TorilMUD Rogue Guide

1 - Starting Out

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The Newbie Guide has a lot of information for starting players.

1.1 - Choosing a Race

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Human

Humans are the race by which all others are measured. They have no significant strengths or weaknesses; therefore they make nice Rogues. They have decent strength, agility, dexterity and constitution. Excellent class for the beginner Rogue. It's a good idea to start out in Waterdeep, as this is where just about everything goes on the goodie side.

Drow Elf

Drow elves are an excellent race for a beginner Rogue on the evil side. They have very high agility and intelligence and very nice dexterity, enough to sometimes give them an extra attack if they have as high dex as possible. Their strength and constitution are lower than other races, but there is a lot of +stat/+max_stat gear around that can make up for what you lack. They start out in Dobluth Kyor, which is where just about everything goes on in the evil side. Drow have innate levitate, darkness, faerie fire, ultravision and underdark sneak.

Grey Elf

Grey elves have very high agility and intelligence and very nice dexterity, which makes them well suited to be Rogues, getting an extra attack sometimes like Drow. Their strength and constitution are lower than other races, but there is a lot of +stat gear around that can make up for what you lack. They have innate infravision and outdoor sneak. Their hps are, however, quite low, which can be a big detriment especially when taking lots of area damage.

Mountain Dwarf

Dwarves make excellent Rogues due to their very high strength, which gives added criticals. They aren't quite as dexterous as humans, far from halflings. They have decent wisdom and innate infravision. A downfall of a Dwarf rogue is the matter of alignment. The guards of the dwarven hometown, Mithril Hall, are aggro to evil aligned players, making an evil dwarf's dying that much more of a problem.

Duergar Dwarf

Duergar make excellent Rogues due to their very high strength. They aren't as dexterous as drow, but they have decent wisdom. They have innate invisibility, strength, underdark sneak and enlarge.

Gnome

Gnomes have above average dex and agil, as well as the same con as humans, but their low strength can be a detriment. They have innate infravision. A gnome must be wary of its alignment because evil gnomes will have a bit of trouble from the guards of their hometown due to them being aggro to evil aligned players.

Halfling

Halflings are the Rogue of choice by the masses on the goodie side. Their amazing dexterity often gives them an extra attack in combat, much more often than grey elves or drow. Their strength is the second lowest of any race, but they have the same hps as humans. Halflings have innate infravision.

Yuan-Ti

Yuan-Ti can be a challenging class for a Rogue, as you lose EQ slots, thus lowering your hitroll and damageroll. They do, however, have many innates - infravision, snakebite, tailsweep, befriend reptile, scaleskin and vipermind. Since Vipermind can be used to give the Yuan-ti a bonus in hitroll and damageroll, many say that the loss of EQ slots doesn't make that much of a difference.

Orc

Orc Rogues are the evil equivelant of human Rogues. They have all around decent stats, so they make good Rogues. Their hometown is far detached from almost everything, so if you don't mind being a bit secluded your first few levels, an orc is a decent choice. Get innate Summon Horde at level 40.

1.2 - Rolling a Rogue

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The auto roller will automatically roll rogues with the minimum required stats. These are: strength 65, agility 75, dexterity 75 and constitution 65. While this is enough to play with, it is wise to spend some time rolling longer to get a character that has a better roll. It would be too much to list the exact value every race needs for each attribute, but there is an easy way to find out. Before you roll your real character, roll some test characters. Every time, make sure it has perfect strength, agility, dexterity or constitution. Note your hitroll (influenced by dexterity), damroll (strength), armor class (agility) and hitpoints (constitution).

Now, roll another character, and instead of that attribute being perfect, get it to heroic. Enter the game, and see if your hitroll / damroll / etc is the same as before. If it is, then you do not need a perfect, but a heroic will do. Repeat, but roll a mighty this time. Once you know the minimum attributes required for a 'perfect' character, roll your real character. Try to get the four primary attributes to or near their targets. It will be nigh impossible to attain these stats, but you can certainly get near them if you spend some time.

Note: while the above works mostly, the 'heroic' range for attributes is 93-99. The exact notch (=place where the attribute causes you to be better at something) can be at 95, which means not all heroic rolls will result in you having 6 hitroll. Some may be 5 hitroll - but these are easily fixed with +attribute equipment.

If you do not want to spend a lot of time doing the above (which is only for power players, really), roll a character with the following attributes:

• Strength - mighty or better
• Agility - mighty or better
• Dexterity - heroic or better
• Constitution - good or better

Intelligence and wisdom are also somewhat importand for a Rogue, as they affect how well you sneak and hide, search things out, and notch skills. Searching in particular is important if you wish to explore a lot. Try to get these as high as you can without compromising the other stats.

This character will most certainly be playable to 50, no matter what race you choose. Remember that there is a lot of +attribute equipment out there, and you do not need perfects in every attribute.

Charisma and power are of no real importance to Rogues.

2 - Skills

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1st Level:

• Sneak & Hide - Two of your most important skills as a Rogue are sneak and hide. Practice them whenever you have free time, get them up there, it will save your life someday. Once these skills are high enough, you can use them in conjunction and pass through the realms completely undetected.
• Steal - Can be very helpful if used correctly. Spend some time notching it, it may come in handy someday. Has a high chance of failure at lower levels and can aggro the mob you're trying to steal from. Can steal items mobs are wearing/wielding/holding if the mob is paralyzed.
• Backstab - VERY important skill for trying to solo. Backstab does a lot of damage when the skill is high enough. Practice this when you have free time just like sneak and hide. Lags you for a few rounds, so be careful when using it. Leaving tog vicious off and backstabbing mortally wounded enemies is a great way to notch this skill, even at higher levels, as well as allowing you to continuously backstab major paralyzed mobs.
• Pick lock - Gives you the ability to pick locks on doors, chests, gates.. just about anything that can be locked. Handy in zones for a multitude of reasons, handy if you have no ogres around to doorbash, or if you don't like waiting on gates to open. Picks break quite often unless you have a really good set, so be sure to have several on you.
• Mount - Mount works no matter what your skill level is at. It gives you the ability to ride a horse.
• Offense - Your all-around battle knowledge.
• 1h bludgeon - Allows you to wield a one handed blunt weapon for battle. Not used by many Rogues because its max notch is not as high as 1h piercing.
• 1h slashing - Allows you to wield a one handed sword for battle. Not used by many Rogues because its max notch is not as high as 1h piercing.
• 1h piercing - Allows you to wield a one handed piercing weapon for battle. This is the choice for most Rogues because it can be notched up all the way unlike 1h bludgeon/slashing/misc. Most of the rogues skills depend on a piercing weapon and there are many rogue-only piercers, so this skill is key.
• 1h misc. - Allows you to wield one handed miscellaneous weapons (whips, etc). Not used by many Rogues because its max notch is not as high as 1h piercing.
• Bandage - Bandage will work no matter what your skill level is at. Can allow you to save the life of a fallen comrade, but a poor wisdom score and skill level could result in you doing more harm than good.
• Swimming - Lets you swim.
• Escape - Escape can, and probably will, save your life on many occasions. It allows you to flee from battle in the direction of your choice. Helpful if there are a lot of aggressive mobs around the area of your battle. If you're not sure of a safe direction, scan first. This skill can also allow you to disengage quickly to allow you to perform a backstab.
• Dodge - Helps you avoid attacks.
• Defense - The all around skill to help with dodge and the like.

5th level:

• Unbind - Helpful if you get in trouble with justice in any towns. Allows you to untie yourself and get away before facing punishment. This adds another offense to your rap sheet.
• Detect trap - Allows you to attempt detecting a trap on just about any object. Helpful from time to time when zoning.
• Awareness - Allows you to sense hidden/sneaking life forms in the same room as you, and avoid backstabs.
• Evasion - Allows you to block some of the damage caused by spells. Unfortunately, it doesn't notch very often.

10th level:

• Disarm trap - Allows you to attempt disarming a trap on just about any object. Always detect trap on an object before you try to disarm it as it increases your chances of success. If you fail, there is a chance you will set off the trap and hurt yourself. Use caution with this skill. Helpful from time to time when zoning. This skill is hard to practice, but there are some good places near Ashrumite, Neshkal, Gloomhaven, and Bloodstone.
• Disarm - The ability to knock an enemy's weapon from his grasp, causing them to lose attacks, or possibly fumble their weapon. Failure will result in you fumbling your own weapon. This skill costs moves, and can drastically affect your AC.

15th level:

• Dual wield - Gives you the ability to wield two weapons at one time, thus increasing your damage.
• Missile snare - Allows you to snatch arrows out of the air before they hit you. Not a very used skill due to the lack of archer mobs in the game right now.
• Circle - Circle is a very useful skill. It allows you to get in an extra powerful attack in between your normal melee rounds. Very strong at higher levels. This skill can be used to start a fight, but cannot be used when tanking the same mob.

20th level:

• Apply poison - Allows you to apply poisons to your weapons which can do a wide range of things like blind, harm and paralyze your enemy. When using minor paralyze poison, be sure to have tog vicious off. Blind poison is one of the more powerful, giving rogues better solo power. Some poisons also increase your chance of assassination. Apply poison is an all around fun skill which is also very useful. When you have some spare money, buy some poisons, try them out, and see what they do. Find quests for new kinds. It's worth the time.
• Track - Track is a very handy skill that will allow you to trace PC's or NPC's through the zone that you are in. Comes in handy if you get separated from your group, or are looking for rares, etc.
• Switch opponent - Allows you to switch from the current enemy to another in the same room as you.

25th level:

• Trip - Lets you do a maneuver in battle and trip the mob, keeping him on the ground and lowering his attacks for a few rounds. Spend some time notching trip up a bit. You won't get to use it much outside of soloing because of bash, but you may be asked to back up someone's bashing in case they fail.
• Shadow - Lets you shadow a room behind a mob or PC, following them undetected. If they come back into the room you are in, you will attempt to hide from them. I've never seen it notch, and really don't see any point in using it.

30th level:

• Disguise - This is a fun, but dangerous, skill to have. It lets you buy a kit and attempt to disguise yourself into another race. DO NOT use this skill inside any evil raced hometowns, the consequences are harsh if you do not remain hidden and sneaking. At the least, you won't set off invasion alarms when going into opposite aligned hometowns.
• Vital strike - Vital strike is an advanced critical hit. It can drop your enemy to their knees in pain and does quite a bit of damage.
• Double attack - this isn't a listed skill, but rogues get it at this level when their skills increase to the max for this level. It only works if you have 1h piercing weapons wielded.

35th level:

• Garrote - Garrote is another fun skill. It lets you wrap a wire around your enemy's throat and slowly choke the life out of them. Spend some time notching it, you may need it someday. Can be used to stop casting mobs from completing spells if successful.

40th level:

• Assassinate - The skill of all skills for Rogues. Assassinate is F-U-N. It allows you to kill a mob, no matter what level, in one hit. You can wield any weapon you want (or none at all), and as long as your assassinate is successful, the mob will die. Has a semi-high chance of failure at first, and might not notch often, but use it whenever you can (may only be used once every game day - 24 minutes). Every notch helps on this skill, and certain poisons also increase your chances, and paralyze poison can help when you fail. If you fail your assassinate, the mob will become aggressive to you, so if it's a big one that you can't kill alone, escaping is smart. If the mob doesn't know you're there, it helps your chances of success. Ask a mage for invisibility. Sneak and hide into the room. It'll be worth the trouble.

Other:

• Rogue rescue - this isn't an actual skill, but it's something that rogues can do. Wielding a piercing weapon in your secondary hand and backstabbing automatically causes the mob to switch, thus effecting a "rescue" on the tank. If I have any chance of tanking and surviving I will use this in zones where there are wandering aggros, just to make doubly sure the caster doesn't end up tanking.

3 - Zoning

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Your main goal while zoning is damage. Doing damage is an easy job, you pretty much just have to assist your tank and circle a lot.

However, a rogue can be called upon in zones to do other things like pick locks, scout, detect/disarm traps, CR the group, tag a mob, etc. depending on the zone. These other functions are a large part of what makes a rogue unique and desirable in zones. No other class is as good at scouting or CRing, and the only other class with pick locks are bards, and traps are the sole domain of rogues. Using poisons to paralyze or otherwise disable mobs can also be critical to some fights.

A rogue is often called on to lure mobs as well, sneaking into the room, hitting it then escaping back to the group for a quick and efficient pull.

One important thing to remember while zoning: Haste + Rogue - Globe + Shielded Mob = Dead Rogue, so make sure you have globe if you're fighting a mage caster! If you don't, it's a good idea to remove your weapons.

4 - Tips & Tricks

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Practice your skills, and then practice them again. There are places where you can fight lots of low level mobs for a long time, which helps greatly in advancing your skills - ask around when you are level 40ish, as this is the level around which you will start zoning and your skills need to be good.

Carry around armor potions, as they help when soloing, especially at lower levels.

Remove weapons that don't float when fighting over water. If in doubt, drop a copper coin to check.

Wimpy/vicious are good when soloing, but always turn them off in zones unless otherwise directed.

When soloing, ask around if there is a fast healing room nearby - go there to rest up and regain moves.

Apply poison to your weapons during big fights, it may help a lot towards your success.

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Last Updated: October 5, 2003 Art ©Luis Royo, Page ©2003 by Todrael