Rogue Skills, A Descussion of Usefulness

[Panros]

Hello everyone. As of now I'm playing as rogue with my PC Panros. However, skills that I would normally consider primary to invest in during the single player campaigns don't seem of much use in the world of Layonara. Now, keep this in mind, my PC is only level 5 so maybe I haven't come to the point where the skills may be useful. I shall now list the skills and people with experience should tell me their opinions on ivesting points into them.

Lore - Lets face it. In the single player campaign (spc) I use this skill all of the time. As a rogue I'm opening the chests and I have to see the value of the loot. I don't put this skill higher than 15 off and online normally becuase there are others who have it better. I haven't seen a single thing I have to identify yet.

Persuasion - This is a must have skill for a rogue. I max it at 15. How else are you going to get extra gold for risking you neck? I haven't seen a persausion choice with any NPC I've ran into yet.

Lock Pick/ Disable Trap - Come on now, if a rogue doesn't invest in these skill what's the point of being a rogue. These skills I max from 15 - 20. I've only come across 1 trap and 3 locked doors that could be picked during my travels.

So here are my biggest beefs with these skills. I need to know if I should invest in them. Are there places in Layonara that are filled with traps, need things identified, or picked and disabled? If there isn't I'm sort of let down. Normally online us rogues are a key part of the parts. We are scouts, a tool, and most of the time party leaders. I'll be in a party and the fighter as well as the wizard will be rusing in front of me in a "dungeon." If there aren't a lot of traps, locks, need for scouting there should be.

That's my beef so far with these skills. Skills that normally define a rogue that I haven't found to be usefull enough. I hope people give me valid opinions and I'm personally hoping that there will be opportunities in the future where my party won't even think of entering a room without me checking it first.

Thanks for reading and posting in advance.

[LoganGrimnar]

picking locks and poping traps are very useful skills, you dont notice how usful they are tell you have a char that cant do it. lore of about 15 is good to ID anything your going to find, but for RP in quests a higher lore might help you find something. Persuasion is the same concept, its great in a quest, besdes that there are a few that will let you pay less, the ox merchent being the first that comes to mind. I love rogues, Great support chars with all these little skills and such.

[miltonyorkcastle]

Honestly, running around the world, there are a number of places that have traps requiring a party to seriously need to invest in a rogue, but certainly not every dungeon.  As you suggest, then, lockpicking and disabling traps and persuading barely come into use during 'normal' play.  However, I have seen everyone of those skills used during GM quests, and as such they are worth taking just for the RP aspects.  Now, when you get beyond the shores of Mistone, you'll discover more things that need ID'd, though you still won't need a very high lore for them.  Once again, though, you'll find the lore skill can come in very handy in quests.  

So, basically, my advice is this:  If your character would be advancing those skills, then advance them and don't worry about game mechanics.  You're a rogue, so just about the only skills that are very mechanically useful are Tumble and Heal, since you don't get Discipline as a class skill.  Taunt can be nice but I don't recall if that is a class skill for a rogue.  Just try to be true to your character and you'll find that those skills have their place in the world.

[aragwen]

Lore - Even though you have not found anything yet to identify, when you start venturing to Dregar and beyond you will getting unidentified items. This could aslso be used on GM quest to get more information on certain items or things.
  Persuasion - I can think of at least one NPC in Hlint where you can use persuasion and once again GM quests it will be used if the situation requires it. Just last night on one of my quests a character persuaded the owner to give them a feast of food on succesful completion of a task.
  Lock Pick/ Disable Trap - there is a lot of places in the world where a rogue can use these skills, once again you will have to venture further than Hlint to find them. There are actually some place where you can only venture with a rogue to remove the traps and open the doors. And off course on GM quests you will find a lot of traps and locked doors. Ask anyone who has been on my quests. I just love traps. Nothing more funnier than a rogue saying, "No traps" and then boom....electrical damage on 5 characters standing too close.

[Niles09]

I must say Ive not come across many dungeons that have traps and locked doors, and Ive always have the impression that, that was the core of roleplay, dungeons filled with monsters, treacures and traps! But in Layo its mostly some few crypts that have it. In another server Ive tried, RP did exist but there was a nice little thing in the beginner dungeon. You needed a theif to get past the first doors, so people would need to party. I thin kthat would be good, at least it would be really really nice with some more traps.

[Nyralotep]

Anyone who ever travelled with Lue knows all to well the value of a rogue.  There are many more places here now than there used to be for a rogue to shine, and I'm sure with time there will be more.  

Let the fighters and others rush ahead, they will get killed in party play soon enough when they hit a bad spawn.  Or in a quest, I remember one GM who would wait until we were doing stuff like that to spring monsters on us to get us to use our collective heads.  

As for the skills, it's been well said above, quests are where you will shine as a rogue, well unless there is more than one rogue.

[Talan Va'lash]

There are quite a few areas that require lock and trap skills that you can encounter in non-quest play.  Almost all of them are lvl 10+ areas.

There are lower level areas with locked doors, but those doors are also bashable for the most part and fighters tend to bash them in before even wondering if there's a rogue in the party.

In quest play as has been said above, these skills will see a lot of use.

-TV

[Lilswanwillow]

AND you can sell your skills...
like, right now I need someone to identify something for me.  And, if people are going places (say, storans crypt) they NEED a lock-picker.  Tell them that for each lock you pick, and trap you un-spring, its 200 gold.

it can be QUITE usefull when you start going on quests, like the others have said.  I've cursed not having things like that.  And, start leveling your sneak and hide qualities.  You can scout that way, and scouts are needed OFTEN!!!

[Panros]

Alright, I guess it would be worth in long run anyway. Maybe for a CDQ I'd have a dungeon filled with nasty suprises and dead ends only I could get around. Thanks for everyones opinions.

[Pibemanden]

Panros - 1/21/2006  7:49 PM

Alright, I guess it would be worth in long run anyway. Maybe for a CDQ I'd have a dungeon filled with nasty suprises and dead ends only I could get around. Thanks for everyones opinions.

Hmmm... Sounds like a place Storold has been before, maybe on a Orion-quest?