HOW TO PLAY ROGUE (again)

so you're gonna play rogue huh the sneaky stinky big damage class that shoots everything within a 600 foot range while continuing to be the most elusive and mysterious member of the party because you don't have a sugar daddy you can just start spilling lore about yeah no i've just always been a big fan of murder probably because my parents were kids whether you're slinging can trips teleporting climbing walls or just straight up not having a good time why did i pick scout you can always find some sort of easy down-to-earth d d fun by doing damage and staying in the shadows here's how to play rogue [Music] rogues are a notoriously very straightforward class as a level one rogue you only need to manage two things the fundamentals of combat and how exactly you get to do extra damage with a sneak attack and the fact that you're playing a rogue sneak attack isn't that difficult to manage basically once per turn you get to deal an extra 1d6 damage what kind of damage is it i i don't know sneak damage you get to deal 1d6 extra damage on one attack once per turn so long as you meet these prerequisites okay i swear it's easy to manage look so long as you have advantage on your attack roll meaning you roll 2d20s and take the higher results you get sneak attack what if i have disadvantage then you no longer have sneak attack even if you're getting multiple sources of advantage a single disadvantage cancels everything out even by the book rules if a disadvantage cancels out an advantage you are considered to have neither not only do i have advantage on my attack role because he's prone but also i snuck over so he has no idea i'll give you two strikes through strike there's no way he's not dead are you dead no dude you have disadvantage you use the ranged weapon within five feet of me after all of that yes after all of that well i'll just move five feet away uh opportunity oh also you get sneak attack if another enemy of the target is within five feet of them it's like you're lining up your attack on somebody who's not particularly paying attention to you so you can strike the killing [Music] how blow i not see this coming [Music] also at level one you get expertise and thieves can't jacob you just hyperbolically stated that i only need to manage sneak attack and playing a rogue what are you doing to me look expertise is just a passive ability you get to choose any two of your proficient skills who am i kidding nobody uses paper character sheets anymore and add double your proficiency bonus and sure you could definitely add that sweet sweet plus two bonus into your sneak or thieves tools but what about a rogue that has a really good deception maybe acrobatics maybe they're like a diplomatic spy and persuasion is their expertise and you like having a good persuasion is something you need in dnd yeah just throw that expertise into sneak thief tools and feel good about rolling 25s at level 1 while your party acts like it's the most overpowered thing while their characters can literally shoot fire to their hands and heal cancer in six seconds ooh look at you opening locked doors thieves can't you learn a super secret language that allows you to speak in symbols code and euphemisms to other rogues now anybody can take the linguist feet and be like hey dm can i learn thieves can't and for the most part dms are going to be like sure everyone's got their own interpretation of thieves can't but personally for me it's less about knowing a language and more being in the know it's like being 25 years old and opening tick-tock and seeing people respond to you like bra l take ratio plus no maidens and you realize you're old now but maybe you're feverishly addicted to tick tock and you're cursed with knowledge because you're in the know that's how i see thieves can't rogues and other roguish types are constantly changing and adapting this code so only those within the circles know when it changes or what it means as a rogue you have the special ability to not be a boomer about the most recent rogue memes so what the dog doing our table is it broken level two cutting action rogues are constantly moving they are quick slippery and clever unless you've got like a six in your intelligence and wisdom then it's probably just luck you can use your bonus action to dash wow look at me i can move a little faster than everyone else disengage or hide where the hell did he go also if you're using tosh's cauldron of everything which you should because it's awesome you can use steady aim at level three which uses really weird gaming text to basically say if you don't move for the turn you can use your bonus action to get advantage on your attack roll oh so i can do this now and get snake attack no no dude you still have disadvantage what you're still within five feet of me bonus action steady aim advantage i can get sneak attack now why not because you have disadvantage why what what it cancels them all out all of them what disadvantage am i getting you're within five feet of me oh so i can just go over here then okay no i'll use my bonus action to disengage the steady game makes movement zero and it's your bonus action i'm gonna kill you in the head in front of everyone live on television hang on wait at level three sneak attack is 2d6 and you get your roguish archetype now what kind of rogue are what you of rogue are you what type of things do you do the profession you pursue something old or something new what kind of rogue are you what type of things do you do the profession you pursue something old or something new [Music] what kind of rogue are you the assassins got crits on their first turn and arcane trickster's got spells they can learn with a knack for investigation gathering more information inquisitive's the characterization [Music] the soul knife can break your brain with psychic blades they'll cause some pain swashbuckler's real fun use charisma and gun sneak attack when you're just one on one [Music] the phantom talks to ghosts those they slay become their host thief climbs and steals your purse good with traps and real diverse scouts the same but arguably worse mastermind is the spy among us with their abilities they are quiet i'm not i'm not doing this this is stupid i'm i'm not gonna mastermind is a spy grant advantage in life manipulation misdirection you can't hit this guy [Music] inspection deception or possession what kind of rogue are you no i won't apologize for what i said about the scout it sucks fourth level ability score improvement take a plus two or two plus ones or a feet at fifth level sneak attack is now 3d6 proficiency bonuses plus three make sure to update your expertise skills and you get uncanny dodge this is a good level with uncanny dodge you can use your reaction to half the damage from an attack whoa this ability doesn't recharge so long as you have your reaction you can uncanny dodge this is a great defensive maneuver to keep you from dying but remember it specifies attack rules this ability won't work against anything that you have to make a saving throw for like a dragon's breath weapon fireball falling off a cliff that would be really funny though jacob you fall 3727 feet and take um 252. okay okay okay what if i used i saw my reaction could i use my uncanny dodge to have the damage all right i don't think that's how that works in the middle of the year can the earth make an attack rule against my body as it slams into the ground i can break a reaction save myself from the fall it's a saving throw you fail the saving throw you're gonna take the damage am i moving towards the earth or is the earth moving quickly towards i think now i know how gravity works that gravity is an effect upon my body and from my perspective it looks like the earth is coming towards me and you found it can i shift my perspective to see grass flying towards my body and dodge no sixth level you get two more skills to have expertise in and that's the thing about rogues you know maybe we don't have crazy magical abilities super powers or any of that kind of stuff but we have our skills and you know that's unique to us seventh level sneak attack is now 46 and you get evasion now you've learned how to dodge out of fireballs and dragon breath not cliffs though uh cross class and a monk if you want that one evasion lets you take zero freaking damage when you succeed a saving throw from a harmful effect so long as it's a dexterity save i only wish with this ability that you could also move outside the area of effect as if you literally dodged out of it because like fireball's a huge range this ability should be renamed to protective cloak because that's kind of what it feels like eighth level ability score improvement if you're not taking a plus two into your dexterity maybe you could add a little bit of flavor by adding some bonus to intelligence increase your investigation checks but here are some feats that i think would be nice to take at eighth level for rogues ninth level sneak attack is 5d6 proficiency bonus is plus four that means expertise is now plus eight holy g's and you get a feature from your subclass i'm not going into all of them tenth level ability score improve here's a bunch of other feats that i think are really cool that you could take as a rogue eleventh level reliable talent now that you've got a whopping plus 13 to stealth whenever you roll an ability check with a skill you're proficient in and you get below nine you can make it a 10 meaning you'll always be getting at least 23 to stealth or uh 22 if you're one of those cool people that maximized flavor for your character and didn't try to get a dexterity to 20 as fast as possible okay to be honest as overpowered as this ability sounds on paper it really isn't from my experience of like a bajillion d d games by the time an adventuring party is level 11 they're fighting insane monsters challenging an 11th level party is so difficult because it's so hit or miss most of the time they can whoop some butt and when they've got a rogue who in comparison to all the other characters is sitting in the corner rolling stealth checks and doing sneak attacks it's not nearly as annoying when they aren't failing as often as normal you're going to be sitting at the table with the 30 snakes the druids spawned the rulings on greater invisibility plus steel wind strike and the sheer amount of dice that the paladin is rolling every turn for those smites and the rogue is like i use my bonus action to hide so that i can use my only ability in this game that lets me do damage and it would just be really annoying if it was like oops i rolled it too guess i won't get advantage because at this power level all the monsters have a 20 passive perception guess i'll aim for the millionth time why make the game worse for the rogue when their entire characterization is specialization they're professionals they do a job and they do it well so why am i saying all of this well it's because i know that a lot of people like to homebrew this ability to be exempt from natural ones which just slightly removes the ability for the rogue character to have any sort of fun flavorful moment or just to stun them for their entire turn because they can't do the thing that they built into look it's just cool i like this ability i think it's fine oh also sneak attack 66 12th level ability score improvement rogues get a lot of these because while also specializing in one type of job they also can be versatile 13th level sneak attack 76 proficiency bonus plus five your stealth rolls are always a 25. unless you got the manual of quickness of action then it's a 26 and again an archetype feature 14th level blind sense you become matt murdock tough and duel dolores the things from a quiet place saitama superman jamie summers spider-man spider-monkey the monkeys from securo clickers and morbid so long as you can hear you can sense the location of creatures within 10 feet of you though i think it would be cool if you were playing a deaf character maybe you felt their vibrations or even magically sense their location that way you could be inclusive 15th level sneak attack is 86 and your brain gets oiled up with slippery mind you gain proficiency and wisdom saving throws which is just a little more added flavor for the rogue to be elusive and not get charmed 16th level 17th level proficiency bonuses plus seven which means with reliable talent and a 20 decks you consistently roll above 30 with the worst you could roll being a 29. yeah this is when the scout could get two sneak attacks like this is when they decide you could be cool with that subclass when you're rolling 30s and stealth mastermind can't have their mind read and assassin can deal like an average of 80 damage and you get a worse extra attack 18th level elusive so long as your motor functions are functioning nobody can get advantage on attack rules against you i love this because combined with blind sense rogues are the best anti-rogues like they study and train and perfect their abilities so well they go backwards and learn how to fight themselves 19th level 10d6 sneak attack and an ability score improvement at this point if you have a plus 3 rapier and a 20 dex your attacks are dealing an average of 42 damage your crits are an average of 82. for those of you like eh that's not that much may i remind you that the rogue doesn't have a limit they can do this endlessly every turn fun fact you can even use sneak attack on reactions since the ruling says once per turn reactions are outside of your turn absolutely relentless 20th level this is it the culmination your training is complete at 20th level you have the uncanny knack for succeeding when you need to once per rest if your attack misses a target within range you can turn that miss into a hit alternatively if you fail an ability check you can treat the roll as a 20. okay personally i don't love playing d d games above like 12th level but that's just my preference i enjoy the challenge and not relying on my character's insane abilities i like playing a game where i get to think about my actions and not scroll through a character sheet about the next deus ex machina i have in my pocket but hey i think the 20th level ability of this class is awesome i also think that this class is designed super well the abilities are fun you get to feel powerful while still having some versatility in a really grounded way and even though rogues have magic and psionics i still think that they're one of the most down-to-earth d d classes you can of course play a multitude of races in d d but rogues to me feel the most human that pure ambition manifesting as reliable skill is so interesting to me i've also never had a player play a rogue and not feel awesome have fun playing rogue and to all the dms out there i hope i put into perspective the role of this class in your game challenge your rogues to be stealthy and to use alternative ways in order to fight instead of just trying to cancel out their sneak attack constantly that's no fun thanks for watching this dumb video have fun in your adventures what kind of rogue are you no i won't apologize for what i said about the scout it sucks seriously you could just take the mobile feet you get extra proficiency and skills and extra speed the 13th level ability should be level three i mean sure at 17 level you get to use your sneak attack twice in a turn but your 17th level at that point so while your companions are summoning gods of becoming immortal you just get to do a little bit more damage [Music] also most of the pre-writtens don't even go above 15th level i have no idea why you would choose this subclass it's not even that flavorful like the ideas that you scout ahead and that's breaking rule number one don't split the party they really made a rogue subclass that is only good for when you're far away from your party [Music] you could make it so much better buy you give it advantage on initiatives [Music] don't make me laugh [Music] [Music] you're in disguise [Music] what type of things do you do can the scout [Music] the profession you pursue something old or something [Music] what type new things do you do what kind of rogue are you

Channel: XP to Level 3

Views: 664,906

Keywords: dnd, d&d, dungeons and dragons, how to, tutorial, funny, monk, fighter, 5e, player, book, dm, dungeon master, roll, ranger, rogue, paladin, cleric, barbarian, bard, wizard, sorcerer, warlock, artificer, mystic, skits, idea, character, stats, build, new, tips, gm

Id: vm0Lsuj4uG4

Length: 19min 33sec (1173 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 12 2022