Rogues Get Some Respect

GamerGod is running an article taking a look at the role of the Rogue in Dungeons and Dragons Online. In their estimation, the Rogue class finally gets to do its thing in an online game. From the article: "What rogue would be worth his salt if he didn't have any traps to disarm or locks to open? What truly sets D&DO apart from the competition is the need to find and disarm various traps, snares, and pitfalls. Again, the game's set-up and design makes this an invaluable part of game play. No regeneration of spell points results in limited heals, and no regeneration of hit points makes getting blasted with a trap actually MEAN something." Been playing the preorder Beta this weekend, and it does a surprisingly good job of recreating the PnP experience. Review upon release.

Comments

Re:Thoughts on necessity of rogues in a group.

[BlueHands]

The feature you implement in PnP is a common one and has always seemed like the wrong answer to me.

The party should be able to realize when the challenge before them is the wrong one for the current group. When the world adjusts for the player you lose many valuable artifacts to enhancing realism - consistency, consequences and the thrill of the unknown.

Re:Thoughts on necessity of rogues in a group.

[miyako]

The #1 rule of being a DM is "Make the game fun".
If the game is not fun, then you have no players to play in your consistant, consequence filled, realistic world. A lot of it comes down to how good of a DM you are. An excellent DM can probably create a quest beforehand that needs very little modification for the players, and a poor DM will refuse to change the quest no matter what. Most DMs fall inbetween however- and admit that they are not perfect and cannot forsee how the players will play- and they therefore admit that at times minor things must be changed to keep the overall game going.
In the grand scheme of things, replacing a trap on a door with a spell that can be broken by the groups cleric because the rogue died in a freak accident earlier on in the game to keep the group going can make things much better for the player and the DM.