I am new to these forums & I don't see where I cant post a new topic so apologies for posting here if your topic has not yet been resolved
I have a Halfling Rouge Lvl 1 with from what I under stand it is
8+ INT bonus & 1 at each level if you take skill points instead of HP
I have 12 Points to spend But I am unsure as to how to spend them most effectively & I would like some suggestion as to how to do just that
My INT is 16 mod +3 & yes I have taken the skill point at each level option so 12 points to spend each level
I will be doing rise of the rune lords campaighn I have been told to also take 2 traits one from the campaighn & one from Core Rule book
So I have taken Goblin Watcher & Reactionary
Reactionary being +2 on initiative checks
gobline watcher gives 1 perception 1 appraise & +5 to appraise most valuable item in the pile
and there is the halfling racials 2 acrobatics 2 climb 2 perception 4 stealth
my character is wanting to have a background in crime & be a pirate criminal type character
I will be going two weapon fighting
I hope I have supplied enough information & look forward to seeing your suggestions...
Especially for a rogue, there are a lot of skills that are trained only, including knowledges. A rank in those is nice.
Pick a few skills that fit your character concept. Keep those as high as you can.
For a pirate, I'd suggest profession sailor, swim, and climb as a minimum.
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It's 8 + int, not d8
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Don't think that skill points alone are going to do it. It's a classic trap. 11 pts a level is a LOT. More is overkill, especially if it means you are taking away from your other abilities, like combat.
TWF is hard, and small weapons makes it worse. If you have a 16 INT, what's your str and con? I'd want both of them to be 14. You might think that weapon finesse will save you, but a) that's a feat, and b) you're only hitting, not doing damage.
When you run into your first foe with damage reduction, like a zombie, you'll be doing no damage at all. Is that going to be fun?
For your background in crime, I would put skill points in some of the following, depending on what you opinion of 'background in crime' means: bluff, stealth, climb, disable device, intimidate, appraise, slight of hand, perception, sense motive, linguistics, and disguise. I suppose that list could be expanded using class skills, just depends on what kind of a crook you were. The rogue's skill list is meant to accommodate criminals.
And pirates should probably learn to swim, but its not required. Just don't fall in.
How many ranks in each of those & which bearing in mind I have 12 points
also is it true you don't get the class bonus if you don't have at least one rank in that skill ?
TWF is hard, and small weapons makes it worse. If you have a 16 INT, what's your str and con? I'd want both of them to be 14. You might think that weapon finesse will save you, but a) that's a feat, and b) you're only hitting, not doing damage.
Well, rogues add sneak attack damage to every hit, if they manage to flank. If you hit your output damage is mainly that of sneak attack. I wouldn't bother to have a really high Str, because even with something like 30 Str at 20th, you're going to do 1d6 (with short sword)+10+10d6. The Str bonus is dwarfed from sneak attack.
When you run into your first foe with damage reduction, like a zombie, you'll be doing no damage at all. Is that going to be fun?
What? You don't count the sneak attack damage. It count toward the dr overcome.
How many ranks in each of those & which bearing in mind I have 12 points ?
which was my original question I would like help with please & thankyou
My str is not really high only reason I got anything in it is because of things like swim for example wanting to be a pirate and swim or reasonable swim i thought would be important for being a pirate :-)
One easy way to do it is to just pick however many skills as you get per level (in your case 12) and just put one point in them each level (assuming you don't multiclass). You can have a maximum number of ranks in any given skill equal to your class levels. A level 1 character can't have more than 1 rank in any skill, a level 2 can't have more than 2 ranks in any skill, etc.
also is it true you don't get the class bonus if you don't have at least one rank in that skill ?
also is it true you don't get the class bonus if you don't have at least one rank in that skill ?
By your question I assume you are asking that if you have a class skill and you do not put a rank in it do you still receive the +3 bonus for it being a class skill? The answer is no.
I would recommend the following skills based on your character description of pirate rogue.
1. Acrobatics
2. Bluff
3. Climb
4. Disable Device
5. Disguise
6. Perception
7. Stealth
8. Swim
9. Use magic device
10. Diplomacy
11. Intimidate
12. Profession (Pirate)
For little less on the pirate side I would drop climb, swim, profesion (pirate) and pickup any 3 knowledge skills that the other players don't possess. Climbing and swimming can be replaced by low level magic to remove the dangers associated with them (fly and waterbreathing spells). Profession skill doesn't really do much aside from allowing you a weekly check to make some money, though a DM can allow you to use it for things that may be vaguely associated with your profession. In general the profession skill is really only useful for role play justification of character background.
That is true.
And while I haven't forgotten about sneak attack, I think you'll be happier with someone who can fight well normally, and is even better with sneak attack, instead of someone who is ONLY good with sneak attack, and weak otherwise.
I played a pirate rogue from 1-15, very similar to yours, and I wish someone had told me these things.
Is your GM going to depart much from RotRL as written?
Because...
Definitely prioritize skills in which you get a racial bonus (stealth for example). From the standpoint of the group, it's better for different members to "spike" skills that complement each other than for everyone to generalize.
Remember that you can set up sneak attacks with acrobatics to avoid attacks of opportunity.
I would care about how much damage you do: if you don't have high Strength, you can find weapons with the Agile special quality -- but those weapons cost a minimum 8300gp.
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well going by the spoiler I would be silly if I was to change knowing that before i started wich would be that nasty habbit metagaming :-)
I may drop the str to a straight 10 because as blackstorm said very little point as the damage comes from sneak attack mainly
I have put 1 rank in each of the following
bluff
stealth
climb
disable device
intimidate
appraise
slight of hand
perception
sense motive
linguistics
disguise
Acrobatics
I still want to take UMD& Escape artist
I will take those at level 2
can you still try & swim with a straight dice roll even if you dont have a rank in it ?
I second the suggestion to invest in some Knowledge skills that are class skills for you. With your high INT you can readily identify strengths and weaknesses of monsters as you encounter them.
Personally, I would prioritize these skills:
Acrobatics
Bluff
Climb
Diplomacy
Disable Device
Escape artist (gets you out of grapples if your GM uses those)
Intimidate
Knowledge (dungeoneering)
Knowledge (local)
Perception
Sense motive
Stealth
Swim (pirate theme)
That's 13; not completely maxing out each one won't kill you. I would also plan to take only enough ranks in Appraise that you can take 10 and get a result of 20 (read the Appraise skill; exception being that your GM decides to raise the DC of certain items higher). Do the same with Use Magic Device so you can use wands without failure outside of combat.
As a GM, I like to give my players one rank in Profession or Perform for free so they can add flavor to their character without fear they are making their character less effective.
but I haven't put swim in my list if you notice so its 12
I have decided to drop the whole pirate thing anyway but I can still be a criminal
and i worked out my STR stat wrong on my character sheet I actually had infact spent more points then what I had so my STR is a flat 10 anyway
it said 12 before when it should of been 10
so lvl 2 I will still pick up
UMD
Escape Artist
knowledge local
knowledge dungeoneering
will change 3 of my languages also which was sea/pirate themed
I had before Aquan,Auran,Elven
any suggestion for 3 more languages ? that will be awesome for Rise of the runelords
I have at the moment
common
halfling
Goblin
Personally, I'd drop appraise and linguistics. Just because it's a class skill doesn't mean you should take it. Unless your GM is forcing you to evaluate the value of items in order to sell them for half price it just isn't that useful. In every campaign I've ever played there have been exactly 0 people to ever take and use the skill appraise. And while knowing more languages sounds good, unless your GM actually makes a habbit of using other languages it always seeems like it turns out everything is in common. Which makes a certain amount of sense, as in real life there is a trend in which English has become the language of trade and most every nation has begun teaching English at an early age for communication with English speaking countries. Besides which, with a int mod of 3 you begin play speaking common and 3 other languages (I think). And if thats not enough a Helm of Comprehend Languages and Read Magic is 5200 gp to purchase. It's 2600 gp if someone can craft it. It makes having all the points in linguistics practically worthless.
Also, are you really interested in being a pickpocket? If so then sleight of hand is an ok choice. Otherwise I would drop that too. Just because you're a criminal doesn't mean you're some common scofflaw who robs the pocket of every poor fellow you come across.
I don't think you want me to give too much away :)
But given you're a halfling and you're limited to choosing dwarven, elven, goblin and gnome, i think it's fair to say that none of those are particularly good or bad for this AP. If you are curious, however, and if you find a scholar or think about the clues you find, you might see that it makes sense for someone in the party to pick up certain languages using Linguistics.
I have linguisics just need to pick 3 languages but yeah hard to say without giving away plot etc
I was thinking Drconic & Giant not sure for 3rd
I like apraise bearing in mind my character idea of a criminal & how I might want to play it it seems fitting and lingusitics I will find usefull because well its allways usefull to speak something that someone else does not and my character might want to be a dick and not tell the rest if it works for him
TWF is hard, and small weapons makes it worse. If you have a 16 INT, what's your str and con? I'd want both of them to be 14. You might think that weapon finesse will save you, but a) that's a feat, and b) you're only hitting, not doing damage.
Well, rogues add sneak attack damage to every hit, if they manage to flank. If you hit your output damage is mainly that of sneak attack. I wouldn't bother to have a really high Str, because even with something like 30 Str at 20th, you're going to do 1d6 (with short sword)+10+10d6. The Str bonus is dwarfed from sneak attack.
What? You don't count the sneak attack damage. It count toward the dr overcome.
When you run into your first foe with damage reduction, like a zombie, you'll be doing no damage at all. Is that going to be fun?
We clearly disagree on this, sneak attack is harder to arrange than you think. It will come up less than half the time. Any foe that is halfway intelligent will move out of flanking at their first opportunity. You can only 5ft after them if there's no terrain or other enemies in the way. Or, they take the AO to get father away, and you can't 5ft after them.
This matters, because any round you move into flanking, you can't use two-weapon fighting.
I like apraise bearing in mind my character idea of a criminal & how I might want to play it it seems fitting and lingusitics I will find usefull because well its allways usefull to speak something that someone else does not and my character might want to be a dick and not tell the rest if it works for him
I can see your reason but that would require me abandoning more of my character ideas the criminal thing can still work though even with what you suggested so I will think on what you said
but would still like to see 3 suggestions for 3 languages eitherway incase i still stick with what I got so far
Check out Rogue Eidolon's Guide to Rogues.
Also check out Death from the Shadow: A Guide to the Ninja by Joseph Bucceri.
These guides describe the Rogue's abilities, with the Ninja guide focusing on the alternate Rogue. There is a lot of overlap, but both describe a lot of the reasons for the choices you need to make to play the class. Both go through Skills, Feats, and so on.
Many on the net have said that Ninja is how Rogue should have been done. I am partial to it myself, but they both go into detail of the reasons and mechanics on making the class work well.
/cevah
I have dropped Linguistics so no rank in it anymore so now it is just common & halfling & dropped swim as I was told theres hardly any sea fareing to be done
this has also taken into acount the racials
my Str is now 14 +2 mod
my dex is now 16 +3 mod
12 int
15 cha
10 wis
10 con
which now does mean I have only 10 Skillpoints each level
taken
acrobatics
appraise
Climb
Disable device
Escape artist
perception
sense motive
sleight of hand
stealth
use magic device
will take at level 2 now
Bluff
Disguise
knowledge dungeoneering
knowledge Local
only question I have now what is the official ruleing on the trait from rise of the rune lords called
Giant Slayer
Your family’s village was plundered by giants in the wilds of Varisia, leaving nothing but a smoldering ruin. After the destruction of your village, your family trained for combat against giants to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. Since hearing of giants mobilizing throughout the countryside, you ventured to Sandpoint to help the town prepare for a possible incursion. You gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff, Perception, and Sense Motive checks and +1 trait bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls against creatures of the giant subtype.
does that sound like the only part of that wich is giant aplicable is the to hit and damage part and the other bonuses are on all the time or is the whole lot giant only ?
just the way the last sentance branches off makes it sounds like its only the hit and damage
It's worded poorly, but the intent seems to be bonuses against creatures of the Giant subtype. Let's put it this way - does anything in the flavor text indicate that it should make you better than others at passing secret messages, finding hidden doors, or evaluating the words of others? I didn't think so.
A better wording would be, "Against creatures of the Giant subtype, you gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff, Perception, and Sense Motive checks. Additionally, you gain a +1 trait bonus on attack and damage rolls against creatures of the Giant subtype."
Just awaiting a reply from my GM to see what he says if he will allow it to be the way I think it is or not...if not I will change it but not sure what to as there not very many rise of runelord traits to choose from
I suggest looking at the flavor text of the traits more than the mechanical benefits thereof. Campaign traits exist to give your character a reason to enter the story. Choose a story you'll be happy with.