Yeah, I know there are benefits of being melee, and they have been explained several times here; it could just be how my DMs make encounters too. As of right now, to help incentivize rogues in my group to go melee instead of ranged, we're going to try out rerolling 1s once for damage rolls of melee sneak attack damage. We've theory crafted of other ideas, but they usually would likely break the game balance (ex. changing to D8s for melee) or allow the swashbuckler subclass to be god tier (ex. critical hit range increased to 19-20).
I know my kobold example was an extreme example, but even with playing my with groupmate's mastermind changeling (who's two personalities have her change between melee and ranged weapons while using poisons) it seemed more effective to use the ranged personality even though he prefers to play the melee for RP reasons.
Why not make the house rule that every opportunity attack by the Rogue gets sneak attack without having to worry about getting advantage on the attack or having an ally adjacent to your target?
The chance of a second sneak attack each round is a great incentive for Rogues.
That's a pretty good idea (and one my group hasn't come up with) I'll see what they think about it.
The rogue in my party ended up the same. She started off with a halfling swashbuckler with the intent of being a melee rogue. Bracers of archery dropped, and got defaulted to her. She realized how easy it was to hide behind one of our M size characters (usually my sorlock) and ended up sniping for the rest of the game. THIS game, she's also playing a halfling, but this time she's a barbarian-rogue MC, and is bound and determined she's going to melee this time.
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I think a sompler fix that also makes sense is to say the rule where you can sneak attack as long as an ally is in melee with the opponent only works with melee. That is even in the spirit of the old flanking rules. In our games this is what often allow the ranged rogue to deal sneak attack every round.
That's a pretty good idea (and one my group hasn't come up with) I'll see what they think about it.
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The rogue in my party ended up the same. She started off with a halfling swashbuckler with the intent of being a melee rogue. Bracers of archery dropped, and got defaulted to her. She realized how easy it was to hide behind one of our M size characters (usually my sorlock) and ended up sniping for the rest of the game. THIS game, she's also playing a halfling, but this time she's a barbarian-rogue MC, and is bound and determined she's going to melee this time.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I think a sompler fix that also makes sense is to say the rule where you can sneak attack as long as an ally is in melee with the opponent only works with melee. That is even in the spirit of the old flanking rules. In our games this is what often allow the ranged rogue to deal sneak attack every round.