Gnome is probably the best performing choice long term if you will have access to Robe of the Azure Sky. The resists are so much better than any other option for rogue, and far more important than any amount of AC. Being shrunk at all times is a significant advantage that is often overlooked. Sometimes you need to camp out and coming back unshrunk gets you killed, sometimes you can't break sneak/hide to cast a shrink, and having wallvision at all times is amazing. It remains an advantage to be a gnome vs just having a gnome mask for those lucky few.

That said, it's a long term choice and not the right choice for most people, really. I think most people would be happiest with halfling because their stats are fine and the xp bonus has a greater impact on the journey 1-60 than anything else.

Stats: Dwarf, due to high sta and good MR and dex. Barb has higher str + sta but only marginally more sta and str gets capped out on both eventually without putting points into str. Also small race and barrel roll.

Slam: Barbarian. Also has good stats. Keep in mind slam is on same timer as backstab and thus rarely get used. Large race and sometimes has issues fitting in tight places without illusion. Has a small XP penalty.

Wallhack: Gnome. Gets tinkering. Weakest stats.

Vision: Every race can get DE mask easily. Only humans really struggle without it.

XP bonus: Halfling. Largely a wash in groups anyway but perhaps when compared to barb could be of some significance.

As such I think there are only 3 minmax choices. Dwarf, barb, gnome and in that order roughly.

You also cannot walk over the steps in Kael, so being small has disadvantages, too. You could over come the smallness with masks, but you could also pick a better race and use the halfling mask from Chardok when you want to be small.

Has anyone yet mentioned that barbarians have got the biggest stones?

It's relevant if you wanna do a bit of dueling at all.

Did Dwarf with 15 str and 15 sta. He is 49 now and have no regrets. Barrel roll stat is crazy OP!

gnome or go home

Of all the classes rogues are probably the one where race matters the least, especially at 60. Barbs can use those throwing boulders which is a big advantage in PvP, and dwarves get +5MR, every other advantage can be negated by gear or mask illusions. Personally I would go with a race that doesn't have an illusion mask so you can max your number of fashion choices.

lmao already answered this thread. nvm

My two cents why Barbarians are better than Dwarves imo, especially leveling.

My Barbarian rogue twink had 255 strength with a fungi on unbuffed at level 18. Likely cannot do that with any other race. (300+ backstabs at 29)

Barbarians have 13 more starting strength and 5 more stamina than Dwarves. That means if a Barb and Dwarf had the same gear that gets a Dwarf to 255 str, the Barb can swap out both of their rings for MR rings and have +28 MR vs. the Dwarves extra 5.

Barbarians have slam which is extremely useful against casters. I was able to solo Unrest basement 30-40 due to this. The hags are nasty otherwise. If you're soloing you're not backstabbing anyway (except for extra melee hit, Slam can save your life).

Very popular bracers leveling are Heroes bracers, +10 strength for 150pp. Barbarians can wear, Dwarves cannot.

None of those reasons outweigh personal look preferences or if you have a hard on for barrel rolls. Otherwise, min/max, Barbarian is always #1.

If you are twinking your character out then it hardly matters honestly. Yea barbarians might be moderately more powerful with more STR early levels, but any advantage you are gaining from racial stats will be miniscule in comparison to the power gained by good weapons, a fungi tunic, and a solid haste item. All of this also means you will likely be holding agro a lot of the time and won't really get to backstab that much while leveling.

If you plan to do end game content on a rogue starting STR becomes almost entirely irrelevant because STR is incredibly easy to cap as a rogue, which is why many people will advise you not to put all your points in it when starting out. STA is the harder stat to cap, but you're only gaining 4hp per 1 Sta at level 60 which isn't significant enough for me to advise starting a specific race just for some extra Sta.

I highly advise people pick the race they think looks coolest when starting a rogue because a rogues power comes from gear not from starting stats. We do get illusion masks though, so that offers a bit more choice.