Rogue/SLASH'EM

Starting equipment

Rogues start with the following equipment:

• 1500-1999 gold pieces
• +0 short sword (can be poisoned) (or orcish short sword for orcs)
• ranged weapons chosen from the following options:
  • 70% chance of 6-15 +0 daggers (orcish daggers for orcs) and 25-34 +0 darts
  • 30% chance of +0 pistol and 25-34 +0 bullets
• +1 leather armor
• uncursed potion of sickness
• 4 blessed scrolls of gold detection
• 4 blessed scrolls of teleportation
• lock pick
• oilskin sack
• 20% chance of 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, paddle, mace, shuriken Spells: divination, body, matter
Expert	Weapons: dagger, knife, short sword, firearms, crossbow, dart Combat: bare hands, two weapon combat

Techniques

Rogues gain the following techniques:

Level	Technique
1	Critical strike
15	Cutthroat

Other abilities

Rogues can steal gold from monsters with the #borrow command. This is not terribly useful, as at low levels where gold matters there are much more efficient ways of getting it (e.g. credit cloning with your oilskin sack), and the amount of gold stolen is only your level x 25-50. Finally, it has a chance of angering peacefuls, most of whom are dangerous in the early game.

Strategy

If you're playing Slash'EM, try to get the Great Dagger of Glaurgnaa (chaotic Necromancer great dagger) if you can, because can drain levels from monsters and gives you magic resistance when carried.

The early game for SLASH'EM rogues is about finding an altar and doing a sac-fest for the Bat from Hell. Once you have this item, you will be very strong in melee through the end game. Additionally, Rogues start with a lot of gold, which can be used to run the protection racket or buy some decent equipment in Minetown or the Mall (though Rogues will pay a markup of 3x the normal rate). Other than that, the early game is played much the same as in Vanilla ... acquire daggers in the Gnomish Mines, advance skill to expert, pummel foes from range as they approach. This is slightly more difficult if you start with the pistol and bullets instead of daggers, but a careful approach to fighting weaker foes should allow you to get a stack of daggers and decent dagger skill relatively quickly. Use a scroll of teleportation to get out of scrapes, and poison your stack of daggers with your potion of sickness for maximum effectiveness.

The mid-game is also similar to Vanilla, but since non-lycanthrope and non-doppelgangers rogues can two-weapon, and SLASH'EM allows two-weaponing with artifacts, it's worth trying to get one of the stronger artifact weapons (or a strong non-artifact such as a silver saber, silver long sword, or crysknife) as a second to use with the bat. Doomblade, Serpent's Tongue, and Stormbringer are all good choices here, as is the Great Dagger of Glaurgnaa if you have a wish. You will also encounter Yendorian army members in the mid-game, from whom you can and should collect as many bullets as possible and enchant up to +7, then keep an assault rifle or two handy for use in mowing down powerful opponents. Rogues and Undead slayers are the only roles that can achieve expert in firearm skill, which gives a chance of up to two extra shots fired per round. A rogue who is expert in firearms, firing +7 bullets from an assault rifle will fire 5-9 shots per round (average 7) and do 1d20 + 7 damage per hit (average 17.5), for an incredible average of 122.5 damage per round. Using silver bullets for special occasions (Demogorgon, etc.) would add an additional 73.5 average damge to that.

A user has suggested improving this page or section as follows:

"Does having skilled or expert in firearms give extra damage per hit?"

In the late game, you may want to reverse-genocide gypsies and wish for a few stacks of silver daggers for use in Gehennom. Thrown weapons can strike from behind as well, so a stack of +7 silver daggers becomes an extremely powerful weapon against the demon princes. Between the bat, your silver daggers, and your assault rifles, you should be nigh-unstoppable in the end game.

A good ascension kit for a Rogue is:

• A stack of +7 silver daggers (or elven daggers if you don't want to spend the wishes)
• A +7 assault rifle and a stash of +7 bullets (you may also want to keep and enchant any silver bullets you find during the game, but these are not worth wishing for)
• +7 cloak of magic resistance (enchant an elven cloak to +7 and then upgrade it)
• +5 gauntlets of dexterity
• A +5 helm of telepathy or a +7 elven leather helm
• One of the following: +5 speed boots for the extra attacks, +7 elven boots for the AC, +5 jumping boots for the extra movement, or +5 fireproof water walking boots to avoid the create pool spell
• If you can two-weapon:
  • +7 Bat from Hell two-weaponed with another powerful artifact such as +7 Doomblade, +7 Serpent's Tongue, +7 Frost Brand, or +7 Fire Brand, with Stormbringer handy to switch to if you need drain resistance
  • +5 silver dragon scale mail
  • An amulet of life saving, drain resistance, or flying
• If you can't two-weapon:
  • +7 Bat from Hell
  • +5 shield of reflection
  • +5 deep dragon scale mail
  • An amulet of life saving or flying
• ...plus all the other standard ascension kit items