D&D 5E Clarification on the UA Swashbuckler

Gonat · Aug 12, 2017

Hi,
I need some help interpreting the Rakish Audacity entry (3rd level).

The first time I read it, I had expectations and maybe that blind me to a more wide (or unbiased) interpretation. Furthermore I'm not a native speaker and maybe I misinterpreted someting.

To the point...
When it says: "you don't need advantage on your attack roll to use your Sneak Attack if no creature other than your target is within 5 feet of you"
I, by default, interpreted as if the target too needed to be within 5 foot, but after a recent re-reading I'm not that sure anymore.
As long as there are no other creatures whitin 5 feet from the character, the target can be further away and still the feature be applied/valid?

Obviously this would make a huge difference for an archer rogue.

My group is preparing a new campaign and one of the players told me the concept He want to meet with his character (elven archer, more on the side of 'one shot you will not forget' than 'I will make you a pincushion') asking for suggestions. Depending on this not little detail this could be one of the possibilities (ad it fits quite well, for a really good shoot you need no distraction around you, not even friendly ones).

Tanks to all who will reply.

Kobold Stew · Aug 12, 2017

Your English is fine; the wording of the original ability was weak.

Clarified here by Crawford, the ability expects your enemy to be within 5' or you, and so won't work with ranged or (e.g.) with whip at 10'.

Satyrn · Aug 12, 2017

Gonat said:
My group is preparing a new campaign and one of the players told me the concept He want to meet with his character (elven archer, more on the side of 'one shot you will not forget' than 'I will make you a pincushion') asking for suggestions. Depending on this not little detail this could be one of the possibilities (ad it fits quite well, for a really good shoot you need no distraction around you, not even friendly ones).

So, @Kobold Stew has answered you well, but I have a suggestion.

Write a new subclass called Sniper or something like that and base it on the swashbuckler.

Replace Rakish Audacity with a similar feature; call it Deadshot maybe. This feature would let the roguish archer make a sneak attack so long as there was no one within 5 feet of the sniper and no one within 5 feet of his target. The space around the archer accounts for lack of distraction (as you suggested), and the space around the target makes for a clear shot. That should be plenty to justify the sneak attack.

And then you might want to tweak some of the other swashbuckler features, or leave them alone if they fit well enough for a sniper.

Gonat · Aug 13, 2017

Thanks!
It was wery useful.

Maybe instead of a subclass of the swashbuckler I will made a subclass of the warrior. Signature feature: Each round that you declare the attack action, before rolling, you can choose if you whant to make the normal number of attacks following the normal rules or declare a 'master attack' (or some other name) and roll a single attack against a single creature. If the master attack hit, you roll the damage for the attack a number of times equal to your number of attacks and deliver all at once on that target.
Maybe, this should be a ribbon feature? Not everytime a character can exploit spell or skills that grant advantage on the first or on a single attack, but it appen often enough if the goup employs party tactic and collaboration.

D&D 5E Clarification on the UA Swashbuckler

Gonat

First Post

Kobold Stew

Last Guy in the Airlock

Satyrn

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Gonat

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