D&D 5E Question about Rogues

[JackOfAllTirades]

I'd let them use Sneak Attack with any weapon. It hurts nothing.

Great! My Assassin will MC into Battlemaster, get the GWM Feat as well. Then I can Auto-crit with a Pike from 15' away with the Lunge maneuver, double his Superiority dice and get +10 damage on top of that.

Wheeee!!! That was fun, who's next?

 

[AverageCitizen]

If Rogues can only use there sneak attack with ranged or finessed weapons why do they get proficiency
in long sword and the other simple weapons that they wont get there sneak attack with? With sneak attack being one if not the main thing about rogues who would use any of those other weapons unless the finesse and ranged weapon was a typo left over from the play tests for 5thed? To me it seems stupid the give them proficiency in weapons there probably never going to use.

Someone got burnt by a misread and now their concept is illegal. That sucks. If your "cloak and sword" rogue is important to you, you might ask your DM for a break. You are looking at +1 damage, here (assuming you don't wield it in both hands), and that is not a huge deal. It is equivalent to an uncommon magic item, at best.

 

[Carl DeAmicis]

I believe that the Rogues Sneak Attack ability can only be used with ranged and finesse weapons is because those weapons rely on dexterity for their attack rolls which means that they are aiming with these weapons at vital spots. Hence the sneak attack. Whereas a longsword relies on strength which is less aiming and more hacking and slashing. As for the rogue having proficiency in weapons that dont benefit from sneak attack I would like to believe that if a situation were to come up where the rogue were unarmed and needed a weapon in a pinch it would help to have proficiency with any weapons that are available. Just saying.

 

[Azurewraith]

Could allways weild a LS in your MH and a rapier or shorty in the other. Not everything in the game is designed for min-maxing some of my most fun characters where anything but optimized

 

[Celtavian]

It does open up some otherwise non-optimal multiclassing opportunities that could be potentially overpowered--like the barbarian/rogue or a rogue with 2 levels of fighter and great weapon specialization who rerolls all his sneak attack dice on a 1 or a 2, but those characters aren't unmanageable, just possibly better than straight rogues, barbarians, or fighters. Those characters would definitely be fun to play.

I wouldn't let them reroll sneak attack dice using Great Weapon Specialization. Fortunately my player doesn't ask and has I believe rightfully assumed intent is that you reroll only the weapon die including critical hits. There are so many high damage combinations right now, it hasn't been a problem in our campaigns. The bigger problem has been archery with Sharpshooter since it comes online so early.

 

[Celtavian]

Great! My Assassin will MC into Battlemaster, get the GWM Feat as well. Then I can Auto-crit with a Pike from 15' away with the Lunge maneuver, double his Superiority dice and get +10 damage on top of that.

Wheeee!!! That was fun, who's next?

And you'd still kill half as much as the archer, enter combat slower, require more healing, and be less useful than casters with utility spells that can slow down crowds or effectively end fights without doing damage.

If you occasionally use that combo to get in some cool hits, good for you. At least you would shine a little bit while the rest of the party was making you look like a chump the other 80 or 90% of the time.

 

[Eric V]

Great! My Assassin will MC into Battlemaster, get the GWM Feat as well. Then I can Auto-crit with a Pike from 15' away with the Lunge maneuver, double his Superiority dice and get +10 damage on top of that.

Wheeee!!! That was fun, who's next?

Yeeeeaaaahhh....how about they can sneak attack with any weapon a rogue is proficient with.

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

Yeeeeaaaahhh....how about they can sneak attack with any weapon a rogue is proficient with.

I approve of this. Mainly because it would prevent Half-Orc BattleMaster Alertness Pike Assassin from making Lich-kabobs out of the GM's boss monster right out of the gate.