By the way,

Just wanted to point out that I leveled up with my barbarian, and picked a lvl 1 Rogue. That sneak attack kicks some serious ass at my lvl (14) when combined with Greater Cleave. O.O

Rogue is a great selection for multi-class characters. Arguably the best class to dip into if you're just looking for a little diversification on a melee-oriented character. The extra skill points and sneak attacks complement a wide variety of characters, and melee specialists like a barbarian lose relatively little for it. Be sure to pick up a second level for evasion!

If you really want to benefit, take a couple of more levels.
1st level doesn't advance your attack bonus, but the following 3 do just like you were taking barbarian.

As already mentioned, evasion at level 2 is awesome. You could also benefit greatly by putting all available skill points into tumble. 1 free AC for every 5 skill levels and helps against attacks of opportunity.

It may seem that way, but if you've only got one level of Rogue, that's only 1d6 extra damage when the situation provokes a Sneak Attack. That's an average of 3.5 points of damage, which isn't much at level 14. Of course, every little extra bit of damage is never a bad thing though. :)

Just a note since this is originally a Monk thread (although I realize you're likely replying to the Barbarian character referenced above your post): Monks get evasion for free, so no need for the extra Rogue level for that. As well, the single Rogue level will reduce the Monk's BAB.

+ Monks get impr evasion at level 9 [one level before it's available for rogues].

btw - Pure monk is a great character for official campaigns.
1. Competent melee fighter [with very good free feats and abilities].
2. More than enough skill points.
3. Lots of cash.
4. Great saving throws [+ immunity to all mind-affecting spells at lvl 20] & spell resistance.
5. Amazing speed [stacks with haste].
6. Glowing eyes [HotU] :-)

Sorry about the off-topic (again). :D

Just finished OC, at level 16 (dwarf barbarian).
Feels kinda funny, because last time I played the game (some years back), I clearly remember being level 20 with my Ranger, and I'm pretty sure I didn't skip any quests. Maybe because Diamond Edition lowers XP rewards in OC? Or maybe because at higher levels of difficulty (as I played this time) XP rewards are also lower?

Wait, you multi-classed Rogue as a Dwarf Barbarian? There's your problem, that specific combo will get you an XP penalty.

Ah, so those two rogue levels took 4 levels of XP? o.o

That doesn't account for 4 levels, but it would be a fair chunk of the difference.

As noted, your character was hit with an XP penalty (20% in the case of your Dwarf BBN/Rogue). As well, one of the patches BioWare implemented adjusted the XP awards in the game so you generally end at around level 17 or so by the end instead of hitting level 20.

Ah, okay.
So actually me not getting to level 20 is the result of:
[XP penalty for multiclassing] + [lower XP rewards from quests]

But then again, if I would have played a Half-Orc barbarian, would I have suffered this XP loss as well due to multi-classing? I'm asking this, because I read in the description that halkf-orcs don't suffer any XP penalty.

Humans, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, and Halflings would not have suffered multi-class penalty with your precise combo.

Half-Orcs have favored class barbarian, Halflings have favored class rogue, and humans/half-elves use treat their highest-level class (barbarian, in your case) as favored.

Alternately, you would have been fine as a dwarf Fighter/Rogue, since fighter is the favored class of dwarves.


You suffer an XP penalty if any of your classes differ by more than 1 level. Prestige classes and your favored class do not count towards this consideration.

Damn! It would seem with great beard comes great responsibility! :D
Thank you sir for clarifying things!