You get it at level 17, assuming no multi-class, so it is (almost) exclusively used on high DC opponents, and it is exclusively used in early combat.
so by design you will almost never see deathstrike land on a BBEG, because best case scenario, they fail the con DC and it soaks up a legendary resistance. And the luckiest best case scenario, you get a second attack/deathstrike on a reaction, they miraculously fail the con save again, even though constitution is consistently the highest save monsters have, and it soaks up a second legendary resistance.
meanwhile the thief just gets an entire second turn, which not only doubles attack damage but movement and bonus action economy and doesn’t rely on a saving throw failure.
Does anyone have a particularly good home brew for Deathstrike that isn’t quite so underwhelming? I would love to play a pure rogue, especially an assassin. But between the rogue capstone, stroke of luck, and the assassin capstone, Deathstrike, are both so underwhelming they really encourage you to multiclass out of rogue to avoid the stunning disappointment of nearly useless high level abilities.
Underwhelming? Depends what you are trying to hit. You get behind not the BBEG, but his supporting cast. The #2 and #3 and the big mages in support. By taking out everyone but the BBEG, you allow your tanks to have safe flanks and they can concentrate on the one big monster.
You could also look at the ability as a way to force the BBEG to quickly burn their uses of Legendary Resistance. If you have a way of getting an off-turn attack (perhaps a multiclass in to War Domain Cleric for the War Priest feature), you could potentially force the BBEG to burn two uses of Legendary Resistance in the first round. Once those are all used up, your spellcaster allies can really shut down the baddie with hard-hitting control spells.
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You get it at level 17, assuming no multi-class, so it is (almost) exclusively used on high DC opponents, and it is exclusively used in early combat.
so by design you will almost never see deathstrike land on a BBEG, because best case scenario, they fail the con DC and it soaks up a legendary resistance. And the luckiest best case scenario, you get a second attack/deathstrike on a reaction, they miraculously fail the con save again, even though constitution is consistently the highest save monsters have, and it soaks up a second legendary resistance.
meanwhile the thief just gets an entire second turn, which not only doubles attack damage but movement and bonus action economy and doesn’t rely on a saving throw failure.
Does anyone have a particularly good home brew for Deathstrike that isn’t quite so underwhelming? I would love to play a pure rogue, especially an assassin. But between the rogue capstone, stroke of luck, and the assassin capstone, Deathstrike, are both so underwhelming they really encourage you to multiclass out of rogue to avoid the stunning disappointment of nearly useless high level abilities.
Underwhelming? Depends what you are trying to hit. You get behind not the BBEG, but his supporting cast. The #2 and #3 and the big mages in support. By taking out everyone but the BBEG, you allow your tanks to have safe flanks and they can concentrate on the one big monster.
You could also look at the ability as a way to force the BBEG to quickly burn their uses of Legendary Resistance. If you have a way of getting an off-turn attack (perhaps a multiclass in to War Domain Cleric for the War Priest feature), you could potentially force the BBEG to burn two uses of Legendary Resistance in the first round. Once those are all used up, your spellcaster allies can really shut down the baddie with hard-hitting control spells.