D&D 5E Rogue idea: drop MDD and MDB to cleric level, make SA static +2d6

[ZombieRoboNinja]

As the title suggests, this is an idea for differentiating rogues a bit more from fighters.
One of my favorite things from the 2nd packet was how a fighter and rogue could wear the same armor and wield the same weapon and still play differently but about equally effectively in combat. A bit of that seems lost in the most recent packet, with rogues doing the same base damage as fighters and sneak attack a near afterthought.

So here's the idea:
1. Give the rogue expertise dice at a later level, like clerics.
2. Make Sneak Attack a standard class feature again, but simplify it to work more like 4e: you get +2d6 damage once per round when you have advantage. This would scale very slowly, so maybe +3d6 at 8th or 10th level and 4d6 around level 15-20.
3. You still get a class feature tied to your scheme on top of that, like artful dodger, assassinate, or something like the brute power from the older playtest (letting you get advantage when allies are adjacent to your target).

This way clever rogues would still deal a lot if damage, more than fighters, with advantage - but they'd have to work to get advantage.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Oh, one more point: rename Sneak Attack, since it doesn't necessarily involve sneaking. Plenty of rogues could get it from skill tricks involving feinting, frightening enemies, hitting them while they're down, or studying their defenses. Deadly Strike would be pretty innocuous, I'd think.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I believe the change to sneak attack was intentional. I recall reading that there were complaints to the effect that sneak attack doesn't fit all rogue concepts. As such, they made it optional.

 

[gyor]

I'm happy with the rogue as is except that his progress like all characters goes weird and inconsistant after level 10 in a way that makes no sense.