D&D 5E Sentinel for a rogue with a whip, a shortsword and booming blade and sentinel?

auburn2 · Jun 28, 2020

So I am thinking about this as a strategy. I have a mutli-class warlock rogue and the character has a whip he got with his background, he is proficient in it as a hexblade.

Here is the idea - whip in one hand, short sword in the other. Go in and cast booming blade sneak attack with the shortsword, then disengage as a bonus action and move 10 feet away (still in whip reach). Now the fighter goes in and attacks the same guy from 5 feet. On his turn bad guy can attack the fighter, causing a whip opportunity attack (with another sneak attack) or move to attack me taking booming blade damage and possibly causing an opportunity attack from the fighter.

Also the way I read the rules, I would get dexterity damage bonus for both attacks (action and reaction) since this is not really dual wielding because he is not making an attack as a bonus action.

DND_Reborn · Jun 28, 2020

It is a clever idea, but I don't think it works (I could be wrong, I am going off of memory here) because a creature does not provoke if it moves within your reach, only if it leaves it. If the bad guy attacks the fighter, that does not grant you an opportunity attack because Sentinel requires the bad guy to be within 5 feet of you (and you moved to 10 feet away).

With a feature like Hold the Line (Cavalier, level 10) it would provoke an opportunity attack when the bad guy moves within your reach. That would be a feature that would allow this to work as you envision and their are probably others.

However, you would gain full DEX bonus to damage with either weapon since you are not TWF on your turn.

FWIW, using Sentinel with War Caster allows you to make another booming blade attack against the bad guy as an opportunity attack if the bad guy attacks the fighter. It is a nasty combo with sneak attack and shadowblade.

Right now my rogue does 4d8 + 5d6 + 3 damage with that combo (granted, she is tier 3 now).

Mistwell · Jun 28, 2020

Yeah it's Polearm Master which triggers opportunity attacks when you enter reach. "While you are wielding a glaive, halberd, pike, quarterstaff, or spear, other creatures provoke an opportunity attack from you when they enter your reach." Whip doesn't count as a reach weapon.

Fenris-77 · Jun 28, 2020

Well, yes, the whip does count as a reach weapon, it has reach after all, it just doesn't count as a polearm, which is reasonable. I'm tempted to brew up a separate feat for the whip now that I think about though - I think there are some cool things that could be done there.

ninjayeti · Jun 28, 2020

No because attacking the fighter does not provoke an AoO unless you have the Sentinel feat. Even with Sentinel you need to be to be within 5' not just within reach of the creature making the triggering attack.

auburn2 · Jun 28, 2020

All what I wrote was incomplete. I went back and edited my OP. I was asuming I had sentinel feet:

ninjayeti cleared it up. Sentinel only sorks in 5 feet anyway.

Paul Farquhar · Jun 29, 2020

Fenris-77 said:
Well, yes, the whip does count as a reach weapon, it has reach after all, it just doesn't count as a polearm, which is reasonable. I'm tempted to brew up a separate feat for the whip now that I think about though - I think there are some cool things that could be done there.

An enemy can't really run onto a whip...

Fenris-77 · Jun 29, 2020

Paul Farquhar said:
An enemy can't really run onto a whip...

No, not so much. On the other hand, you try swinging across a pit with a glaive guisarme. Pluses and minus, right?

Coroc · Jun 29, 2020

Fenris-77 said:
No, not so much. On the other hand, you try swinging across a pit with a glaive guisarme. Pluses and minus, right?

Indiana uses his whip on the root and easily jumps over the chasm with the lava stream below, Bob hooks into the root protruding from the rocks of the low ceiling but uses his glaive guisarme instead. Unbeknownst to bob the glaive guisarme was actually a vs. plant weapon, so as the Bob rolled the damage to the root the DM added the 3d10 extra unspecified damage vs. plants. Bobs natural 20 on the attack roll also didn't help but he would have fallen anyway even without a crit.
Indiana shouts to the rest of the group: "Our aasimar paladin Bob has fallen!"