D&D 5E How would this rogue play?

[Warpiglet]

Had an idea for a Mountain Dwarf rogue. He would be a locksmith (guild artisan by trade). I am thinking more treasure seeking adventurer than thief per se.

Anyway, the thought was to go with heavier armor (up to half plate) and have strength and con be highest. If using point buy it would be 16, 14, 16, 12, 10, 8. Two shortswords.

At 3rd would be likely to go arcane trickster and be sure to take true strike to prime a sneak attack should I ever have to fight alone. At fourth, would consider grappler in order to again have another means to get advantage (unbroken grapple) on the succeeding turn. The visual of an up close and personal dwarf stabbing a grabbed opponent is kind of cool.

I would be pumping athletics with expertise and probably thieves tools as well given his background.

Thereafter I would increase strength and or con. If we roll stats, there are more choices but I digrees.

In the end, how would a not so sneaky rogue (quite strong) with half plate fare? He would have disadvantage on stealth, but several ways to get sneak attacks in one on one situations and be expert in picking locks and avoiding traps.

Anyone try this? And the idea would be to single class...

 

[Blue]

I think it could work. The traditional Rogue is efficient with DEX using it for attack and defense, so you will need to play hard to your alternate competencies.

Took me a second to realize that the armor proficiency is through Mountain Dwarf. That covers that.

With expertise in Athletics, making someone prone is also a good way to get advantage on attacks to get sneak attack without (or before) the Grappler feat. Either grapples or shoves use up an attack, but on the other hand they both use the Attack action so you still get an offhand attack to deliver your SA with advantage.

I wouldn't worry about True Strike - having either advantage or an ally adjacent to the target happens very frequently - you should be able to bring on the SA just about every round without it.

 

[abirdcall]

At 3rd would be likely to go arcane trickster and be sure to take true strike to prime a sneak attack should I ever have to fight alone.

True Strike is very bad. Consider Swashbuckler if this is your concern. There are a bunch of more thematic options, Thief comes to mind. The amount of times you aren't going to get Sneak Attack in play are going to be quite low. It is a team game.

At fourth, would consider grappler in order to again have another means to get advantage (unbroken grapple) on the succeeding turn. The visual of an up close and personal dwarf stabbing a grabbed opponent is kind of cool.

The grappler feat is bad.

Sacrificing +2 Str for adv. on creatures you are grappling is a bad trade. You're not going to want to grapple much of the time. When you do you can always shove the opponent prone to have all melee attacks have advantage (including from other party members) and give the opponent disadvantage to their attacks.

 

[Warpiglet]

True Strike is very bad. Consider Swashbuckler if this is your concern. There are a bunch of more thematic options, Thief comes to mind. The amount of times you aren't going to get Sneak Attack in play are going to be quite low. It is a team


The grappler feat is bad.

Sacrificing +2 Str for adv. on creatures you are grappling is a bad trade. You're not going to want to grapple much of the time. When you do you can always shove the opponent prone to have all melee attacks have advantage (including from other party members) and give the opponent disadvantage to their attacks.

Generally agree. However, the idea with advantage is to get a sneak attack. Generally agree too that true strike is not worth it but again it would set up the sneak attack. I do agree in teams but like the idea of being a bit better able to defend self if caught alone sneaking or whatever but your point is well taken.

Also considers a similar set up with true strike and eleven accuracy. Three dice with possible sneak attack would actually improve chanc s of a critical but the second scenario seems less thematic to me...

 

[The Crimson Binome]

With expertise in Athletics, making someone prone is also a good way to get advantage on attacks to get sneak attack without (or before) the Grappler feat. Either grapples or shoves use up an attack, but on the other hand they both use the Attack action so you still get an offhand attack to deliver your SA with advantage.

I ended up doing this a lot, even with my Strength 10 halfling. Expertise and Reliable go a long way, and it would be almost unbeatable for a high-Strength dwarf.

 

[ClaytonCross]

True Strike is very bad. Consider Swashbuckler if this is your concern. There are a bunch of more thematic options, Thief comes to mind. The amount of times you aren't going to get Sneak Attack in play are going to be quite low. It is a team game.



The grappler feat is bad.

Sacrificing +2 Str for adv. on creatures you are grappling is a bad trade. You're not going to want to grapple much of the time. When you do you can always shove the opponent prone to have all melee attacks have advantage (including from other party members) and give the opponent disadvantage to their attacks.

I agree that True Strike and Grappler feat are bad choices.

The Tavern Brawler feat would be a good pick. ​

The reason being if you use your attack to knock your target prone, Tavern Brawler lets you use your bonus action to grapple them making speed 0 and requiring them to lose a turn to attempt to break the grapple or remain at disadvantage to all melee attacks if within 5ft, Also you get strength or constitution +1. So with one turn you can setup multiple attacks with advantage for you and your team.... I would say that is worth the lose of +1 to the strength stat (since you can get on from the feat anyway). While not 100% reliable with expertise in athletics the rogue will have a +7 to grapple checks at level 1 which will only go up (to as much as +17 at level 20) and still be useful when targeting casters, rogues, and archers which likely don't have more than a +2 even late game. There will be times when your fighting a creature of a size greater than large but even late game medium size strength based monsters are going to have issues beating a +17 grapple check.

Edit: I for some reason confused the Grappler Feat with the Tavern Brawler feat and fixed the comment to reflect that intent.

 

[Kobold Stew]

This is a solid build -- it's actually close to my very first 5e character from the playtest period!

With what you're thinking, you should be able to get by with less than 14 DEX -- putting the points in Wisdom might be an idea to help with saves. (or Intelligence, if you continue with AT, for your spell DC.

I agree with those who are against True Strike -- much better to take two swings, and hope you connect with the first (unless the campaign is going to revolve around surprise assassinations.

Expertise in Athletics is required, and effective.

 

[CTurbo]

Yeah avoid the Grappler Feat at all costs

 

[FrogReaver]

Had an idea for a Mountain Dwarf rogue. He would be a locksmith (guild artisan by trade). I am thinking more treasure seeking adventurer than thief per se.

Anyway, the thought was to go with heavier armor (up to half plate) and have strength and con be highest. If using point buy it would be 16, 14, 16, 12, 10, 8. Two shortswords.

At 3rd would be likely to go arcane trickster and be sure to take true strike to prime a sneak attack should I ever have to fight alone. At fourth, would consider grappler in order to again have another means to get advantage (unbroken grapple) on the succeeding turn. The visual of an up close and personal dwarf stabbing a grabbed opponent is kind of cool.

I would be pumping athletics with expertise and probably thieves tools as well given his background.

Thereafter I would increase strength and or con. If we roll stats, there are more choices but I digrees.

In the end, how would a not so sneaky rogue (quite strong) with half plate fare? He would have disadvantage on stealth, but several ways to get sneak attacks in one on one situations and be expert in picking locks and avoiding traps.

Anyone try this? And the idea would be to single class...

The concept is cool. If your primary focus is making sure you can sneak attack no matter what then the SwashBuckler subclass is probably better for you than arcane trickster. You didn't really elaborate on why else you would want arcane trickster so it's hard to say.

 

[abirdcall]

The reason being if you use your attack to knock your target prone grappler lets you use your bonus action to grapple them making speed 0 and requiring them to lose a turn to attempt to break the grapple or remain at disadvantage to all melee attacks if within 5ft.

That is not what Grappler does.