D&D 5E Am I missing something on 2014 rogue?

[Zardnaar]

It's the feats. Ones you mentioned plus sharpshooter.

It's not so much fighters dealing more damage but how much extra damage.

It's skills things are mostly marginal over a high dex fighter with the right back ground. More skills only goes so far in a party where everyone can be proficient.

To drag their damage up there reluat on someone else. Generally spellcaster with haste, battkemaster fighter or order cleric.

 

[Stormonu]

As long as the rogue is able to get sneak attack on their turn and is either using two weapons or getting advantage to better the chance to land a blow, they seem to be fine (at least for the levels I've played) in combat. Using strike-disengage-move out of melee gives you a longer life and uncanny dodge helps when you do get caught in a foe's reach.

Their biggest strength though is generally out of combat, with skills - especially when you get expertise in the skills you regularly use.

 

[J-H]

I have also had a rogue outlast the entire rest of the party in a tough encounter due to the ability to Disengage and Uncanny Dodge.

 

[Staffan]

Here's the math for a single-class, featless, DPR potential comparison for TWF rogues (and assuming you are basically getting sneak attack every round as intended), along with sword and board Dueling style fighters and Great Weapon style greatsword fighters at various levels (and assuming 21 rounds of combat, 2 short rests, and Action Surge usage for attacking).

While I agree that the rogue's combat weakness is overstated, it should be noted that your math assumes mundane weapons. Fighters benefit much more from damage bonuses, such as magic weapons, since they get more attacks and therefore more opportunities to add that damage. That's one of those fighter benefits that aren't immediately apparent. In 5.5e, this also gives them more opportunities to trigger mastery properties.

 

[TiQuinn]

I played a Rogue Swashbuckler to 15th level and there were two times our party had a near TPK with my rogue being the last man standing due to Uncanny Dodge and hiding as a bonus action. If there was a power differential, I never felt it because I was just too busy saving fun.

 

[Zardnaar]

Would probably throw in a DM special for rogues like this around level 10.

Duellist's Prerogative - bg3.wiki

Duellist's Prerogative is a legendary +3 Rapier that grants the wielder a greater chance of critical hits, and an extra reaction provided their off-hand is empty. The wielder can also use a reaction to grant additional Necrotic damage on a hit.

bg3.wiki

 

[FrozenNorth]

Across all the 5e campaigns I have DMed, I have had something like 5 rogues and 2 fighters. Without fail, the rogues have strongly enjoyed their characters and felt they were contributing across all 3 pillars. The 2 fighters ended the game disappointed with their characters, despite my using GM Fiat to try and provide them some spotlight outside of combat.

In combat, the fighters felt they were doing the same thing over and over. They were also the characters that tended to suffer the most from enemies that were flying, or invisible, or hard to reach, or used control spells. Outside of combat, they tended to be outclassed by the other characters.

Meanwhile, lower AC and hp is meaningless if the enemy can’t target you because they can’t see you, or you can disengage and run out of range when the situation gets rough.

 

[Lazybones]

In my last high-level campaign (we wrapped up at 17th), I had a player who ran a rogue who'd taken a few levels of wizard to access bladesinger. He was extremely difficult to lay a hand on and could zip around the battlefield almost at will. With the Elvish Accuracy feat he also got a lot of crits that did a ton of damage.