D&D 5E Rogue Starting Feat

[Flamestrike]

One word. Familiar. The game the DM runs is high magic so a ring of spell storing would be reasonable to rent for an hour. Have the Bard cast Find Familiar into it and have myself cast it and now I have a pet owl familiar. The Bard has Ritual Caster.

The familiar goes after you do, on your turn.

I suppose you could ready your action to attack after it helps you though.

 

[FrogReaver]

Elven accuracy all the way.

18 dex at aft level and "double" advantage will take care for most of the cover bonus to AC.

Might consider MCing to 3 levels of fighter(champion) for expanded crit chance. Around 27%

yea, Elven Accuracy is definitely the better damage and general purpose feat.

That said SS adds a lot of utility. 600 ft range while ignoring all cover. Those SS abilities open up quite a new dynamic for a rogue. Essentially SS opens up a new playstyle while Elven Accuracy makes you a little better at the things you already do. I get the appeal.

 

[Horwath]

yea, Elven Accuracy is definitely the better damage and general purpose feat.

That said SS adds a lot of utility. 600 ft range while ignoring all cover. Those SS abilities open up quite a new dynamic for a rogue. Essentially SS opens up a new playstyle while Elven Accuracy makes you a little better at the things you already do. I get the appeal.

it is great for a 2nd feat. lots of time that 600ft range will not matter. You should not fight big flying dangers before 8th level

I would even ask DM to cut SS in half. Remove -5/+10 part for +1 dex.

 

[FrogReaver]

it is great for a 2nd feat. lots of time that 600ft range will not matter. You should not fight big flying dangers before 8th level

I would even ask DM to cut SS in half. Remove -5/+10 part for +1 dex.

I typically consider playstyle feats to be more important 1st feats than straight power feats. Maybe that's just me though.

 

[Flamestrike]

it is great for a 2nd feat. lots of time that 600ft range will not matter. You should not fight big flying dangers before 8th level

I would even ask DM to cut SS in half. Remove -5/+10 part for +1 dex.

I think I can count the number of times I've had an engagement at over a few hundred feet or so on one hand in literally 35 years of roleplaying.

It's generally: 'As you open the door you see [monster]. It leaps to its feet, screams a war cry and attacks! Roll initiative.'

 

[FrogReaver]

I think I can count the number of times I've had an engagement at over a few hundred feet or so on one hand in literally 35 years of roleplaying.

It's generally: 'As you open the door you see [monster]. It leaps to its feet, screams a war cry and attacks! Roll initiative.'

I've had many. It really depends on if you are doing more open world or dungeon stuff.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

You can also use Aim for melee attacks, if you're willing to commit to standing your ground after the single rapier swipe or whatever. So Elven Accuracy can consistently help you at range or in melee. Really if you had Elven Accuracy I'd say that in melee you'd be best off either using it or making one attack and doing something else with your cunning action rather than two weapon fighting. Three rolls on the one attack is generally better than two rolls for separate attacks for a Rogue since the second attack is mainly just there for an extra bite at sneak attack.

As for ranged combat, Sharpshooter is amazing for people with the Archery fighting style, multiple attacks, and/or an otherwise healthy chance of hitting the enemy. Even with regular advantage, at low levels you will basically be attacking with no attack bonus when you use sharpshooter. After you have Elven Accuracy it may make sense.

Whatever the math, think about what makes you happy. Remember that "Aim" means sacrificing doing anything else on your turn, which means, from an actual play experience standpoint, waiting for it to come all the way around to make one shot (with advantage) and then do literally nothing else with the class that usually gets to do something else. I personally would be happier doing that with double advantage and not taking any to hit penalty, and thus basically always hitting, actual overall damage be damned.

In other words I vote heavily for Elven Accuracy. It is pushing the value of this Aim feature you're trying out for all it's worth.

The familiar goes after you do, on your turn.

I suppose you could ready your action to attack after it helps you though.

The familiar goes on the familiar's turn. You roll separate initiatives.

 

[FrogReaver]

You can also use Aim for melee attacks, if you're willing to commit to standing your ground after the single rapier swipe or whatever. So Elven Accuracy can consistently help you at range or in melee. Really if you had Elven Accuracy I'd say that in melee you'd be best off either using it or making one attack and doing something else with your cunning action rather than two weapon fighting. Three rolls on the one attack is generally better than two rolls for separate attacks for a Rogue.

As for ranged combat, Sharpshooter is amazing for people with the Archery fighting style, multiple attacks, and/or an otherwise healthy chance of hitting the enemy. Even with regular advantage, at low levels you will basically be attacking with no attack bonus when you use sharpshooter. After you have Elven Accuracy it may make sense.

Whatever the math, think about what makes you happy. Remember that "Aim" means sacrificing doing anything else on your turn, which means, from an actual play experience standpoint, waiting for it to come all the way around to make one shot (with advantage) and then do literally nothing else with the class that usually gets to do something else. I personally would be happier doing that with double advantage and not taking any to hit penalty, and thus basically always hitting, actual overall damage be damned.

In other words I vote heavily for Elven Accuracy. It is pushing the value of this Aim feature you're trying out for all it's worth.



The familiar goes on the familiar's turn. You roll separate initiatives.

Cool. I didn't realize Aim could be used melee. Solves the sneak attack in melee issue on it's own with that being the case.

Elven Accuracy is clearly better for DPR - but that's pretty much all it's doing. SS on a rogue basically let's you have the sniper fantasy in D&D which is amazing. But more importantly, it allows you to trivialize any encounter that you can get long range on. A good DM will give you some of those moments but not all the time IMO. So I think it will be worth it overall.

I've played a Wood Elf SS Rogue to deadly effect. There wasn't much the DM could do to legitimately/fairly challenge me as long as we weren't in a dungeon. It won't be that bad with the AIM version - but it will be highly effective overall.

 

[FrogReaver]

Reminiscing on that old Wood Elf Rogue SS a bit.

We were walking down a road with forest on both side. I always shadowed the party from the forest a bit behind them. They got ambushed so I started doing the shoot hide move routine. Well the DM had a surprise. Some enemies were closer to my position and also came after me. I stopped firing and led them on a merry goose chase just disengaging and dashing till my allies got in a position to intercept. I guess they technically stopped me from firing... but keeping a decent number of the opposing force from doing anything nearly the whole fight was more effective than any amount of shooting I had done. Basically what seemed like the smartest thing to do to challenge my character essentially backfired.

Now I know everyone is thinking but you couldn't do that against ranged enemies. Well here's the problem for ranged enemies. I was an assassain so my first attack was normally at advantage regardless. After that first attack (always made against any enemy that appeared to have ranged capabilities) I would then move+hide if possible (being a wood elf made that much easier many times). So now I was hidden and possibly outside their short range or possibly range altogether. Rinse and repeat.

It was a very fun character.

 

[Horwath]

I've played a Wood Elf SS Rogue to deadly effect. There wasn't much the DM could do to legitimately/fairly challenge me as long as we weren't in a dungeon. It won't be that bad with the AIM version - but it will be highly effective overall.

Me too.

that was sometimes too easy. 600ft assassinate from forest. Expertise in stealth&perception. fun times.