D&D 5E rogue skills

[Daniel Donat]

I'm creating a rogue for the first time, and just want to gather some opinions on what 4 skills others chose and why.

 

[nswanson27]

I'm creating a rogue for the first time, and just want to gather some opinions on what 4 skills others chose and why.

Perception and stealth are the two big ones. You'll often be looking for traps/treasure, and being able to hide is part of your core combat mechanic. After that it depends on what kind of rogue you want. Some possibilities are investigation, persuasion, deception, acrobatics, but you can certainly do others depending on the intent of the build.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I'm creating a rogue for the first time, and just want to gather some opinions on what 4 skills others chose and why.

It depends on your concept. However, for a classic style rogue I would go with the following:

Stealth - allows you to scout and hide (potentially enabling sneak attack)
Perception - for spotting ambushes and listening at doors
Investigation - for finding traps and secret doors
Slight of Hand - pick pocketing

 

[iserith]

To some degree it depends on whether you want to specialize in a few skills or be well-rounded in a number of them. So, for example, you might consider training skills other than Dex-based skills (since you already have a bonus here) so that you have a better chance of success at a wider range of tasks. Then you just put your Expertise in Stealth and Thieves' Tools. Or something like that.

If your party has someone with good Perception already (a Wis-based character, for example with training), then you might be able to skip Perception and focus on Investigation. The good Perception character spots the traps and you figure them out and disarm them. If you have a good Investigation character in the party, you might be able to skip that too. Teamwork for the win - you don't have to do it all.

I do recommend training at least one social interaction skill so that you can contribute to social interaction challenges - Deception, Insight, Intimidation, or Persuasion.

Some of this also comes down to how your DM handles skills. Is the expectation that you'll be asking to make checks? If so, then specialization in a few skills is probably better than being more well-rounded. If you instead just state tasks and try to avoid rolling, then being well-rounded might be better. It depends really.

 

[jaelis]

ANIMAL HANDLING

 

[rgoodbb]

For a default Thiefey Rogue I like:

Acrobatics - One of the physical ones.
Deception - Social but sly
Sleight of Hand - you are a thief after all and it's just as great when this fails as well as succeeds
Stealth - boring but very useful.

+Thieves Tools as well.

 

[cmad1977]

Stealth, perception, investigation,

And then whatever you think fits your chatacter


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[Lidgar]

Stealth, perception, investigation,

And then whatever you think fits your chatacter


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Truth.

Must haves are Investigation, Perception and Stealth.

I would probably pick Athletics next (for climbing), as you probably have a good enough Dex to get by without being proficient in Acrobatics.

However, if you have a little Charisma, and your PC concept includes some social interface, then Intimidation, Deception and Persuasion are all good choices.

Not really a fan of Slight of Hand (same reason for Acrobatics), but it can be a good choice too.

 

[Eltab]

If you are going Arcane Trickster, an INT skill becomes a possibility - Arcana so you can fast-talk your DM into letting you do even more with your Mage Hand.

I picked Stealth, Perception, and Sleight of Hand because I want to start messing up enemies before rolling initiative - for instance by tying the guard's shoelaces together or sliding something out of his backpack, or picking a lock at range before we throw the door open.

 

[guachi]

If you plan on scouting solo, I concur that Stealth, Perception, and Investigation are as close to 'musts' as you can get.

With Perception and Investigation you don't really have to care for what your DM asks you to roll while you are skulking around. It'll be one of the two and you'll be good in both. However, you only start with two skills at Expertise.