The rogue is one of the building blocks of a good D&D party. They can sneak, disarm traps, pick locks, and take care of many of those pesky social checks that crop up when you’re out of combat. While most forms of media have great examples of rogues, some of the best exemplars of the class you’ll find are in Dungeons and Dragons novels. The best of the best not only reinforce the knowledge players get from handbooks, but they also show off new ways to play the class. If you’re looking for a solid guide to playing a rogue, you’ll want to check these books out. Saga of Old City –> Read More
I've always had a problem with Rogues being the worst murder hobos or kleptomaniacs. My wife, who had never played DnD, decided to become a murder hobo. A buddy of mine stole everything that wasn't nailed down, and a few things that were. I think being a rogue changes someone... or maybe I should be much more worried as I sleep each night.
I remember the Thieves' World books from way back in the 1980s (edited by Robert Asprin). Each release had a host of stories by different authors in the same world. They 'borrowed' each others's characters in tales and such. It started off well, but sort of fizzled out after a couple books).
If your talking about the Kender from the dargonlance series, it is probably one of my favorite archetypes. Kender spoon of turning FTW! I've wondered just how overused Rogues are a in LitRPG. Heck I'm guilty of using that sort of archetype myself in my own writing. It does make for a good solo perspective early on. The issue I ran into with my work though was that while game mechanics give a rogue good abilities my world building was based very heavily on real-world mechanics. While invisibility, etc can exist in my Endarian universe, it wasn't entry level stuff for the most part. Instead, I had to focus on my character using real life techniques including visual and scent camouflage. When it comes to writing a sneaky character I've tried to resist the temptation to just write in magical abilities, and focus more on the details that actually work very effectively in real life. It's always mystified me why some of that isn't taken into account by authors.
