D&D 5E Rogue and Eldritch Blast - sneak attack possible?

[Herobizkit]

RAW, I have yet to find a way to get sneak attack via ranged spell attack.

Specifically, I took Eldritch Blast via Spell Sniper feat and thought it would be a nice alternative to shooting a bow. Of course, it appears that this tack is less efficient than using said bow, which is kind of disappointing.

Any rules wizards out there find something I missed?

 

[Plaguescarred]

Because Sneak Attack works only with finesse and ranged weapon attacks, Eldritch Blast can't qualify being a ranged spell attack.

 

[Paraxis]

By the book you can not do this and currently there is no exploit or work around. The reason is cantrips scale on level not class or caster level. So a warlock 1/rogue 19 would get 4 attacks doing 1d10+charisma +10d6 sneak attack, and that is just way to much damage compared to other classes.

Now if it is a flavor thing and a player in one of my games just wanted to be a magic rogue that could sneak attack with a spell, I would make a new cantrip.

Magic Dart
Conjuration cantrip
Casting Time : 1 bonus action
Range : personal
Components : S
Duration : 1 round

You summon a number of magic darts to your hand equal to the number of attacks you can make with an attack action. These magic darts use your casting ability modifier to attack and you are considered proficient, have a range of 120, and do 1d6+casting ability modifier on a hit. These magic darts are considered a magic weapon.

 

[Thank Dog]

Now if it is a flavor thing and a player in one of my games just wanted to be a magic rogue that could sneak attack with a spell, I would make a new cantrip.

Magic Dart
Conjuration cantrip
Casting Time : 1 bonus action
Range : personal
Components : S
Duration : 1 round

You summon a number of magic darts to your hand equal to the number of attacks you can make with an attack action. These magic darts use your casting ability modifier to attack and you are considered proficient, have a range of 120, and do 1d6+casting ability modifier on a hit. These magic darts are considered a magic weapon.

That's far too good.

At best you should make it equal to a dagger, not something better than a shortbow which is the rogue's best ranged weapon option. Not to mention being able to focus on a single casting stat instead of on physical and mental stats like a regular rogue needs to. And then you make it a bonus action? Way OP.

 

[Paraxis]

That's far too good.

At best you should make it equal to a dagger, not something better than a shortbow which is the rogue's best ranged weapon option. Not to mention being able to focus on a single casting stat instead of on physical and mental stats like a regular rogue needs to. And then you make it a bonus action? Way OP.

It sorta needs to be better than a dagger, because then why not just use a dagger?

It is a bonus action because it summons the darts you still need to take the attack action to attack with them, and the fact it is a bonus action is the penalty for being a spell, you can do a lot with a bonus action especially if you are a rogue.

You would still want a high dex for a rogue build because of skills and AC. I made it caster ability score so the rogue would have to increase his caster ability score too, and so that the spell has a "magic" feel to it.

 

[keterys]

By the book you can not do this and currently there is no exploit or work around. The reason is cantrips scale on level not class or caster level. So a warlock 1/rogue 19 would get 4 attacks doing 1d10+charisma +10d6 sneak attack, and that is just way to much damage compared to other classes.

Just for clarity, eldritch blast doesn't add Charisma to damage (you need another warlock level to do that) and sneak attack is only once, so it would be a total of 4d10+10d6 damage, also using a less effective stat (Charisma instead of Dexterity) to resolve. Which is really not that big a deal, as long as there's an appropriate cost involved (for example, a feat).

It'd probably be plenty reasonable for an arcane trickster to expend its bonus action to prepare the mage hand to deliver a (dagger or short sword) attack in mage hand range, without any other expenditure. That's giving up advantage or a move, after all.

 

[Dausuul]

Magic Dart
Conjuration cantrip
Casting Time : 1 bonus action
Range : personal
Components : S
Duration : 1 round

You summon a number of magic darts to your hand equal to the number of attacks you can make with an attack action. These magic darts use your casting ability modifier to attack and you are considered proficient, have a range of 120, and do 1d6+casting ability modifier on a hit. These magic darts are considered a magic weapon.

That's a pretty cool spell. You get your casting mod to damage, which isn't the case for most cantrips; but you're limited by your number of attacks per round, so it does you little good unless you're primarily a martial class.

I would change it slightly: The spell creates a dart in your hand. For the duration of the spell, whenever you throw a dart, another dart appears in your hand. Darts vanish after they hit or miss, or at the end of the spell duration.

 

[Fion]

Once upon a time in the early days of 4th edition, a Warlock with a Pact Blade magical item could sneak attack with spells by using it because it counted as a melee weapon you just couldn't melee with it in the same turn you cast a spell with it. The rogue/warlock at my table cheesed the hell out of that little loophole. 4e is pretty renown for having Errata contain game fixes and he always dreaded a fix. When it finally came he had a back-up plan and I allowed a few changes to his character since his build was no longer very good at all.

So with that in mind it's entirely possible we'll see a magical finesse weapon in the DMG that can be used as a spell implement. In such a case, sneak attacking through Eldritch Blast will become entirely possible. Mmm... cheese.

 

[Houndie]

Sneak Attack would only work on the first Eldritch Blast anyway, so once you get multiple shots, only the first would be Sneaky. So I see no reason to not just allow it.

 

[CleverNickName]

I think it's a cool idea, but like you said--the rules don't really allow for it. If it's important to your character's build, why not talk to your DM about making it possible via a new Eldritch Invocation? Maybe run this one past your DM and see if they allow it:

​

Gloom Strike​

Prerequisites: Agonizing Blast, Sneak Attack class feature​

Your eldritch blast cantrip is considered a ranged weapon for the purpose of your Sneak Attack ability (only).​