Rogues getting Cleric style loving?

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

We're in the same boat as Hellhound... but substitute "The Monk" for "log." *chuckles* He was pretty tough and had an excellent reflex save. He could wander down the hallway and - on the off-chance he got hurt - the Cleric would fix him right up!

 

[IronWolf]

There is also the other way to deal with traps, a fighter with high enough hit points and a cleric with enough Restoration and Cures.

My cleric has been known to do this. In one our earlier adventures we was the first to go down a hall that ended up having three traps in it. I believe he set each one of them off as he proceeded down the hall, but he still made it to the end and cleared the way for the rogueless party.

 

[Xombie Master]

I understand that "Searching for traps" means you are cautiosly creeping through an area keeping your eye out for danger. However I like cinematic roleplaying. In movies when a character "finds a trap" they usually grab a hold of an ally suddenly only to reveal a tripwire trap they just happened to spot.
My rule is to allow rogues to roll spot instead of search if they aren't actively looking. This is done with a -5 penalty as a quick glance is not as good as a good search. So they can't find the harder traps like this but it will still save the party once in a while. I also allow this for non-rogues when dealing with mundane traps under DC20. This cuts down the game time resulting from travelling through long hallways always searching for traps. 50 ft of grid can become quite a long ordeal when you couple it with search rolls. Since I'm running WLD anyone else who's played it can attest, that's a lot of long hallways.

I long ago made it a house rule that anybody who beats the DC can find a trap, regardless of weither the DC is 20+

Then I changed the Trapsense ability. Now Trapsense grants the rogue the ability to make an automatic search check (secret, rolled by DM) anytime he comes within 5' of a trap (sort of like elves and secret doors). So the rogue is still the best trap-finder but now is not totally essential. As a bonus this encourages the party to not take 20 on searching every damn 5' square unless they have a reason to expect a trap.

That's not a bad idea! I always thought it stupid that a perfectly intelligent character can't notice that scything blade size opening in the floor. I mean it's a hole big enough for a scythe blade to exit from.

If you want a more rule-bound solution, you could just add that anyone with Craft (trapmaking) or a craft/profession related to the environment they're in should be allowed to search for traps, probably gaining a +2 circumstance bonus if they have more than 5 ranks ("if I were to trap this passage, I'd do like this...").

That's a good idea as well!

 

[MerricB]

Rogues got a lot of love when they were given Sneak Attack. Beforehand, they had *nothing*. (Yes, technically they had Backstab. How often did you see that occur?)

In Complete Adventurer, Wizards provided three new Rogue-substitutes, for parties that don't want a straight Rogue. Any one of the Spellthief, Ninja or Scout can function in the "find traps" aspect of the rogue, and the Artificer likewise from Eberron.

There's an assumption in D&D that the party will have four characters:

* A fighting man
* A healer
* An arcane blaster
* A trap-finder

After those four roles are covered in your party, you can start branching out.

What is interesting is how easy access to wands of cure light wounds has made the "healer" role one usable by any Paladin, Bard or Ranger (or even Rogue at times). Such is how my campaigns often survive.

The arcane blaster can be a Wizard, Sorcerer or sometimes even a Druid or specialised Cleric.

Cheers!

 

[Graf]

Sorry I didn't lead with "rogues sUx".

Autodetecting traps like elves detect secret doors is a great idea. I generally loath house rules at this point but I have to admit I find it appealing.

Do people really find "toughing it out" to be the best policy? A lot of traps in 3.5 seem to eat up a whole lot of resources (i.e. hit points, restorations, etc). I had a rogueless party for the banewarrens and it was pretty painful at some point. Eventually they just started flying and I had the NPCs going through ahead of them and setting off the worst traps.

 

[Ry]

I can't remember who first posted it, but we joke about it at our game table all the time... the alternate Rogue, a log.

Oh, you lucky man. My PCs use pigs.

 

[devilbat]

I make sure that the traps that I use in the games are dangerous enough, that no one wants to go walking down the hall, if the suspect that it's rigged.

Our group is always heavy on rogues, and I agree that it is because of the general concept, rather then class abilities.

 

[Chiaroscuro23]

You go to the woods, cut down a tree. Call the resulting log "Rogue".

Rogue, rogue, he's big, he's heavy, he's wood;
Rogue, roge, he's better than bad, he's good!


(We also found monks a good substitute. After a while they're immune to poison and falling, have SR, evasion, and good saves. Traps don't bug 'em none.)

 

[Voadam]

I went through the majority of the banewarrens with my character (3e rgr/mnk/wiz/loremaster) and my friend who played a paladin with a huge charisma.

Detect magic for magical traps, and our usual method of trap detection:

Paladin: "I've still got a lot of hit points. I open the chest."

Voadam: "Wait a second for me to back up a little."

DM: "Too late! Poison gas explodes around you, DC 27 Fortitude save both of you."

Paladin: rolls "I rolled low. 28. Thank goodness it was only poison!"

Voadam: rolls "23."

DM: "Voadam doubles over and coughs up part of his lungs. 3 permanent con drain."

Voadam: "Cough, cough! Dam paladins!"

 

[Jackelope King]

I dumped trapsense as a rogue ability when I gave the class a once-over for my games. It's silly, arbitrary, and a throwback to the old days when the thief was in the dungeon exclusively to disarm traps. Anybody can disarm traps if they spend the skill points on disable device. Instead of getting trapsense, rogues get access to a few bonus feats at low to mid levels which can only be spent on the feats which grant +2 to two related skills (alertness, acrobatics, etc.).

The revision is available here.