Rogue Level question

[Fallout]

How do you determine what is the best level to take rogue levels? I am thinking of a dwarf L2 rogue/L12 Fighter, TWF with martial weapons. Rogue levels is for evasion mainly. Maybe can max out UMD, but want to see if its possible to do traps also. How do you calculate which levels to 'max' out a certain skills?

[Shamguard]

How do you determine what is the best level to take rogue levels? I am thinking of a dwarf L2 rogue/L12 Fighter, TWF with martial weapons. Rogue levels is for evasion mainly. Maybe can max out UMD, but want to see if its possible to do traps also. How do you calculate which levels to 'max' out a certain skills?

If you are planing a mutt with rogue levels, when you take your rogue levels depends upon what you are after. If you are after some of the rogue skills you should start with a level of rogue at level one. This will not only give you the most skill points to start with, but will also allow you to keep your skill ranks maximized. After that when you take any additional levels is up to when you want to unlock whatever you are after from those levels. If you are after more skill points a rogue level is a good way to do some catch up, 'cause you get the extra skill point and the rogue skills are not cross-class so you can "buy" your extra ranks 1 for 1.

If you are after evasion and/or evasion I would still recomend taking rogue at first level but then build your other class some before you take another level of rogue. Personaly I like to build for odd number of rogue levels for the extra sneak attack die, but that is just me.

Of course any mutt you build will not be as good at as many of the rogue skills as a pure rogue. You may get the big 3 (Search, Spot, DD) but with the enhancemants that pure rogues get you will probably find yourself lacking in one (or more) of these. You may be able to "get by" with a low Spot if you know where the traps are, but a low Search will kill your ability to Disable Traps. (If you can't find them, you can't disable them.)

That's my take on the whole thing.

[Fallout]

Thanks, I'm going to scrap the idea of putting points into rogue skills, I won't have enough int on my build to go around.

After reading the other thread and playing with the character builder, I finally got why should take 2nd rogue level at L9. Originally wasn't planning on it, but with rogue levels, can actually get decent UMD despite starting out with 6 char by taking L1 rogue then 2nd level at L9