Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Rogue combat - what was I missing?

Hey, so I finished the game playing on Tactician mode and running Sorcerer (Wild), Gale (untouched), Astarion (respec to Rogue Assassin), and Karlach (respec to Warrior Battlemaster).

Everywhere around these forums I keep seeing how great Rogue is, how they have so many attacks, single-handedly winning combats, etc etc. and I feel like I had to have committed some serious suckage (kinda proving Tactician is too easy, btw, players as trash at the game and system as me shouldn't be able to manage without cheese and I cheesed a whole of 1 fight in the game plus used 0 barrels and didn't even have Hunger of Hadar on anyone :>), because the only times Astarion did something above meh in fights was sometimes I got to open with a sneak attack buffed by Luck of Far Realms and kill some weaker enemy.

Cue combat, I'd just reposition him if need be to Cunning Action: Hide and do a sneak attack or just do a sneak attack due to advantage by someone else's proximity to the enemy. Many times, when there was no proximity, just hiding didn't do shit, because of various other factors "lack advantage/can't have disadvantage" or whatnot, so all he could do was 1 normal attack. In both cases he sometimes got to attack with the off-hand crossbow for some amazing single-digit damage, lol.

Meanwhile Karlach had 3 attacks per turn, doing comparable damage to a sneak attack (and far higher than non-sneak), and an option to make 6 of them once per short rest. Her attacks disarmed, fightened, pushed enemies away, provided advantage, were buffed by smite, what have you. She *demolished* enemies while Astarion tickled them.

Gale and my Sorc could control the battlefield, or dish out AoE damage (well-placed firewall could remove several enemies alone and it could be topped off with fireballs or other goodies) or summon elementals.

When I had Shadowheart in team for her quests she did more damage than Astarion as a damn cleric, and she also had useful summons, damage aura, and healing/buffing!

Soo.... what the heck am I missing about Rogue? Sure, it's mobile and can run further but... where are the attacks? Did I pick wrong feats? (had Sharpshooter, kept it turned off half the game due to low hit chance on stronger enemies...)

Please explain for the noob

It doesn't look to me like Rogues get additional attacks? Not on the main list, anyway. They do get an extra bonus action at level 3, though. I'm still low level, so I don't have firsthand experience with Amazing Rogueage yet, but some ideas:

1. My Ranger/Rouge carries 3 crates (1 long, 2 cubes) so I can stack and climb on top of them to get High Ground during the fight.

2. My Cleric/Wizard and Ranger/Rouge both summon Crows that can Blind opponents, providing advantage. Then, SNEAK ATTACK!

3. My husband's Druid casts Fairy Fire, giving us advantage again. Then, SNEAK ATTACK!

4. For Archery Rogues, use the special arrows (fire, ice, acid, Ilmater, etc.) to deal extra damage, splash damage, prevent healing, etc.

What's overpowered?
- Starting at level 3, get 2 bonus actions per round. This lets you drink an extra potion, go back into Hide, and more!
- Cunning Action: Hide, Dash, and Disengage are bonus actions instead of full actions.
- Sneak Attack keeps doing more and more damage, the more levels of Rogue you have

I don't know that a Rogue can solo the game, mind you - I'm not sure any class can solo the whole game. Maybe I'm wrong.

But you can't use arrows *and* sneak attack together, can you? I used them when I had no sneak attack option or the thunder things to try and knock someone off, but that doesn't come close to the damage my other characters could dish out in the same turn. Hmpf.

The box strat is hilarious though, love it! Imagine someone coming to battle, raise one finger in "wait a sec", then start pulling out planks from the backpack and building a box tower, climbing upon it, giving a thumbs up to enemies and starting to blast

I definitely have seen sneak attack fire with special arrows (using the “reaction” trigger for sneak attacking, as it’s true it can’t be actively selected). Not that I use them often, as my multi-class sorceror/rogue is usually casting spells with her actions.

I multiclassed Astarion as a 4th level Thief (for the extra bonus action), and then gave him 8 levels of fighter.

He's pretty amazing. Four feats, bonus actions, extra attack. He currently has an armor class of 25 just walking around, without a shield. Two hand crossbows. Really, he keeps pace with Lae'zel's damage output, easily, and I can't recall the last time he failed a lockpicking roll.

I have the sneak attack on "ask," so I get it something from it pretty much every turn, and even on opportunity attacks.

Between him, Lae'zel, and my main character, the game actually feels way too easy. I also have Shadowheart in my party, but she functions more as support.

Oh yeah, I had forgotten you can't use the special arrows to sneak attack. You can drop a candle (free action), light it (free action), and dip your arrow in it (bonus action) though! Then you can sneak attack with a flaming arrow!

I respecced astarion to thief/gloomstalker and it works well enough.

Only lvl 5 atm(got chronic restartitis).

I think the meta is Thief Rogue with two hand crossbows. Using two lets you shoot the offhand with a bonus action, Thief gets two bonus actions, so you can get three attacks. Granted only one will have sneak attack damage. You can buff the attack damage with Sharpshooter for -5 to hit and +10 damage, which is very nice if you have advantage. If you're using one bonus action to hide, then you still have two attacks.

There's also that hunter's bow that gives you advantage free against monstrosities.

A single-classed Rogue (Thief to get extra bonus action) gets the most out of their sneak attacks (keep in mind that if you multi-class, you don't benefit from the increased sneak attack damage that goes up every few levels - you're basically throwing away free damage) and three attacks per round. [Not saying you must single-class, just saying make sure you take everything into account]

Dual wield hand crossbows and short swords - especially those that increase your crit range and do free extra damage on crits - makes Rogues extremely dangerous. Combine that with the ability to go invisible (Rogue skill at higher level) or magic items, expertise allowing you twice your proficiency bonus on certain skills just make them even more amazing.

If you don't have advantage, move another character into melee range with your target, then switch back to the rogue for sneak attack against that target (if they share initiative). In one playthru I used a monk with high movement rate to just move around the battlefield getting next to targets so the Rogue could annihilate them with sneak attacks.

Special arrows can crit and do allow sneak attacks, and the mindflayer ability that grants a free crit combine for high damage numbers.

There are many large fights that you can actually solo with a sneaking rogue kept at distance.

Not saying you can't multi-class with it, just make sure you understand what you're giving up. Many people combine Gloom Stalker (Ranger) with Rogue, but this means you actually lose abilities (they each gain some of the same abilities, so you aren't getting the full benefit of a new level). Assassin is good, but only on the first round of the fight. Any fight that drags on longer than 1 round, the Thief will out-perform the Assassin.

Keep in mind that multiple attacks beats fewer attacks, even if those multiple attacks do less damage (each attack gives an opportunity for a crit, sneak attack, elemental damage from magic items/spells/abilities, etc). And multiple attacks protect against bad dice rolls resulting in a miss (no damage inflicted). Be careful with Sharpshooter. There's a saying, "You can't miss fast enough to win a gun fight." Sharpshooter is only a good idea if you're fighting something with a low enough AC to still hit with a 25% penalty on your attempt. Against big baddies with really high ACs, turn off sharpshooter. I would argue that Crossbow Expert and get to a 20 dex is better for a rogue than going with Sharpshooter (unless you already have a 20 Dex and Crossbow Expert, then go ahead).