What drives a poor reputation for the Rogue class?

[Psyren]

Totally agree; an easy way to vastly improve barb would be to give them extra ASI's. They are feat AND attribute starved relative to fighter and even paladin.

Functionally, they have free Tough (which also stacks with Tough) due to being the only d12 HD class in the game.

I wouldn't have minded if their UD was Str+Con instead of Dex+Con though.

What do I mean by that? Well, let's say for example, say you want to do some ranged kiting. Well, you still need to qualify for sneak attack. If you do it by using your bonus action, you are not mobile. If you do it by using an ally in melee, they are not kiting (and you need turn order to line up in your favor too, or use readied actions, which have their own downsides). And if the enemy is inflicting Disadvantage, you need both.

^ Adding to this - even if turn order and the ally's own desired tactics line up with your own, the enemy they're standing next to might not be the optimal enemy for you to be targeting. If I'm up against an enemy necromancer, doing extra damage to his zombie ogre minions standing in the front isn't bad, but I'd rather be targeting the caster standing in the back, especially when a big burst of damage from me might break his concentration more easily.