Dungeons & Delvers Deep Dive Review: Rogues

This time Bruce not only tackles the rogue, but also peeks into the equipment chapter. This just leaves us with the sorcerer and warlock, assuming he's not going to revisit the wizard.

Some answers and commentary (you'll need to watch the review for full context): 

The rogue is a supporting class, not suited at all for solo frontline combat. The basic strategy has been to wait for the fighter or other warrior-type to Engage the enemy, then slip in afterwards to not only benefit from the Ganging Up bonus, but Sneak Attack.

If this is an issue, there are a couple Talents that let you Sneak Attack anyway, or provide some other benefit. There's also the Elusive tree, if you're having trouble staying on your feet, and the Deadeye tree if you want to keep your distance.

Rogue's another class where you can buy into Multiattack, albeit at a much slower rate than the warrior classes. We didn't want to make it automatic, in case you didn't want it for some reason. I can't see why you wouldn't, but then we've had players swap out Damage Bonuses for Talents.

For Skill Mastery, currently the maximum proficiency bonus you can have in a skill is +5 (not counting other bonuses, such as from race and items). So, basically, the rogue has to max a skill out, first. Not difficult given all the Bonus Skill points they rack up.

We wanted encumbrance to actually matter, but make it fairly easy to recall. So Strength +0 is 50 pounds, and it just goes up or down by 10 points for each plus or minus you have respectively. Lightly Encumbered is twice your Unencumbered amount, and Heavily Encumbered is three times.

Not sure how realistic it is, but it seems way better than 5th Edition, where a character with a Strength of 10 can carry 150 pounds of crap without any penalties whatsoever. It's also easier to remember than 3rd Edition, where a Strength 10 character could carry only 33 pounds without a problem, and each increase let you add on anywhere from 5-14 pounds.

For armor maintenance, the idea is that you have a repair kit and x sp or gp worth of materials on hand (ie, 20 sp of medium armor materials, or 15 gp of heavy). Then you just roll, reduce the materials, and you're done. I could see a GM modifying or even ignoring this, but I think it adds something to the game: you don't just note the armor down and forget about it.

It also makes Talents and Miracles from the cleric's Forge Domain more useful: Working Hands lets a cleric get by without needing tools, and Repair makes the process instantaneous. Of course, the Forge Domain also grants access to Wall of Stone and Wall of Iron, as well as a few Miracles that can enhance your potions and other gear.

Bruce showed a bit of the monk implements section. This is something we came up with to give monks something to spend money on, as without a need for armor or weapons, they don't want for much. We did something similar with wizards and arcane focuses, but for some reason didn't write up a section for sorcerer items. Ah, well, can always put that in the 2nd/Revised Edition.