Ways to use uncommon Rogue weapons.

[Misterwhisper]

I am going to be playing a rogue soon and do not want to do the normal weapon styles like, daggers, rapier, short bow, ect.
Any race is fine, don't have any backstory conflict due to race.

Any way to finagle around to get SA with:

Spear?
Improvised weapons? Sneak attacking someone with a bar stool, or a bag of coins would be cool.
Somehow getting better use out of a whip?

I am just looking for some outside the norm rogue weapons.

[hymer]

If you throw the spear, you should be fine to SA with it.

Edit: Nope, I'm wrong. A thrown weapon isn't a ranged weapon. Natch.

Second edit: Shadowmonk'ed on my first edit. No doubt you'll make a great rogue! :smallbiggrin:

[dmteeter]

Just ask your DM if there is anyway to treat a specific kind of spear as a finesse weapon?

Maybe it is a regional weapon specialty for the people from the island you grew up on?

[Misterwhisper]

If you throw the spear, you should be fine to SA with it.

I would love that, but sadly it is still just considered a melee weapon if you throw it, so no SA because it is not finesse able.

If only the old spear master feat could make a spear finesseable.

[DarkKnightJin]

You could ask your DM if they'd allow you to fluff a Shortsword as being a Spear. Same damage die, same damage type, except the Shortsword has Finesse.
I'd personally allow it, since I can see the Rogue using both hands to steady the spearhead to guide it into a weak spot to deal extra damage.
Which is essentially what Sneak Attack is, really.

[coalmaine]

Hi.

I have be musing a rogue whip build. Actually it started as Bugbear whip build.

So long story short why not try a bugbear whip user.

With 15ft reach on your turn a a 10ft op attack reach you can dance around an enemy.

The bonus damage is a nice bonus.

Anywho hope that helps.

[Unoriginal]

I am going to be playing a rogue soon and do not want to do the normal weapon styles like, daggers, rapier, short bow, ect.
Any race is fine, don't have any backstory conflict due to race.

Any way to finagle around to get SA with:

Spear?
Improvised weapons? Sneak attacking someone with a bar stool, or a bag of coins would be cool.
Somehow getting better use out of a whip?

I am just looking for some outside the norm rogue weapons.

Can't use Sneak Attack without a Finesse weapon. Do you want Sneak Attack or not?

[Contrast]

Keep in mind rogues do not have prof with whip out of the gate.

Improvised weapons are entirely in the remit of your GM. Rules say they can be used using the stats of weapons if the GM thinks they're similar but thats totally in their remit so you'd need to talk to them.

Its worth saying a monk dip does not make weapons finesse weapons in rules terms but if you are otherwise having difficulty convincing your DM to allow finesse spears/stuff offering to dip monk may help. I personally wouldn't have any problem with a rogue/monk sneak attacking with unarmed strikes/monk weapons.

[Misterwhisper]

Maybe I can get a custom feat:

Spear Expert:

+1 dex or str
Spears are considered to have the finesse trait.
You have advantage on checks to keep balance, and if you roll athletics to Make a running jump double the distance you may travel.

Sound balanced?
Too weak maybe?

[Corran]

The feat does not sound all that bad to me. Allowing sneak attack to work with anything but polearms would probably be fine as well, though I didn't really think a lot about it. Your safest route is to refluff a finesse weapon as something else, if you are concerned about ending with something unbalanced.

There is always the double bladed scimitar and the corresponding feat that allows an elf to use it as a finesse weapon. It's not official material and a lot of people claim the feat is a bit too powerful (and I think I agree), but you might be interested in it, so check it out.

Or.... this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JulJxOIfPYo).

[Misterwhisper]

The feat does not sound all that bad to me. Allowing sneak attack to work with anything but polearms would probably be fine as well, though I didn't really think a lot about it. Your safest route is to refluff a finesse weapon as something else, if you are concerned about ending with something unbalanced.

There is always the double bladed scimitar and the corresponding feat that allows an elf to use it as a finesse weapon. It's not official material and a lot of people claim the feat is a bit too powerful (and I think I agree), but you might be interested in it, so check it out.

Or.... this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JulJxOIfPYo).

Ah, I love The Gamers series,

“Hide behind the pile of dead bards!”

Also someday I want to sneak attack with a cannon, it is a ranged weapon.

[GooeyChewie]

If you don’t mind multi-classing, Fighter 3 (battlemaster)/Rogue X makes a pretty cool whip master. You can potentially get +2 damage from Duelist fighting style, Sneak Attack damage, battle maneuver damage and a cool battle maneuver effect all on one attack from the safety of 10 foot reach. Any race works, but you have to go Fighter at level 1 to get proficiency with the whip.

[stoutstien]

Slings are a great pick. Pick up magic stone from somewhere and enjoy.

[Misterwhisper]

Slings are a great pick. Pick up magic stone from somewhere and enjoy.

Yeah, didn't think of that, it might have some potential.

I will think of some nifty tricks with whips, slings, or possibly both.

I wonder if a feat like:

Sling Mastery
+1 Dex,
If you are proficient in the use of a sling, you may also gain proficiency in the use of the whip.
You may use a sling as if it was a whip, if it is not loaded.

[Morty]

As others have pointed out, there's very little functional difference between using a spear as a finesse weapon and using a shortsword. You can't dual-wield a spear, but you can throw it. The spear is versatile - at which point it's functionally identical to a rapier, only you don't have one hand free. So it's really as simple as asking your GM if you can use a d6 melee weapon but describe it as a spear. Or a hatchet. Or club. Or whatever else you feel like using.

[Jcp1195]

I actually played a character similar to this a while back for a miniventure to work some NPCs into our larger campaign. He was a 9 Rogue Thief, 6 Kensai Monk Dwarf.

If you have access to Xanathar's Guide to Everything, think about going 14 Rogue 6 Kensai Monk. I'd recommend First level Rogue for the extra skills, then dip at least 3 into Monk before moving back to Rogue.

With Kensai Monk, you get to pick a weapon every time you get a subclass ability and turn it into a Monk Weapon, which are finesse. As well as that, you can use your Martial Arts Dice instead of the weapon's damage which, which won't be important for this kind of character, but for a full monk it's fun to be able to stab someone with a Dagger for the same damage as a Two-Handed Longsword.

Anyway, you can pick any Melee or Ranged Weapon as long as they don't have the Heavy or Special properties. Meaning, if you want to be a jerk like my Dwarf was, you can sneak attack with a Two-Handed Warhammer. Because nothing says stealth like the sound of shattering bones.

Level 6 Kensai Monk gives you Inherently Magical attacks with Monk Weapons so as long as it's not a Heavy or Special Weapon you can turn anything you want into a Stealth weapon that ignores immunity. Spear, Warhammer, Greatclub, Warpick, you can make almost any weapon a Finesse weapon.

Plus you get Extra attack at Monk 5, so there's a second chance to get that sneak attack in before being spotted. And be sure to take Skulker for those unfortunate moments where you just cant hit.

[ChildofLuthic]

Keep in mind rogues do not have prof with whip out of the gate.


How would you guys put together a whip rogue? Fighter 1/Rogue X? Vuman with the weapon master feat? Cuz whipping someone and dashing away sounds like fun.

[Talionis]

I had a Swashbuckler 15/Fiend Bladelock 5 that used Magic Stones and Slings. I had to find a magical sling and make it my Blade Pact to it. But after that I had a sling that I could hide in the pocket dimension. Thirsting Blade gave me two attacks in my attack action. I maxed Charisma on that character because he was a Face and being able to hide his weapon was a huge plus, not that a sling is all that hard to hide anyway.

[Misterwhisper]

I actually played a character similar to this a while back for a miniventure to work some NPCs into our larger campaign. He was a 9 Rogue Thief, 6 Kensai Monk Dwarf.

If you have access to Xanathar's Guide to Everything, think about going 14 Rogue 6 Kensai Monk. I'd recommend First level Rogue for the extra skills, then dip at least 3 into Monk before moving back to Rogue.

With Kensai Monk, you get to pick a weapon every time you get a subclass ability and turn it into a Monk Weapon, which are finesse. As well as that, you can use your Martial Arts Dice instead of the weapon's damage which, which won't be important for this kind of character, but for a full monk it's fun to be able to stab someone with a Dagger for the same damage as a Two-Handed Longsword.

Anyway, you can pick any Melee or Ranged Weapon as long as they don't have the Heavy or Special properties. Meaning, if you want to be a jerk like my Dwarf was, you can sneak attack with a Two-Handed Warhammer. Because nothing says stealth like the sound of shattering bones.

Level 6 Kensai Monk gives you Inherently Magical attacks with Monk Weapons so as long as it's not a Heavy or Special Weapon you can turn anything you want into a Stealth weapon that ignores immunity. Spear, Warhammer, Greatclub, Warpick, you can make almost any weapon a Finesse weapon.

Plus you get Extra attack at Monk 5, so there's a second chance to get that sneak attack in before being spotted. And be sure to take Skulker for those unfortunate moments where you just cant hit.

Monk weapons can use dex to damage, but it does not make them finesse.

Also to not about magic stone as mentioned by others, it is a spell attack when used so I would have to use a mental stat for that. Not great.

[Misterwhisper]

If you throw the spear, you should be fine to SA with it.

Edit: Nope, I'm wrong. A thrown weapon isn't a ranged weapon. Natch.

Second edit: Shadowmonk'ed on my first edit. No doubt you'll make a great rogue! :smallbiggrin:

Thrown weapons make no sense in 5e, I used to love throwing builds, not much of a way to do that here.

My main goal is to build a non-archer rogue who does not just use a rapier or dagger like every other rogue I see, I want to go outside the box, due to backstory plot I will know 2 cantrips of my choice but they do ha e to come from the same list, so with that a reach weapon looses a lot of flair because things like BB/GFB are just so good.

Shillelagh does not really help because I can’t sneak attack with a club or quarterstaff, i can’t sneak attack with a spell so attack cantrips don’t really help other than BB/GFB, so it will be one of those and a utility one.

The gm is very open to things like ua, dms guild, and home brew with approval by the whole group.

I built the subclass, but just don’t want to use the same, dagger/rapier that is just so common.

[mephnick]

How would you guys put together a whip rogue? Fighter 1/Rogue X? Vuman with the weapon master feat? Cuz whipping someone and dashing away sounds like fun.

A level of fighter gets you more versatile saves, dueling fighting style, more HP, a cheap little heal, and whip/shield proficiency.

Much better than wasting a feat on Weapon Master.

Source: Played a whip thief with Mobile. It was amazing. Was Fighter 2/Rogue 4, was going to go Fighter 3 for Battlemaster maneuvers.

[Misterwhisper]

A level of fighter gets you more versatile saves, dueling fighting style, more HP, a cheap little heal, and whip/shield proficiency.

Much better than wasting a feat on Weapon Master.

Source: Played a whip thief with Mobile. It was amazing. Was Fighter 2/Rogue 4, was going to go Fighter 3 for Battlemaster maneuvers.

I was looking hard at the whip, but BB/GFB are just so useful, and spell sniper just does not seem worth it on a Rogue to em.

[Arkhios]

... you have to go Fighter at level 1 to get proficiency with the whip.

Actually, when multiclassing to fighter from another class only proficiencies you don't get are saving throws and heavy armor.

There's a list of multiclassing proficiencies gained for each class under the multiclassing rules. I'm AFB, but if I remember right, it's a page or two before multiclass spellcasting rules.

[Galithar]

Actually, when multiclassing to fighter from another class only proficiencies you don't get are saving throws and heavy armor.

There's a list of multiclassing proficiencies gained for each class under the multiclassing rules. I'm AFB, but if I remember right, it's a page or two before multiclass spellcasting rules.



Fighter
Light armor, medium armor, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons

You are correct.

[Sage Tellah]

Crossbow Expert with nets. The feat allows you to make ranged attacks at 5 feet without disadvantage, so you can walk up to a dude, attack with a net as your action, and shoot a loaded hand crossbow at a newly restrained target with a bonus action. A level (or more) in Fighter is preferable for weapon proficiency and archery fighting style.