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Message: <blockquote data-quote="UnknownRogue" data-source="post: 7320883" data-attributes="member: 6932434">Replying to Subdude - I use the term ‘surprise round’ to refer to the first round of combat when the dm has determined that characters are ‘surprised’ and thus not able to take any movement action or reaction on their first turn. But you are right, technically this is just the first round of combat.  While action surge doesn’t require a target to be surprised, exploiting it to deal a second auto-crit sneak attack with death strike does. When you ‘hold an action’ you take that action as soon as the trigger you determine uccurs. This is mechanically defined as using  your  ‘reaction’ when it triggers, and uccurs during another character’s TURN, often within the same ROUND. A battle master /rogue can use riposte as a reaction for example and get another sneak attack in addition to the one they are allowed on their turn.  This is what I’m referring to when I say your Action Surge reaction attack. Maybe there’s a better term for it? I have a problem with how the OP does averages as it’s too specific to an arbitrary context so I go with max potential. If you think your build does better maybe show the math otherwise it’s  just pulling numbers out of the air. And I agree that the damage per round is valuable to consider in general but this thread focuses on nova damage and the ‘1 turn kill’ Assassination potential of different builds. FYI with  martial adept feat and exploiting riposte for 2 sneak attacks/ROUND,  this build can continue doing insane damage into the early rounds. But that’s another post...</blockquote>

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