D&D 5E Assassinate

[UngeheuerLich]

No. Assassin is quite right.
If he is alone and can get the drop on an enemy, he can do a lot of damage.

It is just that after the initial strike he has not a lot of follow up options. Depending on how you interpret "acted yet", you might have a second round of attacks with advantage.
(Resoning: if you are surprised you may neither take an ACTion nor movement, so technically you have not acted yet.)

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[CapnZapp]

No. Assassin is quite right.
If he is alone and can get the drop on an enemy, he can do a lot of damage.

That's the problem right there!

D&D is a group activity. I'd rather sacrifice one build's efficiency than have the game turn into solo play.

So that's exactly it - the reason Assassin is much weaker in practical play than on paper is because he will seldom act alone.

The solution is not to let him sneak off alone; the solution is to have mechanics that work better in a party where not everyone can sneak (and where someone might even require light to see).



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[jgsugden]

Rogues, in general, are weak and need an augmentation. My only 3 remaining house rules in 5E are designed to aid them:

1.) Sneak attack is with a d8
2.) If you begin a combat surprised, you are surprised until you get to act normally on your turn. If the DM rules you are surprised, you are surprised for the entire first round of combat and until your turn begins on the second round of combat.
3.) You are also surprised if you are attacked and you are unaware of any threat to you. As soon as you are attacked, you are aware of the threat and are no longer surprised (unless surprised as discussed in 2 above).

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Rogues, in general, are weak and need an augmentation. My only 3 remaining house rules in 5E are designed to aid them:

1.) Sneak attack is with a d8
2.) If you begin a combat surprised, you are surprised until you get to act normally on your turn. If the DM rules you are surprised, you are surprised for the entire first round of combat and until your turn begins on the second round of combat.
3.) You are also surprised if you are attacked and you are unaware of any threat to you. As soon as you are attacked, you are aware of the threat and are no longer surprised (unless surprised as discussed in 2 above).

No. Rogues are not weak.
I do like your surprised on first attack ruling. In some cases it seems better than any initiative or surprise things. Sometimes surprise attack is the first sign of combat.

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