this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
536 points (99.6% liked)
RPGMemes
14409 readers
519 users here now
Humor, jokes, memes about TTRPGs
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Hot take, rogues shouldn't exist. It's more entertaining for any other class to do their job. Every hero from fantasy is a thief at some point, but a specialist just takes most of the jobs adventurers do, and throws them into one pile. You parties will be more useful without a rogue.
For example, fantasy's most famous burglar wasn't a rogue. Bilbo was a commoner who was hired as a burglar. Do you think the Hobbit would have been better if Bilbo was amazing at his job?
Except that no one starts out a campaign as commoner, but as a class. If you are going to put Bilbo into any D&D class, it is rogue.
Tolken wasn't using D&D to write the Hobbit. Rogues didn't exist. They used fantasy to inform D&D. Bilbo is a commoner, and just because there isn't a commoner class in the book doesn't mean anything. Gary says you can be a dragon if you want to. I would strongly disagree that Bilbo is a rogue. What rogue like qualities does he exhibit?
If you were playing Bilbo in DnD 5e, the class that makes the most sense to give bilbo is Rogue. Commoner isn't a class; bilbo could only be one if he was an NPC.
Does he exactly map onto the DnD rogue chassis? No, he doesn't, but he maps worse onto every other class.
I'd argue you could map Bilbo into a multiclass rogue and bard to get spells like Vicious Mockery. Bilbo's main actions in "combat" include stealth checks, sneak attacks with Sting, stealing items, and using bardic spells to manipulate the situation for his benefit.
Do all hobbits have to be a little rogue? Because in Tolkien's stories hobbits being stealthy isn't a skill it's a species ability.
Kinda like how in early versions of D&D elf and dwarf were classes.
So you think all hobbits have to be lvl 1 rogues?
Not at all, merely sharing a parallel I just realized/remembered.
Sorry, new here. Still having trouble keeping track of who said what, and who I'm quarreling with.
No problem! I've been here almost 2 years and I still get confused from time to time.
That's more because Rogue is an oversized bucket that too many things fit into. Conan the Barbarian is often called a thief, is he a rogue too? Of course not, but many of his stories involve him sneaking around and stealing things.