I wanted to try my hand at improving the rogue class please see my attempt below. The focus was to bring some of the Rogues skill primacy back from previous editions and to help give them a bump in combat so they can keep up at later levels. I wanted to do this using existing rules as much as possible without reinventing the wheel for the class or the skill system. Below is a synopsis of the changes followed by the actual rules.
* I granted them a number of automatic specific rogue talents in the vein of the 1st and 2nd edition rogue skills.
* I gave them an ability that grants them a scaling bonus on attack rolls when flanking to help combat their struggles with hitting
* I gave them an ability to add their trap sense bonus to initiative checks to help them take advantage of sneak attack at the start of combat.
* I gave them good Will saves so they are tougher to control with magic.
Please let me know if you have any suggestions, comments, or insults. All feedback is welcome, especially snarky quips.
(Below are the changes to the rogue table found in the CRB)
1st: Will Save +2; trap spotter.
2nd: Will Save +3.
3rd: Will Save +3; fast fingers, reactive.
4th: Will Save +4.
5th: Will Save +4; canny observer, flanking mastery 1.
6th: Will Save +5.
7th: Will Save +5; fast stealth.
8th: Will Save +6; flanking mastery 2.
9th: Will Save +6; wall scramble.
10th: Will Save +7.
11th: Will Save +7; flanking mastery 3.
12th: Will Save +8.
13th: Will Save +8; hide in plain sight.
14th: Will Save +9; flanking mastery 4.
15th: Will Save +9.
16th: Will Save +10; improved evasion.
17th: Will Save +10; flanking mastery 5.
18th: Will Save +11.
19th: Will Save +11; skill mastery.
20th: Will Save +12; flanking mastery 6.
* Trap spotter, fast fingers, canny observer, fast stealth, wall scramble, hide in plain sight, improved evasion, and skill mastery are all gained as bonus feats at the listed level. If the rogue uses a rogue talent to select them prior to the level they gain them as a bonus feat when the rogue reaches the appropriate level they gain a free retraining of that rogue talent choice (if they wish) and can select a new rogue talent as appropriate.
* Reactive allows the rogue to add their trap sense bonus to initiative checks.
* Flanking mastery grants the rogue a +1 bonus on attack rolls when flanking, the bonus on attack rolls increases by 1 for every three levels after 5th to a maximum of +6 bonus at 20th level (this bonus is in addition to the normal +2 bonus to hit when flanking).