Jack Coleman (He/Him) is a News Editor from Ireland. This is his third full year in games media, having previously worked freelance for various outlets, including DualShockers and NME.
Previously, he’s interviewed breakout indie developers, broken big news stories, reviewed massive releases and recounted his time living as a humble woodsman in Oblivion.
A lifelong gamer, Jack is primarily interested in RPGs and narrative experiences. He’s also been playing League of Legends for a decade, unfortunately.
In a game as combat-heavy as Baldur’s Gate 3, the strengths of the resourceful rogue go a bit underappreciated. In tabletop Dungeons Dragons, the limitless nature of the setting allows rogues to get creative with their stealth, persuasion and various disguises. It’s not the most effective combat class, but a rogue’s ability to circumvent direct confrontation makes them invaluable in a tabletop setting.
From a practical point of view, rogues are also valuable because they don’t have any finite resources. Rogues don’t have spell slots, superiority dye, powers that can only be used once per rest and so on. Regardless of how long a party has been on their feet, the inexhaustible rogue will still be close to full power.
Players can choose between several main rogue archetypes with varying abilities and traits. However, not all subclasses are made equal.
However, these qualities don’t really shine through in Baldur’s Gate 3. Sure, there are stealth mechanics and robbing the various merchants of Baldur’s Gate can be entertaining, but plenty of quests end in some form of unavoidable combat, which isn’t a strong point of the rogue. Also, the abundance of resources in Baldur’s Gate 3 means you can spam rests to your heart’s content, which makes the resourceless rogue a lot less useful.
The Rogue Conundrum
With these shortcomings in mind, the Baldur’s Gate 3 community has been debating whether giving Extra Attack to rogues could make the class more viable in-game. Many players flocked to a thread by Fury_Cutter to give their opinion on the matter.
“I think the issue of [rogues being underpowered] is exacerbated in Baldur’s Gate 3 due to items and damage riders being so strong. Swinging your Shadow Blade with Resonance Stone Aura or Balduran’s Giantslayer an extra time with ten different damage riders further devalues the extra sneak attack dice that rogues get,” writes Yung_Dogie. “Not saying rogues need an extra attack, just that BG3 balanced its game/systems in a way that leaves rogues worse off than they usually would be in that regard.”
It’s certainly a valid point — setting up a rogue sneak attack isn’t really necessary when Lae’zel can sprint in and frontload 50+ points of damage in a single turn. The problem with the sneak attack is that it just doesn’t do as much damage as the other martial classes are capable of with half the effort.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
The community doesn’t seem sold on giving an Extra Attack to the rogue because it’s not in the spirit of the class, but equally, everyone acknowledges that the class doesn’t translate well to Baldur’s Gate 3, especially given the power of some of the game’s items.
It’s probably not something that will be solved now that Larian is finished developing the game, but hey, the beauty of single-player games is that you don’t need to play optimally to have a good time.
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence
We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.
Please respect our community guidelines. No links, inappropriate language, or spam.
The biggest problem with rogues in BG3 is that Astarion is one.
Great VA but aweful backstory. Also the rest of the characters being bi and up for all races takes that away from astarion when it could make him unique now his just boring and a wast of an amazing Voice actor
2025-12-26 13:35:59
