Firstly, they can make good use of UMD, which is certainly nice. Depending how far you want to take it, you could make them good at the right spells at the right moments, effectively casters, or ACTUALLY casters.Spike wrote:At the risk of sounding like a dunce, my experience with rogues on both sides of the screen is that they generally come across as inferior, frequently lower than the Fighter.
Sneak Attack can be very good. Rapidshot and TWF lets you throw heaps of acid flasks for heaps of touch attacks for Sneak-Attack (note: they still need to actually qualify for Sneak Attack, which is easy to do, making these attacks flat-footed touch attacks). At first level you throw two flasks with +1d6 Sneak Attack and even the flasks on their own are acceptable damage (it's first level, srs). Very soon it increases from there. By level 20 where IT ALWAYS MATTERS HERE for builds, you probably have 10 or so flasks with +12d6 Sneak Attack each (optional +20 from another feat at this point but you shouldn't need it).
Those special abilities at 10th and so on can be pretty damn handy, even without pointing out that "Bonus Feat" means any bonus feat ever, regardless of requirements. So "Perfect Two Weapon Fighting", for instance, or "Gape of the Serpent" (so you can swallow halflings).
I wouldn't put them at Monk (Useless) level, but they're not very good. They get a few abilities that don't really do much, and it's hard to pump those abilities up with other sources or synergise them to be amazing, and the BIGGEST TJEESE build (singular) for it is basically just "pull out every trick you can think of ever in order to do a whole bunch of melee damage and other people are embarrassed for you". Or snagging a familiar, playing as Dvati, getting the "Share spells from up to a mile away" feat and then using UMD on scrolls to turn into fifteen dragons.Having seen exactly one person play a warlock I can't get why they are so low on the chart (with the monk). They even share the ability to UMD... which I'm guessing is the big 'winner' for the Rogue?