D&D 5E Are Rogues mostly archers?

[Delazar]

Have been DMing 5e for some time now (started august 2014), and I've noticed that rogues in the party are always preferring their bow to their dagger / shortsword. Almost all of them also take Sharpshooter, for added damage when they gauge that the target is easy to hit.

Do you think that was the intent of the designers? To make the rogue an "archer" kind of character? Or maybe I'm missing something in how sneak attack works? As far as I know, once one of your buddies is in melee with an enemy, you can sneak attack him?

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Depending on how easy the DM makes hiding and/or whether the rogues are halflings or have invested in the crossbow expert feat (all of which allow nearly the same advantage for ranged attacks), dual wielding offers a fair bit of damage advantage over ranged attacks - two effective chances to strike and deal sneak attack damage per round.

 

[spectacle]

Using a bow makes it a lot easier for the rogue to avoid getting attacked, forcing the enemy to target the tanky melee characters instead. Since 5E doesn't have 4E style Defenders, squishy characters should stay out of melee. It's also easier for rogues to benefit from bonus action hiding if they use ranged attacks.

 

[Horwath]

Rogue is just to squishy to be hanging around in melee for too long.

Yes, dual wield will get you more sneak attack damage, as you will have 2 attacks per round at the expense of your cunning action.

But ranged is just much better. And if you're wood elf or have skulker feat ranged rogue rocks. Hide every round as bonus action and fire a shot with advantage. Just be sure that you have place to hide more or less effective.
But even if you have to use stealth with disadvantage most of passive perceptions of monsters are bad.

If you want to be a melee rogue, one level of fighter is almost a must have.

 

[Shiroiken]

I've seen three different types of rogue. The archer is simply the easiest to build. The skirmisher (using the Mobile Feat) is very strong too, but requires a bit of work. Switching back and forth is the Rogue's best feature, IMO, since unlike most classes they can be good at both.

 

[Azurewraith]

I think its simply because sharpshooter is a insane feat and dw is very lackluster on top of the fact your an easy target if you dw as you can't disengage and dart away after your attack via cunning action

 

[Horwath]

I think its simply because sharpshooter is a insane feat and dw is very lackluster on top of the fact your an easy target if you dw as you can't disengage and dart away after your attack via cunning action

SS isn't such an insane feat on a rogue as it is on a fighter.

yes, +10 damage is a lot, but your sneak attack is even better for no penalty. For rogue only good thing about SS is cover denial. Range will come to effect 1 in 20 shots. Unless using hand crossbow.

Even with advantage it's on average DPS loss on high AC to use it if you have sneak attack.
For assassin it's downright dumb to use -5/+10 option on surprise as the +10 isn't doubles and you risk a bucket of d6's doing nothing for maybe +10 extra damage.

 

[Delazar]

Mh, looks like the Rogue doesn't really have a lot of incentive to go in melee... Guess the melee rogue idea is just ingrained in my brain by too many years of previous versions of DnD (and way too many hours of World of Warcraft...)

 

[Azurewraith]

SS isn't such an insane feat on a rogue as it is on a fighter.

yes, +10 damage is a lot, but your sneak attack is even better for no penalty. For rogue only good thing about SS is cover denial. Range will come to effect 1 in 20 shots. Unless using hand crossbow.

Even with advantage it's on average DPS loss on high AC to use it if you have sneak attack.
For assassin it's downright dumb to use -5/+10 option on surprise as the +10 isn't doubles and you risk a bucket of d6's doing nothing for maybe +10 extra damage.

It was more for the ignoring cover than damage so your Ally's can't get in your way particularly the one your hiding behind(assuming halfling ofc)

 

[Mercule]

Switching back and forth is the Rogue's best feature, IMO, since unlike most classes they can be good at both.

This.

I'd say the Rogue in my group is about 70/30 or more, slanted in favor of melee. He's extremely good at using dash and otherwise moving tactically. He could have three hit points, for all it matters; he gets hit about every fifth combat. Actually, I think the Wizard and Warlock take more melee damage than the Rogue and the Wizard acts like he's allergic to combat. When he does use a bow, it's generally as an assist to the Fighter, but the Rogue probably has the second highest number of melee kills (even more than the tanking Cleric).

Really, the Rogue is probably the class best suited to an extremely tactical player. Granted, you have to have your meat shield, etc. to round out the group, but the Rogue shines when they, well, think like a sneaky bastard.