Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6752628" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Is he an Arcane Trickster? He can generate his own guaranteed crits by paralyzing enemies with Hold Person or even potentially (via multiclassing) Hold Monster.Historically (AD&D), rogues were really specialists in the exploration pillar, not in combat. 5E makes them considerably stronger in combat, and Uncanny Dodge makes them pretty tanky against small numbers of enemies, but their per-round damage output is only ever going to be decent and consistent and never top-shelf. (Their Stealth, on the other hand, is one of the top three in the whole game. And their in-combat Stealth is unquestionably the best.) Trying to crit-fish is a doomed strategy. Taking three levels in champion will lose you 1d6 or 2d6 in sneak attack damage and buys you Action Surge and an extra 5-10% on sneak attacks (depending what enemy AC is), but the Action Surge will probably have more impact because the expanded crit range by itself barely breaks even even at level 20 (3 Champion/17 Rogue). You'd get more out of either Crossbow Expert (for twice as many chances per turn to hit and deal crit damage) or Arcane Trickster w/ Greenflame Blade or Booming Blade for sneak attack damage on top of cantrip damage. Either of those will have more impact than crit-fishing.As an aside, if you want an awesome stealthy rogue, try a Wood Elf (or anyone with the Skulker feat) and then fight in foliage/heavy rain/snow/etc. Through some unexplained elven magic (Mask of the Wild), you can hide from enemies even in plain sight as long as you're lightly obscured by the above-mentioned phenomena; and because you're a rogue, you can attack every round and then hide again with your bonus action (at a ridiculously high Stealth thanks to Expertise) and move away, which effectively prevents enemies from attacking you, at all, ever, while you kill them. (All they can really do is Ready an action to attack you as soon as you show up, and you can exploit that with illusions, or by leaving them on edge for minutes at a time before resuming your attack.) If you've ever seen Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger, well, that is basically what it will look like from your enemies' perspective. Every once in a while the invisible wood elf shows up and shivs somebody for 30 points, and then fades away again, often before anyone can hit him back. For extra fun, combine with Sharpshooter, and kill all the monsters before the rest of the party even gets there.So anyway, you're right, crit-fishing isn't helping you any. Try cantrips, dual crossbows (Crossbow Expert), or patient stealth.</blockquote>

Verification