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Solid saving throws. They'll be throwing around some energy (Evasion should help with that), but also seduction/possession (Will), and poison/spores (Fortitude).
Flying mobility. Many demons can fly.
A plan against True Seeing. At higher levels many outsiders get True Seeing. Meaning if you want to Sneak Attack you can't rely on invisibility.
Buy some dimensional anchor scrolls and give them to whomever in your party can cast that spell (or use them yourself if you have lots of Use Magic Device). That will help keep the demons from teleporting away, healing themselves, and teleporting back at the most inconvenient moment.
Phase locking weapon? That solves dimensional anchor issues?
It does, at least for 1 round if you hit. However, if they already have a holy weapon, that means they're looking at buying a +5 equivalent weapon--which costs 50,000 gp. Assuming the given Wealth By Level, that is out of reach.
I'd recommend holy more than phase locking. Oh, and make sure it's cold iron. Some demons hate that stuff.
Is this for a chained rogue or unchained rogue?
potions (well, oils) of bless weapon are also a half decent alternative to holy weapons. At least at lower price ranges.
Obviously, if you can afford a +5 weapon (holy +3 so you can skip cold iron too), then forget about the bless weapon. Until then...maybe consider the buff.
Check out the stuff from Demon Hunter's Handbook.
Phase locking came in handy more times during my WoTR campaign than I can count (great for keeping those pesky demons from running away). Holy is probably still more useful on the whole, but if you're able to get both somehow, I'd definitely recommend it.
Boost Will saves. Some demons have very powerful mental attacks.
A lot of demons are melee brutes. The advanced rogue talent that does 2 points of Str damage on each sneak attack may be very useful in surviving going face-to-face with them.
Have a solution for Shadow Demons as well. Those bastards are the worst. WORST.
Sadly, rogues in general are not predestined to kill demons. The weaknesses of the class make it difficult to compete. Being unrogue halps a little though.
Honestly I don't know how to build a rogue that is at least somehow a threat to cr appropriate demons...
Sadly, rogues in general are not predestined to kill demons. The weaknesses of the class make it difficult to compete. Being unrogue halps a little though.
Honestly I don't know how to build a rogue that is at least somehow a threat to cr appropriate demons...
Eh, if you are starting at level 10, I can think of fairly good ways.
Getting an animal companion seems like a good move. Just grab something which serves only a single purpose- flank buddy. Rogues are not bad for damage.... just that they need an annoying amount of set up to do that damage. So having another boy on the field devoted to set up helps.
So if i was doing this, I would do something such as
Half elf unrogue
1: nature soul
2: rogue talent- bonus feat- piranha strike
3: TWF
4: rogue talent- weapon focus
5: animal ally
7: Book companion
9: ITWF
That should generally work out decently. I choose half elf here to get something with good will saves (dual minded for +2, elven immunity for +2 vs most mind control stuff). Level 11 feat should be for outflank. Maybe improved outflank after that to make it easier to count as flanking.
Okay, lets see - how do you compare to a CR 9 or 10 demon?
How important is being a rogue to your character concept? A slayer or ranger might fit better.
Perhaps you can save some money by being a dual wielder with a Holy cold iron weapon in the main hand and a Phase Locking weapon in the offhand. Or be a bow specialist with a Holy bow and both Phase Locking arrows and cheap cold iron arrows.
Your character must be effective in darkness. Thematically Ustalavic races with darkvision include dhamphirs, changelings, tieflings, and half orcs.
Okay, lets see - how do you compare to a CR 9 or 10 demon?
A level 10 vs a CR 10?
Most likely a rather poorly. CR assumes a party. Isn't there a specific adjustment to CR for fighting things solo?
But lets ignore that for a bit. So, assuming a scout (rogue archetypes work with unrogue, right?), you can get debilitating injury in first round with a charge (or you could just wait to charge after your pet flanks). No damage for accuracy feats for this first hit- it is set up, after all.
After that, it would be +7 BAB, +4 dex, +6 (well, enemy AC -6), +2 flanking. So that is +19 before considering magic equipment, buffs, etc.. Considering the CR 9 and 10 demons I randomly grabbed both have 25 AC, I will assume this is enough to be reliable
Adding +5d6 on each of those hits likely makes them acceptable at least. I am not going further into the math, but maybe it takes 2 rounds? Maybe less with some help from the animal companion?
I don't see the resistance here. Unrogue was made to improve the core rogue (which needed the help). It still kept some of the core usage problems, but patched up the raw numbers a bit. I then added a build designed to patch that core usage problem. I doubt it will be amazing, but it will at least be 'acceptable'. Enough that it isn't a drag, at least.
A level 10 PC itself has CR 10, so this fight should a b o u t to be even. But as the rogue is specialized in killing demons, this should without any doubt put him in favor. A paladin, a ranger or a slayer can somehow be build to have advantages against the creature type "demon" and are likesly to win vs. an cr-appropriate opponent. The rogue has some difficulties and needs to overcome the main problems: how is he getting flight that isnt rendered useless by one dispel (as many demons can dispel)? How is he overcoming damage reduction? Usualy a ranged build with clustered shots (or smite evil) would do pretty goof, but I dont see much support on the rogue there. He would need to get some acceptable saves, maybe even AC - just to be able to survive 1 - 2 full attacks...
Idk - I dont feel like this will be easy. Unrogue without any doubts helps a lot. UMD as well. But still... I have my concerns...
A level 10 PC itself has CR 10, so this fight should a b o u t to be even. But as the rogue is specialized in killing demons, this should without any doubt put him in favor. A paladin, a ranger or a slayer can somehow be build to have advantages against the creature type "demon" and are likesly to win vs. an cr-appropriate opponent. The rogue has some difficulties and needs to overcome the main problems: how is he getting flight that isnt rendered useless by one dispel (as many demons can dispel)? How is he overcoming damage reduction? Usualy a ranged build with clustered shots (or smite evil) would do pretty goof, but I dont see much support on the rogue there. He would need to get some acceptable saves, maybe even AC - just to be able to survive 1 - 2 full attacks...
Idk - I dont feel like this will be easy. Unrogue without any doubts helps a lot. UMD as well. But still... I have my concerns...
Appropriate CR is equal to Average Party Level, and APL get reduced by 1 if you have less than the assumed 4 players. I am not sure if it says elsewhere, but I'd assume a solo fight needs at least Level-2.
But this mostly seems focused on 'martial' problems. Not sure how much trouble dispel is against demons- looking between cr7 and 14, I only found one demon with dispel (and it lacks a flight speed anyway- Glabrezu at CR 13).
And most of teh melee versions of the classes you suggested would have the same problems, especially if they went TWF (paladin is an exception, of course.... but it is hardly fair to try to get anyone to compete with paladins in a 'fighting demons' competition). For the DR, the best I can say is 'keep some oils of bless weapon' on hand.) And pretty much anything melee can have trouble against demons playing keep away (teleport and all), so the flight point is a bit moot.
I've gone on about saves (I suggested some patches to will, at least; poisons could still be a problem). I didn't track AC, but I will assume that it is decent enough since it will be heavily SAD as an unrogue.
I'm creating a 10th level Rogue character with history on the Ustalav/Worldwound border and want this character to have been effective at fighting demons. Aside from a Holy weapon, what other means or tactics are useful for fighting demons?
Don't forget Evil Outsider Bane on your weapons. For the Cost of a +1 you get +2 to hit and +2d6+2 damage.
An APL +4 encounter is a "mirror match" - when you fight a copy of the party it results in APL +4 (honestly I strongly recommend to calculate encounter CRs by checking XP and not the CR of combatants as you only then can handle a diverse range of enemy CRs within one fight). APL +0 encounter means you fight the XP equivalent of a creature haven the CR of one of the party members (double this twice and you are at the APL +4 "mirror match"). Obviously this is the very same result as just throwing two characters of same CR against each other.
Now we all know how vague the CR system actually is. Depending on what abilities both partys have, the result of the encounter can differ badly from all expectations based on CR (like fighting flying enemies without having ranged weapons). Now the thing is in this case we want a specialist who knows how to deal with a certain kind of creature type. So we should expect him to be in advantage when it comes to killing such creatures - thats why I expect him to have good chances to take down (almost) CR appropriate enemies.
A ranger will do good. Favorite enemy, clustered shots and a ranged weapon will be pretty efficient in taking down demons. A Magus can pick spells, feats and items to bring down demons as well. Same for a lot of other classes.
Now the rogue needs to find a way to overcome the defense of demons. Lets first take a look a a pretty weak one - the babau. No flight (but dispel at will), mediocre melee stats, an easily overcome DR and almost no other defenses. Usually babaus wont fight alone (as it renders their sneak attack useless) but in general even a rogue should be able to take one down. But when we look at the Vrock, also CR 9 it starts to get more difficult. Heroism and Mirror Image both are pretty good buffs, it then has 5 attacks at +15, flight and a high DC stun ability.
Going on to CR 10 demons makes me doubt a rogue will stand a chance. The Kalavalus brings Haste, Air Walk and Dominate Person to the fight. Further it has good damage and strong combat maneuver options (+22 disarm). And then there also is the really powerful enslave soul SQ. Swift action that at least staggers the target. I dont see a rogue stand a chance (admittedly a ranger will struggle as well, but probably far less.
Maybe you can compensate some of those issues by smart choice of equipment, but in general I dont see rogues in a good position to hunt down demons...
Dont forget. Demons don't have see in darkness, just darkvision. So if you're facing off against anything (except a shadow demon), just grab Greater Gloom Magic + Multitalented and have easy deeper darkness to hide in.
(though do remember that true seeing screws this up a bit. That said, if you're facing off against anything with true seeing as a rogue and you lack mind blank you might as well just give up then and there....)