Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What should Rogues do?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 6026398" data-attributes="member: 92511"><p>I'll just preface this by saying I'm not really 100% clear on how 3e or 4e skills work. Nor do not know how the 5e playtest's "skill mastery" works. So if any of this sounds familiar or has already been done...or is specifically the kind of thing the OP is saying to get rid of...then my apologies.</p><p></p><p>That said...</p><p></p><p>For my own homebrew, I have what I consider a fairly simply way of handling skills:</p><p></p><p>Anyone can try to do anything.</p><p></p><p>Resolution:</p><p>Roll the d20. Add the relevant ability modifier. You beat the DC (which I know at least that bit comes from 3e) or you don't. That's an untrained person/for anything a PC is not trained in. </p><p></p><p>PCs get a beginning allotment of skill points, determined by class and increased or decreased by any Intelligence modifier. They receive additional skill points as they increase in level...the frequency depending on the class.</p><p></p><p>The players can select and increase a given skill by spending their skill points (+1 per skill point) up to the maximum modifier.</p><p></p><p>The modifier scale goes like this:</p><p>0 = untrained</p><p>+1 = trained</p><p>+2 = "adept", you are better than the average trained person.</p><p>+3 = "expert", you could do this for a living...and get paid for it!</p><p>+4 = "preeminent", you are an expert among experts, nearly the best in the given field.</p><p>+5 = "Master", you are the best there is at what you do.</p><p></p><p>Thieves/Rogues (though not all "Rogue classes" in my homebrew) receive a class feature called...surprise, surprise..."Skill Mastery." This grants them a +1 to ANY non-knowledge (a.k.a. "Lore") skill...the rogue can't learn stuff out of other people's heads...that's what the psychics're for <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>hang on. I have this all written out someplace...here it is...</p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Skill Mastery: The Rogue has become very well-acquainted with the value of paying close (if unnoticed) attention, learning quickly, and duplicating tasks accurately. So much so that a Rogue PC receives +1 to any non-Knowledge-based Skill check roll, whether the Rogue is trained in it or not, and including those skills detailed below as Class Features.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Effectively, this gives the Rogue a “leg up” when dealing with any skills. The untrained skill rolls as if it were trained (+1). The trained skill is slightly more adept than the average person with that skill (+2). The Adept skills (including their Class Features) are bumped up to Expert level (+3), etc...</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p>So, the rogues are quite the skill monkeys in my campaign world/homebrew.</p><p></p><p>The aforementioned "Class features" include all of the standard thieves abilities: pick pockets, open locks, traps, climb, etc...right down to ye olde Thieves' Cant.</p><p></p><p>For backstab/sneak attack, I think I am going to change the brew to the 5e idea of "+d6" (that is what it is, right?) and have that increase over every other level or so (2d6 @ 3rd level, 3d6 @ 5th, etc...). </p><p></p><p>There are, of course, plenty of Skills for the rogue to choose from to increase in all of those other good fun "roguish" areas mentioned: info gathering, disguise, forgery, acrobatics, etc... I try to keep the skill list...concise and split up by class as much as possible. But over the years, it seems its simply just gotten a bit...overgrown.</p><p></p><p>I'm of a mind nowadays to simply let the Rogue, and only the Rogue (ok, probably Bards too), choose from the skill lists of ANY class..."stealing" skills, in a way, when other classes can't seems particularly "roguey" to me.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/nervous.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":heh:" title="Nervous Laugh :heh:" data-shortname=":heh:" /></p><p></p><p>The special "maneuvering on the battlefield" stuff, throwing sand in the eyes and all of that sorta thing is a "just try to do it" kinda thing in my games. There either is sand/dirt for you to grab or there's not, give it a toss (roll), see above re: it works or it doesn't. I'm a Theatre of the Mind guy all the way.</p><p></p><p>I dunno...seems to work. I can't really complain (other than needing to take a weed whacker to my skill lists, now that I'm thinkin' about it.)</p><p>--SD</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="steeldragons, post: 6026398, member: 92511"] I'll just preface this by saying I'm not really 100% clear on how 3e or 4e skills work. Nor do not know how the 5e playtest's "skill mastery" works. So if any of this sounds familiar or has already been done...or is specifically the kind of thing the OP is saying to get rid of...then my apologies. That said... For my own homebrew, I have what I consider a fairly simply way of handling skills: Anyone can try to do anything. Resolution: Roll the d20. Add the relevant ability modifier. You beat the DC (which I know at least that bit comes from 3e) or you don't. That's an untrained person/for anything a PC is not trained in. PCs get a beginning allotment of skill points, determined by class and increased or decreased by any Intelligence modifier. They receive additional skill points as they increase in level...the frequency depending on the class. The players can select and increase a given skill by spending their skill points (+1 per skill point) up to the maximum modifier. The modifier scale goes like this: 0 = untrained +1 = trained +2 = "adept", you are better than the average trained person. +3 = "expert", you could do this for a living...and get paid for it! +4 = "preeminent", you are an expert among experts, nearly the best in the given field. +5 = "Master", you are the best there is at what you do. Thieves/Rogues (though not all "Rogue classes" in my homebrew) receive a class feature called...surprise, surprise..."Skill Mastery." This grants them a +1 to ANY non-knowledge (a.k.a. "Lore") skill...the rogue can't learn stuff out of other people's heads...that's what the psychics're for ;) hang on. I have this all written out someplace...here it is... [INDENT]Skill Mastery: The Rogue has become very well-acquainted with the value of paying close (if unnoticed) attention, learning quickly, and duplicating tasks accurately. So much so that a Rogue PC receives +1 to any non-Knowledge-based Skill check roll, whether the Rogue is trained in it or not, and including those skills detailed below as Class Features. Effectively, this gives the Rogue a “leg up” when dealing with any skills. The untrained skill rolls as if it were trained (+1). The trained skill is slightly more adept than the average person with that skill (+2). The Adept skills (including their Class Features) are bumped up to Expert level (+3), etc... [/INDENT]So, the rogues are quite the skill monkeys in my campaign world/homebrew. The aforementioned "Class features" include all of the standard thieves abilities: pick pockets, open locks, traps, climb, etc...right down to ye olde Thieves' Cant. For backstab/sneak attack, I think I am going to change the brew to the 5e idea of "+d6" (that is what it is, right?) and have that increase over every other level or so (2d6 @ 3rd level, 3d6 @ 5th, etc...). There are, of course, plenty of Skills for the rogue to choose from to increase in all of those other good fun "roguish" areas mentioned: info gathering, disguise, forgery, acrobatics, etc... I try to keep the skill list...concise and split up by class as much as possible. But over the years, it seems its simply just gotten a bit...overgrown. I'm of a mind nowadays to simply let the Rogue, and only the Rogue (ok, probably Bards too), choose from the skill lists of ANY class..."stealing" skills, in a way, when other classes can't seems particularly "roguey" to me.:heh: The special "maneuvering on the battlefield" stuff, throwing sand in the eyes and all of that sorta thing is a "just try to do it" kinda thing in my games. There either is sand/dirt for you to grab or there's not, give it a toss (roll), see above re: it works or it doesn't. I'm a Theatre of the Mind guy all the way. I dunno...seems to work. I can't really complain (other than needing to take a weed whacker to my skill lists, now that I'm thinkin' about it.) --SD [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
What should Rogues do?
Top