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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9896371" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Really the main problem with the Rogue is ensuring a good balance between the three pillars of play (Combat, Exploration, Social), and giving the Rogue player the opportunity to flex what they have specialized in.Many games focus on combat encounters more than the others.  What I've noticed is that DM's are often not happy with "roll to win" style encounters with regards to ability checks, and want to see more creative thinking.  Unfortunately, the Rogue's advantages are in fact, to produce high numbers and consistent numbers with chosen ability checks.  They often don't need to come up with clever ideas to acquire advantage to make checks, their design is such that Expertise + Reliable can nearly guarantee DC 20 checks, eliminating much of the need to roll.And consciously or not, I've seen DM's avoid the kinds of things the Rogue excels at because it's somewhat boring to have someone just win all the time.  Further, D&D is an interactive game, where everyone is meant to equally contribute to solving problems, and the Rogue's design is such that they not only might not need any assistance, but are routinely producing numbers other characters cannot achieve without optimization or expending resources (such as the 5.5 Fighter's Second Wind) that could be used for other things.When the focus shifts towards combat and away from the other abilities of the Rogue, they can feel a bit lacking.  Their damage is consistent, but any number of factors can reduce their contribution.  Just imposing disadvantage on attack rolls, a fairly common occurrence, prevents them from using Sneak Attack (and also Cunning and Devious Strikes), and with no other real boost to damage, and being forced to use lighter weaponry (not to mention only one attack per turn unless you dual wield, which anyone can do), compared to high monster HP, this becomes quite problematic.  It's true that Rogues have a good suite of survival abilities, like Evasion, bonus action Disengage, and Uncanny Dodge, but just surviving isn't winning, it's losing slower.To make Rogues shine, you need to give them objectives that have nothing to do with dealing hit point damage, even in combat, like solving a puzzle, flipping switches, disarming or activating traps, and so on.Another issue of the Rogue is their relationship with Stealth.  Stealth is a very difficult skill to employ, even with great numbers, because of it's requirements, and the fact that many monsters have ways to foil or even negate the ability.  And unless you have allies who can also Stealth effectively, attempting to scout ahead can simply lead to starting a fight with only the Rogue in initiative while others attempt to catch up.</blockquote>

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