You would think if it as a 40 foot teleport, you’re being too pessimistic with the die. The average roll on a 1d8 is 4.5 assuming lower rolls means 4 thus it will on average be a 40 foot teleport. All weapons seem bad if you assume a 1 on the dice. A great sword only does 7 damage a dagger only does 6 damage and a rapier only does 6 damage. So we assume average which puts a great sword at 11 damage(5 for max stat and 2 3’s for average) a dagger at 7 average and a rapier at 9 average.
To follow up on SmolEri's good point, at 9th level you have a 75% chance of rolling a 3 or higher. That is a bet I'd take on a regular basis. At 11th level (when the psi die goes to 1d10), the odds go up to 80%.
Yeah, there is always a potential for a 1, but that doesn't reduce the utility of this feature.
As far as opportunity attacks, how often does a rogue make opportunity attacks? I can't remember the last time either of my rogues made an opportunity attack. I tend to rely upon range attacks (bow for the arcane trickster; psychic blades for the soul knife) and then hiding with my bonus action. This will give me advantage on attacks and keep people from attacking my relatively low AC rogue. Because of that approach, there is rarely a chance to make an opportunity attack, even if I was holding a melee weapon.
For those who might criticize my approach, I've been involved in numerous fights where at the end of the battle the rest of the party was in single digit HPs and my rogue hadn't been hit. When other pcs go down and a cleric can't get to them, I'll come out of hiding feed them a healing potion and slink back into the shadows.
As per the OP, I'm not a huge fan of youtubers and their "builds". Treeant's kind of ne of the worst that I've seen as he gives a lot more of the "best possible" outcomes rather than what tends to usually happen or forgets that the rogue in general is a VERY "mother may I" class.
There's a lot to be said for theory crafting versus actual play.
The blades do appear nice, but the class locks you into a weapon and style of play. The dagger isn't the strongest weapon for a rogue, and you're forgetting a feat or two and you can have a far superior ranged weapon, even if you aren't playing melee.
The psychic dice are a worse off bardic inspiration (or so it feels). you can't even really use them for combat till level 9.
Invisiblity, remember, ends the moment you attack an enemy, which means its more of a role play ability and a REALLY bad combat ability (because as soon as you take an attack it drops. So what happens is you cast it, you move. Next turn you attack, lose the invisibility, have to wait another turn, recast it, wait another turn, attack).
Misty step?I may have missed where you get that but you can take another subclass, then the next level, take a feat like the warlock initiate or rather the elven background to snag that instead.
By the time you get to level 17, IF you get to level 17, you get stun. Woohoo.... I'm so not excited....
The rogues in general suffer from this sort of progression. The subclasses give the best stuff at level 3 and then it's kinda crap.
I LOVE the swashbuckler, but if you think I give even the slightest donkey's fart of a care about Panache or the other subclass features you'd be mistaken.
It's also why certain subclasses in rogue get all the love and others are less fortunate. Truthfully, the spellcaster sublasses of the melee classes are the ones that fair best at level progressions, and though the bulk of that is in the spells compared to melee, the other class features are still more applicable...
I mean look at arcane trickster. You give disadvantage to anyone who has to make a save against your spells if they don't see you. A wizard would give his left nut for that sort of skill. Fortunately, it's a level 9 ability otherwise more wizards would take a rogue dip (or rogues ditching for spellcaster levels).
I have to say, for all that it's worth, soulknife doesn't strike me as really worth it or one I'd have fun with the skills. unless it was a dip and I was doing primarily a spellcaster like a druid or a sorcerer, in which case, the knives would be a fun backup weapon and some fun RP skills with the telepathy and the bardic inspo.
You would think if it as a 40 foot teleport, you’re being too pessimistic with the die. The average roll on a 1d8 is 4.5 assuming lower rolls means 4 thus it will on average be a 40 foot teleport. All weapons seem bad if you assume a 1 on the dice. A great sword only does 7 damage a dagger only does 6 damage and a rapier only does 6 damage. So we assume average which puts a great sword at 11 damage(5 for max stat and 2 3’s for average) a dagger at 7 average and a rapier at 9 average.
don’t be disingenuous when talking about balance.
To follow up on SmolEri's good point, at 9th level you have a 75% chance of rolling a 3 or higher. That is a bet I'd take on a regular basis. At 11th level (when the psi die goes to 1d10), the odds go up to 80%.
Yeah, there is always a potential for a 1, but that doesn't reduce the utility of this feature.
As far as opportunity attacks, how often does a rogue make opportunity attacks? I can't remember the last time either of my rogues made an opportunity attack. I tend to rely upon range attacks (bow for the arcane trickster; psychic blades for the soul knife) and then hiding with my bonus action. This will give me advantage on attacks and keep people from attacking my relatively low AC rogue. Because of that approach, there is rarely a chance to make an opportunity attack, even if I was holding a melee weapon.
For those who might criticize my approach, I've been involved in numerous fights where at the end of the battle the rest of the party was in single digit HPs and my rogue hadn't been hit. When other pcs go down and a cleric can't get to them, I'll come out of hiding feed them a healing potion and slink back into the shadows.
As per the OP, I'm not a huge fan of youtubers and their "builds". Treeant's kind of ne of the worst that I've seen as he gives a lot more of the "best possible" outcomes rather than what tends to usually happen or forgets that the rogue in general is a VERY "mother may I" class.
There's a lot to be said for theory crafting versus actual play.
The blades do appear nice, but the class locks you into a weapon and style of play. The dagger isn't the strongest weapon for a rogue, and you're forgetting a feat or two and you can have a far superior ranged weapon, even if you aren't playing melee.
The psychic dice are a worse off bardic inspiration (or so it feels). you can't even really use them for combat till level 9.
Invisiblity, remember, ends the moment you attack an enemy, which means its more of a role play ability and a REALLY bad combat ability (because as soon as you take an attack it drops. So what happens is you cast it, you move. Next turn you attack, lose the invisibility, have to wait another turn, recast it, wait another turn, attack).
Misty step?I may have missed where you get that but you can take another subclass, then the next level, take a feat like the warlock initiate or rather the elven background to snag that instead.
By the time you get to level 17, IF you get to level 17, you get stun. Woohoo.... I'm so not excited....
The rogues in general suffer from this sort of progression. The subclasses give the best stuff at level 3 and then it's kinda crap.
I LOVE the swashbuckler, but if you think I give even the slightest donkey's fart of a care about Panache or the other subclass features you'd be mistaken.
It's also why certain subclasses in rogue get all the love and others are less fortunate. Truthfully, the spellcaster sublasses of the melee classes are the ones that fair best at level progressions, and though the bulk of that is in the spells compared to melee, the other class features are still more applicable...
I mean look at arcane trickster. You give disadvantage to anyone who has to make a save against your spells if they don't see you. A wizard would give his left nut for that sort of skill. Fortunately, it's a level 9 ability otherwise more wizards would take a rogue dip (or rogues ditching for spellcaster levels).
I have to say, for all that it's worth, soulknife doesn't strike me as really worth it or one I'd have fun with the skills. unless it was a dip and I was doing primarily a spellcaster like a druid or a sorcerer, in which case, the knives would be a fun backup weapon and some fun RP skills with the telepathy and the bardic inspo.
It's not quite an opportunity attack, but a rogue should be looking for Reaction attacks, in order to get another Sneak Attack this round.
The Haste spell is a good way for this, as is a feature like Commander's Strike.