I'm assuming you've read the official Simutronics documents. If you haven't read the official Simutronics documents, I suggest you do. Due to the ever-evolving nature of H&X:AOH things here can become wrong and out of date. Also everything here is my own opinion, therefore it may be wrong and other opinions may disagree. This is an unofficial guide and therefore is not supported by Simutronics or Universal Studios.

Click here to hear Autolycus finally admit to the truth.

Race

It appears that humans make the best rogues. Especially with the acrobatics. Since they don't have the penalties that centaurs and giants have. Humans also have the best coordination of the three races. And coordination is a rogue's primary stat.

Centaurs are more physically stronger than humans with and have a bonus in weapons. But it will be harder for a centaur to learn the nimble acrobatic moves because of their nature. Centaurs also will have some difficulty with hiding.

Giants are the most strongest and the most poorly coordinated of all the races. Giants will also have problems with acrobatics, but not as much as a centaur.

Alignment

Selecting a god or goddess will affect greatly on how you advance in skills. You can make any god or goddess work, but some will make advancement harder in certain skills than others.

• Zeus - While he does favor brawling and weapons skills, his dislike of mechanical skills makes him a poor choice compared to Hermes.
• Apollo - He does favor ranged weapons and mechanical skills, but again not a great god all around for a rogue.
• Aphrodite - She is neutral on weapons and acrobatic skills, but she heavily favors physical skills and has a dislike of mechanical skills. A choice for those who would want to follow with the physical skills.
• Hermes - Probably the best god for a rogue all around in skills.
• Poseidon - While he favors weapons and physical skills, he doesn't like acrobatics. But he is neutral on mechanical skills.
• Demeter - Not a great pick for a rogue because she really doesn't have anything to offer a rogue in the way of skills.
• Persephone - Another that isn't a good choice because she really doesn't have thing to offer a rogue skill-wise.
• Iris - One to stay away from if you're a mechanical specialist. And since she really doesn't offer a rogue much else, she isn't a great choice.
• Pan - A god for the nimble rogue because he heavily favors acrobatics, but he doesn't like mechanical skills very much.
• Artemis - Heavily favors ranged weapons. And favors acrobatic skills. But her dislike of mechanical skills may not appeal to everyone.
• Athena - A choice for the weapons enthusiast who doesn't want to be hit with Hephaestus's extreme dislike of acrobatics. She does disfavor acrobatics, but not as much as Hephaestus.
• Hestia - She doesn't offer a rogue much skill-wise, but she does heavily favor arcane skills.
• Hephaestus - Heavily favors weapons and mechanical skills, but he has a big dislike of acrobatic skills.
• Hebe - She's alright for the most part in favoring acrobatics and physical skills. But she does disfavor mechanical skills.

Where To Start

As a rogue you should have ample fighting skill with a weapon however you probably won't be very good with your brawling skills. You can buy one and kill enough skeletons for their shields and scimitars, to pay off your debt. It may take you a while though. Or you can pay off your debt and run jobs from the employment office until you have enough dinars to buy one. Or ask someone, do not beg for dinars, to give you a weapon. Don't expect anyone to help you out though.

Skeletons, in the cemetery just past the Peiraic Gate should provide more than enough challenge for a beginning rogue. If you want a little less challenge, sewer rats and giant rats underneath the city are fairly easy. Be careful taking on rats though, rat fiends and huge rat fiends are also in the same area and are alot meaner the rats.

Training

When rogues advance they automatically advance in brawling, weapons, physical, acrobatics, mechanical, and perception. How much you advance automatically, depends on your god or goddess and your race. A good reason to choose your alignment wisely.

You will also have 30 training points to spend a level. You can up to three times in one particular skill. The third time the cost in training points doubles.

Skill Cost in TDPs

Brawling	Punching - 8	Kicking - 7	Throwing - 8	Grappling - 8
Weapons	One-handed - 5	Two-handed - 6	Ranged - 5	Improvised - 6
Acrobatics	Dodging - 5	Escaping - 5	Tumbling - 5	Catching - 5
Physical	Health - 6	Stealth - 5	Athletics - 7	Adrenal - 8
Alchemy	Healing - 12	Explosives - 12	Alterations - 12	Conjurations - 12
Magic	Spirit - 12	Mental - 12	Alteration - 12	Relics - 12
Mechanical	Locks - 5	Traps - 5	Smithing - 12	Gadgeteering - 7
Arcane	Lore - 12	Foraging - 12	Arts & Music - 12	Perception - 5

Lockpicking

Lockpicking is one of my favorite skills. Opening up that box in like opening up a present. However you never know if you'll get a pair of dirty socks or a horde of dinars.

A small interjection here from Scheherazade.  Lockpicking has changed a lot since the beginning of the game, so here's my little take on it with Aviran and Bellah helping me A LOT!

A new rogue going into the local locksmith and seeing all those lockpicks is liable to be overwhelmed, this old storyteller still is!  But have no fear, they actually make some sense.  There are five types of lockpicks and five gauges of each type.  The five types are Mochlos, Syrtis, Diskos, Egkopi, and Trochos and the five gauges are Ultralight, Light, Medium, Heavy, and Ultraheavy.  Don't let the names scare you, these are just the names of the types of locks.

To make these lockpicks easier to keep up with you can buy a pickset to keep them in.  There is one slot for each pick in the pick set and you just buy or make the pick and PUT it in the pickset.  Rogues are able to pick the picks from the pickset by name, non-rogues have to PUSH the pickset until they flip to the lockpick they desire.  So if you're a rogue you can say OPEN PICKSET <gauge>.  Just saying OPEN PICKSET will open it to the medium lockpick.

Lockpicks can and WILL break.  If this happens simply PULL it from the pickset (if in one) and type FIX LOCKPICK.  This won't work when you are younger but as you gain more skill you will be able to.

Ok, now on to the picking.  When you get a locked box you will want to EXAMINE it to find out what type of lock is on the box and what gauge of pick you will want to use.  Examining a box will look similar to this...

You carefully begin examining your coffer to determine the difficulty of the lock and trap...
As you look closely, you notice a tiny small hole next to the lock which looks to be a trap of some kind.
Inside the lock, a series of levers of are set to various heights. This looks like a durable mochlos style lock. You think the lock might be around a -225 difficulty.

So as you can see, examining the box tells you the type of lock and what gauge of lock it is.   On the difficulty, the lower the number the harder the box.  So -500 would be harder than -100.  The gauges on the locks match with the gauges of lockpicks as follows:

Fraglie - Ultralight
Delicate - Light
Sturdy - Medium
Durable - Heavy
Strong - Utlraheavy

So in my example, you would want to use a heavy mochlos lockpick.  When picking the box you do NOT have to remove the pick from the pickset.  Simply type PICK MY <box> WITH MY PICKSET with the correct lockpick chosen as explained above.  If you have a loose lockpick then just PICK MY <box> WITH MY LOCKPICK.

Rogues are able to pick around traps, but there is a chance you will set them off by doing this.  Most (read all) boxes are trapped from everything to explosives and crossbow bolts to laughing gas and insults.  To attempt to disarm a trap simply hold the box with your other hand empty and type DISARM MY <box>.  If the trap is poison then the vial of poison will fall inside the box for you to use yourself on a weapon.

Ratchets and probes are for non-rogues to help them pick and disarm.  They aren't professionals so lockpicking can come hard to them, but with the help of these tools it should be possible.  It might take them an hour and a dozen lockpicks, but it should be possible.

Ok, end of my interjection.

Any rogue should be able to pick boxes that come from monsters of their own level. Extra training in locks will make things easier, but isn't a necessity. And there is always a chance of missing the lock or breaking your lockpick no matter what your skill is.

Traps

Typing CREATE will show you what traps you can create. By typing CREATE LIST you'll see the traps available to you. At them moment all we have is caltrops. Caltrops are small pieces of sharp metal spread out over an area so when someone steps on them they get hurt. There's a shop that sells them and it isn't in Athens. Caltrops come in bundles of 12 dozen.

To create the caltrop trap, have your caltrops in hand and type CREATE CALTROP. This uses all the caltrops in the bundle. To us some of the caltrops type CREATE CALTROP <number of dozen>. The more caltrops the better the chance the trap will work.

Another interjection from yours truly.

There are now a few more traps available including tripwires and buckets of tar.  Some tripwires just trip the critters, others are very fine edged and actually cut the critter as they fall to cause damage and still others flash when tripped and stun the critter as they fall to the ground.  The use of tripwires is obvious, it makes critters fall.  These too are created by typing CREATE TRIPWIRE while holding the wire.

The tar traps can be used in several ways.  Typing CREATE TAR TRAP will spread a pool of muckity muck for a critter to fall into.  If they do then they get all stickied up and have a hard time standing and moving.  A more fun and interesting thing to do is to set a tripwire up in the room FIRST, then create the tar trap.  This will hang the bucket of tar on the tripwire so when they fall they also get covered in goo.  To have even more fun, after adding the tar to the tripwire grab a handful of feathers and CREATE TAR TRAP again to add a little insult to injury.

End of Scheherazade's interjection. 

Whether or not a monster will see the trap depends on the monster's perception and your skill. And, as for as I can tell, you can't use traps against the other players. However, eventually monsters will be able to set traps against the players.

While perception will allow you to detect a trap, the trap skill will also allow you to DISARM a trap. A rogue interested in being able to detect and DISARM traps should look into perception and trap skills.

One last bit from Scheherazade.

Lockpick Making

It is now possible to make your own lockpicks.  While the ins and outs of such a thing are still a mystery to yours truly, I do know that you can buy the supplies you need in a shop in the rogue tunnels beneath Athens.  These include lockpick templates according to gauge and lock type, blanks of different metal types, grinding stones, files, and dye for a splash of color.

Rogue Tunnels

Speaking of rogue tunnels, there is a network of underground "tunnels" (some are actually on rooves and through alleys and along hidden streams) crisscrossing Athens and the gods know where else for the sneaky types to duck into when being pursued by the law.  These helpful little spots offer quick and unseen transportation between key points in and out of the city and also offer shops that cater to the seedy folks that frequent them.  Non-rogues finding themselves unlucky enough to stumble into these tunnels unescorted will be clubbed over the head and left for dead in the catacombs.

End of my ramblings one last time.

Perception

An important skill for a rogue. It allows to so see things you normally wouldn't see. Detecting traps will be the most obvious use of this skill. You also may or may not have noticed people hiding. Perception deals with anything hidden. Aside from people and critters, there are also hidden items and portals in the land that require SEARCHing and perception to find.

Gagdeteering

One of the things you can do with gadgeteering skills is apply poisons. The first thing you need to do for applying poisons is to beg, buy or barter some poison from an alchemist. There are several different poisons that alchemists can make. The poison of Atropos(a thick purplish poison) is the easiest to make and the most common. Also keep in mind every poison has an antidote.

To apply the poison to the weapon, first make sure you have your weapon in hand and you poison in the other. Then type POISON MY <weapon>. If you're successful you will have poisoned the weapon. Failures are: wasting some of the poison or not apply it at all.

The effectiveness of poison depends on the potency of the poison. Rogues will be the best poisoners because of our higher mechanical skills, traps and gadgeteering in particular, and as rogues we get a natural bonus in applying the poison.

The ablilty to CARVE also comes from gadgeteering skill. For now we can carve sticks into fishing poles, and certain gems into scarabs for alchemists to use. To carve something type CARVE MY <item> WITH MY <blade>.

Acrobatics

Dodging from what I understand is supposed to be the equivalent of wearing armor. Allowing you to dodge attacks instead of letting them hit you.

Catching allows you to catch items in combat. Things like arrows, daggers, blades that kind of thing.

Escaping allows you to escape combat holds in combat.

The commands to do acrobatic tricks are LEAP, TUMBLE, FLIP, and REVERSE FLIP. By typing one of them you'll see a list of possible things you perform.

Hiding and Stalking

The sneaky stuff! Although I'm not sure how useful it is yet. To hide, simply type HIDE. To unhide simply type UNHIDE. To move while hidden you SNEAK in that direction. You need to type the full word sneak, because typing SN will cause you to snicker. The only way I've found to attack something from hiding is using a ranged weapon. And you come out of hiding when you throw or fire. This works pretty well for hit and run fighting.

To stalk someone while hiding, type STALK <person>. You can't stalk NPCs or monsters. That means you can only stalk other players. Not really useful, except for roleplaying.

To find a hidden person, you have to SEARCH for them. Your success in finding them relies on your perception skill. And you can POINT at the hidden person to make them come out of hiding. But its considered impolite point at a hidden person, of course its also impolite to continually hide and unhide in a high traffic area and cause unnecessary scrolling.

Injuries do have an effect on your ability to hide. Injuries affect your success in hiding and if you'll be found when searched for.

There are rumors to the effect of ambush being available to rogues. But there is very little on this.

Stealing

Yes stealing does exist. Why can you just steal? Because you need to learn how to steal. One of the older rogues may give you a hint to find it, but then again they may not, after all its meant to be a secret.

One last little word. You can't steal from the other players. We all are heroes after all.

Picking Boxes For Others

Ok you've got a lockpick and a little bit of lock skill. Does this mean you should sit by the West gate and pick boxes for others? NO. You shouldn't start picking others' boxes until you have enough skill to pick your own. You should be able to do your own boxes in 1 to 2 tries most of the time. A good rule is to only pick boxes of what you can hunt. That way you don't get in over your head with boxes that are too hard. If you can only hunt skeletons and zombies don't offer to pick boxes that come from bandits and brigands.

Precision lockpicks are the best. You won't see a professional lockpicker without one. Use a precision lockpick when picking for others. It will save you time. To get a precision lockpick ask one of the older rogues around about them.

Make sure that if you're going to pick boxes for others that you have a backup lockpick. It doesn't have to be as good as your main lockpick, but if you break the first one, you don't have to apologize to the person for not being able to finish their boxes. You always stand a chance of breaking your lockpick no matter how good you are.

If you're using the Wizard FE, have your name highlighted. So it will stand out and catch your eye. This comes in useful when you're busy and not completely paying attention.

Use the person's name when offering to pick for a specific person. (This is one reason why I like short easy names. Its just easier to deal with people.) If you just say you're open, you stand the chance of just anyone handing you a box. Or try whispering to the person. Either way it will help clear up the confusion.

Make sure you're finished with one person before starting to pick for another. Its just common courtesy. This gets hard when people just start offering boxes to you. And the annoying thing about this is that you can only be offered one thing at one time. Try to be polite about the situation and tell the person you can get to them as soon as you're finished.

Ending

Don't be afraid to ask questions. If you want to find some other rogues, you'll usually find some picking boxes at the Peiraic gate. Most will be happy to answer questions for you.

And have fun and BE NOSEY! Why else would you be a rogue?

(c) 1998 jherle@raex.com

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