Melee-liking comrades mean a lot of chances to flank, therefore to SA. You have three of those. That should probably count.
SA with a range weapon is much rarer. I would focus first on melee.
There's been heated debate on the mandatory use of TWF for a rogue (do a search and you'll find plenty). It takes all your feats away though.
You seem to want both melee and range. You will have to accept the limits and not forget that the other choices are not without limits. From what I've read, rogue players enjoy their character, no matter what style they favor.
Regards,
DW
TWFing can work very well with a rogue, and is the easiest way for a rogue to dish out the most damage. It does have its drawbacks though. For one, rogues generally have lower AC and hitpoints then most meleers would (you especially will with a 10 Con), and can get trashed real quick if stuck in melee very long. Also, with the medium BAB on top of the -2 for TWFing, it makes it harder to hit things. The -2 will generally be negated due to flanking, but its still a little tougher to do.
Its still very viable. You'd probably want to keep your UMD skill at max and pick up as many low level wands as possible, with spells like displacement, blink, mirror image, etc, to help with avoiding getting hit. And you can definitely keep your UMD up while still keeping up Stealth, Perception, and Disable Device; you will be getting 10 skill points a level as a rogue, so you will have plenty.
Ranged attacking with a rogue is doable as well, but it really cuts into your opportunity to get sneak attacks. The big problem with a ranged rogue is the medium BAB progression rather than full BAB. Thus, using rapid shot and Deadly Aim will make it very difficult to hit things, and thats where the strength of ranged attacks comes from.
You might want to consider a Ranger/Rogue mix. That will keep your skill points high, but will give more hitpoints and better BAB, as well as open up some other feats additional feats. If you want a TWFing skill monkey type, I'd say Rogue 4/Ranger X, since that only costs you one BAB but still gives 2d6 sneak attack and the rogue skill set, and you'd only be getting 2 skill points less per level than the straight rogue. You can use the 2 rogue talents for weapon finesse and a combat feat, and Ranger 2 will give the first Ranger combat bonus feat. That can also make a viable archer build, taking archery feats instead of TWFing feats. Conceivably, you could do both, but if you go that route I'd probably say focus more on archery and then just take TWFing and maybe Imp TWFing when feats are available.
Given your low HP totals, wading into melee with TWF might be dangerous. What about going with the spring attack style? That would let you get into a flanking position, sneak attack, and back out without provoking AOO's. And as you said your running 3.5, you can take the more avanced versions from the PHB2 like bounding assult, that let you get more free attacks while moving.
the problem with this though is you would only get 1 weapon swing, so it wouldnt work well with a TWF style. You'd be better with a 2 handed style.
Re: Low ac-Why not TWF with a shield?
He'd take a -4 due to lack of proficiency unless he took a prof feat (bleh) or dipped in Fighter or Ranger for a level.
Could be an option with a dip in fighter but if i am not mistaken rogues arent proficient with shields. Plus i don't think sneak attacking with a a shield would fly with my DM. Heck, even i think it would be ridiculous
SHIELD BASH TO THE KIDNEYS!!
Not really ridiculous, a jab with the end of a shield probably would be just as effective as any other bludgeoning weapon a Rogue can SA with. If your DM still is wavering, throw some shield spikes on it if he has the mindset "Sneak Attack = stab".
So i took Fast stealth since aside from Bleeding attack (which is outlawed) its my number one choice.
Why is bleeding attack outlawed?
Yeah shield edge to the throat usually does wonders for taking the fight out of someone.
Just something to consider, I don't believe there is any ruling preventing you from taking Quick Draw and Point Blank Shot along with the Two Weapon Fighting and Improved Two Weapon Fighting (and perhaps Weapon Focus [X] if you can spare it) and go to town with that. Let's face it, with a Rogue's BAB you're not going to be hitting with your secondary attacks very often, so really only the first two hits are ever going to guarantee hits.
Let's assume you've gone for Dagger (or some other throwing weapon, the Drow Long-Knives from the Eberron campaign also spring to mind). With the above Feats, you can fling daggers from hiding, potentially hitting four targets for sneak attack damage, and then when they come in for the melee, you pull out your 'main weapons' ( ie enchanted to hell ) and you're still in the game. Alternatively, enchanting four daggers with the Distance, Returning, Flesh Grinding and Master Slaying (last two from Book of Vile or whatever it's called, a manual focusing upon Evil. Flesh Grinding makes the weapon stick in the wound and 'grind', causing more damage, and the Master Slaying allows you to make the weapon attack the wielder, so long as you hold the weapon's 'holder', nominally a sheath of some kind.) and go absolutely bug-nuts berserk.
I believe there was a Knife-Fighter buildin one of the old Dragons or Dungeons magazines. I'll try to find you the issue, I believe it might help you out here.
Someone else was considering builds pretty recently - specifically a knife fighter. So ... I'd say go with knife as your main weapon. Since you're running 3.x there's all the cool toys you can being into it - like Silent Blade PrC amongst others. Or ... just stick to rogue for your melee levels (forget silent blade) and go with Master Thrower PrC to get the crazy advantages of distance use with your weapons. Invest in weapons of returning asap, and you can toss your daggers crazy-fast!
Being a rogue, with light armor, low AC, and a 10 for con ... DO NOT hang around in melee at all if you can avoid it. That said, in the PHBII there's a cool feat you especially may want if you are dead set on getting into melee: Melee Evasion - you need Dex and Int of 13, Dodge and Combat Expertise as pre-reqs, but it lets you roll as an IMMEDIATE action 1/round to negate a hit from the target of your Dodge feat. So, you have your normal AC (whatever it is) and if you get hit, you get an instant re-roll on your own end that can add your best attack bonus to try and negate the incoming attack (ie: your rolled "to hit" result will become your new AC against that one attack). It's a good way to extend your survival in a melee situation with low hp's and AC in general (but presumably you'll have a decent to hit final with a melee build in your design, yes?)
If you're doing 3.5 look into taking Swashbuckler from Complete Warrior, level 1 gives free Weapon Finesse. Also consider Human as opposed to Half-elf as the 3.5 Half-elf really brings nothing to the table and the extra feat will be invaluable with a TWF style character.
Take at least 3 levels of Swashbuckler to get Insightful Strike and add Intelligence mod to damage to SA.
Take the Daring Rogue feat from Complete Scoundrel to allow your Rogue and Swashbuckler levels to stack for figuring out SA bonus, Grace (a bonus to your Reflex saves), and Dodge bonus.
Also, somewhere around level 7 or so, try to add one level of the PrC Nightsong Enforcer from Complete Adventurer. It adds +1 BAB and +1 die of SA and a bounus to see/hear allies.
I'm currently running the same build as above but at 13th level (Rogue 9/Swashbuckler 3/ NE 1) and can dish out 8d6 worth of damage with SA
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On rogues:
Firstly, the whole "ranged" approach is bad. Most of a rogue's damage comes from sneak attack. The ONLY way to sneak attack with a bow in pathfinder is during the surprise round, or by spending one turn hiding for every turn you attack.
Now, there are a couple wacky overpowered ranged sneak attack abilities you can pick up from the horribly unbalanced end days of 3.5, but if your DM is letting those in, you'd be better off finding an old "3.5 rogue archer" thread somewhere and pulling advice from that.
Now, the best damage build for rogues is a strength-based half-orc using a falchion (has to be half-orc, for the weapon proficiency). The second best damage build is two-weapon fighting, using a pair of matching light weapons. Which weapons is really not important, as most of the damage comes from sneak attack; you are better off going with a matching set to conserve feats, rather than trying to get an extra point of damage or threat with your main weapon.
A Strength-based power-attacking rogue is best because he is mobile; the two-weapon fighting build gives better numbers if and only if it can spend at least 4 full rounds doing nothing but full-round flanking sneak-attack actions for every round that it has to move more than 5 feet, which never happens in actual in-game combats. These numbers have been crunched somewhere; two-weapon fighting looks good but fails to deliver in most fights.
Also, on a personal note: two-weapon fighting builds do nothing but stand still and spit out damage, which is rather boring; if I want to stand in place and smash mobs in the face, I'll play a Fighter.
Anyway, you are unfortunately stated up for the two-weapon, dex-based build; go weapon finesse, two-weapon fighting, weapon focus, and try to stand still and full-round flank sneak attack as much as you can. Or talk to your GM and get re-build permission.
Re: Low ac-Why not TWF with a shield?Could be an option with a dip in fighter but if i am not mistaken rogues arent proficient with shields. Plus i don't think sneak attacking with a a shield would fly with my DM. Heck, even i think it would be ridiculous
SHIELD BASH TO THE KIDNEYS!!
My wizard's cohort is a rogue/fighter, weapon finessed TWF with shield. A masterwork light shield eliminates all the penalties for this build. It's viable, and a sneak attack shield bash isn't hard to justify - a shield has an edge, even if it isn't sharp. Edges rammed into joints results in pain - elbows, knees, throat, groin, all good places to jam a shield's edge into.
OTOH, I built my cohort on the 'always sneak attack' principle. Combat Expertise/Improved Feint for when she can't flank, Quick Draw for the surprise round (keep some throwing knives handy). Any round you're not sneak attacking, you should be setting up to sneak attack next round.
Someone else was considering builds pretty recently - specifically a knife fighter. So ... I'd say go with knife as your main weapon. Since you're running 3.x there's all the cool toys you can being into it - like Silent Blade PrC amongst others. Or ... just stick to rogue for your melee levels (forget silent blade) and go with Master Thrower PrC to get the crazy advantages of distance use with your weapons. Invest in weapons of returning asap, and you can toss your daggers crazy-fast!
Being a rogue, with light armor, low AC, and a 10 for con ... DO NOT hang around in melee at all if you can avoid it. That said, in the PHBII there's a cool feat you especially may want if you are dead set on getting into melee: Melee Evasion - you need Dex and Int of 13, Dodge and Combat Expertise as pre-reqs, but it lets you roll as an IMMEDIATE action 1/round to negate a hit from the target of your Dodge feat. So, you have your normal AC (whatever it is) and if you get hit, you get an instant re-roll on your own end that can add your best attack bonus to try and negate the incoming attack (ie: your rolled "to hit" result will become your new AC against that one attack). It's a good way to extend your survival in a melee situation with low hp's and AC in general (but presumably you'll have a decent to hit final with a melee build in your design, yes?)
That's a fancy idea imo and I asked my DM if I could try my rogue with that and he agreed that I can convert the Master Thrower into pathfinder,but I'm not sure how the sneak attack would work with throwing knives then? Also what kind of magic would you need so you'd have ''endless supply' of such knives?
Firstly, the whole "ranged" approach is bad. Most of a rogue's damage comes from sneak attack. The ONLY way to sneak attack with a bow in pathfinder is during the surprise round, or by spending one turn hiding for every turn you attack.
Or, you can be firing on blind targets or have greater invis. Both of those things usually require wizard/sorcerer support in the party, though.