Knife Master Rogue Handbook: PathfinderPrestige Class Guide – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

The dagger is the Rogue’s most iconic weapon, and the Knife Master is all about daggers. You trade effectiveness with sneak attacks using other weapons, but with a bit of effort you really won’t need any other weapons. Because thrown weapons work off of Two-Weapon Fighting instead of Rapid Shot, the Knife Master can easily switch between flanking or throwing daggers.

Like any Rogue, the Knife Master is a Striker in combat. Because the archetype doesn’t change the Rogue’s fantastic skill list, it is also wise to invest in skills to help the party with traps and other common adventuring hazards. You give up Trapfinding in exchange for additional damage abilities, so you may wish to avoid this archetype in games which involve a lot of traps. However, because you’re not very good at dealing with traps, this is a good opportunity to play a Face.

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RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Rogue Class Features

Hit Points: At d8 hit points, the Rogue isfairly squishy. Because many rogues work best in melee, hit points are aserious concern and Rogues need to be sure to keep their AC high.

Base Attack Bonus: Rogues get medium BABprogression, which causes them some problems. With lower BAB than a fighter,they will often have trouble hitting their targets, and must look foradditional bonuses elsewhere. In addition, lower BAB means that Rogues getiterative attacks later than Fighters, which can hurt the Rogue’s damageoutput

Saves: Your only good save is Reflex, andcoupled with typically high Dexterity and Evasion, your reflexes areexcellent. However, you will need to invest in your other saves to protectagainst other hazards.

Proficiencies: The Rogue doesn’t get a lotof big exciting weapons, but they get everything that they need to get the jobdone.

Skills: Rogues get the most skills and havethe best skill list. However, because the Rogue gets so many skill options, itcan be very difficult to invest in every rogue skill unless your intelligenceis exceptionally high.

Sneak Attack: A pile of d6’s to drop on yourfoes.

Evasion (Ex): With your high reflex saves,Evasion will save you from a lot of damage.

Rogue Talents: Basically Rogue-only feats,Rogue Talents offer a huge number of excellent ways to customize and improveyour Rogue.

Uncanny Dodge: The ability to never becaught flat-footed is nice, but somewhat situational. If you are expecting tobe attacked, you can do silly things like using Full Defense every round untilyou get attacked.

Improved Uncanny Dodge: This will basicallynever come up.

Advanced Talents: Add an extra list ofconsiderably better Rogue Talents.

Master Strike: Basically the Assassin’sDeath Strike ability.

Archetype Features

Hidden Blade: Hiding weapons on your bodyis very rarely important, unless your campaign involves a lot of espionage.However, there are ways to capitalize on hidden weapons, and this reduces yourneed to invest ranks in Sleight of Hand.

Sneak Stab (Ex): The keystone of thearchetype, this bumps your sneak attack dice to d8’s with your primary weapon.You can sneak attack with several weapons which are considered “knives”, butthe dagger is the best option.

Blade Sense (Ex): Extremely situational.Unless you challenge someone to a knife fight, you may never get to use thisability. It’s about as situational as Trap Sense, so no big loss here.

Compatible Archetypes

• Bandit: While not stellar on its own,Bandit combines well with the Underhanded Rogue Talent and the Quick Drawfeat to let us draw a hidden dagger as a move action and deal maximum sneakattack damage during the surprise round. Combined with the Knife Master’s d8sneak attack damage, that’s a very impressive surprise round.
• Burglar: This is awful on its best day.
• Sanctified Rogue: This won’t get youanything really interesting, but it’s a cool flavor.
• Scout: The Scout is a truly fantasticarchetype for the rogue because it provides an easy way to get Sneak Attackwithout hiding or relying on flanking. However, because you generally onlyget one attack after you move, this can severely limit your damageoutput.
• Trapsmith: You gave up Trapfinding, so youwill be a really terrible Trapsmith.

Abilities

Like many rogues, the Knife Master suffers badly from Multiple Ability Dependency (MAD). You can sacrifice portions of your characters functionality by sacrificing ability scores, but I find that a balanced approach will allow you to cover all of the roles generally expected from a rogue.

• Str: Your damage comes from sneakattack, so don’t put any serious resources into Strength. Don’t dump it to7, but don’t feel like you actually need to increase it.
• Dex: Dexterity is the rogue’s firstability in almost every build, and this is no exception.
• Con: The Knife Master is a combat build,and you will want hit points on top of your d8 hit die.
• Int: Skill points. You need them.
• Wis: The rogue’s low will save hurts, butWisdom gets us less than any other ability score, and we have to makesacrifices somewhere.
• Cha: A bit of Charisma opens up a lot ofoptions for you, and since the Knife Master doesn’t get Trapfinding, you area good choice to serve as a Face for the party.

Races

Dexterity bonuses are key, but other bonuses can also provide options.

Dwarf: Darkvision is really fantastic on anyrogue, but the penalty to Charisma limits our options, and the Dwarf bringsvery little to the Knife Master offensively.

Elf: Bonuses to Dexterity and Intelligenceare fantastic on any Rogue, but that’s all that the Elf really gets us.Alternate racial traits can get you a few more options, but they won’t helpthe Knife Master significantly more than the basic Elf.

Gnome: The penalty to strength hurts ourdamage a little bit, but small size doesn’t hurt rogues much, and providesnice bonuses to Stealth, attacks, and AC. The bonus Charisma helps a bit,though not as much as a bonus to dexterity. The slow speed also hurts a bit,but can be overcome with items and careful positioning.

Half-Elf: The flexible ability score bonusgoes into Dexterity, but many of the other racial traits can be swapped outfor more useful options. The Half-Elf favored class bonus is garbage, so takethe Elf or Human favored class bonuses instead.

Half-Orc: The flexible ability score bonusgoes into Dexterity, the bonus to Intimidate is a nice perk, and you getDarkvision. The favored class bonus is garbage.

Halfling: Bonuses to Dexterity and Charismamake the Halfling a natural Rogue. The Fleet of Foot alternate racial traitallows you to overcome the slow speed, and the bonus to Perception is welcomeon any character. The bonus to saves also helps improve the Rogue’s weakdefenses. Unfortunately, the favored class bonus is terrible so take the Humanfavored class bonuses instead.

Human: As usual, the Human is a great optionfor the Knife Master. A bonus feat and an extra skill rank per level open up aton of great options, and the flexible ability score bonus can go right intoDexterity. The favored class bonus grants additional Rogue Talents, which addsa lot of great options.

Traits

• Deft Dodger (Combat): Your dexteritysaves are already fantastic, but more never hurts.
• Dirty Fighter (Combat): 1 point of damagemight not seem like a lot, but for a Knife master built for flanking, flatdamage bonuses add up very quickly.
• Fencer (Combat): Attacks of Opportunityreally aren’t a good thing for Rogues to focus on.
• Hidden Hand (Combat): The bonus to hideweapons is nice, but the real draw is the attack bonus with light weaponsduring the surprise round. You are all about the surprise round, so this isa very realiable bonus to your attacks.
• Reactionary (Combat): Bonuses toinitiative are crucial because they make you more likely to go first, whichmeans you are more likely to get Sneak Attack.
• Resilient (Combat): Bonus to a badsave.
• Tactician (Combat): Attacks of opportunitystill aren’t great for you, the Reactionary has a better initiativebonus.
• Indomitable Faith (Faith): Bonus to a badsave.
• Inspired (Faith): For skill-heavy classeslike Rogue, this can get a lot of mileage.
• Pragmatic Activator (Magic): If yourintelligence is higher than your Charisma, this can be helpful.
• Adopted (Social): Opens up a lot fo reallygreat options. If you want Reactionary, but also want another Combat trait,take Adopted, and get the Warrior of Old Elf Racial Trait.
• Bruising Intellect (Social): If you planto do a lot of intimidating, and your Strength is lower than yourIntelligence, you can get a few points out of this.
• Harvester (Social): If you like to usepoison, this could save you a Rogue Talent or a Feat. Of course, if you liketo use poison you will need to get those talents/feats anyway.
• Life of Toil (Social): Bonus to a badsave.
• Tunnel Fighter (Dwarf Racial): In adungeon crawling campaign, this is the best initiative bonus trait.Otherwise, it’s situational.
• Forlorn (Elf Racial): Bonus to a badsave.
• Warrior of Old (Elf Racial): Equal toReactionary, and it doesn’t take up the more versatile Combat Trait.
• Rapscallion (Gnome Racial): EscapeArtist is very situational, and there are better initiative bonusesavailable.
• Elven Reflexes (Half-Elf Racial): Equal toReactionary, and it doesn’t take up the more versatile Combat Trait.
• Failed Apprentice (Half-Elf Racial):Arcane spells are the ones you will save against most, and a bonus againstall of them is fantastic.

Skills

• Acrobatics (Dex):
• Appraise (Int): Situational.
• Bluff (Cha): Great in conversations, andyou can use it to feint in a pinch.
• Climb (Str): Situational. Cast SpiderClimb.
• Disable Device (Dex): You can’t find ordisable magical traps, but this is still very useful. Put a few ranks in it,but don’t maximize it if you’re short on skill ranks.
• Disguise (Cha): Situational, but onerank gets you a pretty nice bonus, and two ranks qualifies you forAssassin.
• Escape Artist (Dex): Situational, butworth at least one rank to protect yourself from grapples.
• Intimidate (Cha): Great in conversations,but not nearly as important as Diplomacy.
• Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int):Dungeoneering covers a lot of scary monster types. It’s worth a rank for theclass skill bonus, but don’t maximize it unless your party lacks aLibrarian.
• Knowledge (local) (Int): Helpful in a lotof plot situations, and helps identify humanoids. It’s worth a rank for theclass skill bonus, but don’t maximize it unless your party lacks aLibrarian.
• Linguistics (Int): Situational. Have theWizard cast Tongues or Comprehend Languages.
• Perception (Wis): The most rolled skill inthe game. You would be a fool not to max Perception.
• Perform (Cha): You are not a bard.
• Sense Motive (Wis): Helpful, but notcrucial.
• Sleight of Hand (Dex): Helpful, but verysituational. Put at least one rank here so that you can hide some daggers,but don’t bother focusing on it. Remember that the Knife Master archetypealso gives you a class bonus to hiding items.
• Stealth (Dex): The Rogue’s bread andbutter.
• Swim (Str): Situational.
• Use Magic Device (Cha): One of the mostpowerful skills in the game.

Feats

• Deadly Aim: If you plan to spend most ofyour time throwing daggers, this can add some extra damage. However, bonusesto attack are critical to your effectiveness, and the damage payoff forSneak Attack is much better. Be very careful when deciding if you want touse Deadly Aim.
• Dodge: As a Rogue, your AC will be goodbecause your dexterity is good. However, your hit points are mediocre, soyou will want anything you can get.
  • Mobility: Redundant withAcrobatics.
• Extra Rogue Talent: Many of the RogueTalents are better than feats, but be sure to plan your talen choices aheadof time. If you take this feat you may find that you run out of interestingtalent choices.
• Fleet: 5 feet of extra move speed willrarely make a huge difference, but this may be helpful for slow races.
• Point-Blank Shot: If you spend a lot oftime throwing daggers, this may be worth a Feat. This is also helpful duringsurprise rounds, assumiong that you start combat close enough to sneakattack.
  • Far Shot: The range increment fordaggers is very small, and the range increment penalties add up quickly.If you spend a lot of time throwing daggers, this may be worth aFeat.
  • Precise Shot: If the enemy is in melee,you would do better by moving into melee and flanking.
  • Rapid Shot: Throwing weapons useTwo-Weapon Fighting, not Rapid Shot.
• Improved Initiative: You get more fromgoing first than anyone else, so Improved Initiative is very important.
• Iron Will: Because you depend heavily onother ability scores, your Wisdom is likely low. Will saves are veryimportant, so it is a good idea to invest in your lowest saving throw.
• Martial Weapon Proficiency (Starking): See“weapons”, below.
• Quick Draw: Drawing a hidden weapon isnormally a standard action, which means you probably won’t do it in combat.Quick Draw lets you draw hidden weapons as a move action, and drawnon-hidden weapons as a free action. If you want to throw weapons at all,this is essential to avoid ending your turn empty-handed.
• Step Up: If they can five-foot step awayfrom you, you aren’t flanking. If you aren’t flanking, then they have justgiven you a free opportunity to reposition somewhere more advantageous.
• Toughness: Depending on your abilityscores, your hit points are likely low.
• Two-Weapon Fighting: Whether throwing orflanking, this is essential.
  • Double Slice: Literally never.
  • Improved Two-Weapon Fighting: Moreattacks means more damage.
    • Greater Two-Weapon Fighting: Moreattacks, more damage. However, at this level you will have a lot oftrouble hitting at a -10 penalty.
• Weapon Finesse: Essential on almost everyRogue. You can also take the Finesse Rogue talent to save a feat, dependingon how your feat/talent selections line up.
• Weapon Focus: Selecting Daggers is asolid choice if you don’t need another feat. Your attack bonus won’t keep upwith Fighters, so every point helps.

Weapons

• dagger: Acceptable damage, and it has arange increment so it can be thrown without issue.
• kerambit: Martial, and mostly equivalent toa punching dagger. It trades some of the punching dagger’s damage for a +2to Sleight of Hand checks to hide it. Because it’s martial, Rogues aren’tproficient with it by default.
• kukri: Better crit range than a dagger, butwith no range increment, and it’s Martial.
• punching daggers: Better crit multiplierthan a dagger, but no range increment and lower threat range.
• starknife: Dagger damage, punching daggercrits, and twice the Dagger’s range. If the Rogue was proficient with it, itwould be better than the dagger for the Knife Master because you don’t careabout critical hits and you like to throw things. This is especially helpfulonce you pick up Sniper’s Goggles and can make Sneak Attacks beyond 30 ft.range.
• swordbreaker dagger: Exotic, and the onlyreal appeal is the bonus to disarm/sunder. You won’t be doing combatmaneuvers, so this doesn’t get you anything.

Armor

Your choice of armor will change as your dexterity improves. At first level you can reasonably expect to have 20 dexterity, so start with Studded Leather. When you get a Belt of Incresible Dexterity, upgrade to a Mithral Shirt (equal to +2 Leather, but 3000 gp cheaper). When your dexterity hits 24 (either at 8th level or when you get a +4 belt), switch to Haramaki. Your AC will drop without enhancing the armor, but at this level 4000gp for +2 Haramaki shouldn’t be a problem. Haramaki is cheaper than Padded armor, and is strictly better in every sense.

Multiclassing and Prestige Classes

• Assassin: A logical and interestingchoice for Rogues, the Assassin actually isn’t a good choice for the KnifeMaster. Sneak Attack from Assassin will stack with your Rogue Sneak Attack,but it won’t be d8s, which means you are sacrificing damage. The Assassinalso gives up a lot of cool Rogue abilities for poison use (which you canget from a talent), and a mediocre Death Strike ability.

Example Build – The Halfling Quickrazor

I could talk to him, but I think I’ll just stab him repeatedly.

This build is a somewhat generic, Two-Weapon Fighting Face Rogue. While not particularly unique or exciting, this build is unquestionably effective.

Abilities

We will assume the 25-point buy abilities suggested above, but the other suggested abilities can also use this build without any problems.

Race

We will use Halfling for our race. Small size gets Rogues a lot, despite the Halfling’s slow speed. The racial ability score bonuses are great, and the racial bonus to saving throws helps to compensate for our low Constitution and Wisdom scores.

Other Archetypes

We will combine the Knife Master archetype with the Bandit archetype, primarily for the Bandit’s Ambush ability.

Skills

With 9 skill points, we have a lot of options. Some of our skills will be maxed because we will need them frequently, but we will reserve some ranks to dip into other skills as we grow in level. We will also use our favored class bonus to get additional skill ranks at every level.

Maximized Skills

• Acrobatics
• Bluff
• Diplomacy
• Intimidate
• Diplomacy
• Perception
• Stealth
• Use Magic Device

Dip Skills

Alternate ranks between Disable Device and Sleight of hand, but only put one rank in the other skills. Once you have ranks in every dip skill, put the additional ranks into Disable Device and Sleight of Hand.

• Appraise
• Disable Device
• Disguise
• Sleight of Hand
• Knowledge (dungeoneering)
• Knowledge (local)

Traits

Hidden Hand and Adopted (Elf) to get Warrior of Old. This will help us in suprise rounds, and give us a very impressive initiative bonus.

Levels