First off, this is a great game. Beyond great! Huge thanks to you folks at Larian and your ability to crafting a world truly worth exploring and experiencing. It’s hard to believe that this is Early Access! This place is crammed with things to explore. And for me, exploration is the most important pillar in any great RPG.
Full disclaimer: I understand wholeheartedly that that this is early access and that some things have yet to be implemented and fixed. I also understand how not everything is going to translate from the 5E rules to video game mechanics. I also get that it’s been a week and bugs and crashes need addressing first for EA.
With that said, let’s have a chat about my most beloved class in D&D - The Arcane Trickster - and things that need to be fixed, added or changed...
1. At level 1 - we’re talking out of the gate - Rogue Expertise is missing. Is this being implemented? I hope so. This makes rogues, frankly, rogues. It seems that every other class is getting their front-loaded class features at level 1 or 2 with some normally level 2 Rogue Bonus Actions added to their repertoire. So why not Rogue? Expertise makes the rogue unique. I should be better at stealth and sleight of hand than a Dex fighter, if I want to be, because expertise is MY JAM. So if you’re implementing this later, great! Otherwise, consider putting this in.
2. Last I checked, Sneak attack scales up by a 1d6 every two levels after Level 1. Larian! My dudes! My dude-ettes! Where my d6s at?
3. Upon choosing Arcane Trickster as a sub-class, you are either missing a cantrip or failing to automatically give the Mage Hand cantrip along with the two selections. One less cantrip sort of sucks some of the “Arcane” out of being an Arcane Trickster.
4. Speaking of Mage Hand, let’s talk about the legerdemain feature and my current inability to pick a pocket, or carry candles to explosive barrels, or carry things in general, or tie some enemy’s shoelaces together, or have it in any way be unique from anyone else’s Mage Hand other than “it’s invisible.” Again, this may all be part of the “not implemented yet” stuff, so I apologize if there’s some general eye-rolling going on. (Remember, This all comes from a place of love!) I also apologize if any of these have been implemented and I just can’t figure out how to make it work. I can push people... That’s something, right? But before an enemy encounter, I want to be able to steal their sword with my expertised Sleight of Hand.
5. Did I mention that sneak attack damage scales by 1d6 every two levels..? I did? Just checking. My bad.
6. Let’s talk about the Trickster part, specifically as it pertains to spellcasting. At it’s core the Arcane Trickster is about fooling people, pranking people, distracting people, and generally causing mischief and chaos across the RPG spectrum (I’m seriously giddy just talking about it), using all the tools at their disposal, including spells, to do so. On the table-top, this is a class designed for creative problem solving, and I like to be a mischievous prick in solving my problems. First, Let’s get Tasha’s Hideous Laughter in there soon, folks. Making people laugh all the way to their grave is the only way let an enemy know you care. Second, let’s talk about the limitations of illusions in a video game. There’s only so much you can do, whereas on the tabletop, the possibilities created by illusions are limited by the players’ imagination. So maybe if I can’t use my illusion in unique ways, I should be able to pick two spells from any school instead of one for my spell list. Just a thought.
7. Like the Warlock, in 5e the Arcane Trickster has the ability to swap out spells each time a level is gained in this class. Can I do this in Early Access? Will I be able to this down the road?
I think that I’m echoing the thoughts of many of my fellow rogues out there when I say that the class feels a little bit lacking at the moment when compared to others, maybe there’s more going on under the hood, but really I see an extra D6 for damage and not much else from the class.
But I also want to acknowledge - like so many already - that I love playing this game and that you folks have done such fantastic work already. So much story. So much substance. This is a great game, and I’m so happy to be able to play it early. Thank you for all your efforts. Once this iteration is done, I sincerely hope you’ll consider focusing on expansions that take us further up and down the Sword Coast. With the amount of people who have been thirsting for a good D&D VG out there, you’ll never go broke!
Stay awesome folks, and stay the course.
Also, I’m open to everyone telling me how wrong I am about everything and that I’m just rogue-ing wrong.
