Well rogue archetypes as a whole are kinda bad mostly. And at high levels your best bet may just to use Ninja. The Ninja at high levels is much more fittimg
Archetypes can't do anything because Rogue doesn't have any features to give up.
Ironically enough, they actually do. They get lots of stuff nearly every level. The problem is, most of the stuff the get is mediocre and Paizo has this thing about not makimg a archetype hugely more powerful than the base class.
There are only a few archetypes that people tend to go for with Rogues such as Knife Master or Thug. Thug is especially good for debuffing with the unchained Rogue. One thing I can't help notice about rogue archetypes though is that many of them replace things like trapfinding, evasion and uncanny dodge rather than Rogue talents. It also means most changes are simply low level (and low power) ability changes. It's a shame too because it makes it difficult to combine rogue archetypes.
If you don't have 3rd Party Content phobia, I would recommend checking out Legendary Rogue by Legendary Games to scratch your Rogue itch. It redesigns the rogue class by making it much more customisable (for example instead of trapfinding you could take information broker which gives you a bonus on Knowledge local and Diplomacy to gather information) and just overall makes the class a much more viable option.
A shadowdancer can be a sneaky bbeg. By playing all the tricks to make him hard to find. Of course this may be against how you need to use your bbeg
Maybe check out the Sczarni Swindler archetype.
It is just better to take any Classes archetype that grants sneak attack.
Pretend you are a rogue and bam better rogue 8/10 times.
Now Sczarni Swindler with Fate's Favored and other luck boosting stuff can be decent.
Archetypes aren't supposed to be more powerful than the base class... that's not the point of making them. Archetypes essentially let you create more classes without having to do them all from scratch.Archetypes can't do anything because Rogue doesn't have any features to give up.Ironically enough, they actually do. They get lots of stuff nearly every level. The problem is, most of the stuff the get is mediocre and Paizo has this thing about not makimg a archetype hugely more powerful than the base class.
Except if you limit yourself to the power of yhe base class, then any archetype for the rogue will be weak...
And actually the Kobold racial archetype (Snare Setter) and the Tengu racial archetype (Swordmaster Rogue) are also unique in that they have abilities that scale even to the highest levels.
Interesting note on racial archetypes, a human can take any racial archetype via the Racial Heritage feat. I believe half-elves and half-orcs would be able to take this feat as well, due to the fact that they also count as human. Did you look at the Swindler? It replaces a lot of rogue abilities. Several of the abilities scale in a way that would be beneficial through 20, some that would be more beneficial for the U-Rogue.
A perfect and concise rendition of what Rogues actually get. Very similar to the simplified Fighter Sheet!
==Aelryinth
Archetypes can't do anything because Rogue doesn't have any features to give up.
They have sneak attack and advanced rogues talents to give up. But I think if you get rid of that are they still rogues?
Unchained Rogue has Rogue edge ever 5 levels though.
I think the main reason why you don't have archetypes that affect higher levels of rogue is basically because Developers don't exactly know what they want to do with rogue, and often feel that if they give it something the class would become overpowered.
Esoteric Scholar for example, from Ultimate Combat, beyond being very poorly worded, gave the ability to make an untrained knowledge check once per day. Unchained is only a little better, because it isn't limited to once per day anymore. But both of them get weaker as you level. I get the feeling that giving them 'Bardic Knowledge' was felt to be too powerful.
Then there is Sneaky Maneuver in Magical Marketplace, which has the Rogue work to qualify for sneak attack damage, take a -2 penalty on their attack, sacrifice the sneak attack damage, to use a swift action to make a combat maneuver that could have been used in place of an attack (except for Dirty Trick) that still provokes an AoO. Would it have been too powerful to allow it not provoke? Not take that -2? Maybe instead of dropping sneak attack damage, it would lower it by a certain amount?
And the list of talents like this keep going on and on. it seems every time when the rogue something, It also gets nerfed to the ground.
But one rogue archetype that does look okay-ish (GM dependent) and affects pretty high, is the Waylayer, a hyperfocused archetype that specializes in the Surprise round.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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I have some insight in designing rogue archetypes based on feedback from the RPG Superstar judges on one I submitted(you could go look if you want but it was a bad archetype)...basically, as far as archetypes are concerned, rogues have Evasion, Trapfinding, Trap Sense, and (Improved) Uncanny dodge. That's why rogue archetypes almost always replace a pair of those abilities and nothing else.
The reason you almost never see rogue talents replaced is that if you create an ability that replaces a talent, why not just make a new talent and suggest the archetype select it? That gives players more build freedom and is almost always the superior option.
I'm not sure why sneak attack isn't changed more often. It seems to me that that could be a way to create more combat utility for a rogue archetype.
and the reason that doesn't happen is that 'new options that are as easy to get shouldn't make old options weak'. In other words, making up Rogue Talents that are level-appropriate, powerful, and scale by level would make so many of the existing Talents appear worthless, you can't propose them.
Same reasoning they applied to the Lore Warden as 'too good.'
And so the Rogue Sucketh.
==Aelryinth
A little off topic, is there an archetype that focuses on (at least mildly) use magic device?
High craft (alchemy) And high use magic device could be dangerous in a bbeg with lots of money...
Yeah, there is a Counterfeit Mage archetype.