Community

[minor hijack]

Is anyone else of the mindset that if so many skills (etc) are gold... gold as a rating tool is cheapened to the point where you should take everything down a step and stick to the red-purple-black-blue-sky blue theme.

I mean, yeah, I get it.  Acrobatics, Stealth, Thievery... they're all important to a rogue.  But gold is like, I don't know, this is TEH BEST EVAR!!!, and it just becomes overkill.  Especially for skills (stealth, thievery) you're forced to take.  You're a rogue.  You have to have them.  Dex is your primary stat.  You have to boost it.  Ergo, you're always good at those.  Are they then truly gold?  If they are, that tells me I should go out of my way to spend additional resources to boost them.  Stealth is gold for a cunning sneak, yes, but is it really gold for an artful dodger?  How about a brutal scoundrel?  It's nice yes, but so good I should go out of my way to be better than the best at it?  No.

Also, does making a class's primary stat gold really mean anything?  "Boost this every chance you can get," yes, but the fact that all my powers are Dex vs XYZ and do + Dex mod damage will tell me that on its own.

I don't know.  Personal preference, but gold is way overused on this board these days.  Gold means everyone should always take this no matter what because you're a foold not to.  Gold means this is better than everything else, almost to a game-breaking level.

[/minor hijack]

Nothing personal, LDB.  You do good, thorough work.  It's just like some of your initial ratings are so given to hyperbole with all the gold that it becomes meaningless.

OK, comments! Let's address them.

@CriticalBastard: No problem.

@Tygell: It looks solid, but 11 Constitution sets off the squishiness alarms in my head. 6 healing surges is a bit too low for a Striker IMHO. I'd be looking at Con 12, Wis 12, Cha 14.

@Awesomologist: Hey, an image gallery sounds like a great idea. I'll probably shuffle things around to accomodate it (I likely don't need 2 posts for Sample Builds). I'll probably do the same thing with the Warlord. Thanks!

@Awesomologist, Mengu74: Also, don't forget that a lot of Utility powers on the Rogue's own list require training in certain skills. Therefore, Acrobatics becomes more important because a lot of mobility Utilities use it. For example, you can't take Ignoble Escape if you don't have Acrobatics, and you can't take Fleeting Ghost if you don't have Stealth, and I consider these prime powers. Ignore skills at your own peril as a Rogue.

@Ytterbium_Dragon: My initial thoughts exactly. However, my debates with Litigation yesterday had him providing multiple reasons why there was really no reason at all to select the class feature from an optimization point of view: severe MAD (Dexterity for attack/damage rolls, Strength for the Ruthless Ruffian rider, Con 19 for Bludgeon Mastery, Charisma for some other riders and minor effects).

To boot, you spend all that work carefully crafting your Ruthless Ruffian, only to see a Bastard Sword Rogue (or any other Rogue, really) spank you in the DPR department. To top it all off, the Ruthless Ruffian doesn't have a monopoly on Rattling powers: anyone who picks them up and has the Intimidate skill trained can hand out the -2 to hit. It's strictly worse than the other options, frankly.

@Estlor: It's a matter of taste, really. I think the things that are rated Gold are done so to make sure you know that I consider them very important. If you already knew that, more power to you: I still consider it important to repeat it.