Who Shouldn't Play As a Rogue

You find yourself creeping through a dark hallway. You’ve left your companions outside so you could come in and do the dirty work. Your friends always let you take care of the “unsavory” elements of your work. You’re ok with that. You’ve been ok with that all your life.

You creep through the dark hallway. You stop. You slink into the shadow of a large pillar. You see a guard walk-by. He continues on his way. You let him pass and then continue. Finally you find the door.

You open it up slowly and slink in. You’ve been creeping around for most of your life. Sneaking into forbidden places always seemed too easy for you. You approach the bed to finish the job.

You then notice something wrong. The body on the bed lay lifeless. It’s then that you notice the green spittal leaking out of the man’s mouth. Dead. That’s a problem. Who killed him?

That’s when you hear the guards shouting. “Intruder! Intruder! The King’s been murdered!”

The king? You came to murder the king’s adviser. The king was also murdered?

That’s when you realize, you need to get out of there, fast.

So what would you like to do?

Welcome back to the 19th episode of How to Be a Better DM. As always, I’m your host, Justin Lewis, and I’m here to help you create better stories as you and your friends play D&D 5e.

As a DM, the hardest part of getting a campaign going is finding a group of people that have time and are willing to play on a reasonably periodic schedule. After that, there’s another challenge that isn’t talked about enough: guiding your players to choosing the right character.

Not every player will like every class. It’s a simple fact. So your job as a DM is to help them find the right choice for themselves. So let’s talk about who shouldn’t choose to play a rogue.

If you want to play Lawful Good

Now I’m not saying that you can’t be a lawful good rogue. What I am saying is that most rogues aren’t. Add to that the fact that most skills that a rogue gets are of the underhanded and secretive nature. Generally, a rogue fits naturally into the chaotic alignment (good, neutral, or evil) and avoids the lawful disposition. I suppose that could make for a very interesting story, but generally for newbies, if they generally try to follow all the rules and laws, then a rogue might not be the best choice.

If you Love Armor.

Rogues don’t generally get heavy armor. I suppose you could use the feats to allow yourself to be fully armored, but unless you have some sort of magic ability to avoid having disadvantage on stealth rolls. Now I know armor is a somewhat small consideration but in case that’s a dealbreaker for you, you shouldn’t pick a rogue.

If You want to be the Star of Combat

The rogue either does a huge amount of damage in combat or a moderate amount or none. Rarely will you bear the brunt of the damage or deal the lion’s share of the damage. Instead, as a rogue you’ll enjoy darting in and out over and over again doing sneak attack damage when you can.

Casting Spells

If you want to cast all the spells, a rogue is not for you. There is a Roguish Archetype that allows you to cast certain spells, but that is limited compared to some of the other spellcasters. If you are excited mostly about the prospect of casting fireball or Wish, choose a different class.

If you don’t like sneaking

Generally, the rogue is the person the group turns to first when stealth is a necessity. If someone needs to sneak into somewhere, usually it’s the rogue. I’m not saying that’s how you have to play, but I am saying people will probably expect that of your character. Don’t like stealthing? Maybe choose a paladin or barbarian.

Well there are 5 guidelines that might help you steer your player away from a rogue character they won’t like that much and towards another character they’ll enjoy much more. But make sure, you let your players do what they want. They can be any character they like, and that’s one of the best things about D&D. Just be their guide and shepherd them to a fun character choice.

Thanks for listening to today’s episode. Next week, we’ll talk about who should play a rogue so come back next time. Don’t forget to follow the show and leave a rating and review. Just a heads up, I’m getting a Patreon ready with goodies and such, so get ready for that.

As always, thanks for listening. We’ll see you next week.

Until then, let’s roll initiative.

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