Are Martials really that screwed?

[Morty]

I think rogue's Cunning Action makes them one of the most interesting martial classes to play, to be honest. You can be constantly dancing in and out of melee, give yourself bursts of speed, or hiding to gain advantage. If you're "sneak attack[ing] a lot" and that's it, I feel like you're missing what makes them fun to play. Also, a rogue can use illusions too.

Cunning Action does two things only - it lets you run around fast and hide. So it's just a part of the "sneak attack forever" strategy. I've heard the "but Cunning Action!" argument many times by now and I've chalked it up to wishful thinking. There's always some nebulous and unspecified things I could be doing with it.

A rogue can use illusions... if they take the Arcane Trickster subclass, because if you want to do something interesting, you need spells.