Quote Originally Posted by Kurald Galain View Post
Rogues in 3E are considered pretty bad, first because lots of things are immune to sneak attack; and second because they have more skills but aren't better at those skills. PF mitigates these issues somewhat but the result is still not stellar.
I will say that 3.5e eventually printed things that help with this like Penetrating Strike. But I agree, it's an issue that PF1 did a much better job with.

Quote Originally Posted by Skrum View Post
I sorta see the arcane trickster being strong; they get spells, which are the easiest way to tell if a class is a good or not. Personally I think their glacial spell progression is both wildly unnecessary and too little to make up for general rogue shortcomings. But still - good subclass.

Soulknife, I just don't see it. They get...some "unarmed strikes" that don't usually matter? A boost to skills that rogue doesn't need? And...a janky, unpredictable teleport? Group telepathy is the most interesting thing, but it's about 2 steps from ribbon. I struggle to even contrive a situation where it MATTERS. Fun, for sure, but that's about it.
"Janky?" On average it's 30ft+, and even if you roll a one (10ft) that's still enough to get out of any grapple, difficult terrain, through hazards etc and still leave your action and move free.

They get TWF and Thrown for free/without a feat, reliable damage before magic weapons are available at most campaigns (and are no worse with magic weapons if you get those), Homing Strikes makes them much less likely to waste their turn than other rogues and costs them literally nothing if they still miss, and hour-long concentration-free invisibility multiple times per day. And the telepathy is very far from a ribbon, unless your party being able to coordinate quietly never comes up at your table; it definitely comes up at mine.