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Hogwarts9876
2013-06-26, 04:43 AM
Me and a few friends have just begun our first D&D campaign together - we're completely new to D&D. I was wondering, how essential is having a rogue in the party? From reading OotS, they seem to be very important for trap finding. Currently we don't have any rogues - if it helps, our party currently consists of a battlemind, shaman, cleric, ranger and wizard. If necessary, the shaman could probably be convinced to change to a rogue. Advice?
EDIT: I don't know much about the campaign/setting, as we've only had 1 half hour session (the shaman wasn't there, by the way). So far, we've been hired by an old man to find a chalice of pure gold from a crypt and are fighting skeletons.

Hyena
2013-06-26, 05:17 AM
Battlemind and shaman, eh? Seems, you are playing 4e. There rogue is even less ness necessary - someone just needs to take thievery skill.

DeltaEmil
2013-06-26, 06:50 AM
Independent of if it's D&D 3rd edition or 4th edition, ask your GM if he or she will include a lot of traps and expect someone to disable them.
It would suck terribly to be a trap-disabling-focused character, and then to never encounter a trap more than once every ten sessions or so, if at all.

Some GM don't want to deal with the trap rules, or rather only use weaker ones that don't necessarily need someone with special trap-disabling abilities.

Of course, as Hyena said, if you're playing D&D 4th edition, all you really need is someone with the thievery skill, although traps in that edition mostly do have other ways to disable them, so that you're not restricted to that skill (some more mystical traps like magic altars and demonically possessed statues rather use Arcana or Religion to disable them - or you simply hit the trap a lot and destroy it).

DigoDragon
2013-06-26, 06:50 AM
I'm playing in a D&D 3.5 game and our party consists of a Barbarian, Duskblade, Wizard, and Healer (We do have a 5th player, but her character is doing the "Green Ranger" thing to us).

So right now there is no rogue in the party. However, we just play it smartly. Whenever we feel we're standing before a trap, we analyze the clues to get an idea of what it might do, and then plan appropriately.

The barbarian can take hits so he usually goes to smash the trap if it looks mechanical. If the trap appears to be magical, then the wizard will try to supress/disable the magic. The duskblade and healer are on standby in case something gets summoned into the area or someone needs to be healed of poison/ability damage.

So, in short, you don't need a rogue, just a plan.

valadil
2013-06-26, 08:05 AM
Is your GM writing the adventure or using a published one? If he's writing it, telling him he can skip traps is actually going to cut down on his prep time. If he's using an existing one, cutting out the traps might make it boring.

Leon
2013-06-27, 07:14 AM
No class is essential to have. A Good DM can cater for any combination of classes or lack thereof.

ClockShock
2013-06-27, 01:57 PM
If he's writing it, telling him he can skip traps is actually going to cut down on his prep time.

Considering this is your first campaign, this might be quite important, as prep time can discourage a new GM.

I'm a fan of having goblins hiding in baskets instead of traps - nothing likely to do much harm, but enough to keep the pace of the game going. Also, more characters can put their skills to use in a fight than standing around looking for traps.

If the other player would rather play a shaman, it seems a little unfair to pressure them into playing a rogue because you 'need one'. I would suggest that the GM tailor their campaign appropriately (which in this case, probably means doing less work) so everyone can go into it with the character they wanted.