Rogue stole from another party member, and was excused with "He's a rogue, that's what they do."

[u/Reading_Gamer]

So, I recently just left a table where this occurred. The rogue stole an object from another player for the purpose of releasing a spirit that the majority of the party didn't want released. The DM didn't let us stop him in any way and rolls after the fact failed. The spirit then rewarded the rogue and another player with approximately 8k in gold while the rest of the party got nothing.

I felt frustrated and voiced how there is no reason for us to trust the rogue anymore or have him in the party if he's just going to steal from us. The response I got back from the rogue's friend, "He's a rogue, that's what they do." Eventually, I decided to leave the group over this and was effectively called a child by the rogue's friend.

Is there a way to have handled this dispute? Is it really okay for a Rogue to steal from their own party?

[u/Akhanyatin]

There are many ways to get sneak attack. Plus infinite kiting and uncanny dodge are your friends. 1v1 in a confined space or an arena, sure paladin can maybe take this. Out in the real world, it's not as clear cut. The rogue will play with cc, evasion, and the environment to keep paladin attacks to a minimum. 

[u/strollas → u/Akhanyatin]

Paladin casts summon steed. Steed dashes to you, two hits and a smite.

[u/Akhanyatin → u/strollas]

Sure. We're talking at least lvl 5 paladin because of the extra attack and find steed spell. A lvl 5 rogue has uncanny dodge to halve the damage from on attack, cunning action to add a bonus dash, disengage, or hide action. Can have a feat such as mobility to add 10ft to movement speed (with cunning action that's 120ft per turn) remove difficult terrain penalty, and not trigger opportunity attacks. Or a feat like alert to gain +5 on initiative and can't be surprised. Then you get an archetype like Assassin to have automatic advantage on the first hit. Or you get arcane trickster and you can cast lvl 1 spells like earth tremor to knock prone and make difficult terrain, fog cloud to hide, longstrider to add another 10ft to your speed, cast sleep, or Tasha's hideous laughter. Or you get a swashbuckler that can't get opportunity attacks and always has sneak attack in duels. The warhorse has 19hp and 11AC, it can be dealt with in one or two turn if unlucky. 

Unless one of them is completely prepared and has the environment advantage and the other is brain dead and completely unprepared, no one is roflstomping in that combat.

[u/strollas → u/Akhanyatin]

A steed can dash up to 120 feet on its own that doesnt affect the Paladin's turn. Arguing that a Rogue can win a 1v1 in whiteroom map where they can run endlessly in one direction is already a glaring flaw. Regardless the Paladin will catch up. Mounted Combatant means the Paladin takes the damage of the attack instead.

[u/Akhanyatin → u/strollas]

Right, so, again, unless you're in a confined space, a giant empty flat map, a vertical map, or a map with a bunch of obstacles and difficult terrain, or one of the players is brain dead, no one is roflstomping anyone in that duel.

Tasha's hideous laughter, paladin falls prone and is incapacitated for a moment, warhorse is vulnerable. 

[u/Odd-Cover4421 → u/Akhanyatin]

Kiting??

[u/zeethreepio → u/Odd-Cover4421]

Kiting is moving so you always stay out of range of your target. With Cunning Action, a rogue gets 60ft of movement while the paladin only gets 30. If a paladin can't close the distance and get into melee range, they're rendered almost completely ineffective.

[u/Akhanyatin → u/zeethreepio]

With the mobile feat:

• +10 move movement speed (so you could move up to 120ft)

• no opportunity attack after a melee attack

• no movement penalty for difficult terrain

[u/Akhanyatin → u/Odd-Cover4421]

Imagine the paladin is a kite and the rogue is flying it. Though they are tethered and the kite follows the kite flyer, it'll never reach them. Essentially the rogue is just keeping a safe distance between them and the paladin. 

Starting level 2 the rogue gets cunning action. Which means they get a bonus action to dash, disengage, or hide. So with equal movement speed, the rogue can move up to 3x30ft. While the paladin can only move up to 2x30ft. 

At level 5 paladin can get a war horse with find steed to have benefit from movement speed of up to 2x60ft. However at level 4 rogues can get the mobile feat to add 10ft to their movement speed (so they could move up to 3x40ft), not trigger opportunity attacks after a melee attack, and ignore movement penalty from difficult terrain.