| Senny |
I'm playing a Rogue in CotCT at the moment, currently lv12, who spends a lot of time in action and has only been below 0HP once. Whether a Rogue works in melee depends on a) your party and b) your DM. For example, I find that the enemies we face tend to prefer attacking the Paladin, since he's the main damage-dealer of the party on the first turn, so a fairly low AC (My rogue currently has 25) isn't much of an issue. Also, if you're playing in a large party (7 in my case) it's easy to flank and get sneak attack damage. It's not to be sniffed at.
Of course, if the rest of your party don't fancy helping out a rogue flanking, you can do fighter classes like the people above suggested. That'll help you out if you come up against rogues at high level, who can't be flanked.