How do YOU play a rogue?

[wolfheart]

Reading through the how do you play a bard thread got me to thinking about a situation from a while back in my game. A player wanted to play a rogue, but the campaign was headed in the direction of paladins and clerics working for a church heirarchy. The player changed his mind and fell in line with the other players, which kind of disappointed me. Given this situation, how would you have built and played a rogue?

 

[Liquidsabre]

Oh yea, Divien Seeker (FR) for me man. That would have been cool: "apprehender of lost or stolen holy artifacts" here.

 

[ShaggySpellsword]

Oh yea, Divien Seeker (FR) for me man. That would have been cool: "apprehender of lost or stolen holy artifacts" here.

Exactly. It's the Indiana Jones archetype, but for religion rather than museum preservation. Relic Hunter.

Another way to go: Knight Templar: One of the big things they did was to raid rich Muslim strongholds and take that money and (often) use it to do Church work. Eventually they did so well they kept much of the money and that caused problems, but still...the idea works,

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

ANY party can always use a good old fashioned Charisma-focussed, smooth talking, egotistical, swashbuckling Rogue.

 

[Epametheus]

A rogue with a few fighter levels is a very simple way to make a ninja.

A rogue can easily be an affiliate with a church, though. Not any odder than a fighter or wizard having church ties..

Or he could've gone a completely different tack and been a dissenting voice in the party.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Oh yea, Divien Seeker (FR) for me man. That would have been cool: "apprehender of lost or stolen holy artifacts" here.

The new Divine Seeker from FRPG is better than the older one. Not much better, but better all the same.

In that game Wolfheart's talking about, if they'd had it at the time, a Rogue/Cleric/Skullclan Hunter might fit in. It's not especially religious, but it gives the rogue something to do when they fight undead.

My longest-running character was a tiefling rogue. His schtick was breaking and entering, followed closely by acrobatics. The DM didn't allow monks, so I used a combo of rogue and fighter to achieve what I was looking for. Eventually, he wound up as a Rog 13/Clr 1/Ftr 2/PsW 1/AST* 6, at 23rd level.

* Acolyte of the Silent Thunder, which I made as a response to the horror of Song & Silence's thief-acrobat. Think a more rogue-like Blade Dancer, without the weapon stuff or the increased speed, but more skills.

I played him as being amazingly paranoid, which partially came about because he's a rogue, and partially because he tended to die a lot, being a secondary fighter and being overly exposed. He also, as usual, was the party scout.

Two things to try and get...a ring of telekinesis, and a rod of metal and mineral detection. The ring's useful for setting off traps, opening chests, etc. The rod is useful for finding treasure; I used mine in archaeologist-like treasure hunts (when we were looti...er, exploring buried elven ruins).

Brad

 

[Len]

A player wanted to play a rogue, but the campaign was headed in the direction of paladins and clerics working for a church heirarchy.

Well, he'd probably have to bluff a prayer every once in a while...
(My character did that the other day. We've acquired an annoying NPC cleric who won't heal people unless they pray to a god.

Not necessarily his god, any one will do apparently.)

More generally, you don't need to reach too far to fit a rogue into a pious party. There's nothing wrong with a rogue who's a good guy; "rogue" doesn't mean "thief". Or, he could be the typical rogue who's in it for the l3wt, e.g. making a quiet side-deal with the king so that he at least gets paid for rescuing the princess from the dragon. If the party finds out, well, he gets the hairy eyeball from the paladin.

Hey, if there's no rogue in the party, then who gets on the paladin's nerves???

 

[FireLance]

Remember that a rogue doesn't have to be a thief. In a party of paladins and clerics, I would play a rogue as a detective, scout and investigator, with skill ranks in Gather Information, Sense Motive, Hide, Move Silently, Spot, Listen, Search and Disable Device.

 

[Angcuru]

Well, like it says in the PHB, a rogue can be a spy, diplomat, cat burglar, pickpocket, high-scale thief, assassin, and more, it just depends on how you play him and spread his skills out.

As for the thread topic, my response is : quitely...

 

[Tulon]

Well, I like the idea of a Relic Hunter. Would be a rogue and still fit perfectly into the group, and even would be quite accepted since he'd be the man when it comes to gathering information or get the hands on rare items needed by the party.
It still would come to internal discussions about how he/she does it, but hey, that just comes with any rogue.

Hey, if there's no rogue in the party, then who gets on the paladin's nerves???

Exactly!