Subclass choice

[jendar41]

Hi,

I just leveled up as a rogue 5/fighter 3. I use booming blade primarily, and because of flanking house rules I have advantage on almost every attack. Will my DPR be higher using Battlemaster Riposte, or Champion extra crit range? I have eleven accuracy.

Been assuming riposte is higher, but thinking through in that we don’t often take short rests and combined with elven accuracy, champion seems like it could compete. Thoughts? Also seems like champion doesn’t conflict with uncanny dodge like riposte. But at the same time champion would be better with more attacks no? I went shield (we found a plus two one, so it makes a huge difference in my survivability, and booming blade so I didn’t extra attack).

On average I would say we have 8-12 combat rounds a day with no short rest, but every couple of sessions we might have 20-25 combat rounds with a short rest.

[J-H]

With Elven Triple Advantage, you have something like a 12% crit rate. Adding the higher crit range should roughly double that to about 24%. I'd go for having that super-high crit-fishing rate just for the fun of it.

[CTurbo]

Champion lets you really take advantage of Elven Accuracy which is good, but Battle Master give you a good opportunity to use sneak attack off turn with Riposte so that's the better option IMO.

Edit: I guess I should read your entire post before replying....

After actually READING your whole post, I think Champion would be better since you're using a shield and Booming Blade as that is some extra d8s that you'll get to double up on too.

[RogueJK]

Because of the additional Advantage opportunities you're getting from your house rules, and the severe lack of Short Rests you've described, I'd definitely go Champion.

[Toadkiller]

If you want short rest abilities- take short rests.

Battle master has a lot more potential options down the road. If that is of interest.

[jendar41]

I’ve been wondering that, but also wonder if that most days involve 5-10 combat rounds with no short rest, whether that favors riposte because each riposte seems to be equal to each extra critical, not sure if I can get enough extra criticals over 10 rounds a day to offset 4 ripostes.

There is though a fun factor to the idea of throwing lots of dice and being the king of one-hit damage potential.


Because of the additional Advantage opportunities you're getting from your house rules, and the severe lack of Short Rests you've described, I'd definitely go Champion.

[RogueJK]

Well, you know that in those 10 rounds of combat, you're almost certainly going to be attacking 10 times. With an Elven Accuracy Champion's 24% critical chance, that's an average of 2.4 criticals per 10 rounds of combat. Every day. With no other requirements or resources. (And that doubles to 4.8 per 10 rounds of combat if you continue on to Fighter 5 for Extra Attack.)

Riposte could get you as many as 4 additional Sneak Attacks per day, but that's reliant on five conditions being met:

1) Enemy has to attack you. They may not be attacking you every round.
2) Enemy has to miss with their attack. They may not miss with every attack, when they do attack you.
3) You have to have your Reaction available. You may have use it on something else already that round, like a prior attack that hit and caused you to spend your Reaction on Uncanny Dodge.
4) You must have 1 of your 4 Superiority Dice left over. You may have used them earlier in the day already on something else.
5) The Riposte has to hit the enemy. (Which it probably should, due to your Triple Advantage, but won't always.)

So in reality, you'll very likely have fewer than 4 additional Sneak Attacks per day if going the Battlemaster Riposte route.

Therefore Champion seems the better bet, for more reliable additional damage from extra crits without requiring the stars to perfectly align 4x per day, and without being hamstrung by a dearth of Short Rests.


Now, that's from an "optimum damage" standpoint. I can attest that playing a Battlemaster is a blast, because it lets you do fun and flavorful stuff with your attacks and mess with the enemy. Champions are comparatively kinda bland in that regard. So while you may not being doing as much average damage as a Crit-fishing Champion, Battlemaster may be more fun for you to play.