No adventuring party is complete without a rogue to disarm traps, unlock chests, and detect hidden doors. These members are an invaluable asset to the group, as their actions can sometimes mean the difference between life and death. So you can imagine my frustration when our rogue, Janix, often shirks his responsibilities to play warrior.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Janix. It’s hard to go through the quests we’ve been through without bonding quite a bit. For the most part I was ok with him jumping into the heat of battle, but there is one instance I will never let him live down.
It was a simple quest: retrieve an enchanted amulet from the ruins of a citadel deep inside the mountains. We had traversed quite a bit of the dungeon already, most of our potions had been exhausted, and our Cleric, Twern, was down to only a few heal wounds spells. We entered a room that appeared to be a dead end, and discovered we had been followed by a pack of kobolds who ambushed us. Backed into a corner, we fought them off, wave after wave of kobolds and bugbears. We were exhausted, but kept our ground because we had no choice. Of course Janix had jumped into the thick of things once the enemies arrived, but that also led to him being incapacitated fairly quickly. After, I’m sure it was hours, of fighting, I fell from exhaustion. My fall triggered a hidden door to open, which would have been great if our rogue had taken even a second to search the room when we first arrived! By the time we discovered the escape route we had nearly cleared out the ambush party, and had to use the rest of our healing items and spells to recover.
So, long story short, don’t give your rogue a sword… train them to search first, fight second.
