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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Can an elf rogue be a decent archer in (Basic) D&D 5th edition?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6307292" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>Pet peeve of mine: Let's <em>not</em> use 20th level as a benchmark. Hardly anybody plays characters at that level, so it's a terrible guide to what the typical campaign looks like. And the relative damage output of fighters and rogues doesn't stay constant over the level range, it bounces around as different class abilities come online.</p><p></p><p>I just did some number-crunching to figure the damage output of a greatsword fighter (warrior path, great weapon style) and a dual short sword rogue across the whole level range. Here's how rogue damage stacks up to fighter damage, ignoring their respective "spike" abilities (Assassinate and Action Surge):</p><p></p><p>Level 1: +30%</p><p>Level 2: +30%</p><p>Level 3: +23%</p><p>Level 4: +18%</p><p>Level 5: -25%</p><p>Level 6: -32%</p><p>Level 7: -31%</p><p>Level 8-10: -17%</p><p>Level 11-13: -35%</p><p>Level 14-16: -26%</p><p>Level 17-19: -16%</p><p>Level 20: -30%</p><p></p><p>The rogue's big early advantage is due to the combination of dual wielding and sneak attack. From level 5 onward, you can see that the dominating mechanics are the fighter's multiple attacks and the rogue's sneak attack dice. The fighter gets an extra attack and surges ahead; the rogue's accumulating sneak attack dice erode that advantage bit by bit; then the fighter gets another attack and surges again. (One more reason level 20 is a bad benchmark: It's one of the levels where the fighter has just gotten another attack.)</p><p></p><p>Averaging across the first ten levels, which I would say is the best benchmark for a "typical" campaign, the rogue is dealing 87% of fighter damage. The average across all twenty is 78%, still respectable.</p><p></p><p>I suspect the fighter will do better when comparing archery skills... working on that.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 6307292, member: 58197"] Pet peeve of mine: Let's [i]not[/i] use 20th level as a benchmark. Hardly anybody plays characters at that level, so it's a terrible guide to what the typical campaign looks like. And the relative damage output of fighters and rogues doesn't stay constant over the level range, it bounces around as different class abilities come online. I just did some number-crunching to figure the damage output of a greatsword fighter (warrior path, great weapon style) and a dual short sword rogue across the whole level range. Here's how rogue damage stacks up to fighter damage, ignoring their respective "spike" abilities (Assassinate and Action Surge): Level 1: +30% Level 2: +30% Level 3: +23% Level 4: +18% Level 5: -25% Level 6: -32% Level 7: -31% Level 8-10: -17% Level 11-13: -35% Level 14-16: -26% Level 17-19: -16% Level 20: -30% The rogue's big early advantage is due to the combination of dual wielding and sneak attack. From level 5 onward, you can see that the dominating mechanics are the fighter's multiple attacks and the rogue's sneak attack dice. The fighter gets an extra attack and surges ahead; the rogue's accumulating sneak attack dice erode that advantage bit by bit; then the fighter gets another attack and surges again. (One more reason level 20 is a bad benchmark: It's one of the levels where the fighter has just gotten another attack.) Averaging across the first ten levels, which I would say is the best benchmark for a "typical" campaign, the rogue is dealing 87% of fighter damage. The average across all twenty is 78%, still respectable. I suspect the fighter will do better when comparing archery skills... working on that. [/QUOTE]
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Can an elf rogue be a decent archer in (Basic) D&D 5th edition?
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