weapon proficiency. Enemies will provoke attacks of opportunity when they approach you, and if you take combat reflexes, your high dex will let you take copious advantage of this. You will also be further away from your enemies discouraging them from attacking you as compared to your more heavily-armored party members. On the downside, arranging a flank with a reach weapon can be a bit challenging, especially if you’re a small character with limited movement speed. Allies moving in front of you can also provide soft cover to your enemies which can be a pain in the ass and will almost definitely necessitate taking the Phalanx Tactics feat. If you’re part of a party with multiple melee fighters and you took Gang Up, however, you turn this weakness into strength. The Fighter and Barbarian serve as a wall between you and the bad guys while you sneak attack from your “flanking” position. When executed well, this tactic is devastating, and you’ll be safer than you could ever otherwise hope.
Elven Curve Blade – A two-handed slashing weapon (which grants 1.5X your dex bonus at level 3) that you can use with weapon finesse, this too is an elvish exotic weapon you’ll need some means of acquiring proficiency for. The blade enjoys an 18-20/X2 crit range and a D10 damage (D8 small), both of which are equal or superior to any other option available. If you aren’t two-weapon fighting and you don’t want to invest the feats to make reach combat functional, this is the weapon you want.
Wakizashi – As a light weapon with a D6 damage, an 18-20 crit range, and both the piercing and slashing damage types, the wakizashi is tied for your best choice for two-weapon fighting. If you aren’t acquiring proficiency naturally (such as through being a Tengu), it’s probably not so much better than the Short Sword to be worth a feat, but it’s worth considering.
Elven Leafblade - As a light piercing and slashing weapon with 18-20 crit range, the leafblade is inferior to the wakizashi only in terms of its damage die. The +2 bonus to critical hits is slightly better than the +4 to the saving throw DC with a coup to grace, so they’re about even. Choose whichever is more readily available to you proficiency-wise.
Elven Thornblade - The optimal weapon if you mean to be a Swashbuckler, Magus, or any other class limiting you to a one-handed weapon, the elven thornblade provides the crit range and damage of a rapier while dealing both slashing and piercing damage. It also provides a +2 bonus to confirm critical hits. It’s probably not so much better than a rapier as to justify burning a feat to get it, but if you’re an elf anyway, absolutely use it instead.
Kukri - As a light martial weapon dealing a D4 damage and with an 18-20 crit range, if you have martial weapon proficiency but no eastern weapons and you’re doing a two-weapon fighting build, kukris will serve you marginally better than short swords due to their larger crit range and the fact you can deal dex to damage.
Short Sword – With a 19-20 crit range, and as a light weapon, wielding two short swords is probably tied with daggers as your best option for two-weapon fighting if wakizashis are not available.
Dagger – When compared to a short sword, you sacrifice on average a point of damage per hit in exchange for getting around DR/Slashing. It’s debatable whether this is worth it, though I tend to err on the side of “yes, it is.” If you want to dual-wield daggers, look into the Knife Master archetype and perhaps the *Dagger of Doubling to save some money.
Rapier – You’re not two-weapon fighting and you don’t want to invest any resources into exotic weapons. OK. With a D6 damage and an 18-20 crit range, the rapier is your best option among your naturally proficient weapons.
Longbow – Unless you’re designing a ranged build, your ranged weapon will be purely circumstantial for when you absolutely cannot close to melee. Since you have such high Dex, even though you won’t be focusing on your bow skills, you’ll be very good at them anyway, and if you’re an elf, you gain proficiency with it automatically. With a 100 foot range, a D8 damage, a X3 critical multiplier, and no need to reload it, it’s the best bow in the game. If you don’t have proficiency in the longbow, you can make do with a shortbow.
Light Mace – By no means will this be your primary weapon, but when that DR/Bludgeoning enemy comes along, you’ll be glad you have it. Since it’s a light weapon, you can use it with weapon finesse, and therefore it’s your best option where bludgeoning is concerned. I suggest getting one made from silver.
Mithral (Spiked?) Heavy Steel Shield - If you worship Gorum and took Shield Trained, you can pick up a spiked heavy mithral shield, suffer no armor check penalty, gain the benefits of the shield, and use it as your off-hand weapon. The trait allows you to use the shield as a finesse weapon, so you’re golden. This is an unusual but perfectly functional approach if you’d like a little more defense and don’t mind spending a few feats for shield bashing.
*Blade Boot - While blade boots are not themselves particularly good weapons, when combined with the *Multiweapon Fighting feat, you gain access to additional attacks beyond what you’d enjoy via ordinary two-weapon fighting. Essentially, these boots free you to attack with all four of your limbs. Note that it is the feat, and not the boot, that is not PFS legal. If you go with this tactic, be sure to pick up the Light Walker talent.
Clustershot Ammunition Enhancement (+1) – If the first arrow fired with manyshot can deal sneak attack or is a critical hit, the remaining arrows from that shot can deal half normal sneak attack damage, and if they critically hit, deal half normal critical hit damage. This can dramatically improve the effectiveness of a longbow-based sniper build.
Cruel Weapon Enhancement (+1) - When the weapon hits a shaken, frightened, or panicked creature, that creature becomes sickened for 1 round. Not a bad additional benefit if you’re already going the intimidation route for your sneak attacks.
Debilitating Weapon Enhancement (+1) – When enemy is denied their dex bonus to AC and you hit with this weapon, opponent takes a -1 penalty on attack rolls or to AC for 1 round (your choice). This stacks with your debilitating injury.
Deceptive Weapon Enhancement (+1 Bonus) – Gain bonus on bluff checks to feint equal to the enhancement bonus of the weapon. On a critical hit, can attempt a feint as an immediate action.
Fortuitous (+1 Bonus) - When you successfully hit with an AoO, you can take a second AoO at -5 no more than once per round. Note that, in my opinion at least, you must have Combat Reflexes to make this work. I don’t generally recommend pursuing an AoO-focused build (since, unless you’re devoting serious resources into a Trip build or something, you can’t usually dictate the terms under which you take AoOs thus limiting your capacity for sneak attack while performing them), but if you are doing so, this is a fantastic enchantment, and it works very well with the Opportunist advanced rogue talent.
Menacing Weapon Enhancement (+1) – When wielder adjacent to a creature that is being flanked by an ally, flanking bonus on attack rolls for all flanking allies increases by +2. This works even if the wielder is not one of the characters who is flanking.
Ominous Weapon Enhancement (+1) – Add enhancement bonus to Intimidate checks made by the wielder. On a confirmed critical hit, target is shaken for 1 minute (DC 13 negates). If critical modifier is greater than 2, shaken lasts 1 additional minute per multiple over X2.
Reliable Weapon Enhancement (+1) – Reduce misfire value on firearm by 1.
Sneaky Weapon Enhancement (5,000 gp) - Once per day you can deal sneak attack against a target regardless of the tactical conditions. It also allows an additional use of the Hunter’s Surprise talent. I think 5,000 GP is a bit overpriced for what it does (though I’m probably biased since I’ve written a guide oriented around guaranteeing we’re never without sneak attack), but it’s good.
Westley, aka “The Dread Pirate Roberts” from The Princess Bride
Darkleaf Leather Armor – For rogues starting with a 20 Dex (after racial modifiers), you will reach a max dex bonus of +8 around level 12. With a 0 armor check penalty, a +2 armor bonus, and a +8 max dex bonus, this armor will serve you well throughout a PFS career.
Darkleaf Studded Leather Armor – For rogues starting with an 18 Dex, this is your version of the Darkleaf Leather Armor. One more point in armor, one less point in Dex.
Darkleaf Quilted Cloth Armor - A max dex bonus of +10 will make sure this armor serves you well for your entire career, at least until you pick up a Manual of Quickness of Action. The only reason to favor this over ordinary padded armor is a DR 3 against small piercing weapons. It won’t come up often, but it will come up, mostly against Fey.
Haramaki - Infinite dex bonus, the ultimate option to be sure you never outgrow your armor. Silken Ceremonial Armor works just as well; it just doesn’t provide any mechanical benefit for the higher price.
Studded Leather Armor - At a +5 dex bonus and a +3 armor bonus, this will be your starting armor if your Dex is 20.
Chain Shirt - At a +4 dex bonus and a +4 armor bonus, this will be your starting armor if your dex is 18.
Mithral Kikko Armor – This is an excellent “intermediate” armor if you’d like something between your studded leather and darkleaf armor. It suffers no armor check penalty, has a max dex bonus of +6, and provides a +5 armor bonus. You will probably outgrow it by level 8 so don’t spend too much money enchanting it.
Celestial Armor – With a +8 max dex bonus, a +9 armor bonus, the ability to fly, and a -2 armor check penalty, Celestial Armor is quite good. In PFS, since it’s a unique item, you will never be able to upgrade it, so it may not be a good choice. Otherwise, this armor can suit you well for the life of your character.
Heavy Mithral Shield – Useful only if you’ve taken the Gorum-worshiping Shield Trained trait to make it a light weapon, this, with or without shield spikes, should be your go-to option for a sword and board build.
*Shifting Jerkin: Spend 1 hour to change a talent. Given how much cheaper this is than retraining, especially at higher levels, I might pick one up just for this purpose. I don’t think it’s particularly good armor.
Expeditious Enhancement (4,000) - +10 boost to your speed 3 times per day.
*Malevolent (5,000) - Apply your armor’s enhancement bonus to attacks vs. flat-footed and prone enemies and enjoy a +2 competence bonus to Bluff and Intimidate. Well damn. this is a must-have.
Shadow Enhancement (3,750) – Provides a +5 competence bonus on stealth and it doesn’t even count as one of the “+” enchantment bonus on your armor. Must-have.
Slick (3,750) - +5 competence bonus on escape artist checks. It will save your ass.
Ninja Murasaki from Dragonball
Acrobat’s Pillar (50 gp) – Training with pillar for one hour with a DC 20 Acrobatics check gives you a +2 circumstance bonus to Acrobatics to avoid AOOs. You should be able to take 10 on this check.
Balancing Pole (8 sp) - +1 acrobatics to traverse a narrow surface and +2 to a running jump.
Bloodvine Rope (200 gp) - For the most part not worth the greater expense compared to silk rope. It is, however, much stronger, which can be worth the greater cost if you’re using rope to bind prisoners.
Candlerod (1 gp) - Similar to a sunrod except that it emits the light of a candle for 12 hours. Since it will increase dark conditions to only dim light, it can serve as a poor man’s moonrod.
Caltrops (1 gp) and Vicious Caltrops (50 gp) - Cover a square in these. Anyone moving through those squares is “attacked” by the caltrops at +0 (vicious +4) and they don’t benefit from their shield, armor, or deflection bonus. Footwear gives their AC a +2. If they’re harmed, their speed is reduced by half for 24 hours. The circumstances for making these work are difficult to arrange, but slowing your enemies can be quite powerful.
Chalk (1 cp) - Mark your path in the dungeon, throw a bag of it to reveal an invisible creature, write notes on a slab, and whatever else you can think of. Don’t dungeoneer without it.
Climber’s Kit (80 gp) – Provide a +2 circumstance bonus on Climb Checks.
Darklight Lantern (20 gp) - This lantern burns shadowcloy decreasing the light level in a 30’ radius by one step for 1 minute. It’s nonmagical and cannot result in supernatural darkness. Since Shadowcloy costs 25 gp per dose, this is a pretty expensive way to get darkness. It’s also overcome by all magical light, even the Light spell. If the duration were better I could see using it as a sniper, but it isn’t. A wand of Dancing Darkness is superior in every way, including price.
Durable Adamantine Arrow (61 gp) - Adamantine ignores the hardness of lesser materials. You can thus use a single arrow to chip away at anything that isn’t adamantine, including prison bars, locks, manacles, etc. You might also consider picking up several durable arrows of each metallic type for DR-penetration purposes, especially if you’re a dedicated archer. If your bow is a backup weapon, weapon blanches are probably more cost effective.
Earplugs (3 cp) - +2 circumstance bonus against effects that require hearing (-5 to hearing perception checks).
Folding Pole (2 sp) – Give yourself a pole with which you can trigger traps from outside their effect radius.
Glider (500 gp) - A glider allows you to “fly” so long as you can jump off a steep incline. Rarely will you have cause to use this as such, especially since it won’t let you use your normal attacks. You’re primarily looking to the Glider as a means of taking ranks in the Fly skill. Doing so presents significant benefits not only if and when you acquire a better means of flying in the future, but for your occasional use of the Air Step spell. 500 gp is a bit steep for this limited benefit, but think of it as a temporary purchase that you’ll eventually sell back in exchange for a tremendous benefit later on.
Imperial Conquest (250 gp) - You and up to three other players play this strategy game for 4d20+20 minutes. At the end of the game all players can make a DC 20 Int check. Those who succeed gain a +1 bonus to AC vs AoOs for 8 hours and, when two players who succeeded at the check flank the same enemy, the bonus on attack rolls from flanking increases by 1. This is neat, especially for a flanking-focused build, but often it won’t often be effective. You’re probably going to have the best Int score of anyone who’ll be fighting on the front lines, and even yours isn’t likely to ever get much higher than 18, so that Int check will be a struggle for you, much less for the barbarian. If you’ve got a party of you, the Magus, and the Lore Warden, have at it. You’ll succeed sometimes. Otherwise it’s probably not worth the 2 hours.
Masterwork Tool (50 gp) - +2 circumstance bonus to whatever skill it specializes in. I suggest a Mask of either Bluff or Intimidate (Mask of the Tiger’s Eye in #1-33 Assault on Kingdom of the Impossible does Intimidate and costs 55 gp). A wand grip, perhaps made from the bones of a magical creature, could serve as a masterwork tool granting a +2 to Use Magic Device checks with wands. An arcane reference book could be used to provide a +2 to Use Magic Device checks with scrolls. Specialized clothing or shoes would make sense as a masterwork tool for stealth.
Moonrod (10 gp) – Emits dim light. Good to use for stealthy scouting.
Pathfinder Chronicle (50 gp) – Provides +2 circumstance bonus to a specific knowledge skill. Buy one for each knowledge skill you put a rank into.
Pathfinder Chronicles Volume 27 (150 gp) - +2 to Disable Device and Perception when dealing with magical traps.
Pickpocket’s Outfit (5 gp) – Grants +2 circumstance bonus to hiding objects on your person.
Silk Rope (10 gp) and Grappling Hook (1 gp) or Grappling Arrow (1 gp) – Allows you to scale walls with relative ease. Note that grappling arrows are lighter than grappling hooks and have a range increment of 30’ rather than 10’.
Smoked Goggles (10 gp) - +8 circumstance bonus to saving throws against visual-based attacks.
Spring-Loaded Wrist Sheath (5 gp) – Provides swift action access to a reasonably small item, like a wand. This can be important for healing yourself, accessing that touch attack spell, and so on.
Sunrod (2 gp) - Shed normal light in a 30-foot radius for 6 hours. I tend to prefer them to torches.
Surefoot Training Blocks (50 gp) – Practice with them for one hour, +2 circumstance bonus on climb checks and on acrobatics checks to cross uneven ground.
Thief Trainer (200 gp) - Practice with this device for 1 hour with a DC 25 Disable Device check. If you succeed, you reduce the time required to complete a Disable Device check by 2 rounds, minimum 1 round. This lasts for 24 hours. Pretty neat! You won’t often need to rush with your disabling, but if you’ve got the time to spare in the morning (perhaps you have a Ring of Sustenance or you’re an elf so you don’t need to sleep as much), pick one of these up. It can’t hurt.
Thieves’ Ring (300 gp) - You can hide some Thieves’ Tools in this ring to avoid a penalty in future efforts and you get a +2 circumstance bonus to your Sleight of Hand check to conceal the ring’s nature from anyone searching. I’m skeptical that, if all of my equipment is confiscated, a ring would not be confiscated as well. I’d sooner achieve this end via a Pickpocketer’s Outfit, but hey, this is an option.
Thieves’ Tools, Masterwork (100 gp) – Grant a +2 circumstance bonus to Disable Device.
*Thieves’ Tool Extenders (70 gp) - You can use your Thieves’ tools at a distance as if they were a reach weapon (10’ for most folks). You get a -4 for doing so though. I don’t think that’s usually enough distance to protect yourself from any traps that might be in the chest, but hey, perhaps sometimes it will be.
Vigil Cap (400 gp) - +2 circumstance bonus on sight-based perception checks, can protect against gaze attacks, and can provide a +2 circumstance bonus on saving throws against effects that blind or dazzle. It’s really expensive for a tool. You are probably better off with a masterwork tool of visual perception assuming your DM agrees that’s kosher, perhaps “mirrored glasses” that achieve the same effect the vigil cap describes.
Acid Flask (10 gp) – D6 acid splash weapon.
Alchemical Glue (20 gp) and Alchemical Glue Accelerant (25 gp) - Glue things together with a DC 20 Str check to break while tacky and DC 25 when set. The accelerant makes it tacky in 1 round and set in 1 minute. There are a variety of applications of this from gluing doors shut to gluing prisoners in place.
Alchemical Solvent (20 gp) - Dissolve glues. You will probably never encounter a glue unless you apply it yourself. Mostly useless, but if you’re using glue, bring some along.
Alchemist’s Fire (20 gp) – D6 fire splash weapon that deals an extra D6 the following turn.
Alkali Flask (15 gp) – D6 “acid” splash weapon that deals extra damage to oozes.
Allnight (75 gp) – Makes you immune to fatigue for 8 hours but makes you exhausted afterward.
Antiplague (50 gp) - +5 alchemical bonus vs. disease for 1 hour and grants you an immediate new save.
Antitoxin (50 gp) - +5 alchemical bonus vs. poison for 1 hour and grants you an immediate new save.
*Arousal Pheromones (300 gp) - DC 14 will save or the target type for which the pheromone is designed will be denied dex bonus to AC for 1 min. Under better circumstances we’d be all about this, but given how low the DC is, the fact the pheromone must be tuned to a specific creature type, and the fact it’s so expensive, this will rarely be worth it.
Artokus’s Fire (100 gp) - Like alchemist’s fire but 2d6 damage and 1d6 splash. Good, but pricy.
Bachelor Snuff (1 gp) - Renders a male infertile for 1d3 days after use. Excellent for sexually active male adventurers not looking to become fathers. Of everything in Pathfinder I wish existed in real life...
Bladeguard (40 gp) - Protect your weapon from oozes and rust monsters for 24 hours.
Bleeding Arrow (360 gp) - Bleed is a great status to inflict, but geez that’s expensive for one shot.
Bloating Solution (25 gp) - Reduce ooze’s AoO reach, suppress its compression ability, and reduce the save DCs of its constrict, engulf, and entrap attacks by 2.
Blood-Boiling Pill (75 gp) - +2 to initiative checks and saves against cold effects for 8 hours. I hesitate to be burning 75 gp every day, but initiative bonuses are great, and this is a long duration. You might want to carry around some Troll Oil or Bloodblock just in case someone manages to make you bleed.
Calistria’s Kindness (3 gp) - Prevents pregnancy and reduces menstrual cramps. Excellent if you’re a sexually active female not looking to have babies.
Clear Ear (15 gp) - +2 alchemical bonus on Perception and Knowledge checks in exchange for a -2 penalty on charisma-based checks. It lasts for 6 hours but has a 2 hour onset period. If you’re a face, obviously it’s bad. If you’re a dungeoneer, it’s quite good.
Congealer Spray (15 gp) - Make oozes staggered for 1d4 rounds with a DC 15 Fort save. It also suppresses an ooze’s Split ability.
Deodorizing Agent (30 gp) - Makes you scentless for 1d3 hours.
Desiccating Lubricant (30 gp) - Deal 2d4 damage to oozes and reduce their CMD and CMB by 4. You can also use it on non-oozes to deal non-lethal damage and harm their CMB and CMD by 2.
Dye Arrow (1 gp) - Like marker dye but deliverable from your bow, less expensive, and yet still a touch attack. It’s a fine and inexpensive way to reveal invisible foes.
Ghast Wretch Flask (50 gp) - DC 12 Fort save or target is nauseated for 1 round and sickened thereafter. They are sickened regardless of a successful save. Decent debuff option though tanglefoot bags will usually be superior.
Gravelly Tonic (50 gp) - +5 alchemical bonus to intimidate checks for 1 hour.
Holy Water (25 gp) – D6 holy splash weapon effective against undead and evil outsiders.
Holy Weapon Balm (30 gp) - Apply to a weapon as a standard action to deal an extra 2d4 points of damage to undead or evil outsiders for 1 minute. Non-magical weapons treated with the balm affect incorporeal creatures as if the weapon were magical. Magical weapons affect them as if enchanted with Ghost Touch. Unfortunately it loses its ghost touch property after your first successful attack, so if you’re full attacking it’s not that helpful. Getting a ghost touch weapon is probably necessary in the long run, but this is the best solution until you can afford it.
Liquid Ice (40 gp) - A cold splash weapon similar to Acid Flasks, it’s more expensive and less useful than both Acid and Alchemist’s Fires, but should you encounter an enemy resistant to both, it’s an option.
Marker Dye (15 gp) and Glowing Ink (5 gp) Mixture – Staining glowing liquid that can be used as a splash weapon to reveal invisible or other hiding enemies.
Mending Paste (25 gp) - If anyone in your party is able to make a DC 20 Craft check, this will let you do a temporary repair of a metal object. For the price though, you should probably just grab a couple scrolls of mending instead.
Mimic Fibers (30 gp) - Repair 1d10+10 damage to a wood, paper, earth, or other living or non-living object, even a destroyed object. If you’re running around with your adamantine weapons, ooze grenades, and Break spell, or if you come across some broken object you’d like to use, having a means of fixing damage can be useful.
Night Tea (1 sp) - Prevents pregnancy. Useful if you’re having sex and don’t want to have kids. Calistria’s Kindness does the same thing and is more expensive, but has additional benefits, albeit not ones that are usually an actual factor in-game.
Pepper Pellet (60 gp) – Like a smoke pellet but with a (small) chance of making your target sickened for one round.
Pheromone Arrow (15 gp) - If you somehow have the Scent ability (such as through using a Tracker’s Snuff, the Keen Scent feat available to half-orcs, or an alternate racial trait for Catfolk or Ratfolk), these will give you a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls made against a marked target. I’d argue it should also help you track that target. Ultimately the circumstances where this will be useful are few.
Raining Arrow (30 gp) - Delivers a holy water on your arrow with a -2 penalty to attack. Basically it’s 5 GP for improved range on a holy water. Not bad. Since it’s “as if you had thrown the vial,” it should still be a touch attack.
Reagent Paper (1 gp) - +2 alchemical bonus to identifying potions. It usually shouldn’t fall on you to be the one doing this, but if it is, you probably need a little help. Here it is for cheap.
Rusting Powder (60 gp) - Provides a +5 to your disable device checks to open locks or disarm traps but involves a 75% chance of destroying the mechanism. If you fail your check, the lock could be sealed shut or the trap could be activated, and if you fail badly enough, you risk damaging your own equipment. It might be worth carrying this around should you encounter a trap well above your CR for which you need every bonus you can get, but in general, I don’t recommend it.
Shadowcloy (25 gp) – Makes your target treat ambient light as one level lower than it is, potentially providing you with concealment.
Shard Gel (25 gp) - 1d4 piercing damage to target and their square becomes covered in caltrops. Being able to deploy caltrops against an enemy without having to predict where they’ll walk ahead of time can be pretty useful. Treat this as battlefield control, not damage.
Silence Dust (60 gp) - It can be used as a 15-foot radius splash weapon to muffle all sounds in that area (-10 penalty to Perception to hear) or to provide a +5 circumstance bonus to your stealth checks. Both effects last only 1 minute so the latter effect isn’t very useful. You could use this in an ambush to prevent any given guard from alerting his allies, and it might work. Basically, a poor man’s Silence spell.
Slime Grenade (100 gp) - 2d6 acid damage to target and 3d6 to target’s equipment while ignoring hardness. There’s debate about how this grenade would affect a construct’s hardness. For 100 gp, I’d say it should ignore it too, but not everyone will agree. If an enemy has equipment you’d like to take out of combat, or you’re fighting a construct and your GM agrees that this ignores all hardness, these can be decent.
Slime Slow (15 gp) - Makes amorphous enemies vulnerable to sneak attack and critical hits.
Smelling Salts (25 gp) – Immediately wake up unconscious person.
Smoke Pellets (25 gp) – They only last a round and they’re only one five-foot square, but drop them in your own, or in your enemy’s, and you have concealment for long enough to stealth away.
Smog Pellet (40 gp) – Like a smoke pellet except the smog clings to those within it, revealing invisible creatures.
Smokestick (20 gp) and Tindertwigs (1 gp) – A smokestick will provide you with concealment for one minute (unless the smoke is blown away). You have to light it though, which can be a full round action. Tindertwigs get that down to a standard.
Stillgut (50 gp) - +5 alchemical bonus vs. nausea or sickness for one hour. Alternatively, it gives you an immediate save vs. nauseated without the +5 bonus, but you can take it as a move action, making it superior to alternatives like Wismuth Salix.
Tanglefoot Bag (50 gp) – Ranged touch attack to glue your enemies to the floor or at least entangle them.
Tangleburn Bag (150 gp) - Like a Tanglefoot Bag except a direct hit inflicts 1d6 fire damage and forces a DC20 reflex save or catch on fire. The only downside is the price.
Tangleshot Arrow (20 gp) - Similar to a Tanglefoot Bag with a lower reflex save and fewer hit points to escape. The benefit is the lower price plus the significantly longer range since it’s fired from your bow.
Tracker’s Snuff (200 gp) - Provides +2 alchemical bonus to Perception and the scent ability for 1 hour, after which it deals 1d2 dex damage. There may be occasions when Scent would be helpful, though the moments it would be 200 gp helpful are few, much less when it damages your most important stat.
Tracking Powder (30 gp) - You’re in a party, you need to follow the big bad, but no one trained Survival. Shocking, I know. Well guess what? For 30 gp you can once again save the party’s ass. This powder will give you either a +10 to Survival or let you use Perception to track. Have fun replacing the Ranger.
Tunnel Creeper (280 gp) - A fungus bores a 10-foot tunnel into a wall for you. It’s quiet and effective, but pretty expensive. I doubt I’d ever spend this much money to create my own back door, especially if I’m not sure the wall is only 10 feet thick, but hey, if you have an application, it works fine.
Twitch Tonic (45 gp) - +2 alchemical bonus vs. sleep, paralysis, and staggered for one hour, and drinking it grants an immediate new save against those effects.
Vapors of Easy Breath (75 gp) – +5 alchemical bonus to everyone within 5 feet vs inhaled poisons, diseases, choking smoke, and irritants. If you’re already affected by such an ailment, you can take an immediate new saving throw with the +5 bonus.
Vermin Repellent (5 gp) – Vermin must make a DC 15 Fortitude save to enter your square and generally avoid you. However, you become easier to smell.
Vomit Capsule (12 gp) - The flavor text says they’re often used by rogues to create distractions, so what the hell, they can be in the Rogue guide. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with them except that I can think of plenty of ways to create distractions that don’t cost 12 gp. If you ever encounter an enemy or ability that involves ingestion, or you ever drink poison, you might convince your GM that this will help your saving throw, but I don’t think it’s that useful.
Weapon Blanche Ghost Salt (200 gp) - Coat 10 pieces of ammunition so as to give them Ghost Touch. You can use it on a single melee weapon as well, but it will only be effective on your first hit. It is the most cost effect means of dealing with incorporeal creatures for a ranged build.
What started as a section of this guide turned into a guide in its own right. Please check out The Long Farewell: A Guide to Poisons in Pathfinder.
Artemis Entreri from books set in The Forgotten Realms by R. A. Salvatore
Amulet of Uncanny Defense (5,000) – Makes your uncanny dodge improved uncanny dodge. If you already have Improved Uncanny dodge, raise your effective level by 4 in determining who can sneak attack you.
Assassin’s Sight (5,250) – Can be mounted on a crossbow. Make ranged sneak attacks at greater distances than usual (30-60 feet). Great if you’re making a sniping build with a crossbow until you can pick up the sniper goggles.
Belt of Incredible Dexterity (4,000, 16,000, 36,000) - Enhancement bonus to your most important stat. Mandatory.
Boots, Cat Burglar’s (2,000) - +2 competence bonus to acrobatics, climb, and stealth checks and you can reroll one of those once per day. The boots can also hide a pair of Masterwork Thieves’ tools. Nice!
Boots of Elvenkind (2,500) - +5 competence bonus on Acrobatics checks.
Boots of Speed (12,000) - 10 rounds of haste per day that you can activate as a free action. Fantastic.
Boots of Striding and Springing (5,500) - +10 movement speed and +5 on acrobatics checks to jump. Wonderful.
Boots of Swift Fury (7,500) - +10 movement speed and a +4 deflection bonus to AC vs. most AoOs while raging. The movement speed is the main benefit and boots of striding and springing are unquestionably superior for that end. If you’re dipping savage technologist and you’re going for hit and run tactics, these have some merit, but that’s a rather unusual build.
Brass Spider (2,500) – Once per day, make disable device from 15 feet away without penalty.
Broom of Flying (17,000) - Allows flight as Overland Flight for 9 hours per day. Unlike the carpet, it can’t hover without a Fly check, but the DC is only 15. If you put even 1 rank in Fly you should be passing that on a 1. Some GMs might insist you need one hand on the broom in order to use it, though there is nothing in the rules that state as much. If that is the case, it’s far worse than the carpet.
Burglar Boots (Minor) (4,000) - +5 competence bonus on perception checks to notice traps and devices. This bonus also applies to AC and reflex saves vs. traps. Not bad!
Burglar Boots (Major) (46,000) - +10 competence bonus on Perception checks, AC, and reflex saves vs. traps and cast Find Traps once per day. Good item, but who the hell thought that was even close to a reasonable price? Stick to the minor version.
Burglar’s Buckler (4,655) - +1 buckler grants a +2 competence bonus on disable device and sleight of hand checks, combat maneuver checks to perform dirty tricks, and to CMD against dirty tricks. Once per day on command, wielder may transform buckler into any mundane tool weighing 1 to 5 pounds.
Cape of Feinting (14,000) - As a standard action purposely miss an opponent. They lose their dex bonus to AC until their next turn. Note that it does not specify “lose dex bonus to you,” so it appears to be to everyone. On you, this is practically useless. On your familiar, this is a no-save guaranteed tool of dexterity-denying goodness every round. Note that your familiar must have a shoulder slot, so no birds. I can’t believe this item is PFS-legal, especially considering what a Swashbuckler can do with it.
Carpet of Flying (20,000) - Sooner or later you’ll be looking for a means of flying. Flight helps you avoid enemies with Tremorsense, gives you better mobility than running, and lets you employ your exceptional melee tactics against flying enemies. The best and cheapest way to get flight as a Rogue is through being a Sylph and taking Wings of Air. The second best way, in my opinion, is the Carpet of Flying. The carpet can fly forever, can hover without a Fly check, saves you all the trouble of dealing with a mount, gives you +5 to fly checks, doesn’t take up a magic item slot, and leaves your hands free for combat. The only liability is being pushed off via a bull rush, so carry a Snapleaf.
Clear Spindle Ioun Stone (4,000) + Wayfinder (500) – Sustains you without food or water and provides you with a means of casting “light” and finding north. Hurray! Oh, and it also makes you permanently immune to domination effects from evil creatures as Protection from Evil. That’s what you’re really here for. If your DM lets you use the old rules for this, it’s fantastic. In the new errata releasing with Adventurer’s Armory 2, this is changed. The ioun stone provides an additional save against the domination effect and is destroyed on use. This is terrible.
Cloak of Displacement, Minor (24,000) - Essentially gives you permanent blur, a 20% miss chance against anyone using their eyes to try and hit you. The fact it’s the shoulders slot is a rough time since your desperately need help on your fort and will saves, but this is one of the few items that might be worth that price.
Cloak of the Manta Ray (7,200) - When you enter salt water you gain a +3 natural armor bonus, the ability to breathe underwater, and a swim speed of 60’. More importantly, it gives you a natural attack via a sting ray’s tail spine with your highest attack bonus. This is in addition to any other attacks you might have. It’s a shame it takes up the cloak slot, but it’s fantastic in a two-weapon fighting build.
Dream Journal of the Pallid Seer (600) - Study this book for a while and have a dream that foretells your death. At a future time, when you’re killed, reroll the saving throw or force your opponent to reroll the attack that killed you. Since discovering this item it is now mandatory for every PFS character I ever make.
Duelist’s Vambraces (8,000) - +1 deflection bonus to AC while wielding two weapons. Once per round when attacking with off-hand weapon, wearer can reduce any penalties on attack rolls with that weapon by 2.
Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone (5,000) and Wayfinder (500, 250 in PFS) - The ioun stone provides a +1 insight bonus to AC. That’s neat. The real appeal is the resonance it gets with the Wayfinder which provides a +1 insight bonus to CMB. This was much better back when it provided a +2 to CMB and CMD, but alas, it was errata’d. If you’re playing a Blinding build, you probably want this.
Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone (Cracked) (500) - +1 Insight bonus to initiative. Fantastic.
Endless Bandolier (1500) – Store gun ammunition in extradimensional spaces.
Eversmoking Bottle (5,400) – If everyone in your party is using Goz Masks or Fogcutting Lenses, the Eversmoking Bottle is an incredible item for its price. You and your comrades will always have concealment and you personally will always have the option to use stealth and sneak attack. Furthermore, none of you will ever suffer the ill effects of smoke and fog. In the context of a home game with a cooperative team willing to drop eight grand a piece, this can be incredible. In PFS, this is untenable. You will harm your friends more than your enemies and you will be loathed at every table you join.
Eyes of the Liar (16,000) - +5 competence bonus on bluff checks and provides immunity to detect thoughts. It doesn’t stack with the Mask of Stony Demeanor and the mask is better.
Fogcutting Lenses (8,000) – Allow you to see through mists, fogs, and vapors normally but cause a -4 penalty to perception while worn. The Goz Mask is generally superior.
Gloves of Reconnaissance (2,000) – Look through a 5-foot thick wall to see what’s on the other side once per day. Great for preparing for the trap on the other side of a door or spotting the bad guys waiting for an ambush.
Gloves of Shaping (10,000) - You can shape any material with hardness of 8 or lower (this includes stone, wood, ice, and glass) as though it were soft clay. Materials with greater than 8 hardness have their hardness cut in half relative to your actions against them. This can be great for burrowing a hole through a stone wall or simply moving doors aside. I think it’s a bit pricy, but the utility potential is great.
Goggles of Night (12,000) – Gives you darkvision if you don’t already have it. Very solid if you mean to take advantage of darkness tactics.
Goz Mask (8,000) – Allows you to see through mists, fogs, and vapors normally. Mandatory if you mean to use such methods of concealment regularly. Otherwise it’s probably a bit too pricy to be worth it.
Handy Haversack (2,000) – You don’t have much strength and encumbrance would cause unacceptable penalties to your skills and movement. You may also find yourself frequently needing to retrieve equipment while in melee with the bad guys. This item solves both of those problems.
Headband of [Mental Stat] (4,000) - Provides a +2 enhancement bonus to your second-most important stat, whether that’s Intelligence or Charisma. Intelligence will give you another maxed out skill and a language, so it’s slightly superior. Both will make you better at whatever you do that isn’t Dex-related.
Headband of Ninjitsu (15,000) - +2 competence bonus on bluff checks made to feint and combat maneuver checks made to reposition. Once per day can attempt a feint or reposition maneuver as a swift action. Wearer gains +2 insight bonus on attack rolls on sneak attacks and can sneak attack creatures with concealment or total concealment (though miss chance applies normally). What a shame it’s competing with your headband of Int.
Helm of the Mammoth Lord (8,500) - Gives you a gore attack, provides a circumstantial +5 competence bonus with animal stuff, and you can cast detect animals and speak with animals, but only with elephants. You’re mostly considering this for the natural attack for use in a two-weapon fighting build, perhaps with the Serpentine Tattoo.
Horsemaster’s Saddle (12,000) - Provides a +5 bonus to your mount’s acrobatics and your ride checks and gives your mount a teamwork feat you possess. Useful if you’re riding a mount to give you Outflank or something similar, though note that if you want to use Pack Flanking your mount must be an Animal Companion.
Manteau of the Mouse (12,500) – Any creature larger than the wearer takes a -1, -2, -4, or -8 penalty on perception to notice the wearer, depending on whether it is one, two, three, or four or more size categories larger. Wearer can use Beast Shape III once per day to turn into a mouse.
Mask of Stony Demeanor (8,000) - +10 competence bonus on bluff checks and +5 on bluff checks to feint, -5 on bluff checks to pass on a hidden message.
Quick Action Slippers (10,000) – Stand from prone as a free action (provoking AOO). If you have the Stand up Talent, free action standing no longer provokes AOO.
Quick Runner’s Shirt (1,000) – As a swift action, take an additional move action once per day.
Restless Lockpicks (8,000) – After using a standard action with these tools to start picking a lock, the tools will continue picking the lock for up to ten rounds, freeing you to do other things.
Ring of Blinking (27,000) - Allows you to provide yourself with Blink on command, which basically gives you a 50% miss chance vs. everything that can’t affect the ethereal plane, which is basically everything but force effects. In my opinion, this is a far better investment in your defense than attempting to boost AC, though you shouldn’t completely abandon AC altogether. On the downsides, having to spend a standard action to activate it sucks, as does the 20% miss chance you suffer on your own attacks. Overall I think the lesser cloak of displacement is superior for this purpose, but this is worth considering.
Ring of Chameleon Power (12,700) - Grants a +10 competence bonus to stealth checks and you can cast Disguise Self at will. I find this inferior to simply adding Shadowed to your armor and there are better things you can do with your ring slot. That said, a +10 to stealth is a +10 to stealth.
Ring of Invisibility (20,000) – Turn invisible an unlimited number of times per day as a standard action.
Ring of Swarming Stabs (6,000) – twice per day, when flanking, get another 1d6 sneak attack.
Ring of the Trickster (1,080) – Create a mirror image of yourself as a move action once per day. As you level up, you get more abilities, such as being able to cast prestidigitation, using the ring as a traveler’s any tool, casting minor creation, major creation, and ultimately casting invisibility on yourself. This is a great alternative if you couldn’t take the Shadow Duplicate talent.
Serpentine Tattoo (2,000) – This tattoo lets you perform a dirty trick as an immediate action when you make an unarmed attack or an attack with a monk weapon. You’re probably not using monk weapons, but you might be using an unarmed attack, specifically a bite attack. If you’re a Tengu, Half-Orc, Kitsune, or have some other means of acquiring a natural attack, and you’re pursuing two-weapon fighting and you’d like to use blinding instead of feinting, you can use your bite attack first, immediately blind them, and then sneak attack with your two weapons. Pretty brutal.
Slashing Cloak (20,000) - Lets you spin and deal damage to everyone around you. For most rogues this will not be an efficient use of your actions. Not only will circumstances in which you’re surrounded be uncommon, you will not be able to flank, blind, feint, demoralize, etc. all of your surround foes at once, meaning you won’t be dealing sneak attack with your spin. The one likely exception is the Tribal Hunter tactic in which, so long as your familiar is sitting on your shoulder while you spin, you’ll be “flanking” everyone adjacent to you. Personally, I think being surrounded is something we should be avoiding, not explicitly seeking out to justify our 20,000 gp investment. It’s a neat idea, but I don’t think it’s that practical.
Soft Step Boots (1,000) – allows you to remain undetected by enemies with tremorsense. Unfortunately it cripples your speed tremendously. A Wand of Air Step is a potential alternative.
Snapleaf (750, 2 PP) - If you fall, you can break the Snapleaf as an immediate action to gain the effects of Feather Fall and Invisibility for 5 minutes. It will save your ass.
Sniper Goggles (20,000) – Make sneak attacks at any range. If you’re within 30 feet, gain +2 damage to each sneak attack die.
Soles of the Silent Stride (8,250) - You gain a +5 competence bonus on stealth checks and can attempt a stealth check while running at a -20 penalty. I doubt you will be making many stealth checks while trying to run, thus I don’t think it’s worth the extra several thousand GP these cost more than Shadowed armor, but it could conceivably save you.
Spectral Shroud (26,000) - You can see invisible and ethereal creatures as though using See Invisibility. Once per day, you can turn incorporeal for 10 rounds and gain a fly speed equal to have your base speed with perfect maneuverability. You can’t attack while incorporeal but you can dismiss the effect as a move action. The constant see invisibility is nice though it doesn’t justify the price tag. Being able to turn incorporeal and fly has some remarkable utility and some combat applications, but it’s a bit short a duration. I would be thrilled to get this in a pile of loot, but I doubt I’d spend 26k to buy it.
Stag’s Helm (3,500) - +2 competence to perception and once per day, when you make a ranged attack, you can render your target flat-footed to you.
Tentacle Cloak (14,000) - once per day create two tentacles that have 10 foot reach and can grapple. They’ll give you extra attacks, but they only last for 1 minute. There are better, cheaper, and more reliable ways to get additional attacks, but if you really want to attack 10 times when you full attack, well, this’ll help you get there.
*Trapmaker’s Sack (20,000) - Once per day as a full-round action you can make a trap with a CR of 4 or less which appears in a designated spot within 50’. You have to make the standard Craft: Trapmaking check to create it. This is exactly the sort of thing I’ve always wanted to do as a rogue - just spontaneously create a trap in the middle of battle. The CR is low and the price is high, but damn if it ain’t cool.
Trapspringer’s Gloves (4,000) - +5 competence to disable device and +1 luck to saves against traps.
Trap Stealer’s Rod (13,500) – Gives you a bonus to disabling traps. More importantly, it lets you steal traps and store them in an extradimensional space to be deployed where you like later on (as long as the space can accommodate it). It doesn’t say what kind of action deploying the trap is. If it’s a standard action or even a full-round action it could be a devastating move in battle. If it takes longer than that, it’s untenable and not worth the money.
Traveler’s Any Tool (250) – Can be changed into any tool you can visualize.
Wayfinder, Vanishing (8,000) - Allows you 5 1-minute intervals of invisibility per day as a standard action for as long as you concentrate. How we interpret “concentration” determines whether this item is amazing or mediocre. If “concentration” is a free action, this is one of the most efficient ways of turning yourself invisible, likely superior to Major Magic. For 8,000 gp, I think that is the correct interpretation. If “concentration” is like maintaining concentration on a spell (like Silent Image), it takes your standard action every turn. This severely hampers the two things you would use this device for: scouting, by hampering your movement, and combat, by robbing you of your most valuable action each round you’re invisible. If your DM elects the latter interpretation, this item isn’t worth it. If you really want an item that will turn you invisible, a second-level wand for 4,500 will last you until you can afford a ring.
Wands Level 0 (375):
Acid Splash – Deal acid sneak attack damage at range.
Detect Magic – Better when it’s “at will” than as a wand, but it will let you see magical effects and traps.
*Jolt – Deal electricity sneak attack damage at range.
Ray of Frost – Deal cold sneak attack damage at range.
Read Magic – If you’re going to be deciphering scrolls, this will spare you the DC 25+spell level UMD check.
Wands Level 1 (750 or 2 PP):
Abundant Ammunition – Save money when you’re using guns.
Blend – Long duration, bonus to stealth, lets you hide without cover or concealment. Amazing, but elf only.
Bless - Grants all allies within 50’, including you, a +1 morale bonus to attack rolls and saves vs. fear for 1 minute. It’s not often you will be in a position to be delivering in-combat buffs, but if you are, this is one of the best available at first level.
Bless Weapon - Makes your weapon +1 and good-aligned for the purpose of bypassing DR and automatically confirms all critical hits against evil foes. The duration isn’t ideal so it will be an in-combat cast, but it’s a cheaper and yet superior option when compared to Align Weapon. On the occasion you’ll need to use it you probably won’t be able to afford failing your UMD check, so until you have a +19 stick with the 50 gp oils.
Break - Cast on an object. If it fails its Fortitude saving throw, it gains the Broken condition. If cast on a broken item that fails, it is destroyed. Non-magical unattended items always fail their saving throws, thus, this spell can be used to destroy all mundane objects in two rounds. This includes doors, chests, locks, chains, ropes, manacles, windows, etc., and it works regardless of the material of construction. Adamantine doorway to the BBEG? Gone in 2 rounds. Steel chest holding the macguffin? Non-violently destroy it to avoid damaging the contents. Excellent.
Chill Touch – Touch attack that will let you sneak attack while also damaging Strength. Amazing. I tend to get two Spring-Loaded Wrist Sheaths. This is in one of them.
Comprehend Languages – Need to eavesdrop or read some ancient text? This will do it.
Cure Light Wounds – Everyone should carry a heal stick. This is one option. Also works to deal a positive energy touch attack against undead with which you can get sneak attack. I usually keep this in my second Spring-Loaded Wrist Sheath.
Dancing Darkness – Superior to Darkness in every way except in terms of what light it can dispel, and yet only level 1. If you intend on using magical darkness as a means of concealment, this is the best spell to use to do so.
Deadeye’s Arrow - Here it is! A level 1 ranged touch electricity attack that I thought didn’t exist hiding in Inner Sea Gods, and dealing d6+1 no less. Not only is it as good as its elemental siblings for energy damage sneak attacking, it has a range of 110 feet, making it a possible alternative to guns for a ranged touch attacking sniper.
Detect Secret Doors – If you want to make certain you don’t miss a single one, you can always cast this.
Endure Elements – Never suffer the effects of intense heat or cold weather again. One wand will likely last the life of your character.
Expeditious Retreat - The duration makes it generally inferior to Longstrider for our purposes, but the boost to your movement speed is much better. If you know you’re going to be hampered in battle, this will help you out.
Face of the Devourer - +4 to intimidate and you get a bite attack. Useful in an intimidation or two-weapon fighting build, though the duration will keep you from using it before entering combat. Note that it is a touch spell, not personal, so if you have a wizard friend willing to cast this on you (preferably extended) you might get some long-term utility out of it.
Feather Step - Ignore difficult terrain.
Gravity Bow – Make your bow hit as if it were one size category larger. Essential if you’re playing a ranged build, nice to have around for when you can’t close to melee.
Grease – One of the best first level spells in general. Make the bad guys fall prone or at least make them lose their Dex bonus over your slippery terrain. You can also help yourself out with an escape artist check. Orange only because the save on the wand is easy to make and you should probably leave this up to your spellcasters.
Heightened Awareness – Improve your Knowledges, Perception, and Initiative for a good duration.
Hide from Undead – An inexpensive way to get sneak attack against undead enemies.
Infernal Healing – The best out of combat healing spell. Casting it doesn’t make you evil in PFS, but be careful of your DM saying it does in a home game.
Inflict Light Wounds – Negative energy touch attack spell with which you can deal sneak attack.
Jump - Sometimes you’ve really got to jump across something. This spell gives you a +10.
Longstrider – Increase your movement speed by 10 feet for an enormous duration. Mandatory.
Mage Armor - +4 armor bonus. There’s probably going to be a long period of time between when you’re wearing a chain shirt and a +3 haramaki. This spell will give you a benefit throughout that period, and it lasts for 1 hour.
Magic Weapon – Make your weapon magical. Useful at low levels, then awful.
Negate Aroma - One hour per level emit no scent whatsoever, meaning you can’t be tracked by scent. Excellent spell to cast as you enter the dungeon.
Obscuring Mist – A quick and cheap way to give yourself concealment.
Persuasive Goad - A close-range d6 of nonlethal damage that potentially provides a +4 to intimidate checks vs. the target if they fail their fort save. It’s not a touch attack so you can’t use it to get sneak attack. It’s interesting enough for me to mention it here, but it will work so rarely off a wand that I don’t think it’s worth it.
Produce Flame – A fire-based ranged touch attack with which you can sneak attack. Excellent choice for when you face enemies with fire vulnerability. Note that I once rated this spell (and Snowball) poorer due to my misunderstanding in how they worked in the action economy. You can attack with them the same round you cast them.
Protection from Evil – Gives you some AC, but mostly useful to keep yourself from being dominated. Would be blue if not for the short duration.
Recharge Innate Magic – If you’re a race with a nice SLA, this is mandatory. Otherwise it’s useless.
Reduce Person – Being small makes you sneakier and harder to hit. Circumstantially useful.
Remove Fear - Close-range spell that provides a +4 morale bonus vs. fear for 10 minutes and suppresses any fear affects currently in progress. Don’t underestimate how crippling fear can be. It’s not as bad as domination or paralyzation, but being forced to run away from combat is pretty bad. This will help keep you from doing that, and if your friends get scared, it will help keep them in the fight.
Shadowfade - Become invisible to creatures using darkvision or gain concealment to them in dim light. Essentially it lets you use stealth (or better) in darkness regardless of your foes’ extraordinary senses. The short duration is less than ideal but if you’re using the darkness tactics it will help you deal with enemies who have Darkvision.
Sanctuary – About to die? Use this to GTFO.
Shield - +4 shield bonus for 1 minute. The short duration will limit its usefulness, but if you have a moment to prepare before a battle, this is impressively good. I keep it in my spring-loaded wrist sheath, and if it’s not easy to make an attack in the first round, I’m usually casting this.
Snowball – A ranged touch attack cold spell that can leave your enemy staggered. Fantastic in general, extra fantastic against enemies with cold vulnerability.
Touch of the Sea - Gives you a swim speed of 30 and a +8 to swim checks. This wand is an insurance policy. Swimming is uncommon, but when it comes up, it’s important that you’re able to do it. You’ll probably use this wand fewer than 10 times, so if you want to grab a potion instead, that’s fine.
True Skill - As a wand it’ll just be giving you a +1 insight bonus to a single skill check. Not great, but there aren’t a lot of sources of insight bonuses, and +1 is +1.
Scrolls Level 2 (150 or 2 PP for 5):
Air Step - Allows you to hover one foot off the ground bypassing tremorsense, ignoring difficult terrain, ignoring traps triggered by weight (like pressure plates), and making it more difficult to track you. It’s that “ignoring tremorsense” that we’re looking for. Carrying around at least a scroll (and maybe a wand) of this to address that occasional liability is probably more cost effective than investing in soft step boots. If you can (via practicing with a Glider, for example), invest at least 1 rank in fly for the speed benefit and consider all 5 for the water walking.
Aram Zey’s Focus - It gives you Trapfinding for 3 minutes or, if you already have it, gives you a +5 competence bonus on disable device checks for non-magical traps. It also lets you make a second disable device check when you fail to disarm a trap to avoid springing it. This is by far the most cost-effective way to disable magical traps if you gave up Trapfinding, and it’s not a bad spell even if you didn’t.
Blindness/Deafness – You need ways to make the bad guys blind. This does it, albeit expensively and via a save they’re not likely to fail.
Blistering Invective - You step into the middle of the room. You read a scroll. On reading this scroll, you make a demoralize attempt on everyone within 30 feet of you. If you’ve been following the intimidation tactics, this likely results in everyone being frightened or at least shaken. In addition, they all take a d10 of fire damage and possibly light on fire. The standard action dazzling display alone is almost worth a level 2 scroll. The flames are an additional debuff and great flavor.
Darkness – If you’re a Shadowdancer, give yourself shadows. If you’re not a Shadowdancer, give yourself concealment. Strictly inferior to Dancing Darkness. Be careful not to screw over your friends.
Darkvision – Being in darkness is very helpful for you, but only if you can see in it. This makes that possible.
False Life – You’re a front-liner with few hit points. This helps.
Fiery Shuriken - Gives you two shuriken made of fire that you can fire immediately or keep floating around you until you opt to use them. Each deals 1d8 points of damage. Since you can fire each shuriken separately, it provides potentially superior damage compared to Scorching Ray so long as you can sneak attack with both shuriken. Keep in mind that if you’re attacking from normal invisibility or stealth you will only get sneak attack on one shuriken, not both, so it may behoove you to throw them one at a time. If your enemy is blind, or if you have Improved Invisibility, you should be able to launch both at once. Also note the 2 sp material component cost. Sorry PFS folks. If you spend 2 pp on a scroll of this, it will have only 4 castings, not 5.
Focused Scrutiny - Grants you a +10 bonus to social checks analyzing a target and a +5 to checks to influence it, including intimidation checks. It’s a decent spell for a face so long as you can cast it in private, and it’s worth considering for an intimidate build, but the fact you’re limited to a single target makes this spell too circumstantial.
Ghoul Touch – A touch attack that lets you paralyze your foes. Paralyzed foes lose their Dex Bonuses and can be Coup de Graced.
Glitterdust – A ranged option that blinds several foes allowing for sneak attack. The ability to reveal invisibility is just gravy. It’s SR-free but since it’s on a wand or scroll the save will be pretty easy.
Instrument of Agony - Cast it on your weapon to grant you a +2 morale bonus to intimidate checks. On a successful hit with the weapon, you can discharge the spell to force a Will save. Failure leaves the target nauseated for 1d4+1 rounds. Success leaves them sickened for 1 round. The short duration is a bit of a problem, but it’s a good effect if you have time to buff immediately before a big battle.
Invisibility – Invisibility for 3 minutes. If you need to be invisible for longer than you can vanish yourself, this is your answer.
Mirror Image – Make duplicates of yourself to make you safer in melee.
Savage Maw - A second-level spell that gives you a bite attack and the ability to demoralize all enemies within 30 feet as a swift action that ends the spell. The bite attack also deals bleed damage. The bite alone is pretty good. The swift action dazzling display is incredible for an intimidation build.
Scorching Ray – A ranged touch attack dealing fire damage. It will do more damage in a single attack than Produce Flame or Fiery Shuriken, but most of the time they will be superior options.
See Invisibility - You can’t sneak attack an enemy you can’t find, and even if you know where they are, invisibility grants total concealment. It won’t come up all that often until mid to high levels, but having one of these scrolls along will make sure it’s not a problem.
Spider Climb - Grants a climb speed of 20, a +8 to climb checks, and lets you retain your Dex bonus while climbing. It’s a circumstantial spell to be sure, but when the enemy’s high up, this will let you reach them.
Locke Lamora from The Lies of Locke Lamora
Traps are widely considered among the most annoying elements of Pathfinder. The rules state that you need to indicate you’re searching for traps in order to find them, but how “searching for traps” actually works in-game varies between GMs. Some GMs interpret this to mean that unless you say you are searching a specific square on the grid, you didn’t search there, and therefore, you had no chance of finding it and you carelessly blundered into it in spite of your decades of experience and +35 Perception. This leads rogue players to become paranoid, announcing their intent to search for traps in every square the party walks through, rolling every time and bogging down gameplay. At the other extreme, some GMs only ask you to search for traps when you’re almost on top of them, giving you de facto Trap Spotter. Not only does this nerf that rogue talent, it takes all the tension out of traps and reduces them to little more than an occasional dice roll to see if any party resources are unexpectedly consumed.
Here is my opinion on how best to deal with trap searching. The instant you step into the dungeon, tell your GM “I’m going to be moving cautiously, at half speed, looking for traps along our way.” If it would make it easier for her, rather than rolling for every square, tell your GM your Perception stats and ask her to roll for you in secret when it’s relevant. Trap Spotter is then less about being better at finding traps and more about doing so quickly. Trap Spotter frees you to move at full speed, and on the occasion you need to rush, you have the chance to find traps even though you’re not actively looking for them. Personally, I think that’s a far better way to run things than making the talent necessary to alleviate the choice between “miserable pedantic gameplay” and “fall prey to every trap in the dungeon.”
Whether you’ve found an agreeable approach to passive trap searching or not, there are certain situations where you’ll want to make sure you explicitly indicate you’re searching for traps in those areas, as they are all very likely to be trapped. Such situations include the following:
If possible, also make sure to Detect Magic on these unusual objects or ask your spellcasting friend to do so. This will reveal spells like Alarm and the various Symbol spells, as well as any magical traps that aren’t protected by a sheet of lead.
Once you’ve identified a trap, you need to figure out how to deal with it. Traps tend to come in one of four varieties:
Generally, it’s a good idea to have everyone in the party except you and the tank leave the room or at least move 20 feet away. Also make sure no one is standing in a direct line opposite the trap. This way, if you accidentally trigger the trap, only you and the tank (the two characters most likely to survive) are likely to suffer damage, preserving party resources. Furthermore, if the trap drops a cage around you, your party will be far better suited to help you from outside the cage than inside.
Why are we asking the tank to stick around? To hedge our bets. If the trap cuts you off from the party but also releases a dire lion into the room, you’re not going to be able to handle that on your own. The tank, on the other hand, might be able to, or at the very least, he can hold it off until everyone else can figure out something to do. If you don’t follow this advice and you ever find yourself cut off from the party fighting your foes by your lonesome, don’t. Turn invisible and run away. Rogues who survive are rogues who have a backup plan.
Once you’ve made your preparations, roll your Disable Device check and hope for the best. If you are unable to disable a trap after multiple attempts, do the following:
At first glance scouting seems like a perfectly reasonable and necessary thing to do. You have your sneakiest character, usually the rogue or the ranger, go ahead of the party to deal with any traps and identify any enemies coming up. A little intelligence-gathering can make a tremendous difference for your tactics.
Unfortunately, the reality doesn’t tend to work as well as the plan. Scouting in Pathfinder presents a variety of in-game and meta-game challenges. Since it tends to involve only one person and necessitates a lot of opposed checks, it can be heinously boring for everyone not scouting. Meanwhile, the scout is at great risk as she stands the chance of facing encounters by her lonesome that were designed to challenge the entire party. You can ameliorate this risk by having multiple scouts, but each additional character involved is an additional die roll, and only one needs to fail to screw everything up. You can address this with the Stealth Synergy Teamwork Feat, but that costs a feat. For these reasons, most Pathfinder parties tend to go without scouting, and four times out of five, that’s what you should probably do too.
The best situations I’ve found for scouting tend to be outdoors in circumstances where combat is unlikely. If you can sneak through the woods around the keep and get an idea of the stronghold’s defenses (and you can easily run away if you get caught), scouting is worth your while. If you’re slinking through the dungeon or in any circumstance necessitating a battle mat, scouting ahead usually leads to dead characters. The benefits of your extra intelligence tend to be outweighed by the risks of splitting the party. When you’re in the dungeons, just stick to taking point or, at most, stay within one round’s worth of movement from the rest of the party. If you’re going to do any scouting beyond that, you’d better have an incredible stealth skill combined with favorable stealthing conditions or invisibility. Even in those cases, it’s risky, so do so with caution and have a backup plan if things go bad.
If you’re running an Int-based build you will be reasonably smart, but if there’s an investigator, wizard, alchemist, bard, or any other party member whose primary stat is Intelligence, they’re going to be smarter than you are. You thus shouldn’t consider it your responsibility to be the party encyclopedia unless there is absolutely no one else smarter than you. You have so many other skills the party needs you to perform that other classes can’t emulate. They’re not worth sacrificing in order to become competent at the many Knowledge skills.
That said, being good at one Knowledge skill in particular, Knowledge: Dungeoneering, can be very important for a rogue. Perception and Disable Device will get you far when it comes to dealing with traps, but Knowledge: Dungeoneering is the skill you need to identify hazards. If there’s a pillar in the dungeon that’s likely to collapse when the party walks by it, that’s every bit as important to recognize as a trap. It will also let you know if a ledge is safe to traverse, if the air underground will be breathable, and it will improve your ability to navigate and map the dungeon. The fact it will also let you identify aberrations and other dungeon-dwelling monsters is just gravy. The wizard should be maxing out Arcana, Nature, Planes, and Religion. It’s your job to be the expert on dungeons.
Theft is an often-overlooked option in most Pathfinder games. Many Pathfinder missions involve acquiring some McGuffin through combat or social subterfuge. If that Macguffin is hidden in the nobleman’s backpack, or locked in the queen’s chest in her chamber, why exactly do you need to schmooze your way into making them give it as a gift or fight all the guards to break into the tower? You can simply pickpocket it, or else sneak into the chamber, open the lock, take it, and leave. Going all Mission: Impossible on the scenario helps preserve your party’s resources and makes sure no one dies.
Sleight of Hand, Stealth, and Disable Device are all at your disposal. You’ll want to make sure you’re damn good at them if you’re going to try them, but you are fully capable of becoming so. Remember that they are always an option, and if you want a further benefit from investing in Sleight of Hand, with the Thieves’ Guild vanity, you can use it for your Day Job checks in PFS.
Any time Aladdin couldn’t get out of his jams through trickery and stunts he got through them with his wit and winning smile. Half the times you’ll come across the word “rogue” in fiction you’ll find it preceded by words like “charming,” “dashing,” and “gallant.” Rogues tend to be charismatic folks, and if you want to build yours that way, you can certainly rival the bard in the social skills department.
How do you role-play a socially brilliant character? I have no idea, and this is coming from someone who literally wrote a book on social skills. What constitutes “socially adept” will depend on the characters with whom you’re interacting. For this reason I don’t think it’s possible to give universally-applicable “tactics.” I can’t just advise you to have your character follow the suggestions in How to Win Friends and Influence People and expect things to turn out ok. To make matters more difficult, Pathfinder doesn’t have a robust mechanical system for determining what constitutes an adroit thing to say compared to something offensive. It’s just assumed that if you have a high skill score and roll well, regardless of what you do and say as a player, you managed to do and say it in a way the NPC liked. As such, social skills in Pathfinder, as written, are little more than a matter of how you invest your skills and luck. That said, it’s pretty uncommon for role-playing to be played rules-as-written.
In actual gameplay, there can be a great deal of nuance in how social encounters go, and that nuance lies in the one element of the game completely outside the rules and the dice: your GM’s interpretations. Moreso than in any other part of Pathfinder it is in social interactions that you aren’t playing against the rules so much as against your GM. The more fun the GM is having, and the less they have to reconcile your utterly bizarre behavior with the fact you rolled a 35 on your diplomacy check, the easier things will tend to go. As such, being a charming character involves, at least to some degree, being charming toward your GM and keeping things interesting for them. With this in mind, when role-playing with NPCs, I suggest the following:
Be descriptive. Describe to your GM exactly how you express the things you’re expressing. You stare into the aristocrat’s eyes as your mouth erupts in a lopsided grin before asking, “How’d you like to sponsor a venture that will put your name in the history books?” You peak over your shoulder, giggle, and give yourself a spritz of perfume as you notice the bartender staring at you. “Hi hun, I’m looking for a Halfling who visited these parts a few days ago.” You flip your dagger back and forth between your hands before throwing it with a sharp “thunk” inches from the thug’s left ear. You take a shot of bourbon. “Well chum, I’ve got all night, and I’m gonna be drinking and throwing knives by your head ‘til you tell me ‘bout that chest. And I’m a helluva lightweight. You wanna talk now or when you’re missing an eye?” Intimidate check. These are the sorts of things that will make your GM go “well… maybe the DC wasn’t as high as I thought.”
Ask your GM to be descriptive. “How is the bard dressed?” “Do I recognize an accent in the way she’s speaking?” Look for specific things to compliment them on or to inquire about that will give you insight into their personalities. This will help you say and do the right things to help them see you as on their side and to avoid the things that will piss them off. Many Pathfinder Society scenarios even have specific answers to these sorts of questions and expect you to be this inquisitive. It will also get your GM invested in the interaction and cheering for your success.
Hide your lies in a nest of truths. Don’t simply say “we didn’t steal the gem constable.” Tell him you were on assignment from the mayor, which you were. Tell him you were at the tavern earlier today and the people there can vouch for you. Admit to something that will cause you to lose face but that is ultimately benign while leaving out the issues the NPC actually cares about. In short, make your bluffs plausible. That’s the sort of thinking that will get most GMs to give you an advantage.
Put yourself in their shoes. At the end of the day, your own insight is what will serve you best. People are the centers of their own universes. They like to be complimented and appreciated. They don’t like to be belittled or insulted. If something would piss you off if done to you in real life, don’t do it to an NPC. Make it easy for the GM to believe that this NPC likes you, believes you, or fears you.
Ali Baba from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Moving through a dungeon while searching for traps. Moving through difficult terrain. Using acrobatics to move through threatened squares. Using stealth. Using the Blend spell. Using Soft Step Boots to avoid triggering an enemy’s tremorsense. What do these things have in common? They all hamper your movement.
So much of being a rogue is about having the right positioning but many of the rogue’s abilities reduce your effective movement speed. If you can’t get to where you need to be, it won’t matter how much hypothetical damage you can do; you won’t be there to do it.
Always be looking for new ways to improve your speed. Avoid the slower races. Always be casting Longstrider. Pick up a Quick Runner’s Shirt. Let your mage and bard know that you really like it when they cast Haste. Consider a pair of Boots of Striding and Springing. Look into the Fast Stealth talent or the Silent Hunter alternate racial trait, the Rogue’s Edge unlock for Acrobatics, and the Trap Spotter talent. At higher levels, carry around potions of Fly. You will never have enough movement speed.
With, in all likelihood, the highest dexterity in the party, your armor class is never going to suck, but compared to the attack bonuses you’ll be facing at higher levels, it will not be adequate. With a mediocre Con and most of your gold committed to your skills and weapon(s) you will never be very good at sitting on the front lines tanking hits. Nevertheless, you are going to be on the front lines.
All this means is that since your defense will not be coming from your armor, it has to come from somewhere else, and that somewhere else is your skills and abilities. Everything about your tactics should be oriented as much around making yourself an unappealing target as they are about doing damage. Using a reach weapon discourages enemies from attacking you because it would provoke an AoO. Standing behind your tanky friends and using Gang Up and Phalanx Formation gives you cover and forces your enemies to move through the barbarian if they want to get to you. Invisibility and Hide in Plain Sight discourage enemies from attacking you because they can’t find you, and if they do, protect you with a 50% miss chance. Shadow Duplicate and Mirror Image provide a flat percentage chance of missing you. Exploiting darkness or fog provides concealment. Blinding your enemies renders you invisible providing a 50% miss chance. Intimidation and Debilitating Injury harm your enemies’ attack bonuses and encourages them to run away instead of hitting you.
When you’re doing your job right, you will be in melee, but you will rarely be a target. When you are a target, you will have concealment and shadow clones. If your enemies get through all of that, then they have to deal with your armor class, and they should be suffering penalties to do so. Always remember that your offense is also your defense, so if you ever find yourself in a situation where that is not the case, it is reasonable and appropriate to run away. More than any other class it’s important that you fight the enemy on your terms, not on theirs. Find a place to stealth and re-enter battle when the situation is in your favor. If you don’t plan your tactics with this in mind, you will be ineffective in combat and you will die.
I opened this guide commenting on how so many people underrate the rogue. At this point, you may be wondering why anyone would want to play anything else. Why would someone want to play a fighter when the rogue gets Dex to damage? Not to mention losing out on sneak attack and all those skill points.
The answer is that the fighter is consistent. A fighter wielding an adamantine greatsword will pretty much always do some damage and will frequently do a lot. The rogue, on the other hand, while holding the potential to do more damage, relies far more heavily on circumstance to make it happen. While the fighter can walk in, hit things, and they die, the rogue must carefully plan her tactics and depend on her friends to help her out.
Nowhere is this weakness more prominent than when the rogue must face enemies immune to precision damage. Though there are far fewer enemies with such immunity in Pathfinder than there were in 3.5, and though your Dex to damage will help you make sure you always enjoy at least middling effectiveness, these enemies will pose an exceptional challenge.
The first group of enemies immune to precision damage you’re likely to encounter are incorporeal creatures: ghosts, shadows, etc. The simplest way to overcome their defenses is via a ghost touch weapon. Ghost Touch is a +1 equivalent enchantment which allows you to essentially treat incorporeal creatures as normal, including making them vulnerable to sneak attack. Given how common incorporeal creatures are and how much more effective this enchantment makes you, it’s a reasonable price.
If you find yourself unwilling to give up your weapon bonuses, an alternative is to carry around any magic weapon plus some Holy Weapon Balm. Holy Weapon Balm can be applied to your weapon as a standard action providing it with Ghost Touch for 1 minute until the first successful attack. It will also deal an extra 2d4 points of damage to undead. For 30 gp, it’s well worth the price.
If you’re a ranged build, an alternative and probably superior solution is to carry around some arrows or bullets coated in Weapon Blanche Ghost Salt. Ghost salt isn’t particularly effective on melee weapons as it only works for a single hit (and it’s far more expensive than Holy Weapon Balm), but on ammunition it works fantastically. So long as you stock enough treated ammo you will always have an effective ghost touch weapon for a fraction of the cost.
A final alternative is to invest in the Ghostslayer feat from the Haunted Heroes Handbook. This feat allows you to make your +2 or better weapon ghost touched as a swift action each round. A feat is a bit expensive to solve this problem given the alternatives, but it’s an option.
The simplest solution to oozes is to carry around some Slime Slow. It’s an alchemical weapon out of the Demon Hunter’s Handbook that makes ooze-like creatures vulnerable to precision damage for 1d4 rounds if they fail a DC 20 fortitude save. At 15 gp a pop, that’s pretty powerful, at least at lower levels.
In addition, look into grabbing some Congealer Spray, Dessicating Lubricant, Bloating Solution, Bladeguard, and some Alkali Flasks. Congealer spray will render oozes staggered for 1d4 rounds on a failed DC 15 fort save. Dessicating lubricant will reduce their CMB and CMD by 4 while dealing 2d4 damage. Bloating Solution reduces their threatened range for the purposes of AoOs while suppressing their compression abilities. Bladeguard will keep oozes from damaging your weapon if you use it to attack. Alkali flasks deal 2d6 damage to oozes and 2 damage with its splash. If your Slime Slow doesn’t work, stocking up on the rest of these will let you provide some support and damage while staying at a safe distance.
An alternative to the alchemical solutions is the *Tidal Trickster archetype, but as discussed in the Archetypes section, it gives up so much that outside of an aquatic campaign it’s probably not worth the sacrifices for such circumstantial benefits.
As a rogue, elementals are likely to be your most frustrating foes. The Planar Sneak archetype allows you to deal half sneak attack damage to elementals starting at 4th level in exchange for Uncanny Dodge and Danger Sense. It’s an option, but you probably don’t want to give up access to superior archetypes just to be effective against elementals.
At 16th level (+12 BAB) you can gain access to the Anatomical Savant feat, but that’s a very long wait and outside the level range of PFS. It also only provides a 25% chance of sneak attack success.
To put it bluntly, elementals are the rogue’s Achilles’ heel. You will not be able to rely on your normal rogue tactics to defeat them. Instead, you will need to rely on any secondary abilities you’ve been developing.
For starters, their wisdom is poor so they’re very vulnerable to intimidation. Some have vulnerability to certain elements, so if you’re carrying around wands for casting spells of each element type, you can deal extra damage with those wands. If you can reliably hit at range, carrying around some Outsider (Elemental) Bane arrows for the moments they’re necessary will make you much more effective (though you’ll need GM permission or a boon (like the Custom Order boon) to buy ammunition in amounts fewer than 50). If you have any abilities from any class dips you’ve taken, this could be their time to shine.
Another approach you might consider is to try to neutralize elementals out of combat. The Intimidate DC to force an enemy to act friendly toward you is equal to 10 + Hit Dice + Wisdom Modifier. Since they all have a Wisdom of 11, this means that the DC to intimidate even an Elder elemental is only 26. You should be able to hit that reliably by level 7 with an intimidation build, and of course all smaller elementals will be far easier. If you mean to take this approach, make sure to put ranks into Linguistics to take the four elemental languages: Auran, Aquan, Ignan, and Terran.
Beyond these, all you can do is hit elementals as hard as you can and accept that, at least this time, the fighter’s probably going to be more effective than you are.
The relevant line in the Swarm Traits description reads as follows:
“A swarm has no clear front or back and no discernible anatomy, so it is not subject to critical hits or flanking.”
To be clear, the description specifies critical hits and flanking. It does not say that swarms are immune to sneak attack or all precision damage. As such, though people will argue with you on this, RAW, they are vulnerable to your sneak attacks provided you achieve them via denying the swarm its dex bonus, not through flanking.
This, of course, brings in the next problematic quality of swarms. “A swarm composed of Fine or Diminutive creatures is immune to all weapon damage.” How are you supposed to deal sneak attack if you can’t damage it with your weapon?
One option is to take the Underground Chemist archetype. In exchange for your evasion and a rogue talent you will get Precise Splash Weapons, allowing you to use sneak attack with splash weapons. Your alchemist’s fire will now do 1d6 damage plus all of your sneak attack. Since swarms take 1.5X damage from splash weapons, all of it will then be multiplied by 1.5. You will be even more effective against swarms than the alchemist.
Another option is to pick up a Swarmbane Clasp. For 3,000 gp and your neck slot you can basically treat swarms as normal enemies (aside from the flanking and critical hit denial). So long as you have a means of denying the swarm its dex bonus you will be able to sneak attack it with your weapon. If you combine this with the Swarm Dodger feat, you’ll be practically immune to anything a swarm could ever do to you.
Your last good option is to dip a level into the Kinetic Knight archetype of Kineticist providing you with a Kinetic Blade. This deals full damage to swarms.
If none of those options appeal to you you’ll be limited to the craptastic tactics available to everyone else who isn’t a caster. You can try and grab a wand of burning hands, but in PFS you’ll be limited to level 1 and that will never deal much damage. You can chuck alchemist’s fires and acid flasks (be sure to carry both in case of resistances), and that will be ok, but it won’t work very well at higher levels. Your usefulness against swarms will amount to little more than distraction while the sorcerer does his best to save the party. If you want my blunt advice, buy the clasp.
Proteans have Amorphous Anatomy making your sneak attacks against them effective only 50% of the time.
If you want to try chucking a Slime Slow at it, your DM might rule that it works. “Amorphous Anatomy” seems to be the “Amorphous” quality but only 50% effective. I’d rule that Slime Slow should work if I were DMing, but RAW, “Amorphous Anatomy” and “Amorphous” are not the same thing, so there’s a good case to be made for it not applying.
I don’t know of a clear solution. However, if you play Pathfinder for years you might encounter a Protean once. I don’t think it’s worth expending resources to prepare for one rare encounter in which you’re only slightly less effective than usual.
Uncanny Dodge makes it so a character is never flat-footed nor does she lose her dex bonus to invisible opponents. This will disrupt the invisibility tactics, charging with the Scout archetype, and the intimidation tactics. Improved Uncanny Dodge renders one immune to flanking except from a rogue of at least 4 levels higher. This disrupts ordinary flanking, Improved Flanking, and the Circling Mongoose tactics.
It’s unclear how Uncanny Dodge interacts with blindness and stealth. Does the reference to invisibility implicitly include stealth and total concealment as circumstances Uncanny Dodge protects against? Some would argue it does, but RAW, invisibility is a specific condition, not merely an effect of not being able to see an opponent. As such, ordinary sneaking, sniping, the Improved Stealth tactics, the Improved Concealment tactics, and the Blinding tactics should all still be effective against an opponent with Uncanny Dodge. Feinting, also, is specifically called out as perfectly effective.
While the intimidation tactics will no longer make your target flat-footed, it’s worth mentioning that in the extreme they can still work. Rendering an opponent panicked or cowering will deny them their dex bonus just as well as it normally would. As such, if you build an intimidator, you may be hindered, but not helpless.
This all having been said, if you ever find yourself fighting a rogue who’s simply a higher level than you are, you probably aren’t the best person to beat them. Instead, I suggest asking yourself a simple question: “What would annoy the hell out of me?” Chances are the same things will be effective against your foe.
Tell the wizard to summon elementals and to cast Glitterdust. Tell the bard to cast Hold Person or anything that targets Will. Tell the necromancer to cast Ghoul Touch or anything that targets Fort. Tell the druid to cast entangle to make difficult terrain and hamper his movement. Light up the room so there are no shadows. Stand in groups so you can’t be flanked. You probably aren’t going to be that effective, but no one will know how to fight another rogue better than you will. All those weaknesses we’ve been trying to shore up throughout this guide? Target them. Your GM’s rogues probably won’t be half as optimized as you are.
Blindsight/Blindsense
The best solution to Blindsight and Blindsense is the Dampen Presence feat/rogue talent which allows you to use stealth against it. The Blind Spot stalker talent will work too, but is worse. If you’re up for dropping a big pile of gold to solve the problem, a Skulking Sniper’s Blowgun will also let you use Stealth vs. Tremorsense, Blindsense, and Blindsight.
Echolocation
Echolocation functions like Blindsight or Blindsense and everything that works against those will work against this. In addition, the 2nd-level spell Shifted Steps fools it RAW. Presumably anything that blocks sound, like a Silence spell, would stop it as well, though that will depend on GM discretion.
Tremorsense
The simplest solution to Tremorsense is to have a consistent means of flight, like a Carpet of Flying or the Sylph’s Wings of Air. The carpet of flying has the unfortunate characteristic of requiring verbal commands to move it RAW, which is less than ideal, but shouldn’t prevent you from achieving total concealment. Soft Step Boots will allow you to ignore Tremorsense in exchange for slowing your movement, and the Blind Spot Stalker Talent or the Skulking Sniper’s Blowgun will let you use stealth against it.
Scent
The Conceal Scent feat prevents enemies from pinpointing your location with scent, and from tracking you. Negate Aroma is a 1st level spell that lasts 1 hour per level and eliminates all possibility of locating you via scent. The 30 gp alchemical item Deodorizing Agent will make you scentless for 1d3 hours. Blind Spot could help too.
Lifesense
Lifesense is a relatively uncommon ability and thus very few abilities reference it. The 9th level spell Impenetrable Veil allows you use stealth against it. Since it functions “as if it possessed the Blindsight Ability,” but only for living things, I would argue that Dampen Presence ought to work with it as well.
See Invisibility
The 20th level Ninja capstone “Hidden Master” renders you immune to See Invisibility, True Seeing, etc., but that’s not exactly practical. Mask from Divination is a 5th level 24-hour spell that requires a caster level check from anyone attempting to see you with See Invisibility. The fact this spell exists and is worded as it is suggests that the Nondetection spell is insufficient to stop See Invisibility, so perhaps there’s some resolution to that debate. Mask from Divination’s level renders it out of our range to ever cast, but if you have a friendly caster in your party, ask them to put it in their book. Dust of Disappearance is immune to See Invisibility, but it’s 3,500 a pop. Ultimately, your best defense against See Invisibility is to have mundane means of using Stealth, like fog, darkness, or a big rock.
“Detect” Spells
The 3rd level Nondetection spell will protect you from all divination spells with the word “Detect” in their name, including Detect Magic, Detect (Alignment), and Detect Thoughts. Since Arcane Sight functions as Detect Magic, it ought to protect you from that too, as well as the Thoughtsense spell/ability. An Amulet of Proof Against Detection and Location will give you permanent Nondetection, as will the Hidden Mind advanced talent. A Ring of Mind Shielding will make you invisible to Detect Thoughts, Discern Lies, and Detect Alignment abilities.
Sooner or later you’re going to encounter the bane of all melee-focused characters: flying enemies. At lower levels you can make due with a bow. At higher levels you’re probably going to want a means of taking to the air.
Flying presents numerous benefits for a rogue. As mentioned, mobility is everything. Most fly speeds provide movement that’s equal to or faster than what you could do on foot. It will render difficult terrain irrelevant. You will be able to exploit surfaces you ordinarily wouldn’t be able to, like deep water. You will better avoid certain types of traps, like pressure plates, as well as abilities that would otherwise disable your tactics, like Tremorsense.
The problem is that, as a non-magical character, you have no way (or rather, only one way) of achieving long-term reliable flight that isn’t extremely expensive. There are no perfect options, but here I’ll share what I think are the best.
Sylph Race -> Airy Step -> Wings of Air
Wings of Air provides you with a supernatural fly speed equal to your base speed. It lasts all day, you can use it at will, it can’t be dispelled, and it’s awesome. This is the best and cheapest way to get flight as a rogue, and it comes with a race you’d probably be considering anyway.
Magic Trick (Floating Disk)
If you can manage 3 ranks in Fly, this feat will let you ride your Floating Disk 5’ above the ground for as long as the spell lasts. At 6 ranks, you can choose to reduce your Floating Disk’s duration to rounds per level in exchange for a 50’ fly speed with no altitude limitation. You need to be able to cast the spell, so this’ll need to be your major magic or earned through some other means, but that’s well worth it. And yes, this is indeed PFS legal.
Carpet of Flying 5’ X 5’ (20,000 gp)
The carpet of flying provides permanent 40’ movement speed flight with a +5 bonus to fly checks and the ability to hover without a check. The only downsides are the price and the possibility of being pushed off with a bull rush maneuver. There are those who will argue that you cannot 5’ step on a Carpet of Flying, though I personally find this ridiculous. James Jacobs recommends treating it like an Overland Flight spell you can be bullrushed off of, and that’s an interpretation I find completely reasonable. It is probably your best means of flying if you’re not a Sylph; just make sure to carry a Snapleaf.
Broom of Flying (17,000 gp)
The broom provides 9 hours of 40’ movement speed flight with a +4 bonus to fly checks. If you speak its command word within 300 yards the broom will fly to you. Though it doesn’t say as much in the rules, some GMs may insist that you must have one hand on the broom in order to use it, which would significantly limit your combat options while flying. If you can use it hands-free, it’s an alternative to the carpet. Otherwise, it’s far inferior and not worth the hefty price tag.
Skill Focus (Heal) -> Eldritch Heritage (Celestial) -> Improved Eldritch Heritage (Celestial)
This will get you Wings of Heaven providing 1 minute/level of 60’ fly speed with good maneuverability divided up as you like. This will be all you need for combat, but it won’t help with overland travel or dungeon delving. The Heavenly Fire bloodline power that’s a pre-req isn’t actually all that bad, since you can use it as a ranged touch attack against evil enemies or to heal in a pinch. The skill focus feat tax sucks.
Scroll of Fly (375 gp, 2 PP for 2)
A scroll of Fly will involve a DC 25 Use Magic Device check to cast. It will provide 5 minutes of 60’ movement speed flight with good maneuverability and a +4 bonus to Fly checks. At mid-levels, it will probably be your best option for in-combat flight so long as you have a few rounds to prepare ahead of time. If you’re in a situation where you can’t risk failing your UMD, you will have to rely on potions for double the price.
Scroll of Air Walk (700 gp, 2 pp)
An alternative to the scrolls of Fly with slightly better out-of-combat utility. Scrolls of Airwalk will involve a DC 27 Use Magic Device check to let you walk on air at your normal movement speed for 70 minutes. Note that it’s a touch spell so you could ask your friendly cleric or druid to cast it for you. You can ascend or descend at half speed at no greater than a 45 degree angle. You won’t be anywhere near as maneuverable as you will be with the Fly spell, but you’ll gain most of the benefits you’re looking for.
Tengu Race -> Tengu Wings
Allows you to sprout wings and fly for 1 minute per character level once per day with a fly speed of 30’ and average maneuverability. Not bad given the options.
Winged Boots (16,000 gp)
Winged boots provide you with 5 minutes of 60’ speed flight 3 times per day with a +4 bonus to fly checks. The short duration renders them unusable for most out-of-combat utility. Unless you’re fighting on the plane of air you’re not likely to have more than one or two flying encounters per day, so much of the utility in these boots will be going to waste. It’s a less-than-optimal middle ground between the scrolls and the carpet, and it’s very expensive for what it provides.
Lesser Wings of Flying (22,000 gp)
Takes up your shoulder slot (so no cloak of resistance or displacement) to provide a 30 foot fly speed with poor maneuverability (-4 to fly checks) at will and with no time limit. These are more expensive than the carpet but inferior in every way except that you can’t be bull rushed off of them.
Slippers of Cloud Walking (4,400 gp) plus Eversmoking Bottle (5,400 gp)
Slippers of Cloud Walking allow you to use Air Walk for 10 minutes per day, but it only lets you walk on clouds, fog, smoke, etc. Eversmoking Bottle will let you make all the fog you need. It only pairs well with the Smoke tactics and it has a strong chance of screwing over your comrades, but if you’re already doing Smoke tactics, it’s the least expensive means of acquiring pseudo-flight.
*Aasimar Race -> Angelic Blood -> Angel Wings
Angel Wings grants a 30’ fly speed with average maneuverability. Everything about this path is inferior to doing the equivalent with the Sylph.
Mounts
Acquiring a flying mount is generally difficult and something you must achieve through a specific class build, an unusual achievement in an AP, or a boon in PFS. There are a few flying mounts that have specified market prices, so we will discuss those here, but bear in mind that riding a mount will involve, at minimum, competent Ride and Handle Animal skills. While you get plenty of skill points, there are probably better places to put them. Your flight will depend on the skill of your mount which, in all of these cases, will never be good enough to consistently hover and is bad enough that they might fall from the sky if they try. This will be a liability should you ever hope to full attack. To be blunt (with the possible exception of the Aether Elemental), you should not go this route, but I will list your best options anyway. Note that in PFS you can only purchase mounts with CRs lower than your HD.
There are, essentially, two combat strategies that work best for the rogue: “hit and run” and “maximizing multiple attacks.” Invisibility, Improved Stealth, the Scout archetype, Smoke, and Sniping generally serve the former. Intimidation, Improved Flanking, Circling Mongoose, Feinting, Blinding, Pack Flanking, Tribal Hunter, and Darkness favor the latter. Obviously there’s some overlap. I, personally, favor “hit and run” because it’s safer and rogues are very likely to die, but I can’t deny the raw power of the latter. This section will illustrate just how tremendous that raw power can be.
If you visit any Pathfinder forum discussing theory behind maximizing damage you’ll find the consensus that it’s generally better to focus on maximizing accuracy and damage per attack (while full attacking when possible) rather than increasing your number of attacks. If you compare a fighter wielding a two-handed sword investing in feats like Power Attack and Improved Critical to one utilizing Two Weapon Fighting, the two-handed sword wielder will tend to come out on top.
There are several reasons for this, the most important being:
None of these criticisms are wrong and they all play into why I personally prefer hit-and-run tactics. That said, where the rogue’s concerned, things are a bit more complicated.
The benefit of making multiple attacks is proportional to how reliably you can hit and how much damage you do per attack. If you’re facing a bunch of low-AC enemies, flurrying monks will out-DPR the barbarian. When you’re facing the heavily armored and buffed BBEG, the monk will rarely hit at all while the raging barbarian will at least do something.
When you’re a fighter, you want to be reliable, and no one is better suited for being so than you are. You will be going up against your enemy’s full armor class and DR, and thus, you want to do everything you can to overcome those obstacles. This means buying bonuses to your weapon, power attacking, buffing your strength, and so on.
Rogues don’t fight like fighters. Instead of overcoming an enemy’s defenses through brute force we do everything we can to circumvent them. When we’re successful, our DPR is more reminiscent of the flurrying monk. When we’re unsuccessful, we’re useless anyway.
As such, if we want to orient our build around full attacking, we should be thinking like a monk, maximizing our number of attacks, not like a fighter, maximizing our damage. Damage is addressed automatically via our rising sneak attack progression, which when it activates, will be more devastating than anything most other classes can muster.
What this boils down to is that the more attacks we can make, the more damage we’ll do, and we’ll tend to get more bang for our buck improving our number of attacks rather than improving our raw accuracy and damage.
So how do we increase our number of attacks? Here are several possibilities:
At level 8, while remaining PFS legal and limiting ourselves to the helm, manta ray cloak, and boots of speed, we could hypothetically achieve 8 attacks per full attack. Assuming we have a monkey sitting on our shoulder for Tribal Hunter, and all of our attacks hit, that would be 39d6+1d3 damage (139 on average) plus 5X our dex modifier and 3X our str. This is sufficient to kill nearly any monster in all the bestiaries up to CR 10. As has been the theme throughout this guide, with good tactics, rogues are incredible. It is just the challenging matter of achieving good tactics.
Gord the Rogue of Greyhawk Adventures
Though most GMs are unlikely to challenge you on this point, there is some controversy out there regarding whether attacking from stealth actually denies enemies their Dex bonuses to AC and therefore allows for sneak attack. This controversy exists because there is, in fact, no line in any rule book that articulates as much. If you need to prove the point, here is the reasoning.
Page 179 of the Core Rulebook reads “If you can’t react to a blow, you can’t use your dexterity bonus to AC.” Page 106 reads “Creatures that fail to beat your Stealth check are not aware of you.” Jason Bulmahn, lead designer at Paizo, indicated “It was our intent that if you are unaware of a threat, you cannot react to a blow…but space in the Stealth description was extraordinarily tight and every word was at a premium.”* This suggests that if a character successfully uses stealth, their target is unaware of them, denying their dexterity bonus and allowing sneak attack on the first attack. If your GM disagrees with Jason Bulmahn and the broad consensus of everyone else who plays this game, well, you’ll just have to rely on other tactics to sneak attack or find another GM.
There is some controversy over whether an invisible character can provide flanking. On page 197 of the Core Rulebook, the flanking rules read as follows:
“When making a melee attack, you get a +2 flanking bonus if your opponent is threatened by another enemy character or creature on its opposite border or opposite corner.” “Only a creature or character that threatens the defender can help an attacker get a flanking bonus.”
On page 180, under the section on Attacks of Opportunity, it describes threatened squares as follows:
“Threatened Squares: You threaten all squares into which you can make a melee attack, even when it is not your turn.”
Nowhere in the rules for invisibility does it indicate that it changes the squares you threaten. If a character is “unwilling to make an attack because it would break invisibility,” this doesn’t mean they are not threatening the square.
As such, if you are invisible, or you have an invisible comrade flanking an enemy with you, you should both receive the benefits of flanking.
This has been confirmed on the Paizo forums by a developer. If your GM disagrees with you despite this evidence, they are your GM, it’s their call.
There is much debate about carpets of flying. Can you take a 5’ step with them? Do they use your Fly skill or their own at +5? Are they a mount or an attended magic item?
The only answer we’ve received has come from creative director James Jacobs.
“You ride around on it with your Fly skill. It's under your mental command, so you can basically think of it as functioning similarly to overland flight or similar spells... except you can get knocked off of it if, for example, you get bull rushed off of it.”
Imoen from Baldur’s Gate
All builds are based on 20-point buy and are PFS legal.
Tactics: Charging, Improved Flanking, Invisibility, Intimidate
Stats: Str 8, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 7
Racial Traits: Low-Light Vision, Keen senses, Elven Immunities, Ancestral Arms (Elven Branched Spear), Multitalented (Rogue, Unused)
Favored Class Bonus: Human (+⅙ Extra Rogue talent levels 1-6), Elf (+1/2 use of Major Magic thereafter)
Weapon: Elven Branched Spear
Traits: Pragmatic Activator (Magic), Clever Wordplay (Intimidate) (Social)
Level Progression:
Raine will open combat in one of three ways. If her initiative is low and multiple friends are attacking an enemy, she will stand behind her tankiest friend and sneak attack thanks to her Gang Up feat. If she rolls high in initiative and is the first to go, she will charge the nearest enemy and deal sneak attack damage thanks to her Scout archetype. If she lacks a charge path, her friends are not ganging up on an enemy, and there are no other flanking options, she will turn invisible and move into position to attack. Once she has achieved her first sneak attack, she will begin chaining demoralizes using Frightening Ambush or Bravado’s Blade as necessary. Outside of battle, Raine is adept at opening locks and disabling traps. When she encounters a magical trap, she employs her Use Magic Device skill to cast Aram Zey’s Focus off a scroll, temporarily providing her with the ability to disable it.
Tactics: Charging, Invisibility, Feinting
Stats: Str 9, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 7
Racial Traits: Sneaky, Exotic Weapon Training, Glide, Senses
Favored Class Bonus: (+1 HP)
Weapon: Duel-wield Wakizashis, Bite
Traits: Pragmatic Activator (Magic), Clever Wordplay (Bluff) (Social)
Level Progression:
At the start of battle Falco charges the nearest flat-footed enemy and deals immediate sneak attack damage. If he is unable to charge he either targets an enemy with an acid splash or vanishes and moves into position for a full attack. When Falco’s companions have provided him with a flank he unleashes a full attack consisting of four wakizashi swings and his bite, all of which do 5d6 of sneak attack damage and all of which have the potential for Debilitating Injury. When he lacks a flank he uses his first attack to feint and the rest to deal damage. Falco’s combination of sneak attack and high volume of attacks make him the heaviest damage-dealer in the party most of the time.
Tactics: Scout Archetype, Improved Stealth, Improved Flanking
Stats: Stats: Str 10, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 7
Racial Traits: Low-Light Vision, Keen senses, Elven Immunities, Weapon Familiarity, Silent Hunter
Favored Class Bonus: Elf (+HP/+Skill Point as needed)
Weapon: Elven Branched Spear
Traits: Heirloom Weapon (Elven Branched Spear) (Equipment), Pragmatic Activator (Magic)
Level Progression:
Clariza uses her reach advantage, high acrobatics skill, and spring attack to stealth, sneak attack, and stealth again every round without suffering attacks of opportunity. This keeps her safe from attack from all but her most sensory-gifted foes. Her second level of Shadowdancer provides her with Darkvision giving her the option of pursuing Darkness-related tactics. At 11th level she acquires Gang Up giving her an additional means of sneak attacking that will occasionally allow her to use her iterative attack. So long as she has space to move, Clariza can kill an entire army without anyone knowing she’s there.
Tactics: Charging, Blinding, Flanking, Invisibility
Stats: Str 10, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 7
Racial Traits: Darkvision, Silent Hunter, Elven Immunities, Keen Senses, Weapon Familiarity
Favored Class Bonus: +1/2 Major Magic Use/Day, +HP
Weapon: Elven Branched Spear
Traits: Adopted (Halfling) (Social), Intrepid Volunteer (Race), Heirloom Weapon (Elven Branched Spear, +2 CMB with Dirty Trick) (Equipment)
Feats and Rogue Talents
At low levels Tip’s approach to combat is similar to Raine’s. He opens with a charge and takes advantage of Gang Up or ordinary flanking when his comrades’ tactics make them possible. When he is unable to charge, he will use his move action to study his target and his standard action to turn invisible before unleashing his attack the next round. At level 9 the blinding path is in full gear. He opens combat by studying and blinding opponents and then sneak attacking, re-applying blindness as a swift action or through Quick Dirty Trick as needed.
Tactics: Invisibility, Tribal Hunter, Blinding (variation), Feinting (very late)
Stats: Str 8, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 7
Racial Traits: Darkvision, Dissolution’s Child, Lurker, Scion of Shadows
Favored Class Bonus: +⅙ Rogue Talent
Weapon: Dual-Wield Kukris
Traits: Clever Wordplay (Use Magic Device) (Social), House of Green Mothers Pupil (Magic)
Level Progression:
Once Lakitu is riding his aether elemental anything medium sized or larger is considered “flanked.” Lakitu unleashes hell with a full attack sneak attack every round he doesn’t need to move. In the event Lakitu faces an enemy somehow immune to this tactic (for example, being size tiny or smaller), he turns invisible using Dissolution’s Child and attempts to sneak attack that way. At level 12, when necessary, he uses feinting tactics. Instead of fighting, Lakitu’s familiar uses “Aid Another” to improve Lakitu’s armor class, shoring up some of the vulnerability of the build. At higher levels, Lakitu buys benevolent armor for his elemental to improve the Aid Another benefits. Lakitu also always uses his debilitating injury to harm his opponent’s to-hit roll except in extenuating circumstances.
Tactics: Sniping, Intimidation
Stats: Str 8, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 16
Racial Traits: Skulker, Swift as Shadows, Keen Senses, Halfling Luck
Favored Class bonus: +1 HP, +1 Skill Point if needed
Weapon: Musket
Traits: Memorable (Social), Briar Bandit (Region)
Level Progression:
One of the challenges of being a functional gunslinger is dealing with reloading. Rapid Reloader gets it to a standard action. Fast Musket gets it to a move action. Paper cartridges will get it to a free action. Wolf will only ever have one grit point, but since Steady Aim and Fast Musket don’t consume grit, that’s all she will need most of the time. To address misfires, she carries around a wand of mending.
Once she’s begun her rogue levels, Wolf focuses on sniping, targeting ranged touch while denying her enemies their Dex bonuses to AC. Most of the time she only misses on a rolled 1. Between Swift as Shadows and the Unchained Stealth ability she gets through Rogue’s Edge, Wolf suffers no penalties to stealth for sniping. She will purchase Sniper’s Goggles as soon as possible. If she is unwilling to wait or generally considers them pricier than they’re worth, she will take Ninja Trick: Deadly Range as her Rogue talent at 7th level and take Frightening Ambush and Bleeding attack later.
Once she’s chaining intimidation or successfully sniping, Wolf should have no trouble dealing out devastating damage and effects while remaining hidden and safe. Her greatest challenge concerns finding a way to get her chain started. If her initiative is high enough, she takes advantage of her enemies’ flat-footed status to achieve her first sneak attack. Otherwise, if she isn’t being observed, she opens battle by finding cover or concealment and hiding. If she is being observed, she’ll seek a source of total cover or perhaps resort to a smoke pellet. Once Wolf achieves her first sneak attack, she uses Bravado’s Blade at lower levels and Fearsome Strike at Level 11 to demoralize her enemies rendering them vulnerable to Shatter Defenses and Frightening Ambush. Outside of battle, while she trains Disable Device, Wolf prioritizes social skills over thievery and dungeoneering. Her high charisma and abundant skill points make her an exceptional face for the party.
Thank you for taking the time to peruse this guide. I hope you found it helpful. I could not have written it without the research and thinking of the many other authors of guides who’ve come before. Thank you to all those listed and to everyone who’s ever shared Pathfinder advice on a public forum. My Pathfinder experience has been made better thanks to you. I hope my contribution does the same for others.
Zenith Games Guide to the Guides – A Table of Contents of sorts for Pathfinder guides.
CTP's Unchained Rogue Mini-Guide – The first guide I’m aware of for the Unchained Rogue.
A Pathfinder Build of the Dirty Trick Master – Guide to Dirty Tricks.
Try Fighting Without Pants! – Another guide to dirty tricks.
The Noble Art of Intimidancy – Guide to intimidation builds.
Hide in Plain Sight Analysis – Guide to understanding stealth mechanics.
A Practical Guide to Light and Darkness – Understand lighting mechanics.
Never Tell Me the Odds: A Pathfinder Guide to the Rogue – My favorite vanilla rogue guide.
Rogue Eidolon's Guide to Rogues – The original guide to vanilla rogues.
Forger's List of Awesome Stuff for Rogues – A list of good options for rogues.
Items Master List – A list of excellent magic items for various builds.
Dipping for Fun and Profit – A guide to useful dips.
Getting from X to Y – A guide for traits, feats, etc. that let you apply your desired stat to various things.
Guidance - Playing 101: Guide to Teamwork Feats – A guide to teamwork feats.
Tips and Traits: A Guide to Pathfinder Traits – A very good guide to traits.
Optimizing Your Backstory – My personal favorite guide to traits.
Fame and Fortune: Getting the Most from Your Prestige Points – Spending PFS prestige points.
Going in Against a Sicilian When Death is On the Line – A guide to poisons.
Alchemical Items Guide – A guide to good alchemical items.
Thank you to everyone in the following Reddit threads for helping me review and improve this guide.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pathfinder/comments/6g2lw2/new_guide_to_the_unchained_rogue/
Lastly, thank you to “Locke” for all your contributions to this guide. Your comments have made big difference in its quality.
