a party of Rogues

[deathbymanga]

so, with SCAG's Mastermind archetype being released I'm curious about one thing. Since we now have 5 different Rogues, would they be able to go dungeoning all by their lonesome?

a Swashbuckler would serve as the front-liner. a Thief would serve as the Flank, while the Assassin would pick up from behind with archery. the Arcane Trickster would be their spell-caster, while the Mastermind just runs around throwing buffs to everyone.

Sounds like a decent team actually.

[JumboWheat01]

Sound's like a Thieves' Guild outing, which could potentially be a great thing if all your characters are part of the same Thieves' Guild and roleplay as such. All the (questionably) witty humor, sneaking and roguishness could make for fun sessions.

[Zman]

It is definitely doable. 5e is vastly more forgiving to different party make pups, couldn't do that in 3.5e.

[upogsi]

Why go dungeoneering. Play out a heist movie!
Think oceans 13 or an organzied crime syndicate.

[Tanarii]

Why would the swashbuckler want to be a front-liner? He's designed for hit & run, pick off the stragglers style play.

I'd say this would work best with each character starting with 2 levels in another class, then MC Rogue. That'd help distinguish the characters even better. Start at level 3.
Fighter 2 / Thief X
Wizard 2 / Arcane Trickster X
Ranger 2 (TWF) / Swashbuckler X
Cleric 2 (Trickster) / Mastermind X
Straight Assassin X

Alternately MC with more basic-class goodies for higher level (11+) play:
Fighter 7 (Champion) / Thief X
Wizard 6 / AT X
Ranger 7 (Hunter) / SB X
Cleric 7 (Trickster) / MM X
Assassin X or Monk 6 / Assassin X

[deathbymanga]

Why would the swashbuckler want to be a front-liner? He's designed for hit & run, pick off the stragglers style play.

I'd say this would work best with each character starting with 2 levels in another class, then MC Rogue. That'd help distinguish the characters even better. Start at level 3.
Fighter 2 / Thief X
Wizard 2 / Arcane Trickster X
Ranger 2 (TWF) / Swashbuckler X
Cleric 2 (Trickster) / Mastermind X
Straight Assassin X

Alternately MC with more basic-class goodies for higher level (11+) play:
Fighter 7 (Champion) / Thief X
Wizard 6 / AT X
Ranger 7 (Hunter) / SB X
Cleric 7 (Trickster) / MM X
Assassin X or Monk 6 / Assassin X

Um, this kind of defeats the purpose of the whole concept, that 5 rogues could hold their own WITHOUT any other classes being involved


Why go dungeoneering. Play out a heist movie!
Think oceans 13 or an organzied crime syndicate.

YES!!! I'm thinking of writing up a special campaign just for this now!

Rogue 5
Mid-level campaign where the party has been hired to go into a Rival king's kingdom and steal some incredible source of magical power that he's been using to waste his enemies in the battlfield. His ability to churn out magical items faster than anyone else makes him too dangerous of an enemy. So you five have been tasked to go in and do 2 things. 1. identify what is responsible for this massive production of magical items. and 2. destroy or steal whatever means he's using to create these magical items.

Plot twist, it turns out that the King's daughter was born a Favoured Soul and he's been bleeding her repeatedly to use her blood to make holt artifacts and has set up a cult in her name, treating her like a child of prephesy, sacrificing herself to bring glory to the public and the party has to decide whether to kill the girl, take her and deliver her to their boss, or find a way to rescue her from all this.

[Tanarii]

Sorry got distracted by the whole Thieves Guild / Heist thing. In that case, you want more variance to cover your "Role" better, not to see if you can survive without variance. Getting stuck on the class labels just defeats the purpose.

On topic then: I think you'd have to put some thought into how you're going to survive certain things, just like any time you've got a 'weak' spot compared to an elusive (and probably non-existent) 'balanced' party with all roles covered. You're missing Healing, guys that can stand toe to toe for a long time, and AoE. The group would probably naturally drift to hit and run / kiting tactics. That's fine until you get stuck in a position where you can't Kite for some reason.

[deathbymanga]

Sorry got distracted by the whole Thieves Guild / Heist thing. In that case, you want more variance to cover your "Role" better, not to see if you can survive without variance. Getting stuck on the class labels just defeats the purpose.

On topic then: I think you'd have to put some thought into how you're going to survive certain things, just like any time you've got a 'weak' spot compared to an elusive (and probably non-existent) 'balanced' party with all roles covered. You're missing Healing, guys that can stand toe to toe for a long time, and AoE. The group would probably naturally drift to hit and run / kiting tactics. That's fine until you get stuck in a position where you can't Kite for some reason.

well, that's where races and backgrounds come in. grabbing the Herbalism kit will let you go and craft healing potions, which can help with that, and maybe play a Dwarf or a Goliath will help with being a front-liner? considering Mountain Dwarves get medium armor and Goliaths get that extra healing

[Coidzor]

A front-liner Rogue would probably be one with high Strength and Expertise in Athletics. They can lock-down 1-2 enemies with their high Athletics modifier and provide a focal point for the fight to happen around.