D&D 5E Ideas for STR-based rogue archetype

[I'm A Banana]

Some great stuff here! Let me dig in a bit...

Be a grappling rogue. It can work really well. Cunning Action let's you move, grapple, and then dash or disengage away with your grappled foe in tow.

Definitely considering making grappling/throwing/prone-ing a part of it. The "shove prone + grapple = you can't move" aspect is nice, and the 4e brutal scoundrel had some "chuck baddy A into baddy B" movies. He just tried to grapple the nothic in the last fight, so it's already on his mind.

Loot the fighter for cool mechanics,

I was specifically looking at the battlemaster's Trip Attack and Pushing Attack, and maybe something like the Champion's Remarkable Athlete for a ribbon.

gives Medium armor as a bonus proficiency

He's already a mountain dwarf, so what I think I need to do is just drop a breastplate in the loot somewhere. That'd probably set him up OK.

The rogue doesn't just want to defeat his enemy, he wants to hurt them, and he's very good at causing pain. On a critical hit or a successful sneak attack the target must save or become incapacitated with pain. At higher levels this becomes stunned then paralyzed. I didn't try to balance this against anything so adjust as needed.

I like the concept, it's pretty in character. Maybe give him some action-denial options for his sneak attack...

If relies on bludgeoneing weapons, grappling, and "gathering info". Medium armor covers AC.

That "kidnapper" ability is awesome. Between being a dwarf already and not having a high Dex (and so not needing more finesse weapons), I don't think this particular one is up his alley, but it's giving me interesting ideas...

So lets start with Sneak Attack.
It's meant to go with Dex weapons and ranged weapons. The quick fix is to extend that bonus damage out to all one handed melee weapons. A damage bump from 1d6 to 1d8 isn't much (it's like 1 damage average), but it "feels" more visceral to wail on someone with a warhammer or battleaxe.

I like the idea about expanding his SA weapon options. He hasn't particularly lacked in this area (he's got short swords), but a club or a hammer or a fekkin' broken bottle are definitely in-character options here.

Cunning Action is essential to the Roguish play style. To intertwine it with the STR rogue, let the STR Rogue make STR checks with Cunning Action. Which is basically just Athletics checks and bashing or lifting stuff. If you want to get dangerous, allow this bonus action to shove/grapple/trip, but only after level 3.

I'm tempted to go dangerous. The Hide thing isn't going to be that useful for him, but a bonus action shove/grapple/trip would totally be solid.

The level 9 feature basically gives advantage in some situations. This is for a non-combat pillar of play unless you didn't get a combat feature at level 3.
If you really want to lay on the muscle work, give them some bonus carrying capacity. Call it "Hoarder" maybe. Or you could give some bonuses to Intimidate.

"Hoarder" is hilarious. But it seems a little situational. Intimidate might work...he's not good at Intimidate now, but it seems like maybe he should be?

The level 13 ability gives you some freaky rules exception. Like using bonus actions to grant advantage or total mastery of some non-combat situations. This is where you want to insert negating disadvantage when using medium armor. Or advantage on Str checks in some fashion.

My hesitation with getting rid of advantage in medium armor is that ultimately, he's not built to sneak, so for him, that's support in a party niche he's never really going to occupy. It's nice, but not as nice as it would be for most other rogues. I'd lean more on giving him something to help with the noncombat party role he's going to fall into (he's better at lying and at disabling locks/traps, so maybe here is where I give him something that lets him ignore traps and devices?).

And level 17 is the trump card. It grants a massive bonus to combat. This would be something like auto-passing a shove, trip, or grapple check once a combat/rest.

Keen, that'll align with his combat suggestions nicely.

 

[Minigiant]

That "kidnapper" ability is awesome. Between being a dwarf already and not having a high Dex (and so not needing more finesse weapons), I don't think this particular one is up his alley, but it's giving me interesting ideas...
.

The finesse wording is a trick to get clubs, maces, light hammers, and staves work with sneak attack. A rogue needs to use a finesse weapon or ranged weapon to use sneak attack. However the rogue does not need to use Dexterity with a finesse weapon.

So a brute rogue can sneak attack with dual clubs, a staff, or a mace.

Then the skill emphasis is shifted to Charisma or Intelligence as the brute shifts to forgery and intimidation. And Gather Information is written so you don't need high ability scores as the base feature automatically works.

That is the trick for the strength rogue. You lower the need for dexterity and expand the other skills without forcing ability score dependency in order to not overpower the Dex rogue.

Those are my insights.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Here's the STR-rogue I built for a game that hasn't gone beyond level 1.

Expertise in Athletics gives you grappling offence and defense, as well as good derring-do, and you still are competitive with thieves' tools. My character had a 14 dex, which the dwarf might eventually want, but it's okay to start with less. For your player's character, the dwarf armour proficiency also helps.

Down the road, I was planning on the Grappler feat and eventually a 1-level dip in Fighter (esp. with the Mariner combat style, which appeared after this guy was made: the climb (and swim) speed would be GREAT for a rogue). But he's fine with short swords since the real extra damage comes from SA (and, with a half-orc, Savage attack). Hope this helps.

The biggest disappointment I had with 5e in terms of what was lost from the play test was was viable rogue builds out-of-the-box that weren't keyed to DEX. The original packet had the thug archetype, and along the way we saw str and cha and blended builds, but in the end they scaled back to favour dex only. It's something that is right to resist!

 

[Acr0ssTh3P0nd]

Yeah, it's called the fighter with the criminal background . Go battlemaster for all the dirty tricks, be a big, burly thug of a character. Simples!

 

[God]

Do you really want fighter/rogues getting sneak attack added to their bonus Great Weapon Master + Polearm Master damage on their turn and then again on the off-turn attack granted by Polearm Master when the foe tries to move in? Because that's what allowing sneak attack with any proficient weapon will get you.

Sneak attack is once per turn, period, end quote. Try reading the rules (and considering Wheaton's Law) before posting.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I would suggest simply swapping Cunning Action (which seems agility based to me) for the Barbarian Con armour bonus thing (if I remember correctly). But... he's a mountain dwarf already, so don't even need that really!

Otherwise give him the ability to use d6 clubs and d6 hammers for SA damage (if you cant already, don't think they're finesse), and he's good to go imo.

If you allow MCing of course, he can easily MC into fighter or barb a bit.

 

[ccooke]

The 5e character I've most enjoyed playing was a STR-based rogue. He was, in fact, the party tank (Some luck with the hp rolls meant that, with his quite nice AC (shield, breastplate and +2 from DEX gave him AC 18 without disadvantage on stealth)

Mountain Dwarf pure rogue with the Assassin subclass and the Shield Master feat. Adequate dex meant he could (with Expertise in Stealth) do a decent job of sneaking up on people to get that automatic critical on the surprise round, but after that he could charge into combat, knock someone prone with the shield and then attack them with advantage. He had +10 to his Athletics check by level 8, though. With a minimum check of 20 at level 11 from Reliable Talent, he worked quite well either alone or supporting others.

I played him as an ex-soldier - a professional dirty fighter, basically. Sneak attack in 5e very nicely models someone who doesn't attack as often because they are looking for the nastiest moment to strike.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Sneak attack is once per turn, period, end quote. Try reading the rules (and considering Wheaton's Law) before posting.

Yup, once per turn, not once per round. Each combatant gets a turn, so sneak attack can be applied with one's normal attacks on your own turn, plus once with your reaction on someone else's turn.

Interesting use of Wheaton's law to illustrate how to violate Wheaton's law too btw.


As to the topic at hand:
I don't see a real problem with giving medium armor proficiency to rogues as a general rule (if someone really wants to get +1 ac via taking medium armor specialisation, it's not really a big deal), nor with allowing sneak attack to apply any time you make a one-handed melee attack (a wording which includes longswords used in one hand, but excludes longswords wielded in two hands). Also expand it to allow non-finesse throwing weapons while you are at it.

Those two changes make a thuggish rogue quite playable.

 

[Rune]

Sneak attack is once per turn, period, end quote. Try reading the rules (and considering Wheaton's Law) before posting.

The rudeness is unnecessary, particularly when it is also so completely inaccurate; once per turn does NOT equal once per round. As in late era 4e, 5e rogues CAN sneak attack multiple times in a round, but only once per turn. The reaction attack that Polearm Master triggers when a foe enters the threatened area CAN add sneak attack if sneak attack conditions apply.



But it's all cool. I accept your apology, which I assume is forthcoming.

 

[Chocolategravy]

Mercenary soldiers like The Black Company might fit. Try to do as little of the fighting as possible, be effective when you do fight, always make sure you end up with the loot. Maybe some survival/tracking type abilities, some fighter abilities and some social bard abilities along with better armor and weapons.