Rogue Feat Suggestions

[DM Erebus]

Hello!
Many other classes have received new Feats just for them in the last two hak updates, but there's been little that really exemplifies the Rogue.
I've trawled a number of sources (Pathfinder, D&D 5th ed) and found some feat ideas that I think would make excellent additions to the Rogue's repertoire. Some address certain limitations Rogues have on PotM, some are just fun and flavourful.

Please consider the suggestions below to be, at-best ideas, not finished products.
I given suggestions about how they could work and appropriate prerequisites, though I will stay out of trying to balance them myself.

Many dungeons in PotM have enemies that are immune to Sneak Attack. This puts rogues at somewhat of a disadvantage when it comes to pulling their weight in a dungeon.
These suggestions would give rogues more tactical choices in all dungeons.

Disorienting Strike
The rogue is able to use dizzying swordplay, well-disguised feints or even just a pinch of sand to disorient their foe.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Stunning property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Bleeding Slice
The rogue's attacks cuts deep, severing arteries and veins alike.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Wounding property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Throat Jab
The rogue knows to target their opponents' throat, preventing them from calling for help or casting spells.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Silence property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Eye Gouge
The rogue can debilitate their enemies by robbing them of their sight.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Blindness property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

False Piety
The rogue calls upon stolen divine power to enhance their strikes against the Undead.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, UMD
3/day, grant equipped weapon d6 Divine damage vs Undead for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

These feats increase the utility of Rogues in an adventuring party and the attractiveness of having one along for everyone.

Danger Sense
The rogue is well-versed in ambushes, concealed traps and the like. They are able to warn their allies well about such dangers.
Unlimited uses per day. Grants nearby allies a bonus to their Reflex saves for 1 Round + 1 Round/Level. The Reflex bonus scales with Rogue levels.

Prowler's Instinct
The rogue has a sixth sense for profit. Whether luck, or a knack for detecting hidden compartments, they always walk away with more treasure than others.
Prerequisites: Appraise, Search, Rogue Bonus Feat Only.
Passive. Increases the value of container loot by 25%. Ie, if a chest would hold 1000gp's worth of loot, it now holds 1250gp's worth.

   

These feats are appropriate for Rogues and allow for greater character focus and things we don't already have.

Dilisyna Touch
The rogue has a steady hand and devious mind when it comes to the application of poisons.
Passive. No failure chance for using Poisons.

Master Poisoner
The rogue is an expert in preparing and administering poisons of all kinds.
Prerequisite: Dilisyna Touch
Passive. The effect of Poisons now act as Empowered for the character.

Swift Stalker
The rogue knows is better able to keep up with their quarry whilst remaining undetected.
Passive. The character's base speed whilst in Stealth Mode increases by 15%

Night Adaptation
Long hours spent in the darkness have granted the rogue the ability to see better in the dark.
Grants the Low-Light Vision Feat.

[Philos]

Disorienting Strike
The rogue is able to use dizzying swordplay, well-disguised feints or even just a pinch of sand to disorient their foe.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Stunning property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Bleeding Slice
The rogue's attacks cuts deep, severing arteries and veins alike.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Wounding property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Throat Jab
The rogue knows to target their opponents' throat, preventing them from calling for help or casting spells.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Silence property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Eye Gouge
The rogue can debilitate their enemies by robbing them of their sight.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Blindness property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/level

What are calculations for the DCs of these effects? 10+ 1/2 character level? 10 + 1/2 rogue levels? What about ability modifiers?

[Phantasia]

If you're a really good rogue, turn + rounds is assured death for anyone on the receiving end. I would do something like 3 rounds tops for each of these. Silence, blindness, and stunning are all quite powerful.

Additionally, I believe it's appropriate to suggest this...

[haifisch021]

Not necessarily a rogue feat, but I think it'd be cool if a PrC rogue/monster hunter had access to a feat that would make their sneak attacks affect undead.

[DM Erebus]

Disorienting Strike
The rogue is able to use dizzying swordplay, well-disguised feints or even just a pinch of sand to disorient their foe.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Stunning property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Bleeding Slice
The rogue's attacks cuts deep, severing arteries and veins alike.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Wounding property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Throat Jab
The rogue knows to target their opponents' throat, preventing them from calling for help or casting spells.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Silence property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Eye Gouge
The rogue can debilitate their enemies by robbing them of their sight.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Blindness property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/level

What are calculations for the DCs of these effects? 10+ 1/2 character level? 10 + 1/2 rogue levels? What about ability modifiers?

I would suggest that 10 + 1/2 per rogue level would be competitive and in-line with other scaling DCs. Using rogue levels for the calculation also clearly rewards more rogue levels.
As for involving Ability Modifiers, you could change it up. Disorienting Strike could use Cha, Bleeding Slice could use Dex, Throat Jab use Int - allowing for further variation and rewarding Dex, Int and Cha rogues in different ways.

[Philos]

If you're a really good rogue, turn + rounds is assured death for anyone on the receiving end. I would do something like 3 rounds tops for each of these. Silence, blindness, and stunning are all quite powerful.

Additionally, I believe it's appropriate to suggest this...

I think he was suggesting that the buff on the weapon would last turn + rounds per level. Not the actual duration of the effect once inflicted.

As for Disorienting strike feat, I'd suggest changing it from stun to daze. Attacks on a stunned character receive a +2 hit in addition to completely locking them down. Daze will still make the character flat footed and sneak attackable.

[Phantasia]

Then we need to get into percentages if these aren't click abilities. Probably misread because I was tired. 10%?

[DM Erebus]

As for Disorienting strike feat, I'd suggest changing it from stun to daze. Attacks on a stunned character receive a +2 hit in addition to completely locking them down. Daze will still make the character flat footed and sneak attackable.

Excellent idea! Daze would be much better.

Then we need to get into percentages if these aren't click abilities. Probably misread because I was tired. 10%?

10% sounds too marginal. Blade Weave fires at 50%, so I'd say 50%.

[Better Dread than Dead]

Well, if it's a click ability it'd be on all the time, regardless. A more modest percentage would make more sense, especially since something like this would make a spell like Blade Weave redundant.

[Phantasia]

By click I more meant like, Knockdown-like ability with 3 Use/day.

[Better Dread than Dead]

By click I more meant like, Knockdown-like ability with 3 Use/day.

I meant to say if they aren't click abilities, they'd be on all the time.. my apologies. I need my coffee. Anyway, it seems as though they are. Still, in all honestly 25% also seems reasonable in my mind, especially given these won't be at set DCs and a turn + round/level is a decent amount of time, where combat is concerned, and you get 3/day.

[StellarNope]

Something you could do for rogue, assassin, shadowdancer, and Barbarian, or just Rogue, is give them the PnP ability that they were not given for some reason, that Dwarven defender was; Improved Uncanny Dodge, named Defensive Awareness II for Defender.

In PnP from 8th level on for a rogue and 5th for assassin/barbarian/shadowdancer gains Improved Uncanny Dodge, which more than bonuses on saves versus traps now gives them an immunity to flanking, the only real way to sneak attack a rogue and a powerful bonus all its own, unless the person doing the flanking has 4 more rogue levels than the target. For some reason Bioware did not give this ability to either of those four classes but did implement it for Dwarven defender.

In PnP any class who had Uncanny Dodge via one source and picked up a second class with the same automatically upgraded it to the improved version.

The only caveat about the ability is that its NWN implementation, I believe, gives straight immunity to flanking and does not have any sort of code for suddenly turning on flanking for someone being attacked by a rogue 4 levels higher.

[Philos]

Dilisyna Touch
The rogue has a steady hand and devious mind when it comes to the application of poisons.
Passive. No failure chance for using Poisons.

Master Poisoner
The rogue is an expert in preparing and administering poisons of all kinds.
Prerequisite: Dilisyna Touch
Passive. The effect of Poisons now act as Empowered for the character.

Swift Stalker
The rogue knows is better able to keep up with their quarry whilst remaining undetected.
Passive. The character's base speed whilst in Stealth Mode increases by 15%

Night Adaptation
Long hours spent in the darkness have granted the rogue the ability to see better in the dark.
Grants the Low-Light Vision Feat.

On Dilisyna's touch, how is it different than the Use Poison feat assassins and Blackguards get? Do you think it might be stepping on their toes?

Swift Stalker- I'd consider adding the Stealthy feat as a prerequisite. Most Stealth based characters will have already taken it but it seems appropriate to me.

Night adaptation - one feat for low light vision seems expensive to me. I'd consider adding a small spot or search bonus as well. 1 or 2 points

[wildflame]

False Piety and Prowler's instict will actually make people want to bring rogues along.
These are really cool ideas!

[Norture]

I really like these feats.

[Darkside of Heaven]

I really like these feats.

+1

[EO]

Disorienting Strike
The rogue is able to use dizzying swordplay, well-disguised feints or even just a pinch of sand to disorient their foe.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Stunning property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Bleeding Slice
The rogue's attacks cuts deep, severing arteries and veins alike.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Wounding property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Throat Jab
The rogue knows to target their opponents' throat, preventing them from calling for help or casting spells.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Silence property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Eye Gouge
The rogue can debilitate their enemies by robbing them of their sight.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Blindness property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

False Piety
The rogue calls upon stolen divine power to enhance their strikes against the Undead.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, UMD
3/day, grant equipped weapon d6 Divine damage vs Undead for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

If there's a proper way to implement those, I wouldn't be opposed. As others have pointed out, some of these durations are too long for the power level they have.

Danger Sense
The rogue is well-versed in ambushes, concealed traps and the like. They are able to warn their allies well about such dangers.
Unlimited uses per day. Grants nearby allies a bonus to their Reflex saves for 1 Round + 1 Round/Level. The Reflex bonus scales with Rogue levels.

Maybe, if it was one of the bonus rogue feats they get after 10. I don't like making rogues buffers for a party.

Prowler's Instinct
The rogue has a sixth sense for profit. Whether luck, or a knack for detecting hidden compartments, they always walk away with more treasure than others.
Prerequisites: Appraise, Search, Rogue Bonus Feat Only.
Passive. Increases the value of container loot by 25%. Ie, if a chest would hold 1000gp's worth of loot, it now holds 1250gp's worth.

Would be cool but our current system doesn't support it. Loot is generated at area initialization, not when you open a container.

Dilisyna Touch
The rogue has a steady hand and devious mind when it comes to the application of poisons.
Passive. No failure chance for using Poisons.

Master Poisoner
The rogue is an expert in preparing and administering poisons of all kinds.
Prerequisite: Dilisyna Touch
Passive. The effect of Poisons now act as Empowered for the character.

Those are nice, though they do step onto the assassin/blackguard's toes.

Swift Stalker
The rogue knows is better able to keep up with their quarry whilst remaining undetected.
Passive. The character's base speed whilst in Stealth Mode increases by 15%

Stealth being hardcoded, there's no way to detect via scripts when someone goes in stealth short of checking every x seconds, which is resource intensive.

Night Adaptation
Long hours spent in the darkness have granted the rogue the ability to see better in the dark.
Grants the Low-Light Vision Feat.

Low-Light Vision is a feat in and of itself, you can't give Low-Light Vision via another feat. You could make Low Light Vision available to rogues as a feat they could take, like how Keen Sense is given to Rangers, but it'd be called Low Light Vision.

[Philos]

Disorienting Strike
The rogue is able to use dizzying swordplay, well-disguised feints or even just a pinch of sand to disorient their foe.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Stunning property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Bleeding Slice
The rogue's attacks cuts deep, severing arteries and veins alike.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Wounding property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Throat Jab
The rogue knows to target their opponents' throat, preventing them from calling for help or casting spells.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Silence property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

Eye Gouge
The rogue can debilitate their enemies by robbing them of their sight.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, Dirty Fighting
3/day, grant equipped weapon the Blindness property for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

False Piety
The rogue calls upon stolen divine power to enhance their strikes against the Undead.
Prerequisites: Weapon Finesse, UMD
3/day, grant equipped weapon d6 Divine damage vs Undead for 1 Turn + 1 Round/Level.

If there's a proper way to implement those, I wouldn't be opposed. As others have pointed out, some of these durations are too long for the power level they have.

The suggestion here was to allow the rogue a spell like ability that will apply a weapon buff. It would temporary apply on hit daze, on hit silence, bleed etc. The durations in the original post were for how long the buff would last on the weapon, not for how long it would be inflicted upon it's target. 2 to 3 minutes for a weapon buff is pretty reasonable Imo. I'm fairly certain spell like abilities can be added. There's several ampc templates with them.

Dilisyna Touch
The rogue has a steady hand and devious mind when it comes to the application of poisons.
Passive. No failure chance for using Poisons.

Master Poisoner
The rogue is an expert in preparing and administering poisons of all kinds.
Prerequisite: Dilisyna Touch
Passive. The effect of Poisons now act as Empowered for the character.

Those are nice, though they do step onto the assassin/blackguard's toes.

While the Master poisoner feat is redundant, assassin already have the same effect, I think there is some merit in the Dilisyna's Touch feat. While you really cant "empower" poisons, the idea of rogues and assassins have more potent poisons is attractive. I could see this feat working similar to the druid spell "Fire Seeds" in that it creates a Poison item for it's user. It could be a random poison, one selected or perhaps domain appropriate like if used in ghastria you might get umbral grey. This feat might help rogues interested in pursuing the assassin prc accomplish it.

Swift Stalker
The rogue knows is better able to keep up with their quarry whilst remaining undetected.
Passive. The character's base speed whilst in Stealth Mode increases by 15%

Stealth being hardcoded, there's no way to detect via scripts when someone goes in stealth short of checking every x seconds, which is resource intensive.

Could something like general "Sprint" feat be considered instead that provides a modest speed increase and a duration based off con? We've given paladins and clerics a bonkers speed boost with divine vigor. Fighters have received a more sensible as well with the recent half update. Can mudanes have a chance to move at a 15% increase for say turn + turns/ Cha bonus? Able to be used up to con bonus per day.