We ran into an issue in our game today, and I’m just wondering if anyone else has seen this or might know a solution.
One of our players is (well, was…) a ranger. Every time he would use animal companion (after level 5, this wasn’t always the case), it would instantly aggro him and start a combat. No one else had him marked as an enemy, only the ranger. We once tried attacking it when we were in camp, and Astorian ran over to heal it. If no one made any moves and just ended their turn, the combat rotation just went in circles and nothing would happen. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Outside of sneak damage (which in longer combats/higher difficulties is micromanaging hell in combat) every other class except cleric* consistently out-damages rogues. You can kinda make up the difference with the dual hand crossbow/Thief subclass cheese, but only until level 6 where every other class (except cleric*) awakens and can consistently do more damage per round after the first round. If you never get into combat, like your example, rogues can be powerful, but realistically a barbarian with half the levels will have better action economy and damage per turn the second combat starts.
*This isn’t to say clerics can’t be powerhouses, but the best/consistent damage output for clerics isn’t online until level 8+(war domain multi with either paladin or fighter, or monk if you want to be extra spicy), at which point your cleric really should be focused on healing/buffing and not doing practically any damage themselves.
Rogues aren’t meant to be your primary damage dealers…? They’re best employed for their skills (talking, opening shit, stealing, being your lover, etc) over their combat abilities. They generally have more skill points to spend and more proficiencies. But I still agree that in the video game, stealth kinda sucks. Cones of vision are too wide for the smallish areas pretty much every encounter happens in. Plus there is no day/night cycle, and most of the game is spent in the sun.
Unlike something like WoW, d&d rogues aren’t “dps.” Clerics too. They focus more on healing, history, religion, and control through buffs/debuffs.
If you just want maximum damage output: Be a monk.