Rogue

This article is about the player role. For the game, see Rogue (game).

The Rogue is a player role. Rogues are skilled thieves. NetHack says of them:

       I understand the business, I hear it: to have an open ear, a
       quick eye, and a nimble hand, is necessary for a cut-purse; a
       good nose is requisite also, to smell out work for the other
       senses.  I see this is the time that the unjust man doth
       thrive. <...> The prince himself is about a piece of iniquity,
       stealing away from his father with his clog at his heels:  if
       I thought it were a piece of honesty to acquaint the king
       withal, I would not do't:  I hold it the more knavery to
       conceal it; and therein am I constant to my profession.
               [ Autolycus the Rogue, from The Winter's Tale by
               William Shakespeare ]

Starting equipment

• an uncursed +0 short sword
• 6—16 uncursed +0 daggers
• an uncursed +1 leather armor ( 5% chance of being blessed instead )
• an uncursed potion of sickness
• an uncursed lock pick
• an uncursed sack
• a 20 % chance of a blindfold

Skills

Rogue skills
Max	Skills
Basic	Weapons: two-handed sword, morning star, flail, hammer, polearms, spear Combat: riding
Skilled	Weapons: broadsword, long sword, scimitar, saber, club, mace, shuriken Spells: divination, escape, matter
Expert	Weapons: dagger, knife, short sword, crossbow, dart Combat: bare hands, two weapon combat

Strategy

• Rogues have very low HP growth. Because of this, melee combat can be dangerous in the early game. Rogues can be better suited to fighting with ranged attacks; like daggers, crossbows, darts, and knives. However, realistically, at higher XLs or later in the game when one's AC is sufficiently negative, melee combat with an artifact weapon obviously becomes the norm.
• Rogues can get to expert skill in twoweaponing as well, but as they cannot become expert in the better artifact weapons this may not be the best use of skill points.
• Rogues start with a lot of daggers and they should be thrown often. The skill should be raised to expert before anything else, as they can throw up to 4 daggers at once at expert. They also have a high dexterity, so it is rare for them to miss.
• Since in the later game you will not use your short sword, you should use any dagger (even a crude one) as your primary weapon as soon as possible. This will help you to raise the dagger skill. If you can't find a dagger (other than the initial ones), maybe you should use your hands to attack, not your short sword.
• Remember that runed daggers are made from wood, so you would like to have one or three in case of an acid blob or something like that. If you're play Slash'em, try to get a Great Dagger; The Great Dagger of Glaurgnaa (chaotic Necromancer great dagger) if you can, because it gives you magic resistance when carried and its level-drain ability can be helpful.
• Rogues can gain an additional +d(XL) "backstab" damage when striking a fleeing monster. Because of this, Elbereth, scrolls of scare monster, and tooled horns are useful to rogues in close quarters. This is extremely powerful when combined with thrown daggers. In addition, Rogues might wish for Magicbane or find it in the bones file of a Wizard - its 'scare' attack can very often cause monsters to flee, giving the Rogue backstab opportunities.
• The Rogue quest is a tad trickier than others, because there isn't a direct pathway between the stairs and Master Assassin, the quest nemesis. One can overcome this in a few ways: 1) By digging down from the previous level and hopefully landing in the region where the quest nemesis is, killing him, grabbing the important items and then getting out of the level by quaffing a cursed potion of gain level or by reading a cursed scroll of teleportation or reading an uncursed scroll of teleportation while confused; 2) By polymorphing oneself into a monster such as an Umber Hulk or Xorn to be able to walk through walls (make sure to take off the appropriate pieces of armor which would break upon polymorphing into one of these monsters first). The quest nemesis is a bit of a pushover and might even easily be overcome when the player is in the form of another monster. Even if the player is reduced to 0 HP in polymorphed form, however, they will return to their original form at whatever HP they had before the polymorph. The quest nemesis could then be dispatched from their original form.
• The Rogue class artifact is the Master Key of Thievery, a very nice artifact which confers the half physical damage, warning and teleport control intrinsics. It can also be #invoked to untrap boxes and doors with 100% success.