D&D 5E Moving out of concealment to attack - when is stealth broken?

[doctorbadwolf]

In combat they are not overpowered if they get SA every single turn. You are right about that.

If we just give Rogue's SA every single turn and even if we allowed it when they were in disadvantage or wielding a greatsword or whatever, it still would not be OP in combat.

On that much we can agree .... BUT

A Rogue has more base skill proficiencies than any other characters, all else equal - 2 more than most and 1 more than Ranger or Bard. In addition he gets expertise on two of them and another two at 6th level.

This means a Rogue will be a master out of combat and better than any other class overall (assuming the players are equal).

A Rogue doing just as much damage as your best ass-whipper in combat is more OP overall because of how effective he is when out of combat.*

* Note I am ignoring hp and AC in this discussion. My reasoning is that disengage BA, evasion and uncanny dodge combined are roughly equivalent to the higher AC and higher hps a fighter or other D10 character gets.

Those things aren’t equivalent, though. The fighter survives more fights with less healing than the rogue, and tends to do more damage overall even if the rogue is getting SA on every hit.

But the seems to satisfy most players, and is very fun to play. The designers knocked the rogue design out of the park. Probably the most well designed class in 5e, IMO.

 

[Maxperson]

I would say long range shooting fights are not rare but are uncommon, and fights where you can get to the enemy in 1 round are common but still a minority or at best a plurality of total fights. There are going to be lots of times when it is the Rogues turn and there is not an ally adjacent to an enemy he can attack. Heck a fair amount of times the Rogue will win initiative and go before the rest of his party gets into position.

Sure, but then you ready an action to attack when an ally is next to the orc(or whatever). Nothing forces the rogue to go first and lose his sneak attack. And it's going to be rare that the there isn't going to be someone next to some enemy in most combat rounds. Will it happen? Yes. But not often enough to lower the percentage of attacks with sneak attack down lower than around 95%