Rogue locksmith // UAC or Ranged - Best Race?

[Haldrik]

Hey All,

I've decided to jump back into the game and decided to finally try out a rogue with locksmith. So a few questions...

I want to hunt and pick locks, preferably at my level and above. I was thinking open archery or UAC.

1) What do you think the best race is for this? I imagine the answer will vary wildly between open archery and UAC.
2) Can race choice affect my end game lockpicking ability?
3) How soon can I get 411 if i want to go archer rogue?

Any other advice if of course welcomed!

[Tgo01]

Not sure about archery but halflings make awesome rogues for ambushing and for lockpicking.

At cap with fully 3x in lockpicking and disarming I don't think being a halfling is going to make a huge difference but it certainly does make things easier. You are bound to come across a lock or trap where the extra dex bonus from halflings is going to come in handy, even at cap.

Also my monk is a halfling and he has had absolutely no problems thus far. Granted he's only about level 30 but honestly he's had probably the easiest time of all of my characters in terms of hunting and survivability up until this point. I'm sure that's bound to change around level 50 or so though.

[Rhovan]

I'd say don't overly worry about getting 411 early. Just get someone else to cast 411 on your arrows and bundle stacks so that each one has 999 uses. They'll last a good while and you can locker em until you need them.

Halflings are great for the ETD and maneuver bonuses, but that strength penalty will really hurt an archer. With a -15 hit to strength bonus, you'll be capping out at +10 with a strength of 100. Without spells or enhancives, you'll be firing a short bow at 4 seconds without aiming.

Any thoughts on society?

[Haldrik]

I'm pretty bad about losing arrows so 411 asap would be super helpful. Halfing isn't a bad choice I think for UAC ambush, but I worry about hitting heads. Perhaps 410 could make up for it? If I went halfling then COL could might be decent. Although not sure how well UAC will do with low spirit.

I don't think halfing would be a good choice for ranged though, with the low ranged AIM RT. Short bows dont seem particularly viable against heavy armor.

I could definitely go COL. I'm not a big fan of GOS as I've never been very good at war camps. Although I heard some recent changes to the crit weight/crit padding now works against all enemies? Seems like that could be useful with arrows.

[Rhovan]

I haven't given UAC a go, but strength will matter for UAF and for encumbrance.

Hitting heads with your hands as a halfling will definitely require 410 or some setup.

GOS is easy to crank out mastery at a low level and is very useful as an archer. Halfling spirit regeneration is great for COL and their constitution is second only to dwarves for GOS.

Damage/crit padding always helps. I haven't heard of any changes to make the weighting affect everything though.

[Haldrik]

Welp, I ended up going UAC. It's been a pretty good decision so far. The only thing is, after I restat'ed for growth I got completely shitstomped into the ground PTP wise and it destroyed my build since my PTPs are so low now. Now I'm basically just struggling with a piecemeal build until my TPs hopefully catch up. I might switch over and get some spells once I get trained for a MBP since mental TPs are coming so fast now. Haven't quite decided though... REDUX is saving my life and basically allowing me to any sort of soloing.

I pick anything at my level with ease. Almost rank 5 LMAS, just need those damn calipers.

@ 24.

Two Weapon Combat..................| 58 12
Armor Use..........................| 152 52
Combat Maneuvers...................| 102 24
Brawling...........................| 150 50
Ambush.............................| 152 52
Physical Fitness...................| 142 42
Dodging............................| 108 26
Arcane Symbols.....................| 70 15
Harness Power......................| 45 9
Disarming Traps....................| 140 40
Picking Locks......................| 140 40
Stalking and Hiding................| 148 48
Perception.........................| 150 50
Climbing...........................| 45 9
First Aid..........................| 108 26

I ended up going Aelotoi because I liked their stat layout. No idea they had wings... ha.

R>info
Name: Rogue Race: Aelotoi Profession: Rogue (not shown)
Gender: Male Age: 0 Expr: 686297 Level: 24
Normal (Bonus) ... Enhanced (Bonus)
Strength (STR): 74 (7) ... 74 (7)
Constitution (CON): 83 (16) ... 83 (16)
Dexterity (DEX): 70 (15) ... 70 (15)
Agility (AGI): 57 (13) ... 57 (13)
Discipline (DIS): 78 (19) ... 78 (19)
Aura (AUR): 86 (18) ... 86 (18)
Logic (LOG): 81 (20) ... 81 (20)
Intuition (INT): 71 (15) ... 71 (15)
Wisdom (WIS): 91 (20) ... 91 (20)
Influence (INF): 64 (2) ... 64 (2)
Mana: 35 Silver: 3516

And I just finished my 15th GOS task, so I'll be GOS master soon.