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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6346401" data-attributes="member: 996">Well, another old-school expectation was that the thief would die.  A lot.  The thief's role was to scout ahead of the party, look for traps, and get killed a lot, because those were very dangerous things to do, and he didn't have much in terms of AC, hps, or saves, and his 'special ability' to sneak up and surprise monsters and find/remove traps was, really, not that special at all.  That's anther topic from the wizard or cleric getting killed because the fighter didn't tank (or was ignored in his limited ability to tank), since they actually had some value to the party beyond expandability.The 5e rogue, thanks to stealth being a single check and proficiency & expertise, actually /can/ sneak up on monsters and achieve surprise and actually has a fair chance at finding and bypassing a trap. Yes.  The flip-side of the DM having all this freedom to mess with the rules, make arbitrary off-the-cuff rulings, and generally be in the driver's seat of his own game, is that he also has a responsibility to use that 'power' to facilitate the other players' fun, even if that may mean quietly playing the monsters a little 'dumb' or hiding a lot of dice rolls behind a DM screen so he can fudge a few now and then.</blockquote>