doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
I don't think a variant is even needed. Arcane Trickster is hands down the best damage dealer of the rogue archetypes. BB/GFB + Shadowblade + easy access to advantage beats "slightly easier access to SA" easily, and beats out "situational access to a free crit in the first round" almost as easily. Especially if all rogues are using feats to get more reaction attacks.Rogues have evasion and uncanny dodge to help mitigate damage loss.
Again, compare a variant Arcane Trickster to a Ranger with your favorite subclass. That will get you in the right ballpark I think.
I'd actually rather compare Swashbuckler, an archetype where I've never made a single attack without access to Sneak Attack in 10 levels of play, but have no other damage boosts, against a hunter ranger.
I disagree. The bonus damage mechanics are built to either take advantage of multiple attacks, or to take advantage of bonuses to attacks by providing an additional attack.If you don't also remove "bonus damage mechanism" which a lot of Ranger subclasses have, it's going to be between somewhat and drastically ahead of a Rogue. Dread Ambusher for example would be particularly nice, as you'd get two shots at landing SA from a single Attack action (as well as potentially the +1d8 damage, but that's a smaller factor).
An extra chance to land SA isn't that big of a deal. We can balance around hitting every turn and having access to SA every time.