Im playing a Shadowblade and a Wayfarer combination. Without using backstabbing and stealth at all - in combat. Or OP talents - traits.
To be honest, Larian doesn't really love Rogues as the sneak-dagger most well known kind.
In Divine Divinity and Divinity 2, there wasn't really any roguish abilities to begin with. Thief, sure, ranger, check.
They seem to have thrown a few rogue-only abilities or mechanisms in Original Sin but it doesn't seem to be very convincing. "Classes" are like the primary colors : Warrior / Archer / Mage, and then the secondary where you take a little of one to mix to the other. But there aren't really any "sneak rogue" color in this wheel. Sure, one could argue that Daggers have innate BackStab and there are Speedcreep and Guerilla. Still it's a lot of setup for, sure, some high damage, but in the current state of the game the gain isn't really worth the trouble. Guerilla isn't even segregated to Daggers users meaning you can very well use it with a big 2handed sword.
Right now, but that may be because it's the first chapter of the game, the best course of action seem to be to specialize and avoid hybridation. Cleric works ok, though. I reckon that from level 9 or 10 you can start spending some of those ability points in another Way and probably can end up with a viable hybrid for the rest of the game. Not saying Sneak-oriented rogues are bad, just that it seems like a lot of trouble in early game to get a decent setup when some other "class" can just rush in and get the job done. It sounds like a better ( and probably more intended ) idea to spec warrior first and add the sneaking later. Or well, you can get Guerilla naytime you want, as most talents aren't very appealing anyway.
What is making the game look hard or easy entirely depends on your initial class choice. I'm quite sure a newcomer wanting to do a rogue will get his ass handed to him more often than once before he gets the hang of it. The newcomer starting a warrior or a mage will probably spend most of their time rezzing their rogue partner...
