Alternative for rogue's trapfinding

[JSL]

I'm in the process of creating rogueish badguys and it occurs to me that the averge villain does not live long enough to get good use out of searching for traps - at least not in my games. So, I was trying to brainstorm some alternatives. Here are my ideas. Feedback appreciated.

1. Disruptive attack (from PHBII): allows you to not do sneak attack damage, but reduce target's AC for one round. This is given in PHBII as an alternative at 4th level, but I could see making it a first level alternate for a combat-oriented rogue. For each d6 of sneak attack damage not done, the target's AC is reduced by 1 until the rogue's next action.

2. Lucky (version 1): Going with the 4E hint here. What if the rogue can reroll one d20 per encounter per X levels - maybe up to 4/encounter at high levels?

3. Lucky (version 2): Flat bonus on a number of rolls per encounter. The bonus and times used both increase with level.

4. Quick: initiative bonus progressing to extra actions per round perhaps double activation at highest levels.

Admittedly, I am trying to anticipate some 4E flavor by going for abilities that increase combat/movement options over static "stand still and beat 'em" options. Also, I realize that I'm replacing basically a non-combat/RP/puzzle solving skill with combat abilities and that is a bit shallow from an RP standpoint. But I think it is justified by the nature of this as an NPC "fighting-rogue" vs. a PC "sneaking-rogue".

[FabesMinis]

Quite a simple suggestion from Unearthed Arcana of losing sneak attack and gaining the fighter progression of bonus feats. Any good?

[Tequila Sunrise]

Those options all sound fine, but are you going to be offering them to your PCs too? If any of them is playing a rogue, he might get teed-off if he ever finds out that your NPC rogues get cool stuff that he doesn't have access to.

[JSL]

Tequila Sunrise wrote:

Those options all sound fine, but are you going to be offering them to your PCs too? If any of them is playing a rogue, he might get teed-off if he ever finds out that your NPC rogues get cool stuff that he doesn't have access to.

I have no problem with PCs getting the same choices. But if I were a player in the group, *someone* had better be looking for traps and I'd rather not be carrying two rogues in my party. If your character is going to be around for 20 levels and you want a "fighting-rogue", play a fighter/rogue. You have much more time as a player to make those kinds of career decisions, especially if the DM allows retraining.

In my case, I'm trying to build bad guys that can be effective enemies for one or two fights before dying on the PCs swords. As a plot point, they don't have the weapons skill, training, or robustness of fighters. I like that rogues are "skilled" characters - good hiders and sneakers - and the sneak attack damage gives a conditional kicker that may come in once or twice per encounter. It forces the PCs to think tactically (fighting back-to-back or back-to-wall, etc).

Also, I need low-level guys that are able to accomplish what I want in 1-2 levels and don't have room for extras like trapfinding.

And a minor point: since when do I have to tell the PCs that the bad guy who just whipped 'em was a rogue? :)

[Shisumo]

The only official substitution for trapfinding that I can find is the Antiquarian ability from Complete Champion - potentially useful, but not exactly combat-oriented. It does suggest that any substitution is probably not going to be combat-oriented, though, since neither trapfinding nor antiquarian is.

You could offer them a free "+2/+2" skill feat instead... they might get a bit more use out of that.

[Grindor]

Complete Mage presents Spell Sense as an alternative to Trap Sense.

You just need to be 3rd level with 1 rank in Knowledge(arcana) and then you choose this instead of trap sense. It gives you a +1 dodge bonus to AC vs. spells and spell-like abilities, which increases at the same rate as your trap sense normally would. Seems like it'd be a lot more helpful to your bad guy (and to some PCs) than trap sense.

Barbarians are eligible for this to, by the way.