D&D 5E Rogue Starting Feat

[FrogReaver]

A few notes:
One of the most important benefits of SS is the ability to negate cover.

Longbows have 600ft range with sharpshooter. That's also important but it's usefulness is also highly campaign dependent and also something the DM can decide to bypass with encounter design if it becomes to big of an asset. It's an amazing perk when it happens.

The -5/+10 isn't all that good for a rogue. I might be okay by the time you max dex and have elven accuracy.

The best tactic I found using a SS rogue was to kite enemies after me with disengage and shoot at ones that were engaged with my allies (to enable sneak attack). Wouldn't take long to free the allies up and they would typically come to my aid as long as I had maneuvered to within their movement range.

 

[FrogReaver]

I wouldn’t benefit from Elven Accuracy, but I’m still Sneak Attacking with two short swords. Sharpshooter vs. Elven Accuracy is when I’m using my Longbow, I wouldn’t benefit from both when I’m within 5ft. Crossbow doesn’t have any range compared to a longbow.

How do you sneak attack with two short swords - note the enemy is in your face - allies aren't around. How exactly are you sneak attacking? Or do you anticipate that your melee allies are going to stand beside you till something comes after you?

 

[TrueBagelMan]

Personally I would take Elven accuracy.

With easy advantage on account of Aim, you're constantly rolling 'trivantage' drastically increasing your chances to crit. Crits double sneak attack damage as well remember.

You also get +1 to Dex with the feat, giving you a Starting Dex of 18 as a Wood Elf (so a further +1 to hit, damage, Stealth, initiative, thieves tools etc).

Heck I would be sorely tempted to take 3 levels of Fighter (Champion) for action surge, archery fighting style and 19-20 crit range. With constant 'trivantage' you should be scoring a hell of a lot of critical hits (double sneak attack dice). Maybe 5 levels if Extra attack is something you're keen on.

I honestly hate not multiclassing since I find it extremely boring to just be a Thief Rogue or Swashbuckler. Multiclassing I find fun for RP and story. I most likely will take 3 levels and not 5 since I would miss out on a lot of rogue abilities at later levels.

 

[TrueBagelMan]

How do you sneak attack with two short swords - note the enemy is in your face - allies aren't around. How exactly are you sneak attacking? Or do you anticipate that your melee allies are going to stand beside you till something comes after you?

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.

 

[FrogReaver]

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.

That's fair. Do you not expect the familiar to die much?

 

[FrogReaver]

Other interesting note: its not very clear that a spell can be cast as a ritual and stored into a ring of spell storing. Item talks about slots and such.

 

[TrueBagelMan]

Yes I expect my pet Owl to die all the time. I only let him free from the backpack if I’m in melee. Being in the bag counts as full cover and if he’s still as a statue and added some pillows it wouldn’t look suspicious.

 

[FrogReaver]

Yes I expect my pet Owl to die all the time. I only let him free from the backpack if I’m in melee. Being in the bag counts as full cover and if he’s still as a statue and added some pillows it wouldn’t look suspicious.

Can't tell if this is sarcasm or serious.

 

[TrueBagelMan]

Seriousness. Having it full of pillows makes sure that my familiar wouldn’t die in it from sharp objects and makes it seem like it’s full. I would keep all my junk like gold, silver, and currencies in there as well since they have no value. I then have a secret compartment where I keep an item like a bag of holding to store magic items and buttons. My character has a strange love for buttons. He’s a thief but thinks that gold and such is worthless. Buttons are the truly valuable.

 

[Horwath]

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%