What is a rogue to you?

[kitsune9]

Hm, I wouldn't mind seeing a split between Rogue and Thief either.

That's a good idea!

 

[CM]

But then you still end up with the rogue stepping on the fighter's toes and this only works if people put all their resources into simulating the old thief (something other classes in theory can do as well if they spend their skill points correctly). All I know is when I went back to 2E last year after years of 3E and some dissapointment with 4E, the thief worked great for me and I was alot more satisfied with it than the 3e rogue. In fact i was more satisfied in general with the thief skills being class based and NWPs being somewhat limited in scope (not much in the way of social skills for example).

I guess this just comes down to personal preference then. I like skills to be available to any class that chooses to pick them up. A 4e elf ranger in one of my games picked up the Thievery skill because the group decided they wanted a trapfinder. If we were playing 1e or 2e he'd either have to be rebuilt as a multiclass ranger/rogue or wish or be polymorphed into a human so he could dual-class into rogue. Neither option is particularly palatable.

 

[chaochou]

Thief was always my favourite AD&D class (I like rogues too).

If there's a skill I always associate with this class though, it's streetwise (or it's variant in other systems). For me, being a criminal has always meant being part of a criminal network irrespective of whether my concept is that of mugger, pickpocket, burglar or pirate.

I like the option to create any of those concepts but I want my connections and reputation as a 'trustowrthy guy' in the criminal underworld to be a defining characteristic.

 

[Aenghus]

I thought 1e thieves were noticeably weak PCs, who suffered from the highest death rate in D&D, higher than low level magic users. This was the name "thief" seemed to mean many players felt obligated to try and steal from the party, and some wouldn't stop even when repeatedly caught. This led to a lot of friendly fire and out-and-out executions of thieves, in addition to normal adventurer-related deaths., often trap related. (there was a joke about "halfling on a stick" when the halfling thief got reluctant to check for traps, where he was strapped onto a 10 foot pole and used as a mine detector.)

So I was overjoyed when the name of the class was changed to "rogue" - names seem to be powerful, there was a definite drop in uncontrollable kleptomania in players of 2e rogues, IMO.

I want rogues to be at least adequate combatants, as I don't thing any adventuring class should be a liability or incompetent in combat or any of the other pillars.

However, 3e and 4e rogues could be deadly combatants, the former's competence depending on whether the opponents were vulnerable to sneak attack. So I think there should be a representation of such pcs, whether they are a rogue option, an assassin class or something else.

 

[paladinm]

I still think it would be cool to "re-merge" the rogue and fighter classes. Then you could make a martial character that is as rogue-ish or fighter-ish as you want, based on skills, feats, etc. A slayer-type with backstab skill.. wow..

Come to think of it, that would work with the ranger (non-magic version), barbarian, warlord/marshall, assassin, yada yada..

 

[grimslade]

I love playing a thief or rogue or more often a Roger the Rouge Rogue of Rhodes, (stupid autocorrect tried to substitute all). A thief is the scout, the fetch, the cutpurse, the urban pathfinder, the skilled monkey escaping and infiltrating, a spy and lastly the combat finisher. The bloodied foe gets a knife in the ribs or to the throat. 5E needs rogues who can be thieves not dexterous fighters. Shirkers and skulkers all.

 

[Dausuul]

Before I got into D&D, when introduced to the thief I was confused. Why would someone bring a thief on a raid of a dragon hoard?

You don't bring a thief to raid a dragon hoard. You bring a burglar... although you can say "expert treasure-hunter" instead of "burglar" if you like.

 

[Minigiant]

You don't bring a thief to raid a dragon hoard. You bring a burglar... although you can say "expert treasure-hunter" instead of "burglar" if you like.

But the class was called thief. Thief is low of both the larceny and criminal totem pole.

 

[steeldragons]

But the class was called thief. Thief is low of both the larceny and criminal totem pole.

Was a reference to lines/scene from "The Hobbit", MG.

 

[Minigiant]

Was a reference to lines/scene from "The Hobbit", MG.

I see now. I missed elevenses today and my brain is behind an hour or so on reference.

Though I always liked treasure hunter as a better name. Too bad about the one word class name tradition. My last sneaky treasure hunter was more counterfeiter than thief though.