Time for another installment of Back In My Day!

Hell, everyone! Today I want to talk to you about rogues and some historical context. Also, the funny thing that I like to call "the pain and suffering of other people".

Let's pretend I have special effects like sparkles and a vortex that takes us to another screen with me sitting in a different pose.

Hi! This is a rogue spell called Sap. Today we know it as a useful and most importantly, safe, form of crowd control. While it can be difficult to apply, since the rogue has to get very very close to enemies and it doesn't work during combat, it also has the advantage that enemies don't really notice it. In fact, it was often useful for breaking apart patrolling groups. Sap one and his friends will just leave him behind. It's just like the Marines, but the complete opposite!

But Sap wasn't always so safe. In fact, it used to break stealth. That's right, if a rogue wanted to sap one mob, all the others would see him and get very angry. He is a rogue after all! Who doesn't want to kill a helpless rogue? That's where the expression "having the tables turned" came from, but now we mostly use it for talking about gambling. How interesting!

Rogues weren't entirely helpless though. Oh no, they had this great talent called Improved Sap. They could put as many as three points in it and every point made them 30% less likely to lose stealth when using sap. With all three points they would only lose stealth 10% of the time. This was fun an exciting for everyone! Just think of the anticipation. A rogue sneaks in very carefully and he's approaching the target. You know he's about to use sap. What will happen? Oh you hope, hope hope hope, even if the odds are against you, but maybe, maybe that 10%! Oh boy boy boy 10% chance to see him get totally flattened. Just imagine a handful of elite enemies suddenly notice him and just POW! Oh let me tell you, it was great. Of course the rogues liked it to, because there was nothing they loved more than risk-taking and chances. That's why they picked the class.

In fact, some rogues who'd had a bit too much to drink would play a game call Sap Roulette. Pick a pack and go in a circle sapping them! Of course it wasn't quite as thrilling as Russian Roulette, unless you somehow have a revolver with 10 shots. Now that would be a hefty gun. But on the other hand, if you shoot yourself in the head there's no durability loss on equipment, so those rogues were risking their pocketbooks too.

So everyone, next time you're thinking "gee, I'd love to sheep that mob, but it might attack me!", just think of the daring rogue.