I play an artificer in my campaign, and I was thinking about using one of my infusions on Boots of the Winding Path and giving it to the party's angsty rogue assassin. My idea was that the rogue could literally run a circle around an enemy, use their bonus action to teleport, and attack with their sneak attack and assassinate feature. (I doubt the DM would let her use assassinate, but she should at least get ADV on attacks for surprising them right?)
Basically, what I'm asking is if you were DM'ing would you call BS on this?
I wouldn't grant you any of the things you are hoping for.
Assassinate only works on targets that have not taken a turn yet, regardless of what shenanigans people do inside combat. There is also nothing in this situation where Sneak Attack would trigger as it doesn't meet any of the requirements. I also wouldn't allow them to gain advantage for "surprising" them, as relocating by itself doesn't warrant it. I get what you are trying to do, and while it would make sense in the real world, it just doesn't translate well to 5E combat.
If you really wanted to help out your stabby friend, replicating a Cloak of Elven Kind is a great boon for them to sneak around, or even a Helm of Awareness if you are level 10 to grant them advantage on Initiative so they can more easily get Assassinate off.
Boots of the Winding path are unfortunately super niche. They require you to fulfill three conditions before they're useful, and situations which fulfill all three are very rare.
1.) You have to start in an advantageous location. 2.) You have to have a good reason to leave that location. 3.) You have to be free to return to the advantageous location (i.e. still within range, bonus action unused, etc.)
If you don't start, or otherwise occupy, any place worth being during your turn, the Wayback Clogs are useless. If you don't need to leave the place worth being, they're useless. And if you have to move more than fifteen feet, or use your bonus for something else, the Boots are useless. The usual thing for them is 'my artificer can run up and use Cure Wounds on someone, then use a bonus action to blink back out of melee combat!"
Sure, you can do that. You can also use a Homunculus to deliver Cure Wounds up to 120 feet away without ever entering melee combat in the first place, and technically without consuming your bonus action.
The Wayback Clogs are a cool idea. But they're so restricted and limited that they usually just end up being a regretted infusion choice.
I play an artificer in my campaign, and I was thinking about using one of my infusions on Boots of the Winding Path and giving it to the party's angsty rogue assassin. My idea was that the rogue could literally run a circle around an enemy, use their bonus action to teleport, and attack with their sneak attack and assassinate feature. (I doubt the DM would let her use assassinate, but she should at least get ADV on attacks for surprising them right?)
Basically, what I'm asking is if you were DM'ing would you call BS on this?
I wouldn't grant you any of the things you are hoping for.
Assassinate only works on targets that have not taken a turn yet, regardless of what shenanigans people do inside combat. There is also nothing in this situation where Sneak Attack would trigger as it doesn't meet any of the requirements. I also wouldn't allow them to gain advantage for "surprising" them, as relocating by itself doesn't warrant it. I get what you are trying to do, and while it would make sense in the real world, it just doesn't translate well to 5E combat.
If you really wanted to help out your stabby friend, replicating a Cloak of Elven Kind is a great boon for them to sneak around, or even a Helm of Awareness if you are level 10 to grant them advantage on Initiative so they can more easily get Assassinate off.
Boots of the Winding path are unfortunately super niche. They require you to fulfill three conditions before they're useful, and situations which fulfill all three are very rare.
1.) You have to start in an advantageous location.
2.) You have to have a good reason to leave that location.
3.) You have to be free to return to the advantageous location (i.e. still within range, bonus action unused, etc.)
If you don't start, or otherwise occupy, any place worth being during your turn, the Wayback Clogs are useless. If you don't need to leave the place worth being, they're useless. And if you have to move more than fifteen feet, or use your bonus for something else, the Boots are useless. The usual thing for them is 'my artificer can run up and use Cure Wounds on someone, then use a bonus action to blink back out of melee combat!"
Sure, you can do that. You can also use a Homunculus to deliver Cure Wounds up to 120 feet away without ever entering melee combat in the first place, and technically without consuming your bonus action.
The Wayback Clogs are a cool idea. But they're so restricted and limited that they usually just end up being a regretted infusion choice.
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