D&D 5E (2014) Do I Understand Rogue Features Correctly?

[Nebulous]

Ok, so we're doing it right. His 20 Dex helps too, and finesse weapons.

 

[aramis erak]

Assassinate only works in the Surprise Round I believe.

In the right circumstances with sufficient cover or obscureness, you could hide on a round by round basis making it very hard to attack you.

It works until they have acted this combat. If you hit them with an inability to act (the incapacitated condition), you can get multiples in.

 

[GameOgre]

A non-Halfling melee rogue would need to be able to disengage, move away, hide behind some sort of obstruction, move back and then attack from hiding again to use assassinate again. A feat that is simply very hard to do(and not really worth it in most cases.

It would be far easier just to stay near a ally and sneak attack, bonus disengage, move away. Then use partial move, sneak attack, bonus disengage, partial move away. This way they could use sneak attack every round and not face return strikes unless the enemy closes with them(hopefully drawing attack of opportunity from the rogues ally).

So far Halflings are just amazing rogues in two regards.

Halfling can hide behind fellow party members as well as move into and out of med sized enemy creatures spaces(this ability combined with (bonus)disengage lets Halflings move through enemy combatants without drawing attacks of opportunity).

Keep in mind however that disengage by itself provides no movement so they can still only use there normal movement for all their movement needs!

 

[sithramir]

I would never allow assassinate against enemies that are already in combat, especially not if the assassin had already hit them. Surprise only applies at the very beginning of combat.

What if the rogue went around a door and hid? The attacker is fighting another foe who runs through the door to escape. The attacker chases his foe through said door. He might know the rogue went that way but can't see him and as he runs chasing his foe BLAM a sneak stab from the "hidden" rogue.

I feel this is kind of the intent of being able to use cunning action to move and hide. It's more of allowing him to still get a sneak in on certain kinds of conditions instead of HAVING to rely on a friend being within 5' of a foe.

 

[Cernor]

The one thing that I think you're interpreting incorrectly is when it comes to your enemy using Perception to find you. If you're able to take the Hide action there's no contested check, so you just roll Stealth. However, unless you immediately move to a different location (staying hidden all the time), every enemy knows where you are because they know your last location, and if you leave an obscured (either lightly or heavily) area then you'd automatically become seen. If the result of your Stealth check is lower than the passive Perception of any enemy, that enemy automatically knows where you are, but nobody would roll Perception until they take their action to try and find your new location. At least, that's how I interpret it, the rules for hiding are very open-ended.

 

[fjw70]

What if the rogue went around a door and hid? The attacker is fighting another foe who runs through the door to escape. The attacker chases his foe through said door. He might know the rogue went that way but can't see him and as he runs chasing his foe BLAM a sneak stab from the "hidden" rogue.

I feel this is kind of the intent of being able to use cunning action to move and hide. It's more of allowing him to still get a sneak in on certain kinds of conditions instead of HAVING to rely on a friend being within 5' of a foe.

Still wouldn't be assassinate. Assassinate needs surprise and surprise only happens at the start of the encounter. You could definitely get sneak attack when attacking from a hidden or unseen position.

 

[Joe Liker]

What if the rogue went around a door and hid? The attacker is fighting another foe who runs through the door to escape. The attacker chases his foe through said door. He might know the rogue went that way but can't see him and as he runs chasing his foe BLAM a sneak stab from the "hidden" rogue.

I feel this is kind of the intent of being able to use cunning action to move and hide. It's more of allowing him to still get a sneak in on certain kinds of conditions instead of HAVING to rely on a friend being within 5' of a foe.

That's sneak attack. ren1999 and I were referring to the assassinate class feature of the assassin archetype.

 

[Joe Liker]

It works until they have acted this combat. If you hit them with an inability to act (the incapacitated condition), you can get multiples in.

If you are able to keep someone incapacitated for multiple rounds, you hardly need an assassin to finish them off ...

 

[aramis erak]

If you are able to keep someone incapacitated for multiple rounds, you hardly need an assassin to finish them off ...

Think a monster that's too big to go down from the 4d6+2d8 the assassin gets in the initial round... a poison that specifically incapacitates would go a LONG way to making that big guy, such as a half-giant, go down much easier...

 

[fjw70]

It works until they have acted this combat. If you hit them with an inability to act (the incapacitated condition), you can get multiples in.

The critical hit part of assassinate only works with surprise and that only works at the beginning of the encounter. The advantage part of assassinate work until the enemy gets a turn (whether or not they can act on that turn).