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I Think They’re New Here

Several players complain about how hard it is to get past traps in D&D, 4th Edition. A 4th-level fighter that dabbles in disabling traps has a “only” 25% chance of succeeding.

They have obviously never played Original D&D. I don’t have the original rules at hand, but I do have Labyrinth Lord, which is close enough.

Turning to page 13 and the “Thief Skills Table”, we see the Thief class (now called a rogue, but still dedicated to picking locks, moving silently, etc.) has only a 23% chance of picking the lock.

And yes, I think the new way is better than the old way. Thieves are never very useful until they hit 7th or 8th level. That’s a lot of game time playing a lame character. That’s also a lot of game time playing a lot of thieves when you consider that it’s damn-near a miracle to get a character past 2nd or 3rd level in original D&D.