D&D 5E Bringing back the thief/rogue damage multiplier.

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think the question is, why bring back the multiplier?

For fun?

and reduce the number of dice thrown on a table littered by wine bottles and wandering babies!

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

And if we only multiply the weapon damage die, not the +mod or the possible magic item extras?

Could it be usable each turn?

Like a rogue with a magic flametongue shortsword hits a creature already engaged in battle with an ally (usual Sneak Attack conditions), he deals 1d6 x2 +5 +1d6 fire.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Best way I think to figure it out and determine if it is balanced is to find the most applicable and comparable spell or magic item whose mechanics match up to what you are thinking of. Then refluff said spell or magic item to be something your Rogue/Thief/Assassin can do.

That's what I did in my Curse of Strahd campaign, when the party found the ancient and anachronisitic "rifle" in one of the tombs beneath Castle Ravenloft. As I find the standard gun rules in the game to be rather underpowered I wanted to make this rifle really have punch. So I just decided to refluff a Wand of Lightning Bolts as the rifle-- same 8d6 damage (with DEX save), same ability to hit several people lined up in a row. Changed the damage type from lightning to piercing, added a Bonus action requirement to "reload" after each firing, and kept the "7 charges" idea by saying that the rifle had to be cleaned thoroughly after 7 shots (which required a Long rest).

As the "rifle" was pretty much just exactly like the magic wand, I knew the game was balanced and set up to accommodate it... and it gave that player something more powerful and interesting to fire than the typical "uber-crossbow" the DMG makes ballistic weapons.

 

[TwoSix]

And if we only multiply the weapon damage die, not the +mod or the possible magic item extras?

Could it be usable each turn?

Like a rogue with a magic flametongue shortsword hits a creature already engaged in battle with an ally (usual Sneak Attack conditions), he deals 1d6 x2 +5 +1d6 fire.

If you only multiply the weapon damage die, it's a crappier version of sneak attack, except at level 1.

Rogues have sneak attack +3d6 at level 5, so that's already a x4 weapon damage multiplier.

It's certainly doable, but you have to decide upfront how much you want to vary from the traditional rogue damage progression.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Ok, I think I'll try it with a sneak attack multiplier, but requiring Advantage and not only a creature next to an ally.

 

[ECMO3]

Again with a question (I'm on a roll tonight)!

I cant do maths, but I'd like to know if there was a balanced way of bringing back damage multiplier for rogues instead of the pile of d6s.

I think it went like this: Lv1-4:x2, Lv5-8:x3, Lv9-12:x4, Lv13+:x5.

But back then it wasnt every turn, you opened with a backstab and that was that.

Now, since sneak attack is assumed, how would I go to implement multiplier ?

Multiplying the damage+mod or only the result of the damage die itself ?

And what to do with critical hit?

The balanced way to do it is make sneak attack work like monk martial arts in that there is a specific die (d6) you use and then multiply that dice by half your level rounded up plus 1.

So a sneak attack at level 1 is 1d6*2. This is the sneak attack damage whether you are using a blowgun or a heavy crossbow, it is 1d6*4 at 5th level ..... You get no weapon damage other than the sneak attack. This will make average damage equal what a Rogue with a short sword would do, although there would be a much higher variance and no mode.

If you limit this to 1 attack with the attack action only I would use a larger die (probably a d8, maybe a d10).