Quote Originally Posted by Dr.Samurai View Post
In practical games, that aren't "high OP", the DM is free to adjudicate things however they want. They are not bound by the black letters in the book to only do what is explicitly said.
This is something to talk about because it might be the single biggest reason why I personally don't think rogue is very good.

Affirmed vs Implied Abilities
A simple comparison: aura of protection vs expertise in stealth
The aura is clearly defined ability with explicit rules about what it does, when it works, etc. A DM might try to "work around it" by...creating lots of threats that split the party up. Or, showering the party with AoE effects that punish them for grouping around the paladin. But regardless of how the DM responds (or don't respond), the paladin has an aura that provides a very powerful buff to anyone within 10 ft of them. It's a fantastic ability.

Compare that to a 9th level rogue with +13 in stealth. Hell, let's say they have Boots of Elvenkind too, so most of the time they're rolling a +13 with adv. There's essentially no stealth roll they can't succeed at. What does that give them? Well...they can sneak around, I guess?

Some things they could very plausibly do, considering the supernatural levels of stealthiness -
1) Hide in Plain Sight. Wood elves get a conditional version, but short of that, there's no RAW way to do this. If the rogue is caught out in the open, they don't even get to roll. They just get seen
2) Straight up Invisible. There could be a rule wherein if a creature's stealth roll exceeds a perception check by 15 or more, they're effectively invisible, regardless of conditions (gloom stalkers have a cool version of this that they don't even have to roll for; they're just invisible to dark vision. Rogue? crickets)
3) Make hide checks as part of your movement. This is what cunning action is supposed to do, but in reality the rogue just gets jammed up on bonus actions. If they disengage as a bonus action, they can't hide, even in perfect conditions. It doesn't matter that they have an average stealth roll of 27; they just can't get away.

Of course, any DM can add something like this, and many will do an ad hoc version when someone rolls a nat 20 on their skill check. But the base game doesn't say anything about it. Ergo, the DM has to constantly work, be reminded, and think of good things to happen when the rogue has a crazy roll. But it's never going to be consistent or something the rogue can look at their character sheet and go "oh, perfect, I can do X."

The inertia of the rules is against rogues. Rogues are supposed to be the skill class, but skills barely do anything at all, RAW. It's up the DM to do all this fill work to make the class work how it probably should. When the DM does that work? Rogue works amazing! Practically gods. When the DM is running a tough encounter and has a million things to track? Yeah sorry rogue, I don't have time for that right now. What does your sheet say?