I've got some suggestions to help bring the rogue class up to the standards of the many other classes. Sometimes I miss things so I wanted all of your opinions as well.
My goals were to give the rogue something of its own (debuffing), to give it a little more "punch" without relying solely on sneak attack and to make sure not to tie it to a particular ability score.
In doing this, I have borrowed some mechanics from the paladin and the fighter. All of the following are additions. Nothing has been removed.
Deft Strike (Ex). At first level the rogue learns how to make a carefully planned, exceptionally brutal or amazingly precise strike for maximum effect on any type of opponent. Once a day, the rogue can declare a Deft strike before the attack roll is made on any opponent within 30 feet. If successful, the rogue adds double his sneak attack dice as extra damage to the target. For the purposes of Deft strike, this damage always applies even if the target is not currently vulnerable to sneak attack or precision damage. If the attack is unsuccessful, the use of Deft Strike is wasted. The extra damage from Deft Strike does not stack with normal sneak attack damage and like sneak attack damage dice, they are not multiplied on a critical hit.
At fourth level and every four levels after, the rogue can use Deft Strike on additional time per day.
Armor Class Bonus: Much like a monk, the rogue learns how to avoid getting hit whenever possible. The Rogue adds a bonus to his armor class equal to one-fifth of his level. This bonus applies to all attacks but is lost if the rogue loses his dexterity bonus because of being restrained or unconscious.
Sapping (Ex): Rogues can be frustrating opponents and one of the reasons for this is their ability to hinder an opponents best efforts of defenses with their attacks. At 3rd level, the rogue chooses an target ability to affect with his sapping attacks. Therafter, as a standard action the rogue can make a melee or ranged attack and if successful that ability takes a circumstance penalty of -2. The target can spend a move action to rid himself of the penalty but otherwise it lasts until the end of the rogue’s next turn.
Every three levels thereafter, a Rogue can select one additional area that the rogue’s sapping affects and can increase the penalty of any sapping by an additional -1 (even the one just selected). A rogue can only affect one ability with each attack and use of sapping though. Sapping can be combined with Sneak attack or Deft Strike.
- At 3rd level, the rogue can select from the following abilitites: Armor class, Attack rolls, Speed (in feet, round down new speed to increments of 5.)
- At 6th level, the rogue can select from the following abilitites: Ability checks, Dexterity, Intelligence, Skill checks, Strength, Wisdom.
- At 9th level, the rogue can select from the following abilitites: Caster Level Checks, Charisma, Constitution, Damage reduction, Saving Throws, Spell resistance.
The main concerns I have is with the sapping ability in the order that additional sapping targets are gained. I feel this could be a little more elegant but I'm not sure.