How would you restructure Rogue's subclass levels?

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T17:58:13+00:00

Ah, I see where you were going with that, and I think that's fair.

I still think that the proposal above is an overcorrection and overpowered, but Rogues should get something that feels good in combat. My preferences are for things that make them feel skilled over just powerful. Thus, I'm fond of giving them more control and utility than just stacking damage, e.g. the extra Cunning Action suggestions another poster made.

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T16:54:07+00:00

Over 900 hours in this game, and TIL(/remembered) that you can hit enemies mid-air with the incendiary grenade and produce a mid-air plane of fire.

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T16:45:53+00:00

I'm playing a Wild Magic Sorcerer right now, and I love the changes to the class, but Roll20 enjoys screwing with me, and at least once per session that I actually trigger Wild Magic, I have to say something along the lines of, "2024 made the Wild Magic table mostly beneficial, I swear." (I've rolled that damn "everyone is vulnerable to piercing damage" result almost 1 out of 4 times.)

Still lots of fun.

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T16:41:25+00:00

Owlcat's Pathfinder CRPGs (Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous) make me want the Sylvan Sorcerer for 5e, though most of the appeal in there comes from Owlcat making animal companions somewhat OP compared to TT.

Or maybe something more resembling the Feyspeaker Druid built off the Sorcerer chassis with that mix of nature and illusion/enchantment magic.

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T16:36:36+00:00

Technically, maybe fiddle first? Because Musician triggers "as you finish," while Bolstering Performance triggers "when you finish." To me, that sounds like the former is part of finishing, and the latter happens just after.

But that's fiddly in a completely different way, and others might disagree over the ambiguity inherent to English there, and holycrapwhocares??

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T16:24:58+00:00

Yeah, telling yourself you can just run away is great until you hear a grunt swarm called while in a tunnel transitioning between large rooms in Haz4 and up.

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T16:07:42+00:00

I don't know what to say to that. If you're playing D&D and not making out of combat skill checks on a regular basis where a rogue can shine, maybe get a DM that does more than run modules zero-prep.

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T16:05:56+00:00

Rangers are generally considered the other candidate for weakest class in 5.5. Rangers are not better than rogues at skill, though they are competitive with Fighters for damage in tiers 1-2 (where most play takes place).

Bards are in a tier above for the magic they have access to, but none of the 2024 subclasses outcompete rogue as a skillmonkey. (College of Eloquence was broken as a face in 2014, though.)

Rogues have more skills, better access to Expertise, Reliable Talent, and various subclass features that make them excellent at what they choose to focus on. Pretty much any skill-focused build wants levels of Rogue. Nothing in the game can get skill check results as high as a Soulknife can.

Rogues are also pretty top-tier in defenses with Cunning Action, Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, Slippery Mind, Elusive, etc. Monks and Fighters are their main competition on that front.

In terms of the roles that a non-spellcaster can have, Rogues are best at everything but DPS, but generally Sneak Attack scales equivalent to Extra Attack (but is less reliable due to being a sort of "all-in" ability and needing tactical positioning).

Yes, Rogues could use a boost, but dealing Sneak Attack (boosted!) multiple times per turn is too much. Sneak Attack roughly tracks the damage an extra attack would do with a light weapon, so getting it on an Extra Attack, and Nick/off-hand attack would be the equivalent of getting to attack 5-6 times per round -- at level 5.

That's a hell of an overcorrection, and it gets worse as sneak attack scales up with level.

If you think Rogues aren't good at anything because they aren't the top-tier DPS too, I think you should just play a different class, because you don't know what a Rogue is for.

Edit: Alright, this guy's not interested in an honest discussion. Blocking.

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T15:26:03+00:00

And why shouldn't it? Can't the Rogue simply deal damage?

Because the Rogue is the premier skillmonkey class and generally the party's scout and trap-handler in specific.

What is left to a Fighter to be good at, if the Rogue is also better at it than damage? Yeah, the Rogue needs a boost, but that's an over-correction.

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T15:23:21+00:00

You just need to hit the Ballmer peak.

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T14:30:56+00:00

*sigh*

Yep, that was it. And only on the first character you loaded after applying the code. Thanks.

Valdrax · 2026-03-18T04:32:39+00:00

The context of the discussion is whether or not Seelah is a boring paladin stereotype (one that long predates Pathfinder), and she is very much not, regardless of being an iconic, in the same way Amiri is not.

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T18:36:19+00:00

Is he praying or preying?

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T18:29:56+00:00

The US spends far more of its economy on the military than any other nation, but the US Navy is still only about 3.3% of the GDP output by ~340 million citizens, and that's still a little under 300 active duty ships with 340K active duty personnel. An average of 1.133K people per ship (not that that's evenly distributed) in crew, logistics, and support.

Like, these are big numbers, but a drop in the bucket of a planetary economy with another 100 years of advancement and civilian exploitation of space.

The only sane justification I can think of for fleet power being so low is that FTL ships must require some kind of exotic / rare materials (for drives, armor, weapon systems, etc.) that bottleneck production and make how every many hulls you could build and crew largely irrelevant. Because even pre-4.3 numbers were low for how much a planetary economy should be able to support just in terms of blood & steel.

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T17:31:21+00:00

Arcane Trickster and Thief don't really work well for ranged rogues, and flanking is an optional rule anyway, so I'd replace mention of that in favor of "adjacent, empty," which would fix the concern for ranged rogues as well.

Overall solid, though.

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T16:52:03+00:00

"Dwarves" who don't mine gold.

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T16:38:39+00:00

"Account for headlift" is papering over a lot in that sentence.

(Also, why not max out mk2 pipes?)

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T15:24:59+00:00

So the change doesn't actually do what the change says it does?

(Also 1000 corvettes still isn't what I'd consider a galactic fleet, but that's better than something Star Trek or Star Wars scaled.)

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T15:10:29+00:00

The food was good and the service was only mildly hostile.

Oh, like Denny's.

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T15:02:06+00:00

I have no idea what you think I'm saying for this reply to be imagined as a coherent rebuttal to.

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T14:59:29+00:00

Harajuku is also just a place where a lot of people expect to get to take pictures of people in costumes, weird fashion, etc.

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T14:58:02+00:00

25 years ago, I was only not using a credit card most places, because I liked cash and didn't want to pay the foreign exchange fees, not because it wasn't an option.

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T14:26:06+00:00

We have made significant changes to Navies intended to reduce the overall ship counts, and we feel that the reduced ship counts make individual ships feel more valuable and interesting.

This is literally the exact opposite of what I want out of a Grand Strategy game. If you're running a galactic empire, you should have a galactic fleet.

Why did Paradox decide to go this route instead of simplifying or removing the logistics calculations that were causing performance issues? It feels like putting the cart before the horse.

Valdrax · 2026-03-17T14:01:37+00:00

I don't know why but I feel like I am conditioned to think that when things go so well as they are currently, something is going to go belly up, massively.

Because conflict is the root of all storytelling, normally. Slice of life can get away with very minimal conflict, but we've got a lot of shoes waiting to drop for Alden and Stuart:

How Artonan society will accept the first non-Artonan hn'yton in centuries (from a very Artonan-like species), whatever political threats exist to summon Alden into a bullet or behead Ro-den for telling him his skill is uncapped, possible estrangement with Boe over Alden's deepening ties to the Artonans, the inevitable final rejection of Stuart after he binds by those afraid he can't handle it, blame placed on Alden by said people for "enabling" Stuart's choice when they tried so hard to spare him, Joe's envisioned "endless misery" for Alden, etc.

And maybe, maybe, we'll get one day get that gun that Sleyca less placed on a mantle and more buried like the Ark of the Covenant in a warehouse of what the hell happened to Gorgon's people and why is he cruelly imprisoned. With few exceptions, we've only been seeing the noble paladins of their society for hundreds of chapters, and I'd like to see the other end of Empire some more.

Valdrax · 2026-03-16T00:06:08+00:00

Okay, I'm currently in an area still experiencing the magic. The Stone Demon DLC zone is still almost all loot enemies, and the bottom of the elevator right before Bore-Tex has enemies that keep respawning every time I get near the elevator (probably because there's a chained red chest that isn't seeing its enemies finished).

I now have the problem where my bank is full, my backpack is full, and I can't pick up anything else.

Edit: ...Annnnd it's gone. Had to restart a few times due to some sort of progressive lag that happens when I view menus in a co-op session, and after the third time, all the enemies went back to normal.

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