D&D (2024) Rogue's Been in an Awkward Place, And This Survey Might Be Our Last Chance to Let WotC Know.

1) sneaking into a base
2) scouting
This is literally the same thing twice.
3) persuading a person to give you info
Gonna be objectively worse at that than a lot of other characters unless they're built quite unusually, and the best methods involve leverage which is likely to avoid checks entirely in most groups.
4) race ahead of monsters and grab the mcguffin
Thanks to their lack of OA protection, they're not actually very good at this. Also, in 34 years of D&D I have never seen that happen, not even once - nor ever heard of anyone describing such. So that's beyond a corner case - even if it's happened in your game, it's basically a 1 in 1000 event.
Also they're not even close to the best at it. Monks are far better. Casters who have a few L2+ slots to spare and Misty Step and other spells are better too.
5) get to a location before the enemy does.
That's the same thing again.
6) get past the trapped locked door.
Sure, Rogues are likely to be the best at this one thing - their speciality.
7) disable the device that’s buffing the BBEG
This is basically 4 & 5 again, and all the same applies there. If you're trying to say the DM will have designed an encounter so only someone with Sleight of Hand is allowed to disable the device, well the DM was obviously trying to help the Rogue out, but that won't even be found out until some PC gets there - which may well not be the Rogue. I've seen real-game situations like this - in 100% of cases the intention was that damaging attacks were used to disable the device, not some kind of check.
8) long ranged combat
Not really no.

This strongly suggests you are being theoretical and haven't thought this through. In current 5E it's objectively wrong. Sneak Attack only applies to 30ft out. In 2024, it might theoretically become quasi-true (assuming they don't change the rules again), but remember it only applies out to the short range of the weapon, because you get Disadvantage beyond that, and cannot Sneak Attack when you have Disadvantage (even if you also have Advantage, it just cancels both), so your single attack will be weak than those of other characters with multiple attacks.

So that means 80ft with a shortbow, and 150ft with a longbow, but Rogues aren't normally proficient in the latter, so 80ft, which is hardly "long ranged combat" in any genuine sense. A DEX Fighter or Ranger with a longbow (which they are proficient with) and multiple attacks is dangerous out to 600ft, albeit with disadvantage beyond 150ft.

So what we've actually got is:

1) Stealth.
2) Moving quickly in combat so long as there aren't OAs.
3) Sleight of Hand.

That's a very narrow range of things to be good at. This is my point. Are they better at Stealth and Sleight of Hand than virtually everyone by say, level 7? Yes! But that's a narrow and specialized realm, not a flexible one.
 

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There should be at least one build strategy that sacrifices skills and versatility for cold hard sneak damage.
Yup. Other classes do generally have that option, but the closest Rogues seem to get is Assassin, which just isn't very good at damage, and Swashbuckler, which also isn't but at least doesn't have to think quite as hard about getting Sneak Attack.
 



Thanks to their lack of OA protection, they're not actually very good at this.
rogues can disengage as a bonus action. And can use 1d6 of their sneak attack to move half their speed without provoking.

That's very much OA protection.

Worse than the monk, but far better than the fighter.
In current 5E it's objectively wrong. Sneak Attack only applies to 30ft out. In 2024, it might theoretically become quasi-true (assuming they don't change the rules again), but remember it only applies out to the short range of the weapon,
We are talking about the playtest. So..
80' with shortbow.
320' with sharpshooter.

Worse than the fighter, but far better than the monk.
 



I don't know, but then again I don't know Treantmonk's setup for his Champion Fighter.
He tends to detail how he goes about calculating the damage & explains all of the assumptions (ie estimated hit chance or whatever). Just recalculate those numbers with a rapier instead of greatsword & strip out the impact of any feats/abilities that rely on strength or heavy weapons.
 

rogues can disengage as a bonus action. And can use 1d6 of their sneak attack to move half their speed without provoking.

That's very much OA protection.
They can't Disengage as a Bonus Action that AND Sprint mate, unless they're a Thief. That's the issue. And going over and attacking someone then moving only 15' away from them when you're supposed to "grabbing an artifact" seems nearly certain to counterproductive, no?

Monks, as of the most recent packet anyway, can get both Disengage and Sprint from a single Bonus Action.
320' with sharpshooter.
Which packet is that in? Maybe Chrome is being a twerp but searching "sharp" didn't bring up anything in packets 6/7/8

Also better than a Monk at ranged is the lowest possible bar lol. They're a class whose entirely damage routine is tied up in melee unless they have specific subclasses.
 

I don't know, but then again I don't know Treantmonk's setup for his Champion Fighter.
If I recall, it was polarm master and great weapon master, and included a few extra reaction attacks.

Plus a questionable reading of using Vex if you hit and Graze if you miss. Which was fixed in the last packet.

Note that a rogue with speedster and a shortbow would be able to kill them without taking a scratch, simply by shooting and running away.
 

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