My current character is also a Rogue/Barbarian and is working surprisingly well. Things to be aware of with this build however are:
- Race - unless you're one of Half-Elf, Human, Halfling or Half-orc you will incur an XP penalty if you don't keep the classes close together
- Keeping dex at 14 and using the heavier-medium armours such as chain mail will really hurt your thieving abilities, due to the lower dex bonus and -5 penalty from the armour. Best to keep it between 16-18 and use scale mail or a chain shirt to get the lower -2 armour check penalty
As to which is better out of high barbarian/low rogue vs low barbarian/high rogue depends entirely on your playing style. A few thoughts:
Personally, I'm taking just a couple of barbarian levels and going straight rogue from there (maybe will take some shadow dancer levels later on too). The lower barbarian/higher level rogue build has several advantages - you get the speed boost and a rage ability which you can activate in more difficult fights (resting is your friend!) as well as the bonus armour/shield/weapon feats which is a nice boost already (allows the thief to use longbows etc). Concentrating more on rogue from then on provides skill points, skill points and more skill points (you can never have enough!) which allows you to pump pretty much everything up. When taking the barbarian levels you can then concentrate on discipline and taunt which are both not rogue primary skills. Use magical device and tumble should always be jacked up, and then the stealth/locks/trap/conversation skills with any reserve points. The main advantages of going this way is the vastly higher sneak attack damage. Using something like a long bow, you can hide, strike for bonus damage, run away (you are 10% faster after all) and then hide again, rinse and repeat. The more straight barbarian build would be much stronger up front but lacking in the skill department.
[ 07-05-2005, 10:09 AM: Message edited by: Zink Whistlefly ]