Do you think Rogue is good as is? Is it underpowered or not flexible enough? What issues do you have with it?

Why are there so many Rogue posts on the DND subreddits these last 24 hours?

Rogue just needs a tad more damage at 5th and 11th and it's fine really.

True Strike brings it on curve perfectly.

It's perfectly good at what it does even if what is does isn't great compared to others. I still like to go Rogue.

They don’t really need anything. A subclass feature at level 6 would make them way more satisfying to play tho

This I do agree with the 3rd to 9th wait is horrendous

Rogue is fine. People on this sub tend to judge the usefulness of classes based on perceived damage output in optimal whiteboard scenarios and the Rogue isn't optimal. I'd be hard pressed to say the Rogue is actually lacking anything meaningful other than it's 2nd subclass feature coming online at level 9 which makes it fairly non-existent for most games.

Rogues are mostly fine. But I think they could afford to be better in two aspects imo. First is subclass progression, the gap from 3 to 9 is pretty damn big, and a lot of subclasses don't provide enough lvl 3 features to justify this gap and make different subs feel different during it. Second is lowish combat value, they have sneak attack which is very fun, but it doesn't really compare to other martials all too well, they have Cunning Strike, which is nice, but it sacrifices your already not so great damage for some not so great utility.

Personally, I would like Rogues to have their second set of subclass features moved to an earlier level (even if it meant delaying a feature like Reliable Talent a bit more) so that different subs would feel more distinct earlier, and Cunning Strikes to be a bigger focus of the class, making them utility martials in and out of combat. More options with more impact and maybe some way to conditionally trigger them without sacrificing the lowish damage you already have or maybe raising their damage slightly with some extra Sneak Attack dice at certain levels.

I pretty much agree with this, but I'll also add that Rogue deals satisfactory damage when it gets sneak attack (and even then it's missing a little that it gets via true strike), that it's not great to ditch some of that to cause save or suck effects and it's especially daunting to have a big roll that deals 40 damage... but your target had 5 HPs left

Then you get to crazily optimised builds that can reaction attack very often and I've seen them at play. Sure, things can go sideways, but if they don't they are close to double in power and I'm not a fan

On the utility side, reliable talent is objectively good, but it almost removes one aspect of the game, so I'm not sure about it

It's Rogue month. We call it Sneaktember

I think the Rogue achieves what it does decently, but it would feel more fun if you had more variation in your gameplay loop.

I stand by the opinion that Expertise alone at 6th level isn’t really all that fun as a feature. It’s effective practically and mathematically speaking, but it’s a boring feature by comparison.

Yeaaah, making some of the cunning strike options have value even on a successful save would go a long way IMO. Make the Poisoned one last for one round before the first save is made, make the Prone one give advantage to the next attack against the target or maybe some movement reduction. Add a save to the Withdraw one and on a failure the target loses its reaction trying and missing an attack against you. Just spitballing here, I’m sure we could come up with something good and balanced if we sat down to do it.

I came across a video that said "Rogue is optimized for fun, not for damage" and honestly yeah I see it, there's a reason it's my favourite

Played a 2024 thief from 3 to 16.

Reliable talent is pretty great.

Evasion is pretty great.

In a non-optimised table which this was, reliably doing 50 odd damage a turn every turn, resourcelessly is pretty great. Could double sneak attack, not doing it because already up there for the strongest character in the Westmarch and didn't want to overshadow people when already doing so outside of combat.

Things that don't feel good, you kind of want to scout ahead and do rogue things but then it's just other people watching you play?

Cunning actions don't feel like they were quite there?

Overall fun character to play.

There are two issues:

Level 6 should have been when they got their second subclass feature. There's very little there currently and it feels almost like a dead level while everyone else gets something cool.

They need to do a bit more damage. I like that you can spend Sneak Attack dice, I like that design very much, but they needed to add an extra d6 at 5th, 11th, and 17th. It's not a huge jump, but it's enough to feel like you're actually contributing in terms of damage.

I would not complain of Rogues also got more movement speed, some way of generating cover to hide behind, and extra ways to end Grapples. Maybe that's what I would have added at level 6 if we can't get a subclass: +10ft speed, you can spend 10 feet of movement to end a Grapple on you when you take the Disengage action, you can create a 5 foot square of three quarters cover when you take the Hide action, and you can Dodge whenever you Dash.

Is it, tho?

There's a guard post, they're watching out for intruders. You have to roll a stealth check to sneak in. Oh no, you don't, because you can't fail anyway, you have reliable talent. Guess you'll roll next time

Issue isn't just damage. Besides, damage is fun when it's just right