I haven't played a rogue in D&D yet, but I'm interested in doing so. But as I'm looking over the class and the skills, I find myself wondering about sleight of hand. The flavour text says "casual legerdemain or manual trickery" such as planning an item on someone or hiding an item on yourself, but that seems quite limited.
Has anyone used this skill more creatively?
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/people/2006-04-26-copperfield-robbery_x.htm?csp=27
Use it to get ahead in a card game by dealing from the bottom of the deck, impress the princess with a magic trick, distract someone for a moment for advantage, cheat a drinking contest by pouring out the hooch, etc.
My favorite is to use it to sneak weapons into a secured place like a meeting with that NPC you know is going to turn on you. When the guard is giving you the pat-down, slip the dagger onto his person and when he says you're clean, steal it back.
I would also say sleight of hand would be used to pick someone's pockets, against their passive perception.
All good suggestions, thanks.
Yeah sleight of hand has many great uses, as identified above the main ones are probably pick pockets, hide weapons and cheat in games!
I was trying to match the old (2nd edition and previous) thief abilities to the current skill list. I'm not sure this is right:
Pick Pockets: Sleight of Hand (Dex)
Open Locks: Thieves Tools proficiency (Dex)
Find Traps: Perception (Wis) ?
Remove Traps: Thieves Tools proficiency (Dex)
Move Silently: Stealth (Dex)
Hide in Shadows: Stealth (Dex). Usually one check for both together
Detect Noise: Perception (Wis) ?
Climb Walls: Athletics (Str)
Read Languages: basic Int check
It looks like the classic dungeon crawl rogue needs a good Wis in addition to Dex to do the job.
ArkPanda wrote:
I would also think the DM could decide to use Int (Investigation) instead of Wis (Perception) when a character is actively searching for traps or secret doors. It makes more sense to me, and corresponds more closely to the Search skill of 3rd edition.
Edit: the person above me sort of said the same thing. I should read better 
BTShire wrote: