D&D 5E Rogues are Awesome. Is it the Tasha's Effect?

[Mistwell]

I am playing a traditional rogue for the first time in 5e. He's a halfling arcane trickster, dex based. We're up to 6th level now.

Out of combat he of course excels. We're playing Mad Mage, and he's excellent with traps, secret doors, and anything requiring investigation or scouting., That Mage Hand which can use thieves tools at range is great, and so is a familiar for scouting. He's pretty decent at negotiations as well, provided he uses deception and sometimes uses a Disguise Self spell.

In combat he usually gets Advantage. He has three options to get Advantage: the new optional rule from Tasha's called Steady Aim (which applies to both ranged and melee attacks), attacking from being hidden as a halfling (can hide behind ally), or the Help action from my familiar.

He can use a crossbow, or a rapier, both of which use my Dex.

Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade is cast as a cantrip. It's the former if two targets are next to each other, or the later if it's a solo target.

And then of course there is sneak attack.

Last night I did 46 points damage in a single attack, though that was some lucky rolling. Damage is Rapier 1d8+4, Sneak Attack 3d6, Green Flame 1d8 + 1d8+2 to 2nd target. So average damage is 30 I think. But...this is every round with just normal at-will resources, and a high chance to hit with advantage.

And with Cunning Action, I don't get stuck on the front line. I can move in, do this massive attack, and safely move back out (if I didn't use Steady Aim). Heck, if I drop my target and won't draw an opportunity attack, I can even move behind an ally and hide as a bonus action (as a halfling), provided I didn't use Steady Aim that round.

And when necessary he can even let lose with an area effect spell, like Sleep. That will eventually be traded out for something else, but it's still great on a pack of goblins.

I know this is not "the most" damage a class can do at this level. I am sure a Paladin for example can do more using some limited resources, and for sure a Wizard can with some limited resources. But, it's just that it's so easy for a traditional rogue to do a ton of damage, without using limited resources. I don't have to be "very optimized" to do this. Dex is obvious. A rapier or ranged weapon is obvious. Steady aim is obvious. A familiar is pretty common I think for an arcane trickster, and I suspect now with Tasha's that green flame blade or booming blade (or both) is also pretty obvious. All of this combination is pretty "normal" for a Tasha's-built rogue. It doesn't require a lot of deep game knowledge or tinkering to find this "good" combination.

And with my combat options being pretty easy to figure out, I find I have a lot more time to focus on role playing this little guy. Which has been a blast!

What are other people's impressions of playing a rogue? Do you also find it plays out roughly as I've said, or is what I'm experiencing more geared towards Tasha's Cauldron's impact on the rogue with Steady Aim and the two combat cantrips being reprinted there?

 

[aco175]

I played one arcane trickster, a halfling as well. He is fine, but I tend to not use the spells as much as I should. We also tend to play with the core books and have not used booming/green flame spells, although they appear to be cool in effect. We also use flanking that makes sneak attack a given most rounds, so the extra from those spells may seem like too much at times. He has used the 13th level ability to use the mage hand to gain advantage with his bonus action a few times.

We have not used the aim power in game much, maybe a few times. It is there and can be used, but I feel that the flanking ability makes it redundant for my game.

I found the trickster spells not as cool as blending another type of caster to make a thief-caster. I get the flavor and he is good at sneaking and scouting. The selection is limited and the choices are not as cool as having a lightning bolt up your sleeve. Still it is handy and the basic thief-thief is not outstanding that you need to pick that one.

 

[billd91]

Rogues can be a lot of fun in 5e. I'm currently playing a 10th level one in a campaign and took the Dungeon Delver feat. That one turned out to be very valuable since I accidentally touched off a trap that effectively did about 130 points of damage to my nearby companions and I took only 20.
Note: they were rolling crap for their saves, for the most part, vs 3 different effects of the trap and I made all of mine due to having advantage.

 

[TwoSix]

What are other people's impressions of playing a rogue? Do you also find it plays out roughly as I've said, or is what I'm experiencing more geared towards Tasha's Cauldron's impact on the rogue with Steady Aim and the two combat cantrips being reprinted there?

Most rogues I've seen over the years have been AT, so grabbing BB or GFB has been pretty much standard for rogues. They're always solid contributers, do some nice spike damage on a crit, nothing super flashy though. The fact that they're so well designed and scale much more linearly than other classes, in a weird way, makes them stand out less. They're like having a wing who averages 15/6/4 in NBA terms, you always appreciate them, occasionally they go off and have big games, but they're not usually the MVP.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Rogues were already awesome in 5E. Along with Wizards, they are my favorite classes.

Most of the rogues in our games have been Assassins or Scouts, FWIW. We haven't had any AT yet (I made one once, but didn't get to play him).

TCoE isn't needed to keep them great.

 

[Oofta]

I had a lot of fun with my trickster rogue, although admittedly he had 4 levels of fighter for various reasons. The base spells he had weren't directly damage heavy (and my save DC wasn't great), but that just meant I had to be a bit creative in their use.

I thought it was a lot of fun, although next time I'd probably make something that made a little more sense. Or not, depending on what fits the character.

 

[auburn2]

I am playing a traditional rogue for the first time in 5e. He's a halfling arcane trickster, dex based. We're up to 6th level now.

Out of combat he of course excels. We're playing Mad Mage, and he's excellent with traps, secret doors, and anything requiring investigation or scouting., That Mage Hand which can use thieves tools at range is great, and so is a familiar for scouting. He's pretty decent at negotiations as well, provided he uses deception and sometimes uses a Disguise Self spell.

In combat he usually gets Advantage. He has three options to get Advantage: the new optional rule from Tasha's called Steady Aim (which applies to both ranged and melee attacks), attacking from being hidden as a halfling (can hide behind ally), or the Help action from my familiar.

He can use a crossbow, or a rapier, both of which use my Dex.

Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade is cast as a cantrip. It's the former if two targets are next to each other, or the later if it's a solo target.

And then of course there is sneak attack.

Last night I did 46 points damage in a single attack, though that was some lucky rolling. Damage is Rapier 1d8+4, Sneak Attack 3d6, Green Flame 1d8 + 1d8+2 to 2nd target. So average damage is 30 I think. But...this is every round with just normal at-will resources, and a high chance to hit with advantage.

And with Cunning Action, I don't get stuck on the front line. I can move in, do this massive attack, and safely move back out (if I didn't use Steady Aim). Heck, if I drop my target and won't draw an opportunity attack, I can even move behind an ally and hide as a bonus action (as a halfling), provided I didn't use Steady Aim that round.

And when necessary he can even let lose with an area effect spell, like Sleep. That will eventually be traded out for something else, but it's still great on a pack of goblins.

I know this is not "the most" damage a class can do at this level. I am sure a Paladin for example can do more using some limited resources, and for sure a Wizard can with some limited resources. But, it's just that it's so easy for a traditional rogue to do a ton of damage, without using limited resources. I don't have to be "very optimized" to do this. Dex is obvious. A rapier or ranged weapon is obvious. Steady aim is obvious. A familiar is pretty common I think for an arcane trickster, and I suspect now with Tasha's that green flame blade or booming blade (or both) is also pretty obvious. All of this combination is pretty "normal" for a Tasha's-built rogue. It doesn't require a lot of deep game knowledge or tinkering to find this "good" combination.

And with my combat options being pretty easy to figure out, I find I have a lot more time to focus on role playing this little guy. Which has been a blast!

What are other people's impressions of playing a rogue? Do you also find it plays out roughly as I've said, or is what I'm experiencing more geared towards Tasha's Cauldron's impact on the rogue with Steady Aim and the two combat cantrips being reprinted there?

A Rogue is my favorite class. Others can do more damage, like you said. But no other class is as versatile. The think I like best about them is the skills. four skills at first level plus two more for the background. All of the rogue kits are good too (or at least all I have played, I have not played soulknife or phantom.

I usually multiclass them. They multiclass well with just about any other class. A favorite of mine is a half elf with a ranger 2/3/4 level dip. That gets you 9 skill proficiencies (4 rogue, 2 background, 2 halfelf, 1 ranger) some of them with expertise plus common, theives cant, elvish and two more languages (1 half elf, 1 ranger). With scout you can get two more proficiencies or 11 total by 4th level .

Halfling is the best rogue in combat I think, mostly because of the hiding behind an ally that others can't do.

If you roll abilities a Halfling Assasin/Vengence Paladin multiclass is awesome. Someone in our group played one until 11th level (Paldin 6, Rogue 5). She could go nova on the first round and do 3d6(3xshort sword)+8d8(3xsmite)+3d6(Sneak)+8(dex) getting advantage on all thee attacks as an assasin. If she suprised the enemy (which she did about half the time) they are all criticals. You need to roll abilities to make this viable though, because you need high scores in multiple areas that would not fit well together with a point buy or standard array.

 

[iserith]

Next to cleric, rogue is my favorite. I'm partial to thief. I really like Fast Hands and Second Story Work.

 

[auburn2]

Next to cleric, rogue is my favorite. I'm partial to thief. I really like Fast Hands and Second Story Work.

I am going to play my first ever cleric (a Rogue multiclass) in a game I am in now. The character is a 1st level half-elf Rogue now. I will probably level this week and pick up twilight cleric. I am going to end up going assasin/twilight cleric eventually.

I have never liked clerics much. I think it is a holdover from 1E/2E when it was always a fight in my group to see who had to take the cleric and round out the party. The great thing about 5E is there is no real need for a specific balance of classes so in 5e most of my groups have never played a cleric.

What really happened with my present build is I rolled a half-elf Rogue like normal, got a 14 wisdom, I was going to go Ranger but the rest of the party is a Paladin, a bow Ranger, a fighter and some mysterious PC I have not figured out yet - a Genassi warlock maybe. So another ranged build with a Rogue/Ranger would work but it is not that great for the party and since we have no cleric or wizard I figure I would take a cleric dip.

 

[Mistwell]

Next to cleric, rogue is my favorite. I'm partial to thief. I really like Fast Hands and Second Story Work.

Fast Hands is very cool, particularly with the Healer feat. Second Story work is also great. My rogue happened to pick up a unique magic item which is a bit like Spiderman's web shooters. Not very crucial for combat, but helps a lot with climbing. I took proficiency in Athletics even though I dumped strength to help with some of that too.