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So my kid makes a half-elven wizard (illusionist), currently at level 2. I suggested that since her character is a half-elf, she take advantage of multi-classing. Her PC's stats: Str 10, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 18, Wis 10, Cha 10. She decides on rogue for her next class. Any tips, feats to take, skills to focus on? Her PC is the party's primary face and skill monkey, but would love to be more active in combat.
Don’t multiclass a wizard especially with a rogue. Losing higher level spells and caster level is not a good idea. About the only time you should ever consider it is with a prestige class that gets full spell caster progression, but even then you are not advancing your school powers.
If you want to play an illusionist rogue mix play a bard.
It's not impossible to mix wizard and rogue. Aim for the arcane trickster prestige class, which means taking two levels of wizard and one of rogue over the next three levels, getting the accomplished sneak attacker feat at level 5, and making sure they get the skill prerequisites required (Disable Device 4 ranks, Escape Artist 4 ranks, Knowledge (arcana) 4 ranks).
On the other hand, multi-classing a rogue with wizard can be a definite improvement. :/
I presume you're DMing and can tailor your encounters. If so, you'll be able to make it work whatever she chooses.
I love and play rogues, so please believe me when I tell you that adding a level of rogue will only help her minimally in melee for a level or two, and then she'll be mostly inconsequential in melee again.
One thing that will hurt is how BAB stacks when multi-classing, using the optional proportional BAB rules can help. It's not a book I own so I can't give you a specific reference.
One nice thing about the rogue multi-class is the extra class skills. But that's another bonus that will be eclipsed in a few levels.
avr's plan is sound. Arcane trickster can be fun, but there is a bit of a valley in the character's capability before that build really begins to work.
If melee capability is what she wants, fighter or barbarian offer more than rogue.
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I've had great success with my relic hunter/thief (female half-elf diviner 4/unchained rogue 1/assassin 1/arcane trickster 10).
Works best in an easy-going game. If the game is more "life or death struggle" then I recommend taking Mysterious Stranger's advice. Lost caster levels can really hurt a spellcasting character's overall power level.
There are ways to alleviate that pain, however. Taking the Accomplished Sneak Attacker feat (Dirty Tactics Toolbox) reduces the number of rogue levels you will need to qualify, allowing you to take more wizard levels and keep your casting abilities up to par.
The Magical Knack (wizard) trait (Ultimate Campaign) can also give you a +2 caster level bonus to your wizard spellcasting (for the purposes of range, duration, damage, etc.; not for the purposes of having more spell slots of casting the next level of spells).
An orange prism ioun stone (Core Rulebook) gives you a similar +1 caster level bonus.
He could also become a member of a Spellcasting Guild (Inner Sea Magic) and work his way up through the ranks to earn Esoteric Training. That gives him a +3 caster level bonus to one class and a +1 to another, and unlike the first two suggestions DOES increase spell slots and spells known!
These are all patches though. If it's not too late, simply playing a bard will net him the spellcasting rogue feel with a lot less fuss. The retraining rules (Ultimate Campaign) might help with this if you don't want to simply "reset the character."