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Patreon here - if you guys want to watch a fantastic tv series based on Rogue's and their adversary's, try the 1st two season's of Peaky Blinders. Very well written, great production, great acting, and a fantastic 'villain' with Sam Neil's Policeman....
The last Rogue I played was actually a lot of fun - a paranoid gnome who had, at some point, boobytrapped his house to the point where he *couldn't get back in* without becoming a master at lock-picking and trap-disarming.
I think the Expertise is one of their greatest features. It enables you to even go as far as kind of "hide" the name Rogue away and play something different, focused on skills. You could expertise on Persuasion/Deception and play something of a Noble or Politician, you could expertise on Medicine/Nature and play a Medic (Healer feat is a plus), History/Arcana for a Lore-master (Ritual Caster feat?), and so on.
Actually what I like about Expertise is it puts a rogue *above* normal people. Unless you're playing a very low-fantasy game, PCs are exactly that- fantasy characters. They're not normal people and aren't bound by the things normal people are, so while the wizard is using magic to do impossible things and the fighter is achieving the supernatural just through training and practice, the rogue is able to reach a level of skill that no other ordinary person *can*.
Agreed. My no-magic ranger is, in order: 1 level ranger, 1 level fighter, then 18 levels rogue scout. The fighter dip is primarily to give you your fighting style without needing to take spells as you would with level 2 of ranger.
Having both read the books and seen the shows, I don't think there is a BETTER example of mastermind than Lord Baelish. Other good (even great?) Examples? Sure. Better? This archetype was written with him in mind.
Chro, Crokus Younghand, Kalam Mehkar, Sorry, Pearl, Topper, Tanis Halfelven (debatable), Bilbo/Frodo Fucking Baggins..... Do I need to go on? Do you even know these people, or are you another GoT sheep?
I like the idea of a guilty pleasure for all characters, not only the rogue. If it's a paladin, for example, it may be something they have to suppress.
They were pirates yes but mostly before the invasion of Britian where they mainly were cool settlers who had some court systems that were incredibly civil for their time. They were also amazing fighters and sailors who slaughtered thousands. Yeah they're pirates, but cooler
My favorite character of mine so far is a thief who goes by the alias One Hand, because he has a robot arm. Every time he meets a boss he will announce himself by asking them if they know the sound of one hand clapping, before smugly clapping with both hands. He can't help but perform a show, so he's a terrible thief in some regards. One time, we needed a map, so we went into a store to buy a map. The guy was selling it for a bit too much for their taste, so his allies stole the map and ran. The shopkeep chases, One Hand stays behind in the empty shop, steals from the place, then finds said shopkeep and pays for the map with money that he stole from the man. One Hand is one of my favorite characters to play as, he's a terrible, but smart thief.
This video is wonderfully thorough and I really appreciate you going deep into the RP aspects, that's my favorite part of D&D but so many videos are all mechanics and logistics based. Thank you!
It's funny that you said "Not every Rogue needs to be a criminal, and not every criminal needs to be a Rogue." I have two character concepts that I have yet to play: Rogue - I will say up front that I HATE the greedy thief stereotype A LOT. I have a special distaste for the greedy Halfling thief trope. Tolkien did it, now it's the go-to for everyone else. Ugh. I wanted to create the concept of a vigilante guild instead of a thieves guild. Essentially, "In a city where the constabulary are on the take, where does real justice come from?" If places like 1920' Chicago and some sections of Baldur's Gate (and very likely big swaths of Waterdeep) are like this, then there would be a social response. That meant that I needed to establish a method where they could watch the city. It meant that the needed a way to get around. They needed a unifying identity. "The Black Broom Society" - A group that are chimney sweeps by day and crime fighters by night. They navigate the rooftops and deliver swift justice from above. The specific character was an elf named "Thorn", who's loyalty was assured as his regional "captain" ("Sweeper") was in charge of his sister's safe-keeping from the authorities and rivals. Less "Batman" and more "Court of Owls", but poor and with better intentions. Dirty faced, dirty hands, but clear eyed and focused. I see Thorn less as a visual of him, and more of what he sees from the rooftops. What he smells and hears. How he twitches when he sees a pouch being nicked, or a shopkeep being cornered for a shakedown. I can hear his retort to a a criminal when challenged for his life choices. "You know, you'd be richer working for us. Probably cleaner too." "I have all the wealth I need, Mr. Bones. I have the two copper I'll place over each your lifeless eyes if I see you in McGee's Butchery again looking for anything other than salt pork." ----- Bard - The Whisper Bard really appeals to me. Why? I am a huge fan of Raymond Reddington from Blacklist. James Spader's ability to turn a monologue into a weapon is incredible. So I thought of a Half-Elf Bard, raise in a Yakuza-like criminal family, who's symbol is a fish kite. These kites, normally symbols of luck, are hung over targets of assassination or other harm. Essentially in a way to wish their target "good luck in getting away". Sakana would have been raised in this environment - born to the way of tattoos and nefarious enterprise. Seeing him in my mind is as easy as thinking about how James Spader would narrate his life. "“I can remember, even from a young age, sitting next to the table and listening to my uncles. That’s what my mother called them. My uncles. I had a lot of uncles. Sometimes they would talk for hours, discussing all manners of business. They would drink, and smoke, and talk. The stories. Tales of murder and intrigue, betrayal and revenge. They were my mythology. And the colours. Gorgeous. They had amazing tattoos. Fish, and water, trees and ladies. Dragons of all kinds. I wanted to be just like them. One day I took the pen and inks my mother gave me for my last birthday and drew all over my arms. Atrocious work, but forgive me. I was six. I sat at the table with my uncles with a blade of grass in my mouth and pretended to be like them. Before shooing me away, they laughed so loud as to draw my near panicking mother from the back. Her desperation to remove me quickly from that table made them laugh even harder." ---- That's how I see characters before a single die is rolled. I want to know WHO they are before I know WHAT they are.
Also imo, that amount of character work is a little unnecessary for most DND tables, sounds more appropriate for young adult fiction but hey if you enjoy it keep it up.
Luke Carroll My characters are more than “So I have this Barbarian/Druid Guy so I can soak damage.” Thing. And I cant speak for your table or most tables, but this level of “young adult fiction” works at every one I’ve played or DMed at.
My players, a couple in particular, get pretty into their backstpry like you do and i find it really helps to build a world in an interesting way and spring board their character into that world. Is it okay if I use your chimney sweep idea? I just think it would work really well as an element of thw adventure my players are undertaking in Waterdeep on Saturday
I started thinking about how a card-carrying thief (aka someone who straight up says "yeah my job is to steal things") could function in a fantasy society, to the point that the Thieves' Guild is considered no different to the Blacksmith's Guild in terms of place in society. Turns out it wasn't so difficult given how frequently dungeons and bandit camps and such are heavily trapped and locked- imagine the taglines "Don't pay 500 gold for a bunch of no-brains adventurers, our discrete and professional thieves will get that necklace back for you for half price! No fuss, no muss, no questions asked. Hire the Thieves' Guild today!"
Or consider the Thieves Guild in Terry Pratchett's Disc World books; they make their money through people buying insurance against being robbed; if someone's paid their insurance, the Thieves Guild won't steal from them and in return for this arrangement the Thieves Guild deal with 'unlicensed' thieves.... permanently.
AGrumpyPanda The Thieve's Guild probably has a marketing guru on staff for just that reason. I wonder if they play both sides, too: set the traps in the bandit camp AND help the PCs disarm them. 🙃
the DM Lair And then be all Lord Cutler Beckett about it if they're found out, too. "Nothing personal. It's just good business." That'd make perfect sense, and I might steal that idea for a campaign world sometime.
when I think Assassin or Mastermind Rogues, my mind goes directly to that idea of the sneaky noble girl, like the princess in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
I created a Rogue 8/Fighter 12 for a level 20 Battle Royale, and he was SCARY at how effective he was. Because of this, I created a character based on this build.
Can do! Stand by, its a bit long. Originally, I was going to do pure rogue, but I feared my character would be a bit short on the health, so I beefed him up with the fighter class. Eventually, the character became a stealthy fighter, rather than a beefy rogue over several different drafts. Despite what I have above, I started the character off as a Level 12 Fighter (Champion), Level 8 Rogue (Swashbuckler). I was going to do Assassin, but the only thing going for it was Assassination (I think that the name of the ability), which can only be used in the first round of combat. This leaned me into the Swashbuckler. Ultimately, the build is not race or feats you give to your character. I made mine a wood elf with the feats of Alert, Mobile, Skulker, and Observant. I chose to use Expertise on Perception, Stealth Acrobatics, and Athletics, but once again you could use it for anything that fits the character. For the campaign, this character is currently in I started him off as a rogue this time. I waited until level 3 to multiclass into Fighter because by that point I got the archetype, and Rogue don't gain any extra attacks. Once I got to level three Fighter, I mixed it up a bit more and did Battlemaster instead of Champion. With Battlemaster, I choose Rispote, Precise Strike, and Disarm. Currently at level 13 with 8 Levels in Rogue and 5 in Fighter, and I am really happy with the character. I currently have Expertice in Perception, Stealth, Deception, and Insight. Feel free to ask more questions!
My favorite rogue is nathalie barber. She was a medical prodegy, but in a D&D world that's not a very marketable skill when surgery is far more messy then healing ever will be. The thing ia though, that the underfround can't rely as much on priests and paladins helaimg them because those arw the authorities, so Nathalie was welcomes with open arms, where by open I mean cut open. She is an inquisitive rogue, who's sneak attack is surgery performed at speed on the enemy in combat, and the eye for weakness or whatever is just medical know-how. She has the healer feat, making her decent enough at healing too, though people seem to hesitate getting under the knife, and I can't imagine why...
Ya'll are like the Rhett and Link of D&D! I hope you take that as a compliment, because it is! So glad to see ya'lls success and hope that you can do this full time, for the benefit of all of us!
I was a bit of a mix of the magic wielding Arcane Trickster (given that my Rogue was an actual Arcane Trickster) and the distraction causing Swashbuckler...in that I always ended up drawing attention to me and away from the big threats on our team...mainly the Paladin, Chronomancer, Barbarian and Warlock....I essentially helped either clean up groups of enemies (since I had access to AoE spells through my cards or herded them together for the Warlock to kill in one shot.
Just a fun story I was reminded of from Pruitt's tale; I was play a swashbuckler, who was honestly a lot of fun. But then we found a pool of mercurial liquid in front of a statue. My swashbuckler found a couple sentences on the back of the statue saying "Fear not, treasure awaits below" and jumped in. You know how Han looked at the end of Empire Strikes Back? Yeah, that
Rogue concept Ideas for beginners: Thief= Bilbo Baggins Arcane Trickster= John Constantine Assassin= Any Assassin Creed PC Swashbuckler= Jack Sparrow Mastermind=Tyrion Lannister
I love the Rogue because of things like Chaotic Good alignment where they operate under their own personal code. That level of flexibility is an interesting game interaction to me. I have played other types, but have always held a fondness for the Rogues I have created over any other characters.
My favorite class and yes my swashbuckler was a circus performer! An acrobat and fencer turned greaseman for heists turned adventurer. One fault included a desire to pull off difficult heists or duel challenging opponents (within reason) for the thrill of it.
The Eel in The Malazan Book of the Fallen series is a great example of a mastermind, nobody really knows what he knows or what he's up to, in addition to being surprisingly agile (hence his nickname I suppose).
Had a Rogue concept once, where their "Adversary" was a former city guardswoman / knight errant who was convinced that the Rogue was a serial killer who kept slipping through the fingers of the authorities... People would go missing, or turn up murdered, and the guardswoman would always blame the Rogue, due to an unfortunate encounter long ago, early on in the Rogue's career where an acquaintance went missing...turns out that "acquaintance" was an undercover guardsman, and the guardswoman's partner, to boot. The Rogue himself was actually a bit of a vigilante...not above stealing to survive, but he had a personal code, and that involved looking after his hometown and people who lived in streets and slums. So he does some digging, some investigation to figure out these murders & disappearances... Campaign didn't really take-off...but I think that the guardswoman might have ended up being the killer; using the Rogue as a convenient scapegoat to pin the guilt.
I want to make a Kobold Thief, that's probably going to be Kender Lite. They don't steal *from* the party. They might try to steal things *for* the party. "Oh, I love that necklace, but.. No, I don't need it. And it's too expensive, anyway." *Next morning* "Gift for you!" "Oh, it's the necklace! Wait.. How did you get that?"
DevilJinKazama SAME Well my kobold Rouge, he knows that people don’t like Kobolds but since he grew up in a sewer gang consisting of a halfling, gnome, 3 human kids, and himself he never knew why the upper livers don’t like him outside of the occasional rumor. Since he’s part of a low key street urchin ring, he DOES NOT WANT TO BE SEEN! He does take what he knows won’t be missed much or something he knows he can get away with. He sees stealing as dangerous, something to be attempted only if safe or if necessary. He hates leaving things up to chance. So say if the party is doing a 3v3 drinking contest he’d watch from the back and if it looks like they might lose, he’ll subtly cast prestidigitation to soil the opponents drink.
I play a barbarian/Rogue, and honestly the mechanical and RP options of both mesh well into something really cool, with a "Serenity in Rage" feel to them similar to Magneto in X-men First Class. Watching the RP videos of both classes by Web DM has been great in giving additional ideas and thoughts on character progression. Great job as always and I hope you can keep making enjoyable and informative videos.
Man, that 'Can't resist a Redhead' still brings flashbacks of an old game I played in, trying to unite scattered tribes against an outside threat. Our Crit-focused rogue couldn't say no to a pretty face, and Alexandra had one. no matter how many times she tried to kill us, chuck us into pits full of animals, trap us, etc. he was the ranged guy, and just couldn't bring himself to take the shot. Then one day we'd cleared out a massive Giant Anthill, bare kicking...to find she'd followed behind us with gas. and before she could monologue one of our party memebers tried to kill her with fire. My Trollkin Barb barely managed to break out from a side chamber carrying the only other survivor, that same rogue. Later we found her in a mine, full of traps to stop me so she could talk, knowing our rogue still hesitated. Thankfully I was as strong and bulky as I was stupid, and I was too dumb to pronounce my own name. tanked every trap and wrecked her, crying and angry. we've not had someone play a character like that since. It was all fun and games until everyone else died XD
I've had a few rogue ideas previously that i'm looking forward to doing something with. One is an assassin rogue who was part of a guild of lawmen known as the Hangmen. They were sent after criminals too dangerous or well protected for town guards to deal with. He ran across a Jack the Ripper type criminal when he was in training and was nearly killed. The organization eventually said they caught and executed him but this character didn't buy it and goes off adventuring to try to kill him, leaving the organization because he felt they weren't upholding their code to bring swift death to evil. Another is a junior spy who was brought into the service of the crown after clumsily trying to pick pocket the sovereign's spymaster. She was a bored noble girl, stealing because it was fun. He arranges for her to join the crown's spies. She's fiercely loyal to the organization, not the crown, for giving her something interesting to do and a direction to go in her life. Then there's that spymaster himself who I have worked up as more of an NPC in one of my game ideas. He however, is loyal to the laws and interests of his nation. Not his organization or the crown. He's willing to do terrible things on his queen's orders, but only so long as she is acting within the parameters of what their laws allow. He's not opposed to removing her from power either if it becomes clear she isn't doing what's best for the nation. Lastly there's an NPC information broker I have in mind who, among other things, runs a brothel and uses that as a cover for a lot of her work and providing the players with jobs.
Rogues (thieves for those of us who are old enough to remember 2nd Ed and earlier) are easily my favorite class. They get to have so. much. fun. In 3rd ed I developed the theory that really every PC should take their first level in Rogue...because skill points and sneak attack. Things are a little different now, and at times I feel like maybe every other class should just be made a little more roguish, but as long as they're around, I don't think there's any class that fits better with what I want to be doing in D&D.
I've always thought it was odd that the thief can learn to use any magic item regardless of class restrictions, but arcane tricksters can't. Just an observation.
I’m going into a game in a few weeks where I am playing a scout rogue “Tabaxi” I’m using the tabaxi stats as a stand in for my character, because he’s a red panda that has been given sentience by humans through magic such as the awaken spell, and surgically had his skeleton restructured. Basically red panda version of Rocket raccoon. To say the least, I’m excited !
Ethan Miller Matt Mercer has an old video on the topic, but generally the official DM screen that WotC sells has most of the rules you’ll need, if you’re using variant rules you might want to add those, if you’re bad at coming up with names off the top of your head then have a list of generic NPC names if your players ever ask a random NPC’s name.
😁played my first pure rogue recently. I was a retired investigator (SCAG) Firbog obsessed with building his library. He was a scout with the observant feat. I could find it, whatever whoever wherever I could find it. Firbog have weird naming tradition where you are just called what you do, so I was just “Investigator” but the local kids called him professor hemlock, because I had a side job as the apothecary (poison & herbalism)
I've rarely wanted to play a straight Rogue, but 3-7 levels of Rogue fits so well with so many other classes, partly to simulate a semi-redemptive arc where they later found a higher calling or organizational structure (and they were in that life longer than just a "background"). Rogue Assassin + Shadow Monk, Rogue Assassin + Order of the Long Death Monk, Rogue Swashbuckler + Bard College of Swords, Rogue Scout + any Ranger, Rogue Scout + Fighter Arcane Archer (the High Elf leader of an Elven mercenary band protecting their forest), Rogue Mastermind + Thievery Domain Cleric (the spiritual leader of a thieves guild), there are a ridiculous number of combinations that fit both mechanically and thematically.
Here's a tip for rogues out there, if you steal from your party, don't hold your hands up and say "i'm just playing my character" when the party attacks you or leaves you to die. You are bringing this upon your characters head when you decide that your friends valuables are for grabs, and their feelings are irrelevant.
You have this all wrong, as a rogue you most certainly want to steal from your group. You want to steal your barbarian's heirloom trinket and plant the stolen item on another party member. Sit back and watch the party.
@@LCDqBqA does said rogue have self-preservation instincts? If the barbarian finds out you stole a _very_ precious item from him to pit him against a friend, it would likely be in character for him to make your rogue one head shorter (depending on the barbarian of course). If he doesn't, your rogue has just caused conflict in the party that would decrease teamwork and the likelihood of said rogue dying in future combats. If they have more than 7-8 wisdom, they should know better.
To counter the Rogue stealing from the party members my Sorcerer uses the Message cantrip to constantly tell her "Stop that!" "Don't take that!" As the Rogue has no skill in Arcana and average intelligence she would not know where the voice is coming from... Over time this may affect her tendency to steal from allies (or drive her mad)
When I made the last rogue I played, I started by thinking about an interesting combination of skills to take for my Expertise, and landed on Acrobatics and Investigation. I ended up playing a private eye half-elf Inquisitive that had been raised in the circus and oooh boy she was fun!
I've actually come up with an idea based off of what you said about your Robin Steel character. And also Batman and Robin. Basically, there's a wealthy, mostly unassuming Half-Elf. To the public, he's a well respected businessman, but in the underworld, he is known as the Master of Crows. He would be a Mastermind Rogue, controlling the Thieve's Guild in the hope of keeping crime under control, and ending the corruption among the nobility. Every once and a while, he finds an orphan, boy or girl, of any race, and raises them to be one of his Crows. They act as the spies of his network, doing specific missions given to them depending on their individual skills. One might be an expert thief, one might be the infiltrator and assassin, and one is the problem solver. While they are mostly autonomous, they are required to feed information to the organization, and do whatever the Master asks of them. My character would be the first of the third generation of Crows, a fellow Half-Elf that has the Thief archetype. He would have two fellow Crows, an Assassin, and an Inquisitive Rogue. (Again, they're heavily inspired by the Robin's.) His adversary would be the Assassin, who went rogue and seeks to change society through much more brutal means. And of course, his guilty pleasure would be redheads (try and pick out which Robin my character's based on, hehe.) I think it's a pretty cool idea, and I would love to use it at some point.
One of my current D&D characters is a Swashbuckler, and I've been having an absolute blast! I like 'toolbox' characters, ones that allow me to participate in multiple spheres, and I find Rogue fits that style very well. Totally agree that it's very much a more combat-focused Rogue; I find it plays as more of a highly specialised Fighter than the classical thief/assassin type. Also focuses more on Charisma than Intelligence, which adds an interesting wrinkle. For example, my Swashbuckler is a very good people person, but he tends to get asked to do the stereotypical sneaky things by his party because of his class, except he doesn't really have the awareness and attention-span for it once he's done the much more fun breaking-and-entering!
I started a new rogue recently so I can already tell this vid's going to be a godsend. He's a swashbuckler, probably going to multiclass fighter, and I'm trying to break the edgy lone wolf assassin trope this time around. I want him to be more of a duelist that just knows how to fight dirty rather than tactically.
A treasure hunter was what I went with to flavor a Thief character in Tomb of Annihilation! Kato was a Variant Human with Dungeon Delver and between those two things was very effective in that environment 😊
This was great! You guys should do a short video on how to handle some of the more obscure mechanics. Illusions can be either extremely powerful or totally lame depending on the DM. Other spells like scry, plane shift, wish. Would be really cool to hear you guys discuss how you handle those.
I will say one thing about the swashbuckler since I play one regularly. It doesn't have be played a lot differently from you typical assassin or thief and you can stick with many of the same sneaky expertises. The stunt aspect of being a swashbuckler isn't really touched upon until lvl 14 so you aren't punished for completely forgoing proficiency in athletics/acrobatic. I have a drow with a past as a thief, but before I even knew of the swashbuckler, I knew I wanted my drow to be somewhat charismatic and deceptive or else nobody would vouch for him and he would be a lone target for any group of commoners to pick on if not chase with pitchforks. If you like roleplaying conversation and you like combat, like I do, that's when I will personally recommend the swashbuckler, but it certainly also lends itself to the obvious archetype of am audacious, daredevil fighter.
nazgulpenguin +1000000 for The Gentleman Bastards series. Lies of Locke Lamora, as the first, is the best thus far but they're all fantastic. I was surprised and overjoyed a while back to find out I've been chatting fantasy with Scott Lynch on /tg/ for years, he's great.
Honestly, I think that Swashbuckler is the most fun rogue archetype to play. I'm currently playing as a half-elf swashbuckler who joined the circus as an acrobat because his race made him feel like an outcast, and then joined a crime family as a deal-maker because he was both quite charismatic an could make a quick kill if needed. Now he's left his life of crime to go adventuring and turn his name into one of legends while dual wielding scimitars and doing flips and knife throws. If you're the type of player who likes shenanigans, play a swashbuckler. At the very least, your entrances will never cease to be awesome when the lowest you can get on an Acrobatics check is 23.
You know what video I would love to see? A video where you talk about your respective campaign settings. Not the 'official' ones, but your own personal ones. I know Jim likes to run adventures in his own world, I'm not sure if Pruitt does, but if so, I would love to know more about it. Perhaps make it a video about HOW to make your own campaign setting. Just a thought.
I see that the Rogue class can cause a lot of problems for some groups not because that it is a problem class but because problem players are often drawn to the Rogue.
I highly recommend Scott Lynch's books for inspiration on rogues. I've wanted to run a thieves guild campaign ever since reading The Lies of Locke Lamora.
I always have several authorities in my worlds, like the City guards, or The town Guard (bailiff is another good word here, someone meant to represent the local authority or power), the hired guards of noble houses or powerfull individuals. If its a large city then the criminal underworld is its own kind of authority to handle crime (you generally dont want people working outside your boundry as such an organization), the Wizards have their own force for handling Magical situations (Its always them that gets to handle it in the end anyway) and so on. the simple reason for this is so that players have to think about their actions. Go Murder-Hobo without permission in a city and its gonna have reprocussions. Now the players needs to find other sollutions. Might end up as a Murder-Hobo situation, but with the Dukes permission, or the tension of not getting revealed as the criminals and so on. Whatever adds tension and do not retract possible actions is in my mind a good thing.
If you do ever decide to steal from your party members; take this bit of advice. Do *NOT* announce to the whole table that you're going to pick the wizards pocket to take his Scroll of Fireball. You don't have to make that move public. Pass a note to the DM. Tell him your intention is to, *secretly,* pickpocket the scroll; and wait for him to work in your die roll discreetly. Will the party figure it out? As long as you don't fail any of your rolls....idk...how smart are you and your friends? Did you steal your scroll then use it the next day, while standing next to the mage? Was the stolen item used regularly by the player? Also, any class is capable of stealing an item if their friend is fast asleep. Just remember to pass a note to the DM; don't broadcast your motives to the group. You can set the Note Passing precedent early on with lists of gear, background tidbits you forgot to include at character creation, shopping lists, etc. Don't pass your first note right before you pick your "friend's" pocket, lol. Thieves are so much fun to RP.
I was thinking about a rogue in a magical-steampunk world where magic comes from crystals and people can control it trough certain devices, my guy basically doesn't know how to cast magic with these crystals but he can make a black powder mixture with them to improve his main gun, a fuel and accellerant for his small airship and just chuck them as grenades a la gambit, with these abilities (specially the last one) he works as a good pilot, sharpshooter and mage counter when he goes to melee range. The great thing about rogues is that they're very flexible as they're basically your common light armored or unarmored regular guys, drifters, mercenaries, pirates and salvagers but also street performers, scam artists, merchants and thieves, just as long as you give character to your guy and keep to the "normal guy gone rogue" character you can do a lot.
Basically a sort of fictionalised Victorian Britain, not really steam punk but with that sort of technology, and with wizards that use 'Locus Magicalis' to do magic, basically just random jewels that draw the wizard to them like wands in Harry Potter. The main character is a thief who tries to steal a wizard's stone which should have killed him but didn't and so the wizard takes him on as an apprentice, but it turns out the thief's stone is a jewel from the Duchess's tiara etc etc. He later realises that he can use magic by creating explosions and basically makes alchemist's gunpowder for a while
greatmightypanda well that's interesting, I'll make sure to check it out. I was thinking more in a scientific manner, though, where crystals are just object with no strange bonds with wizards and depending on the composition they can work either as batteries or casting tools, so you could see my rogue like some crazy guy that likes to make everyone's phone batteries blow up.
Casting Rogues from popular media (cuz it's fun) Assassin - Jackal from the movie The Jackal Arcane Trickster - John Constantine from Hellblazer comics Swashbuckler - Westley from the movie The Princess Bride Inquisitive - Sherlock Holmes from the movie mostly because of the combat descriptions Mastermind - Moriaty portrayed by Eric Porter, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (just a preference) Phantom - Shang Tsung from the Mortal Kombat games Scout - Atreyu in the movie Neverending Story Soulknife - Psylocke from the X-Men comics Thief - All the characters in the movie Ocean's Eleven
My DM just opened up Volo's to our party in his Curse of Strahd campaign. I decided to make a neutral urchin kenku rogue who expressly steals only to study magical artifacts and rarities to learn how to mimic their creation to further their skill as a craftsman and earn an honest way. They're not out to get anyone, but they're motivated to achieve a life of modest comfort for themselves and see their ability to recreate items as a way out of their desperate background even if it means they have to buy, beg, borrow or steal the means to do so.
For me the best Dnd 5.0 class I played few sessions as asassin sub class and also as mastermind and it was insane. Now i waiting for new barbarian role playing video. I love this series u r doing great job guys.
Remember that an arcane trickster's magical flavor doesn't have to be wizard based, maybe your particular rouge has extremely diluted dragon blood so they have a sorcerer favor to there magic, or maybe they pray to a god with the trickster domain making them a simi-cleric, maybe they're a warlock for a really shitty fiend like an imp or perhaps a baby great one yet to awaken from its cocoon. If you really wanted to dive into that flavor you could grab the magic initiate feat, or even muliclass if you really wanted to, although with just flavor you can make your rouge so much more unique.
One idea I have is for a High Elf Arcane Trickster, who was apprenticed to an elven ringsmith. The master ringsmith forged magic rings, which elves are known to do. Something happened, and the apprentice was forced to leave and become a thief. His apprenticeship involved enough magical knowledge to make him an Arcane Trickster, obviously. And because of his background - a ringsmith's apprentice - his guilty pleasure is rings. He can't help but snatch rings where he can. This is not just because they're valuable in and of themselves, but because he appreciates the artistry and craft that goes into them. The fancier the ring, the more irresistible it is to him, because he wants to study it. So you have this character who will scours locations for jewelry boxes or discarded rings, or who will yank the rings off the fingers of his fallen enemies. He'll learn the Sleep spell, specifically so he can drop people and remove their finger jewelry. Since he's got Guild Artisan as a Background, he's got proficiency in Smith's Tools. I imagine that his ultimate desire is to forge magic rings of his own. Stealing rings, ergo, is him studying the art and craft of ringsmithing, so his own works will be better.
I play a very Moriarty-type mastermind rogue (Based on his anime portrayal in Mortiarty the Patriot). Someone who targets corrupt nobles, finds those who were wronged by those nobles, and devises a way to kill his targets using the victims of his target and leaving little to no trace of the deed. Like having a servant serve grapefruit juice to a man who suffers from heart problems, then has the victim pseudo attack to scare the target and trigger the heart attack. And the grapefruit juice counteracts heart medication, causing death.
Regarding thieving from party members: I take the "better safe than sorry" stance. I don't allow players to steal from or combat other players, including using mechanics to force decisuons etc on another player. Even if you have an excellent group that gets along incredibly, it just takes one person having a bad day to ruin a game or a group.
My current character is a Tabaxi Inquisitive Rogue, with the Urban Bounty Hunter background. He uses the skills he learned in his previous criminal past to track down criminals and bring them to justice... for payment, of course.
I think a great example of how to have a non-criminal rogue is to look at the Series of Unfortunate Events books/show - VFD Agents are basically rogues, all of who,m take expertise in different things and who work as an organization of rogues to fight for the common good. I'm currently playing a halfling Mastermind Rogue called Yessica Jamjar who's based on Jacques Snicket, who is able to get involved in fights, but who is going to try his best to avoid them through good philosophy and clever wordplay. I think every member makes a great example for how to play a good rogue, who hunts criminals, looks after children, hold secrets and infiltrate enemy organizations whilst using skills and questionably-lawful methods which could easily be used by criminals to do their criminal things.
My rogue was a smuggler arcane trickster who specialized in illusions to keep things hidden, but he had a bad run in and became in debt to a dragon so when we started our campaign I entered the game under a false name trying to lay low in a small town. It became a bit of a challenge because as much as he wants to help and explore the mysterious problems happening in the town, he can’t really spread his name around. Also he was kind of paranoid like me so he always left tripwires and alarms around his house lol.
I have always thought the thug to be interesting, 1/2 Orc fighter/rogue multiclass (probably more focus on fighter) and the deep delver (dungeon crawler specialist) Dwarven fighter/rogue multiclass (probably more focused on rogue)
Your talk of a beggar king with his subordinates funnelling money gave me a neat idea. Basically, the beggars are all living underground, tied in the the MUST HAVE undermarkets and whatnot from any self respecting city location. They even grow food there, although some of those mushrooms are a bit magical. I'm the day, the go out and beg, and the money all goes to the beggar king, because the 'beggars' live a different lifestyle and have no need of the money, for now. The Beggar King takes this change from a thousand beggars, hoards it and uses it to achieve great things. Controlling politics, engineering favourable circumstances, improving the lives of his people. Basically, they're some weird hippie magic mushroom eating underground commune empire. Not practical and arguably not very cool, but interesting.
I'm running with a character concept which sees a Goblin Rogue (Scout) whose background is Hermit multiclasses into Circle of Shepherd Druid. Gronk (the goblin) has a guilt pleasure for large gems, and one day he spies a rare emerald lying by the wayside caked in mud, no sooner has he returned to his hut, a menacing Elf (Rogue - Criminal (Fence) bursts in and demands 'his' emerald back. Right when Gronk is about to lose his life, he is saved by a mysterious Druid... Considering a further multiclass into Path of the Totem Warrior in later levels
Thanks for watching! Want more Web DM in your life? Check out our podcast here: patreon.com/webdm or our NEW UA-cam channel of live play D&D here: bit.ly/2HFh2kO
Patreon here - if you guys want to watch a fantastic tv series based on Rogue's and their adversary's, try the 1st two season's of Peaky Blinders.
Very well written, great production, great acting, and a fantastic 'villain' with Sam Neil's Policeman....
Web DM I have to say thank you I appreciate the content you guys are awesome it’s always high quality fun just thank you
I've watched a lot of your episodes. I finally got your format in this one . I hope you keep going. Thanks.
I love the wizard training kids to be arcane tricksters. Using it.
LvL that's brilliant.
So, if Fagin was a wizard . . .
Manster Mash that’s what I kinda wanna do with my kobold street urchin meeting a wizened blind firbolg bookseller.
@@giraffedragon6110 like caleb and nott from critical role
1) steal money from the Party
2) use that money to buy beer for the Party
3) ???
4) profit
JG R Honestly, I wouldn't complain so much if someone stole my money and then bought me beer. I mean, what was I gonna use the money for anyway? 😃🍺🍺🍺
JoaoG R
3) take plastered party gambling
The last Rogue I played was actually a lot of fun - a paranoid gnome who had, at some point, boobytrapped his house to the point where he *couldn't get back in* without becoming a master at lock-picking and trap-disarming.
Swashbuckler: "I'm, gonna swing, from tHE CHANDELIER. FROM THE CHANDELIEEEER
Holy shit.... Robin Steel = Rob 'n Steal... That's the greatest rogue name ever!
shadowbreed91 LOL I think you're onto something! 👍
Rob in hood
I think it’s a bit silly, and obvious...but great if you are going for a more silly tone.
another way to spell it Rob'in Steele. I agree this is simply one of the best rogues names I have ever heard of.
@@Nougatbars its not silly or obvious u stuck up dipshit
I think the Expertise is one of their greatest features.
It enables you to even go as far as kind of "hide" the name Rogue away and play something different, focused on skills.
You could expertise on Persuasion/Deception and play something of a Noble or Politician, you could expertise on Medicine/Nature and play a Medic (Healer feat is a plus), History/Arcana for a Lore-master (Ritual Caster feat?), and so on.
Actually what I like about Expertise is it puts a rogue *above* normal people. Unless you're playing a very low-fantasy game, PCs are exactly that- fantasy characters. They're not normal people and aren't bound by the things normal people are, so while the wizard is using magic to do impossible things and the fighter is achieving the supernatural just through training and practice, the rogue is able to reach a level of skill that no other ordinary person *can*.
Gerge Coelho Agreed. Expertise is awesome. The sneak attack damage is nothing to scoff at either... 😁
After watching this, I'm thinking that the Scout Archetype Rogue might be a better representation of the Tolkien Ranger than the Ranger class is.
Agreed. My no-magic ranger is, in order: 1 level ranger, 1 level fighter, then 18 levels rogue scout. The fighter dip is primarily to give you your fighting style without needing to take spells as you would with level 2 of ranger.
Scout is good for a ranged Rogue, but I think Swashbuckler with the right background and feats work as a melee alternative.
@@TheTdroid not ranged, ranger*
Littlefinger from GoT=mastermind rogue with the Noble background?
Licjr 1018, ugh.... There's literally hundreds of better examples than GoT crap.
provide some other examples, then, instead of just insulting things people enjoy
Having both read the books and seen the shows, I don't think there is a BETTER example of mastermind than Lord Baelish. Other good (even great?) Examples? Sure. Better? This archetype was written with him in mind.
Chro, Crokus Younghand, Kalam Mehkar, Sorry, Pearl, Topper, Tanis Halfelven (debatable), Bilbo/Frodo Fucking Baggins..... Do I need to go on?
Do you even know these people, or are you another GoT sheep?
Bilbo and Frodo are both clearly thieves though. Stop being a lord of the rings sheep. This is what you sound like.
I like the idea of a guilty pleasure for all characters, not only the rogue. If it's a paladin, for example, it may be something they have to suppress.
Liquor Fan the cleric with the drinking problem, or the paladin that struggles to avoid brothels in town
Tiefling fetish is usually something I play, if I’m not playing a tiefling
Elliot Freeman the Twi’lek I sense in your future
why would paladins have an inherent need to suppress guilty pleasures?
@Doctor Fate they said "may" which usually does not mean its necessary no matter what
I used the Rogue class to create Sherlock Gnome, detective extraordinary.
He'd have fun dealing with my Tabaxi Mastermind Rogue James Moriarty.
😒 please tell me not inspired by the animated film
extraordinaire
Inquisitive Rogue with a dip in Drunken Master Monk = Captain Sherlock Sparrow.
That's my plan, with a Norse Viking twist (they were Pirates too).
Bonus points if you only *pretend* to be drunk out of combat.
AGrumpyPanda that my secret, im never drunk.
Seems legit, the word Viking literally means "Raider"
They were pirates yes but mostly before the invasion of Britian where they mainly were cool settlers who had some court systems that were incredibly civil for their time. They were also amazing fighters and sailors who slaughtered thousands. Yeah they're pirates, but cooler
I like dis.
Thank you everyone at WebDM for the engaging and familiar content. Keep it up, and congrats on the following you guys deserve!
My favorite character of mine so far is a thief who goes by the alias One Hand, because he has a robot arm. Every time he meets a boss he will announce himself by asking them if they know the sound of one hand clapping, before smugly clapping with both hands. He can't help but perform a show, so he's a terrible thief in some regards.
One time, we needed a map, so we went into a store to buy a map. The guy was selling it for a bit too much for their taste, so his allies stole the map and ran. The shopkeep chases, One Hand stays behind in the empty shop, steals from the place, then finds said shopkeep and pays for the map with money that he stole from the man.
One Hand is one of my favorite characters to play as, he's a terrible, but smart thief.
I had a character with a metal arm and he was Jon half-hands, I know it doesn't add much, I just think it's funny
I like how the "Wednesday show" always shows up Thursday morning for me XD
Great show as always guys
Same :D
Me, too. Great way to start the day!
I finally ask for more than 1 Web DM video a week and it happened!! I feel compelled to make my next character a Divination wizard.
This video is wonderfully thorough and I really appreciate you going deep into the RP aspects, that's my favorite part of D&D but so many videos are all mechanics and logistics based. Thank you!
It's funny that you said "Not every Rogue needs to be a criminal, and not every criminal needs to be a Rogue."
I have two character concepts that I have yet to play:
Rogue - I will say up front that I HATE the greedy thief stereotype A LOT. I have a special distaste for the greedy Halfling thief trope. Tolkien did it, now it's the go-to for everyone else. Ugh.
I wanted to create the concept of a vigilante guild instead of a thieves guild. Essentially, "In a city where the constabulary are on the take, where does real justice come from?" If places like 1920' Chicago and some sections of Baldur's Gate (and very likely big swaths of Waterdeep) are like this, then there would be a social response. That meant that I needed to establish a method where they could watch the city. It meant that the needed a way to get around. They needed a unifying identity.
"The Black Broom Society" - A group that are chimney sweeps by day and crime fighters by night. They navigate the rooftops and deliver swift justice from above. The specific character was an elf named "Thorn", who's loyalty was assured as his regional "captain" ("Sweeper") was in charge of his sister's safe-keeping from the authorities and rivals. Less "Batman" and more "Court of Owls", but poor and with better intentions. Dirty faced, dirty hands, but clear eyed and focused.
I see Thorn less as a visual of him, and more of what he sees from the rooftops. What he smells and hears. How he twitches when he sees a pouch being nicked, or a shopkeep being cornered for a shakedown.
I can hear his retort to a a criminal when challenged for his life choices.
"You know, you'd be richer working for us. Probably cleaner too."
"I have all the wealth I need, Mr. Bones. I have the two copper I'll place over each your lifeless eyes if I see you in McGee's Butchery again looking for anything other than salt pork."
-----
Bard - The Whisper Bard really appeals to me. Why? I am a huge fan of Raymond Reddington from Blacklist. James Spader's ability to turn a monologue into a weapon is incredible. So I thought of a Half-Elf Bard, raise in a Yakuza-like criminal family, who's symbol is a fish kite. These kites, normally symbols of luck, are hung over targets of assassination or other harm. Essentially in a way to wish their target "good luck in getting away". Sakana would have been raised in this environment - born to the way of tattoos and nefarious enterprise.
Seeing him in my mind is as easy as thinking about how James Spader would narrate his life.
"“I can remember, even from a young age, sitting next to the table and listening to my uncles.
That’s what my mother called them. My uncles.
I had a lot of uncles.
Sometimes they would talk for hours, discussing all manners of business. They would drink, and smoke, and talk. The stories. Tales of murder and intrigue, betrayal and revenge.
They were my mythology.
And the colours. Gorgeous. They had amazing tattoos. Fish, and water, trees and ladies. Dragons of all kinds.
I wanted to be just like them.
One day I took the pen and inks my mother gave me for my last birthday and drew all over my arms. Atrocious work, but forgive me. I was six.
I sat at the table with my uncles with a blade of grass in my mouth and pretended to be like them. Before shooing me away, they laughed so loud as to draw my near panicking mother from the back. Her desperation to remove me quickly from that table made them laugh even harder."
----
That's how I see characters before a single die is rolled. I want to know WHO they are before I know WHAT they are.
Mike Gould thought you were implying the mother was a prostitute for a moment there
Also imo, that amount of character work is a little unnecessary for most DND tables, sounds more appropriate for young adult fiction but hey if you enjoy it keep it up.
That sounds awesome
Luke Carroll My characters are more than “So I have this Barbarian/Druid Guy so I can soak damage.” Thing.
And I cant speak for your table or most tables, but this level of “young adult fiction” works at every one I’ve played or DMed at.
My players, a couple in particular, get pretty into their backstpry like you do and i find it really helps to build a world in an interesting way and spring board their character into that world.
Is it okay if I use your chimney sweep idea? I just think it would work really well as an element of thw adventure my players are undertaking in Waterdeep on Saturday
I started thinking about how a card-carrying thief (aka someone who straight up says "yeah my job is to steal things") could function in a fantasy society, to the point that the Thieves' Guild is considered no different to the Blacksmith's Guild in terms of place in society.
Turns out it wasn't so difficult given how frequently dungeons and bandit camps and such are heavily trapped and locked- imagine the taglines "Don't pay 500 gold for a bunch of no-brains adventurers, our discrete and professional thieves will get that necklace back for you for half price! No fuss, no muss, no questions asked. Hire the Thieves' Guild today!"
Or consider the Thieves Guild in Terry Pratchett's Disc World books; they make their money through people buying insurance against being robbed; if someone's paid their insurance, the Thieves Guild won't steal from them and in return for this arrangement the Thieves Guild deal with 'unlicensed' thieves.... permanently.
For a small fee we will be happy to find the holes in your magical security system's defense. Plug the holes before thr adventurers find them!
When I think of thieves guilds in society I picture the mafia and politicians.
AGrumpyPanda The Thieve's Guild probably has a marketing guru on staff for just that reason. I wonder if they play both sides, too: set the traps in the bandit camp AND help the PCs disarm them. 🙃
the DM Lair And then be all Lord Cutler Beckett about it if they're found out, too. "Nothing personal. It's just good business."
That'd make perfect sense, and I might steal that idea for a campaign world sometime.
Scout rogue, hunter ranger, moon Druid, nature cleric. An amazing team.
Inquisitives fight by studying their enimies movements, masterminds fight by convinging their enimies to make mistakes. God I love rouges.
when I think Assassin or Mastermind Rogues, my mind goes directly to that idea of the sneaky noble girl, like the princess in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
I created a Rogue 8/Fighter 12 for a level 20 Battle Royale, and he was SCARY at how effective he was. Because of this, I created a character based on this build.
Megan Crum do give details, sounds interesting!
Can do! Stand by, its a bit long.
Originally, I was going to do pure rogue, but I feared my character would be a bit short on the health, so I beefed him up with the fighter class. Eventually, the character became a stealthy fighter, rather than a beefy rogue over several different drafts.
Despite what I have above, I started the character off as a Level 12 Fighter (Champion), Level 8 Rogue (Swashbuckler). I was going to do Assassin, but the only thing going for it was Assassination (I think that the name of the ability), which can only be used in the first round of combat. This leaned me into the Swashbuckler. Ultimately, the build is not race or feats you give to your character. I made mine a wood elf with the feats of Alert, Mobile, Skulker, and Observant. I chose to use Expertise on Perception, Stealth Acrobatics, and Athletics, but once again you could use it for anything that fits the character.
For the campaign, this character is currently in I started him off as a rogue this time. I waited until level 3 to multiclass into Fighter because by that point I got the archetype, and Rogue don't gain any extra attacks. Once I got to level three Fighter, I mixed it up a bit more and did Battlemaster instead of Champion. With Battlemaster, I choose Rispote, Precise Strike, and Disarm. Currently at level 13 with 8 Levels in Rogue and 5 in Fighter, and I am really happy with the character. I currently have Expertice in Perception, Stealth, Deception, and Insight.
Feel free to ask more questions!
My favorite rogue is nathalie barber. She was a medical prodegy, but in a D&D world that's not a very marketable skill when surgery is far more messy then healing ever will be. The thing ia though, that the underfround can't rely as much on priests and paladins helaimg them because those arw the authorities, so Nathalie was welcomes with open arms, where by open I mean cut open. She is an inquisitive rogue, who's sneak attack is surgery performed at speed on the enemy in combat, and the eye for weakness or whatever is just medical know-how. She has the healer feat, making her decent enough at healing too, though people seem to hesitate getting under the knife, and I can't imagine why...
Ya'll are like the Rhett and Link of D&D! I hope you take that as a compliment, because it is! So glad to see ya'lls success and hope that you can do this full time, for the benefit of all of us!
I was a bit of a mix of the magic wielding Arcane Trickster (given that my Rogue was an actual Arcane Trickster) and the distraction causing Swashbuckler...in that I always ended up drawing attention to me and away from the big threats on our team...mainly the Paladin, Chronomancer, Barbarian and Warlock....I essentially helped either clean up groups of enemies (since I had access to AoE spells through my cards or herded them together for the Warlock to kill in one shot.
Just a fun story I was reminded of from Pruitt's tale; I was play a swashbuckler, who was honestly a lot of fun. But then we found a pool of mercurial liquid in front of a statue. My swashbuckler found a couple sentences on the back of the statue saying "Fear not, treasure awaits below" and jumped in.
You know how Han looked at the end of Empire Strikes Back? Yeah, that
Pruitt, I’m so surprised you didn’t pull out Childermass (from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell) as an example of an Arcane Trickster!
42 minutes of talking about rogues?
*heavy breathing*
*quiet breathing*
*not breathing*
Rogue concept Ideas for beginners:
Thief= Bilbo Baggins
Arcane Trickster= John Constantine
Assassin= Any Assassin Creed PC
Swashbuckler= Jack Sparrow
Mastermind=Tyrion Lannister
I love the Rogue because of things like Chaotic Good alignment where they operate under their own personal code. That level of flexibility is an interesting game interaction to me. I have played other types, but have always held a fondness for the Rogues I have created over any other characters.
NPC to me: you’ve got to be the worst rouge I’ve ever heard of.
Me: but you’ve have heard of me.
My favorite class and yes my swashbuckler was a circus performer! An acrobat and fencer turned greaseman for heists turned adventurer. One fault included a desire to pull off difficult heists or duel challenging opponents (within reason) for the thrill of it.
AND an Ocean's 11 reference!? That's one of my inspiration for the character!
The Eel in The Malazan Book of the Fallen series is a great example of a mastermind, nobody really knows what he knows or what he's up to, in addition to being surprisingly agile (hence his nickname I suppose).
Azeur 6/10, would have been better in the voice of the voice of the eel
The best thing to do is make everyone think you're making a stereotypical rogue, then bam. Chaotic good without a tragic back story.
Wait a minute, Quark and Odo are both Rogues, a Mastermind and an Inquisitive.
Had a Rogue concept once, where their "Adversary" was a former city guardswoman / knight errant who was convinced that the Rogue was a serial killer who kept slipping through the fingers of the authorities...
People would go missing, or turn up murdered, and the guardswoman would always blame the Rogue, due to an unfortunate encounter long ago, early on in the Rogue's career where an acquaintance went missing...turns out that "acquaintance" was an undercover guardsman, and the guardswoman's partner, to boot.
The Rogue himself was actually a bit of a vigilante...not above stealing to survive, but he had a personal code, and that involved looking after his hometown and people who lived in streets and slums. So he does some digging, some investigation to figure out these murders & disappearances...
Campaign didn't really take-off...but I think that the guardswoman might have ended up being the killer; using the Rogue as a convenient scapegoat to pin the guilt.
I want to make a Kobold Thief, that's probably going to be Kender Lite.
They don't steal *from* the party. They might try to steal things *for* the party.
"Oh, I love that necklace, but.. No, I don't need it. And it's too expensive, anyway."
*Next morning* "Gift for you!"
"Oh, it's the necklace! Wait.. How did you get that?"
DevilJinKazama SAME
Well my kobold Rouge, he knows that people don’t like Kobolds but since he grew up in a sewer gang consisting of a halfling, gnome, 3 human kids, and himself he never knew why the upper livers don’t like him outside of the occasional rumor. Since he’s part of a low key street urchin ring, he DOES NOT WANT TO BE SEEN! He does take what he knows won’t be missed much or something he knows he can get away with. He sees stealing as dangerous, something to be attempted only if safe or if necessary. He hates leaving things up to chance. So say if the party is doing a 3v3 drinking contest he’d watch from the back and if it looks like they might lose, he’ll subtly cast prestidigitation to soil the opponents drink.
so a rogue?
Rogues are one of my favorite classes in 5e! Excellent DPS and great at so many skills. 😁
I think this How To RP series is among the best on this channel. Really good work guys.
I play a barbarian/Rogue, and honestly the mechanical and RP options of both mesh well into something really cool, with a "Serenity in Rage" feel to them similar to Magneto in X-men First Class. Watching the RP videos of both classes by Web DM has been great in giving additional ideas and thoughts on character progression.
Great job as always and I hope you can keep making enjoyable and informative videos.
Man, that 'Can't resist a Redhead' still brings flashbacks of an old game I played in, trying to unite scattered tribes against an outside threat. Our Crit-focused rogue couldn't say no to a pretty face, and Alexandra had one. no matter how many times she tried to kill us, chuck us into pits full of animals, trap us, etc. he was the ranged guy, and just couldn't bring himself to take the shot.
Then one day we'd cleared out a massive Giant Anthill, bare kicking...to find she'd followed behind us with gas. and before she could monologue one of our party memebers tried to kill her with fire. My Trollkin Barb barely managed to break out from a side chamber carrying the only other survivor, that same rogue.
Later we found her in a mine, full of traps to stop me so she could talk, knowing our rogue still hesitated. Thankfully I was as strong and bulky as I was stupid, and I was too dumb to pronounce my own name. tanked every trap and wrecked her, crying and angry. we've not had someone play a character like that since. It was all fun and games until everyone else died XD
How am i supposed to be a wizard-puritan if you keep inspiring me to play all the other classes O'_'o
I've had a few rogue ideas previously that i'm looking forward to doing something with. One is an assassin rogue who was part of a guild of lawmen known as the Hangmen. They were sent after criminals too dangerous or well protected for town guards to deal with. He ran across a Jack the Ripper type criminal when he was in training and was nearly killed. The organization eventually said they caught and executed him but this character didn't buy it and goes off adventuring to try to kill him, leaving the organization because he felt they weren't upholding their code to bring swift death to evil.
Another is a junior spy who was brought into the service of the crown after clumsily trying to pick pocket the sovereign's spymaster. She was a bored noble girl, stealing because it was fun. He arranges for her to join the crown's spies. She's fiercely loyal to the organization, not the crown, for giving her something interesting to do and a direction to go in her life.
Then there's that spymaster himself who I have worked up as more of an NPC in one of my game ideas. He however, is loyal to the laws and interests of his nation. Not his organization or the crown. He's willing to do terrible things on his queen's orders, but only so long as she is acting within the parameters of what their laws allow. He's not opposed to removing her from power either if it becomes clear she isn't doing what's best for the nation.
Lastly there's an NPC information broker I have in mind who, among other things, runs a brothel and uses that as a cover for a lot of her work and providing the players with jobs.
Rogues (thieves for those of us who are old enough to remember 2nd Ed and earlier) are easily my favorite class. They get to have so. much. fun. In 3rd ed I developed the theory that really every PC should take their first level in Rogue...because skill points and sneak attack. Things are a little different now, and at times I feel like maybe every other class should just be made a little more roguish, but as long as they're around, I don't think there's any class that fits better with what I want to be doing in D&D.
Yes finally! Been waiting for this since the first notification
Ahhhhh finally! The notification was such a tease, I need my fix!
I've always thought it was odd that the thief can learn to use any magic item regardless of class restrictions, but arcane tricksters can't. Just an observation.
Jim Davis understanding how dope Gus Fring is on a narrative level doesn't surprise me but it does make me smile.
I’m going into a game in a few weeks where I am playing a scout rogue “Tabaxi”
I’m using the tabaxi stats as a stand in for my character, because he’s a red panda that has been given sentience by humans through magic such as the awaken spell, and surgically had his skeleton restructured. Basically red panda version of Rocket raccoon. To say the least, I’m excited !
Tabaxi Swashbuckler.....Purrrr-fect
I love this series! Can you guys do an episode on what you need on a DM screen?
Ethan Miller Matt Mercer has an old video on the topic, but generally the official DM screen that WotC sells has most of the rules you’ll need, if you’re using variant rules you might want to add those, if you’re bad at coming up with names off the top of your head then have a list of generic NPC names if your players ever ask a random NPC’s name.
Hey Web DM, thanks for making these... I just finished binge watching the whole Web DM Playlist.
Web DM is always a treasure trove of interesting DM & PC ideas. Thanks again!
😁played my first pure rogue recently. I was a retired investigator (SCAG) Firbog obsessed with building his library. He was a scout with the observant feat. I could find it, whatever whoever wherever I could find it. Firbog have weird naming tradition where you are just called what you do, so I was just “Investigator” but the local kids called him professor hemlock, because I had a side job as the apothecary (poison & herbalism)
Just wanted to say I find this backstory so cute
I've rarely wanted to play a straight Rogue, but 3-7 levels of Rogue fits so well with so many other classes, partly to simulate a semi-redemptive arc where they later found a higher calling or organizational structure (and they were in that life longer than just a "background"). Rogue Assassin + Shadow Monk, Rogue Assassin + Order of the Long Death Monk, Rogue Swashbuckler + Bard College of Swords, Rogue Scout + any Ranger, Rogue Scout + Fighter Arcane Archer (the High Elf leader of an Elven mercenary band protecting their forest), Rogue Mastermind + Thievery Domain Cleric (the spiritual leader of a thieves guild), there are a ridiculous number of combinations that fit both mechanically and thematically.
Here's a tip for rogues out there, if you steal from your party, don't hold your hands up and say "i'm just playing my character" when the party attacks you or leaves you to die. You are bringing this upon your characters head when you decide that your friends valuables are for grabs, and their feelings are irrelevant.
Sure, provided the thief isnt godmodding and acting like nobody would ever catch him, icly and oocly.
Stealing from the party isnt always a horrible thing if they dont steal something big and play it off right.
You have this all wrong, as a rogue you most certainly want to steal from your group. You want to steal your barbarian's heirloom trinket and plant the stolen item on another party member. Sit back and watch the party.
@@LCDqBqA depends on the party
@@LCDqBqA does said rogue have self-preservation instincts? If the barbarian finds out you stole a _very_ precious item from him to pit him against a friend, it would likely be in character for him to make your rogue one head shorter (depending on the barbarian of course). If he doesn't, your rogue has just caused conflict in the party that would decrease teamwork and the likelihood of said rogue dying in future combats.
If they have more than 7-8 wisdom, they should know better.
I have literally been waiting for this one since I saw the first rp video
To counter the Rogue stealing from the party members my Sorcerer uses the Message cantrip to constantly tell her "Stop that!" "Don't take that!" As the Rogue has no skill in Arcana and average intelligence she would not know where the voice is coming from... Over time this may affect her tendency to steal from allies (or drive her mad)
Love the thieves cant in the intro!
Admit it, you guys enjoy making the thumbnails more than recording content. Lol
i was surprised they didnt put Jim's face on the dog
They do it for us loving fans. Admit it, you love it as much as we all do, haha.
The thumbnails are golden
I love that Jim referenced The Grey Mouser!
When I made the last rogue I played, I started by thinking about an interesting combination of skills to take for my Expertise, and landed on Acrobatics and Investigation. I ended up playing a private eye half-elf Inquisitive that had been raised in the circus and oooh boy she was fun!
Great episode. Really enjoyed it. I'm definitely loving all of the rich subclasses for Rogues in the aftermath of Xanathar's.
I've actually come up with an idea based off of what you said about your Robin Steel character. And also Batman and Robin. Basically, there's a wealthy, mostly unassuming Half-Elf. To the public, he's a well respected businessman, but in the underworld, he is known as the Master of Crows. He would be a Mastermind Rogue, controlling the Thieve's Guild in the hope of keeping crime under control, and ending the corruption among the nobility. Every once and a while, he finds an orphan, boy or girl, of any race, and raises them to be one of his Crows. They act as the spies of his network, doing specific missions given to them depending on their individual skills. One might be an expert thief, one might be the infiltrator and assassin, and one is the problem solver. While they are mostly autonomous, they are required to feed information to the organization, and do whatever the Master asks of them. My character would be the first of the third generation of Crows, a fellow Half-Elf that has the Thief archetype. He would have two fellow Crows, an Assassin, and an Inquisitive Rogue. (Again, they're heavily inspired by the Robin's.) His adversary would be the Assassin, who went rogue and seeks to change society through much more brutal means. And of course, his guilty pleasure would be redheads (try and pick out which Robin my character's based on, hehe.) I think it's a pretty cool idea, and I would love to use it at some point.
One of my current D&D characters is a Swashbuckler, and I've been having an absolute blast! I like 'toolbox' characters, ones that allow me to participate in multiple spheres, and I find Rogue fits that style very well.
Totally agree that it's very much a more combat-focused Rogue; I find it plays as more of a highly specialised Fighter than the classical thief/assassin type. Also focuses more on Charisma than Intelligence, which adds an interesting wrinkle. For example, my Swashbuckler is a very good people person, but he tends to get asked to do the stereotypical sneaky things by his party because of his class, except he doesn't really have the awareness and attention-span for it once he's done the much more fun breaking-and-entering!
I started a new rogue recently so I can already tell this vid's going to be a godsend. He's a swashbuckler, probably going to multiclass fighter, and I'm trying to break the edgy lone wolf assassin trope this time around. I want him to be more of a duelist that just knows how to fight dirty rather than tactically.
A treasure hunter was what I went with to flavor a Thief character in Tomb of Annihilation! Kato was a Variant Human with Dungeon Delver and between those two things was very effective in that environment 😊
This was great! You guys should do a short video on how to handle some of the more obscure mechanics. Illusions can be either extremely powerful or totally lame depending on the DM. Other spells like scry, plane shift, wish. Would be really cool to hear you guys discuss how you handle those.
Strength based scout...
-Navy seal of the middle ages
Boom
101K woot!
I will say one thing about the swashbuckler since I play one regularly. It doesn't have be played a lot differently from you typical assassin or thief and you can stick with many of the same sneaky expertises. The stunt aspect of being a swashbuckler isn't really touched upon until lvl 14 so you aren't punished for completely forgoing proficiency in athletics/acrobatic. I have a drow with a past as a thief, but before I even knew of the swashbuckler, I knew I wanted my drow to be somewhat charismatic and deceptive or else nobody would vouch for him and he would be a lone target for any group of commoners to pick on if not chase with pitchforks.
If you like roleplaying conversation and you like combat, like I do, that's when I will personally recommend the swashbuckler, but it certainly also lends itself to the obvious archetype of am audacious, daredevil fighter.
A whole video on flaws would be awesome, you guys have some great ideas
No mention of Moriarty regarding Adversaries even after bringing up Sherlock Holmes as an Inquisitive Rogue?
SavageGreywolf you mean the guy that was in something like 2 Sherlock Holmes stories?
Yonatan Beer
_name one other Sherlock homes villain._
But how can you talk about Inquisitive Rouges without talking about Batman?
I've always thought of Batman as a Black Dragonborn, Shadow Monk
i will yell about The Lies of Locke Lamora /The Gentleman Bastards cycle on every rogue vid you make until you read it!
nazgulpenguin +1000000 for The Gentleman Bastards series. Lies of Locke Lamora, as the first, is the best thus far but they're all fantastic.
I was surprised and overjoyed a while back to find out I've been chatting fantasy with Scott Lynch on /tg/ for years, he's great.
Honestly, I think that Swashbuckler is the most fun rogue archetype to play. I'm currently playing as a half-elf swashbuckler who joined the circus as an acrobat because his race made him feel like an outcast, and then joined a crime family as a deal-maker because he was both quite charismatic an could make a quick kill if needed. Now he's left his life of crime to go adventuring and turn his name into one of legends while dual wielding scimitars and doing flips and knife throws. If you're the type of player who likes shenanigans, play a swashbuckler. At the very least, your entrances will never cease to be awesome when the lowest you can get on an Acrobatics check is 23.
You know what video I would love to see? A video where you talk about your respective campaign settings. Not the 'official' ones, but your own personal ones.
I know Jim likes to run adventures in his own world, I'm not sure if Pruitt does, but if so, I would love to know more about it.
Perhaps make it a video about HOW to make your own campaign setting.
Just a thought.
This episode always makes me want to write. Like I need to come up with a good backstory for a Rogue... or just actually write a Rogue's entire story.
I see that the Rogue class can cause a lot of problems for some groups not because that it is a problem class but because problem players are often drawn to the Rogue.
I highly recommend Scott Lynch's books for inspiration on rogues. I've wanted to run a thieves guild campaign ever since reading The Lies of Locke Lamora.
I always have several authorities in my worlds, like the City guards, or The town Guard (bailiff is another good word here, someone meant to represent the local authority or power), the hired guards of noble houses or powerfull individuals. If its a large city then the criminal underworld is its own kind of authority to handle crime (you generally dont want people working outside your boundry as such an organization), the Wizards have their own force for handling Magical situations (Its always them that gets to handle it in the end anyway) and so on.
the simple reason for this is so that players have to think about their actions. Go Murder-Hobo without permission in a city and its gonna have reprocussions. Now the players needs to find other sollutions. Might end up as a Murder-Hobo situation, but with the Dukes permission, or the tension of not getting revealed as the criminals and so on.
Whatever adds tension and do not retract possible actions is in my mind a good thing.
If you do ever decide to steal from your party members; take this bit of advice.
Do *NOT* announce to the whole table that you're going to pick the wizards pocket to take his Scroll of Fireball. You don't have to make that move public. Pass a note to the DM. Tell him your intention is to, *secretly,* pickpocket the scroll; and wait for him to work in your die roll discreetly.
Will the party figure it out? As long as you don't fail any of your rolls....idk...how smart are you and your friends? Did you steal your scroll then use it the next day, while standing next to the mage? Was the stolen item used regularly by the player?
Also, any class is capable of stealing an item if their friend is fast asleep. Just remember to pass a note to the DM; don't broadcast your motives to the group.
You can set the Note Passing precedent early on with lists of gear, background tidbits you forgot to include at character creation, shopping lists, etc. Don't pass your first note right before you pick your "friend's" pocket, lol.
Thieves are so much fun to RP.
I was thinking about a rogue in a magical-steampunk world where magic comes from crystals and people can control it trough certain devices, my guy basically doesn't know how to cast magic with these crystals but he can make a black powder mixture with them to improve his main gun, a fuel and accellerant for his small airship and just chuck them as grenades a la gambit, with these abilities (specially the last one) he works as a good pilot, sharpshooter and mage counter when he goes to melee range.
The great thing about rogues is that they're very flexible as they're basically your common light armored or unarmored regular guys, drifters, mercenaries, pirates and salvagers but also street performers, scam artists, merchants and thieves, just as long as you give character to your guy and keep to the "normal guy gone rogue" character you can do a lot.
Sounds a lot like The Magic Thief books
Magic Thief? Never heard about it, what's it about?
Basically a sort of fictionalised Victorian Britain, not really steam punk but with that sort of technology, and with wizards that use 'Locus Magicalis' to do magic, basically just random jewels that draw the wizard to them like wands in Harry Potter. The main character is a thief who tries to steal a wizard's stone which should have killed him but didn't and so the wizard takes him on as an apprentice, but it turns out the thief's stone is a jewel from the Duchess's tiara etc etc. He later realises that he can use magic by creating explosions and basically makes alchemist's gunpowder for a while
greatmightypanda well that's interesting, I'll make sure to check it out.
I was thinking more in a scientific manner, though, where crystals are just object with no strange bonds with wizards and depending on the composition they can work either as batteries or casting tools, so you could see my rogue like some crazy guy that likes to make everyone's phone batteries blow up.
Casting Rogues from popular media (cuz it's fun)
Assassin - Jackal from the movie The Jackal
Arcane Trickster - John Constantine from Hellblazer comics
Swashbuckler - Westley from the movie The Princess Bride
Inquisitive - Sherlock Holmes from the movie mostly because of the combat descriptions
Mastermind - Moriaty portrayed by Eric Porter, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (just a preference)
Phantom - Shang Tsung from the Mortal Kombat games
Scout - Atreyu in the movie Neverending Story
Soulknife - Psylocke from the X-Men comics
Thief - All the characters in the movie Ocean's Eleven
As a new player this is pure gold. Thank you!
My DM just opened up Volo's to our party in his Curse of Strahd campaign. I decided to make a neutral urchin kenku rogue who expressly steals only to study magical artifacts and rarities to learn how to mimic their creation to further their skill as a craftsman and earn an honest way. They're not out to get anyone, but they're motivated to achieve a life of modest comfort for themselves and see their ability to recreate items as a way out of their desperate background even if it means they have to buy, beg, borrow or steal the means to do so.
For me the best Dnd 5.0 class I played few sessions as asassin sub class and also as mastermind and it was insane. Now i waiting for new barbarian role playing video. I love this series u r doing great job guys.
Remember that an arcane trickster's magical flavor doesn't have to be wizard based, maybe your particular rouge has extremely diluted dragon blood so they have a sorcerer favor to there magic, or maybe they pray to a god with the trickster domain making them a simi-cleric, maybe they're a warlock for a really shitty fiend like an imp or perhaps a baby great one yet to awaken from its cocoon. If you really wanted to dive into that flavor you could grab the magic initiate feat, or even muliclass if you really wanted to, although with just flavor you can make your rouge so much more unique.
One idea I have is for a High Elf Arcane Trickster, who was apprenticed to an elven ringsmith. The master ringsmith forged magic rings, which elves are known to do. Something happened, and the apprentice was forced to leave and become a thief. His apprenticeship involved enough magical knowledge to make him an Arcane Trickster, obviously.
And because of his background - a ringsmith's apprentice - his guilty pleasure is rings. He can't help but snatch rings where he can. This is not just because they're valuable in and of themselves, but because he appreciates the artistry and craft that goes into them. The fancier the ring, the more irresistible it is to him, because he wants to study it. So you have this character who will scours locations for jewelry boxes or discarded rings, or who will yank the rings off the fingers of his fallen enemies. He'll learn the Sleep spell, specifically so he can drop people and remove their finger jewelry.
Since he's got Guild Artisan as a Background, he's got proficiency in Smith's Tools. I imagine that his ultimate desire is to forge magic rings of his own. Stealing rings, ergo, is him studying the art and craft of ringsmithing, so his own works will be better.
I play a very Moriarty-type mastermind rogue (Based on his anime portrayal in Mortiarty the Patriot). Someone who targets corrupt nobles, finds those who were wronged by those nobles, and devises a way to kill his targets using the victims of his target and leaving little to no trace of the deed. Like having a servant serve grapefruit juice to a man who suffers from heart problems, then has the victim pseudo attack to scare the target and trigger the heart attack. And the grapefruit juice counteracts heart medication, causing death.
Regarding thieving from party members: I take the "better safe than sorry" stance. I don't allow players to steal from or combat other players, including using mechanics to force decisuons etc on another player. Even if you have an excellent group that gets along incredibly, it just takes one person having a bad day to ruin a game or a group.
My current character is a Tabaxi Inquisitive Rogue, with the Urban Bounty Hunter background. He uses the skills he learned in his previous criminal past to track down criminals and bring them to justice... for payment, of course.
I think a great example of how to have a non-criminal rogue is to look at the Series of Unfortunate Events books/show - VFD Agents are basically rogues, all of who,m take expertise in different things and who work as an organization of rogues to fight for the common good. I'm currently playing a halfling Mastermind Rogue called Yessica Jamjar who's based on Jacques Snicket, who is able to get involved in fights, but who is going to try his best to avoid them through good philosophy and clever wordplay. I think every member makes a great example for how to play a good rogue, who hunts criminals, looks after children, hold secrets and infiltrate enemy organizations whilst using skills and questionably-lawful methods which could easily be used by criminals to do their criminal things.
My rogue was a smuggler arcane trickster who specialized in illusions to keep things hidden, but he had a bad run in and became in debt to a dragon so when we started our campaign I entered the game under a false name trying to lay low in a small town. It became a bit of a challenge because as much as he wants to help and explore the mysterious problems happening in the town, he can’t really spread his name around. Also he was kind of paranoid like me so he always left tripwires and alarms around his house lol.
I have always thought the thug to be interesting, 1/2 Orc fighter/rogue multiclass (probably more focus on fighter) and the deep delver (dungeon crawler specialist) Dwarven fighter/rogue multiclass (probably more focused on rogue)
Your talk of a beggar king with his subordinates funnelling money gave me a neat idea. Basically, the beggars are all living underground, tied in the the MUST HAVE undermarkets and whatnot from any self respecting city location. They even grow food there, although some of those mushrooms are a bit magical. I'm the day, the go out and beg, and the money all goes to the beggar king, because the 'beggars' live a different lifestyle and have no need of the money, for now.
The Beggar King takes this change from a thousand beggars, hoards it and uses it to achieve great things. Controlling politics, engineering favourable circumstances, improving the lives of his people. Basically, they're some weird hippie magic mushroom eating underground commune empire.
Not practical and arguably not very cool, but interesting.
40 minutes!!! Thanks for all the content guys keep it up
I'm running with a character concept which sees a Goblin Rogue (Scout) whose background is Hermit multiclasses into Circle of Shepherd Druid. Gronk (the goblin) has a guilt pleasure for large gems, and one day he spies a rare emerald lying by the wayside caked in mud, no sooner has he returned to his hut, a menacing Elf (Rogue - Criminal (Fence) bursts in and demands 'his' emerald back. Right when Gronk is about to lose his life, he is saved by a mysterious Druid...
Considering a further multiclass into Path of the Totem Warrior in later levels
Throw out mention of Nathan Drake and Sully for mentorship inspiration.