POLL: Poll: Most and Least Useful Rogue Skill

Remove all ads!

From a power-gaming point of view, rogues are next to useless in IWD2.

- Use Magical device? Just use the item with the proper character.
- Open Locks? You can bash every single lock in the game. Granted, you need 28+ str by the end of the game, but that's easily done. And anyway, there's always plan B: Knock.
- Disable Device? Traps are so weak in IWD2 one has to wonder why they bothered with them.
- Hide & Move Silently: Could be nice... but the way the ai was "improved" makes them rather useless. For instance, summon undead, use your scout to guide them to attack monsters... and the monsters will still beeline to your group. Bleh.
- Pick-Pocket: As surprising as it may seem, it's probably the least useless rogue skill. Nothing to write home about, though.
- Sneak Attack: I'll take the monk's Stun-Power Attack combo over it any day.


Rogues are okay from a RP point of view. But IWD is the least RP-oriented game in the series (Baldur's and of course PST offer much more RP potential).
As such, I don't find any of the rogue skills to be of real interest, and actually the whole class rather pointless.

 

from a powergaming point of view, every class but the sorc is useless.

while I agree that many of the rogue's useful properties can be worked around via other methods... they can still be very effective contributors to the group.

they can scout, find and disarm traps, pick locks better than any other class...

they also have sneak attack damage that can be significant later in the game...

and due to their naturally high Dex, they can have pretty decent AC to serve as a backup tank

and also due to their Dex, they can avoid a lot of potentially damaging spells, and thus can be used as a decoy

can a party do without them? yes, of course.

is a party more effective with one? yes, imho.