I have been thinking about making a Rogue that uses a Rapier and a whip. The whip wouldn’t be for damage, but to help create more instances of advantage for sneak attack to work. I like the idea of an Indiana Jones/Zorro/ with a Doc Holiday attitude type of character. Having trouble with the Whip aspect though. I know rogues are not proficient with a whip, but I don’t necessarily need to hit the target, just distract it. I was thinking the 1d4 of the damage could be added to the hit roll, or a DC for the target or something like that, but I could use some other ideas.
A bit of both. We just play as a family, and there are 3 of us that take turns.
So as a player under one of the other two, you're limited by their willingness to homebrew. RAW, what you can use a whip for in this context is letting you use the Shove attack with reach, which will ignore whether or not you have proficiency in the whip. Knocking a target prone will let you attack with advantage from 5 feet away. Any other mechanics from the DMG which use contested ability checks as replacements for weapon attacks can also gain the whip's reach without a penalty for non-proficiency - so Disarm and Shove Aside, unless there are more I don't know about.
As a DM, additive bonuses are bad for the game to begin with, and it's even worse letting players just use an implement they're not proficient in without any penalties at all (or equivalently, having proficiency in an implement do nothing at all). What I would suggest as a house rule to make whips more useful is to make the Help action reach-based rather than a static 5 feet when you target an enemy to grant advantage against it, and then I would suggest a second house rule to only let this work with the reach from a weapon if the wielder is proficient in that weapon.
Might be best to just get a legitimate feature that gives you an advantage and attribute it to your whip. For example, you could flavor the benefits of the Swashbuckler's Rakish Audacity and Fancy Footwork as flourishes of your whip.
Thank you for the advice. We are all learning together as a family. My family is littered with creativity and artistic ability. The insight from the forum is really helpful in staying ahead of the thinkers, and keeping up with the artists. Lol
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I have been thinking about making a Rogue that uses a Rapier and a whip. The whip wouldn’t be for damage, but to help create more instances of advantage for sneak attack to work. I like the idea of an Indiana Jones/Zorro/ with a Doc Holiday attitude type of character. Having trouble with the Whip aspect though. I know rogues are not proficient with a whip, but I don’t necessarily need to hit the target, just distract it. I was thinking the 1d4 of the damage could be added to the hit roll, or a DC for the target or something like that, but I could use some other ideas.
Are you a DM or a player?
A bit of both. We just play as a family, and there are 3 of us that take turns.
So as a player under one of the other two, you're limited by their willingness to homebrew. RAW, what you can use a whip for in this context is letting you use the Shove attack with reach, which will ignore whether or not you have proficiency in the whip. Knocking a target prone will let you attack with advantage from 5 feet away. Any other mechanics from the DMG which use contested ability checks as replacements for weapon attacks can also gain the whip's reach without a penalty for non-proficiency - so Disarm and Shove Aside, unless there are more I don't know about.
As a DM, additive bonuses are bad for the game to begin with, and it's even worse letting players just use an implement they're not proficient in without any penalties at all (or equivalently, having proficiency in an implement do nothing at all). What I would suggest as a house rule to make whips more useful is to make the Help action reach-based rather than a static 5 feet when you target an enemy to grant advantage against it, and then I would suggest a second house rule to only let this work with the reach from a weapon if the wielder is proficient in that weapon.
Might be best to just get a legitimate feature that gives you an advantage and attribute it to your whip. For example, you could flavor the benefits of the Swashbuckler's Rakish Audacity and Fancy Footwork as flourishes of your whip.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Thank you for the advice. We are all learning together as a family. My family is littered with creativity and artistic ability. The insight from the forum is really helpful in staying ahead of the thinkers, and keeping up with the artists. Lol