A Guide to Rogue Enhancements

By Nuitaran

Rogue Enhancements can be tricky. It's hard to know when you have just
enough of a Skill, or too much. For most occasions, even the
highest-level quests on the hardest difficulty, you will find and
Disable Traps without critical failures nearly 100% of the time if your
skills are in the mid-40s to low-50s.

If your Rogue is well stocked with Skill-boosting equipment, +5 Thieves
Tools, and Max Ranks in his skills, then you may be able to ignore
Skill Enhancements or even Rogue's Action Boost in favor of things that
increase your combat ability.

Remember that your role in the party is important. Your companions
depend on you to guide them through traps, secret doors and locks with
the most accuracy you can have. Your first responsibility with your
Enhancements should be in making sure your Skills are high enough to
fill that role. Second should be making sure that you help prevent the
stereotypes that rogues are no good for combat. Take some stealth and
Sneak Attack Enhancements when you can afford them and clean up with
your DPS (Damage Per Second).

Your character will gain Enhancements as he increases in ranks;
however, he can only have a maximum of 4 active Enhancements at any
point. The choices for the 4 Enhancements slots are drawn from a list
of both class and racial Enhancements that increase as the character
increases in ranks. This guide will focus purely on the Enhancements
available to the rogue class.

For this guide, I will focus on the highest-level Enhancement from each
line, whether it comes in the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th level
versions of the Enhancements. Each Enhancement is given a usefulness
rating of 1-5 (with 5 being the most useful). The notes will state why
this rating is given as such.

cellspacing="2">
style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(219, 201, 125);"> style="font-weight: bold;">Rogue's Dexterity

Official Text: Grants a +3 increase to Dexterity score.

Comments: There's never anything wrong with upping stats.

Rating: 5
[Sonic,
Fire, Electricity, Cold or Acid] Trap Lore

Official Text: You gain energy resistance of 10 versus [sonic, fire,
electricity, cold, or acid] or improve your existing resistance by 10.

Comments: This is easy enough to make up for with potions, gear, or a
companion spell caster. Unless you have a free spot, and are headed
someplace like Taming the Flames, skip this one.

Rating: 2
style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(219, 201, 125);"> style="font-weight: bold;">Improved Trap Sense

Official Text: Mobility Grants an extra +4 bonus on saving throws
against traps.

Comments: Unless you have a low Reflex Save, this won't help you much.

Rating: 2
Price
Warfare

Official Text: You help the targeted ally negotiate with merchants,
giving that ally a short-term boost to his Haggle skill.

Comments: I don't see anyone using this. It's not that great.

Rating: 2
style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(219, 201, 125);"> style="font-weight: bold;">Sneak Attack Accuracy

Official Text: You gain +3 to hit with your sneak attacks.

Comments: If you have all your Skills nice and high, and you have room
for some combat boosts, this is a great way to get your Attack Bonus
closer to the Melee classes.

Rating: 4
Skill
Ingenuity

Official Text: Grants a +8 bonus to Open Lock and Disable Device skills.

Comments: Until you get yourself some items that add +10 to these
skills, keep this one loaded. The nice thing about Items for Disabling
and Unlocking them is you can just pop them on and off when you need
them. Early on you will find this Enhancement is a must.

Rating: 5
style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(219, 201, 125);"> style="font-weight: bold;">Skill Perception

Official Text: Grants a +8 bonus to Search and Spot skills.

Comments: Same as Ingenuity, until you find items that can get you into
the Forties on these skills, keep this one around.

Rating: 5
Skill
Stealth

Official Text: When Grants a +8 bonus to Hide and Move Silently skills.

Comments: This isn't as important as Searching, Spotting and Disabling
but in some quests it will help quite a bit. This is a good one to swap
for in a few situational quests.

Rating: 3
style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(219, 201, 125);"> style="font-weight: bold;">Faster Sneaking

Official Text: Grants a 54% increase in movement rate while sneaking.

Comments: In most instances this isn't entirely useful.

Rating: 3
Rogue
Action Boost

Official Text: This Enhancement grants the ability to receive
short-term boosts to skills, weapon damage, or attack speed.

Comments: This is a must for a while. Eventually your skills may be so
high you won't need it; until then, keep this one loaded and use it on
every trap.

Rating: 5
style="vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(219, 201, 125);"> style="font-weight: bold;">Sneak Attack Training

Official Text: You gain +12 to your sneak attack damage.

Comments: If all your skills are up to par and you have space for some
combat boosts, this one is incredible for DPS. Watch your aggro,
however. Land a Sneak Attack or two with this Enhancement on and the
monsters will be after you in no time.

Rating: 4

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