How good is mountain dwarf STR based fighter rogue MC?

[Spacehamster]

Either 8 fig 12 rog or 12 fig 8 rog, the 12 fig got the obvious perk of 3 attacks while
the other version gets 7 ASI´s compared to 6 of the other one. Could make use of medium armor master,
dual wielder feat for an impressive 19 AC with half plate without any magic items, stats 20/16/18/8/10/8
leaves you with 3 or 4 ASI´s to put in feats.

Would be pretty darn good as a grappler if you put expertise in it too. :) Anyone tried a STR
based rogue?

[TalksAlone]

Either 8 fig 12 rog or 12 fig 8 rog, the 12 fig got the obvious perk of 3 attacks while
the other version gets 7 ASI´s compared to 6 of the other one. Could make use of medium armor master,
dual wielder feat for an impressive 19 AC with half plate without any magic items, stats 20/16/18/8/10/8
leaves you with 3 or 4 ASI´s to put in feats.

Would be pretty darn good as a grappler if you put expertise in it too. :) Anyone tried a STR
based rogue?
Hey there. I have made NPCs who were Bodyguard-type Grappler Rogues before, they were awesome! So I have some advice, though not much:

In the matters of making an effective Grappler, I don't really think rogue is the most well suited. As a dip or start for a multiclass, sure. But so is Bard. It just doesn't strike me as very advantageous for a rogue to be restrained in a moshpit type of deal. But I could be wrong here, situationally: maybe when the fight narrows down from a bunch of dudes + BBEG to just the BBEG, and you grapple as a way to impede retreat, or a strong attack, or mess with it's action economy in general.

I also have some reservations on your race of choice. True, you could grapple just fine with athletics as an Expertise, but despite having high STR Athletics check you would struggle real hard in High Jumps. Minor? Yes, but deliberatly choosing a race that is disadvantagious to a core function of one of your selected expertises just strike me as plain wrong. Furthermore (albeit more of a DM or setting situational type of deal), any race that provides Powerful Build can do more with Grapples. Bugbear comes to mind very strongly given their natural aptitude to be STR rogues.

But what I mean is: a Dwarf STR Rogue is not bad in itself as a concept. I just don't think it makes a very stong character. For example: I could see Dual Wielding being sort of weak, but it isn't the worst. Just like medium armor. Just like having high STR on a rogue. Just like a lot of stuff we choose for situational or fun builds.

Finally, I should mention that despite the dwarf being a subpar character choice (in my opinion anyways) they do have some backstory in FR about grapplers and all that. In SCAG I am pretty sure there happens to be a section that deals about this exact piece of lore and provides a medium armor to match the "playstyle": a medium armor with spikes that deal damage in grapples (but I do not recall how it works).

Good luck! ^^

[LordNibbler]

Fighter 11/Rogue 5 with expertise in athletics and the shield master feat is a very effective combination (Second expertise at level 6 and Evasion at level 7, with your focus on strength instead of dex, don't do that much for you).