Master Rogue

CR: +2

Class: Rogue, ninja, or slayer. Additional classes may be considered at the GM’s discretion.

HD: 14 or higher.

Alignment: Any nonevil.

Defenses/Qualities: A master rogue gains immunity to all poisons, blindsight 30 feet, +4 bonus on her Initiative checks, and a +4 bonus on all Disable Device, Perception, Sense Motive, and Stealth skill checks. 

Special Abilities: A master rogue gains the following special abilities:

Ambush (Ex)

A master rogue is adept at setting up and responding to well-executed surprise attacks. She ignores anything less than total concealment caused by darkness, fog, and smoke. In addition, if she is able to act in the surprise round, she treats the surprise round as a normal round in respects to the types of actions she can take.

Cunning (Ex)

A master rogue always has a trick up her sleeves. Once per day, after rolling an attack roll, skill check, or saving throw, the rogue may immediately re-roll the check and must take the second result. For every 2 Hit Dice (or levels) beyond 14, the master rogue gains an additional use of this ability, to a maximum of 4 times per day. 

Deadly Strikes (Ex)

A master rogue learns to make attacks that weaken and incapacitate her enemies. A master rogue can learn one deadly strike, and an additional deadly strike every Hit Dice or level after 14th, up to a maximum of 4 deadly strikes. Each deadly strike adds an effect to the rogue’s sneak attack ability. Whenever the rogue makes a successful sneak attack to deal damage to one target, she can choose to forgo a portion of her sneak attack damage to cause the target to receive the additional effect from one of the deadly strikes possessed by the rogue. This choice is made when the sneak attack is made. The target receives a Fortitude save to avoid the effects of a deadly strike. If the save is successful, the target takes the sneak attack damage as normal, but not the effects of the deadly strike. Unless otherwise noted, the DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 the master rogue’s Hit Dice (or level) + the master rogue’s Intelligence modifier.

A master rogue can choose one of the following initial strikes.

• • Dazzling Strike: The master rogue can sacrifice 1d6 damage from her sneak attack to cause the target to become dazzled for 1 round per level of the rogue. The effects of this strike do not stack. The penalty to Perception checks received by this strike increases to –2 at 6th level, and –4 at 8th level.