Rogue

Stealthy and dexterous, the rogue strikes from the shadows with deadly precision.

The rogue, formerly known as the thief, is one of the standard playable character classes in most editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. A rogue is a versatile character, capable of sneaky combat and nimble tricks. The rogue is stealthy and dexterous, and in early editions was the only official base class from the Player's Handbook capable of finding and disarming traps and picking locks. The rogue is also able to use a "sneak attack" ("backstab" in previous editions) against enemies who are caught off-guard or taken by surprise, inflicting extra damage.

Quick Facts

Source

Greyhawk (Original)
Basic Set (Basic)
Player's Handbook (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th)

First

Supplement I - Greyhawk

Lore & Background

The abilities of the thief class were drawn from various archetypes from history and myth, but clear debts from modern fantasy literature can be traced to characters such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Bilbo Baggins, Fritz Leiber's The Gray Mouser, and Jack Vance's Cugel the Clever. In his article "Jack Vance and the D&D Game", Gary Gygax stresses the influence that Vance's Cugel and also Zelazny's Shadowjack had on the thief class. D&D fan Gary Switzer shared the idea for a thief class with Gary Gygax over the phone; development was done in Switzer's roleplaying group, primarily by D. Daniel Wagner, one of the writers of The Manual of Aurania, the first non-TSR D&D supplement.

The thief was first published in the Game Players Newsletter #9 (June 1974). The thief class was then included in the original 1975 Greyhawk supplement. They had 4-sided hit dice under the new combat system introduced in that supplement.

Reader's Guide

In 2nd edition the term "Rogue" first appeared, used to describe the group of classes made up of those individuals "living by their wits day to day-often at the expense of others." In the core rules, these "rogue" classes were the thief and the bard. Thieves could be of any alignment other than lawful good while bards had to be at least partially neutral. The thief was the robber, the thug, or the "expert treasure hunter".

They specialized in the acquisition of goods, stealth, and disarming traps. Unlike in 1st edition, 2nd edition allows thieves to specialize in skills so that they needed only a few levels to master two skills. The thief became known as the rogue in 3rd edition. Spies, scouts, detectives, pirates, and sundry ne'er-do-wells, as well as thieves and just about any other character who relies on stealth or a broad range of skills, are stated to fall under the rogue class.

The rogue class is given 8 skill points per level, higher than any other character class. The rogue has the ability to deliver a sneak attack whenever an opponent loses its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (i.e., when the opponent is flat-footed or flanked or cannot see the rogue). The Iconic rogue is Lidda, a halfling female. Fourth edition Rogues are skirmishers, focused on getting to where the enemy does not want them and hurting them by applying extra "sneak attack" damage to enemies that grant combat advantage to them.

The Rogue was introduced in the fourth edition Player's Handbook, and initially came in two types; Artful Dodgers and Brutal Scoundrels. The Thief was added in Heroes of the Fallen Lands and uses a very different approach to roguish skirmishing. The rogue is included as one of the standard character classes in the 5th edition Player's Handbook. The Rogue's focal point in 5th edition is its aptitude for skill checks.

It gains proficiency in more skills than any other class. Its core features include sneak attack, which rewards a player for gaining advantage on an attack roll. Players may choose from three different Roguish Archetypes at third level: Thief, Assassin, and Arcane Trickster. Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide (2015) added Mastermind and Swashbuckler to the list of Rogue archetypes.