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Thank you i ddint had a clear idea of what advantage meant , i even tought of reseting my game because i choose rlgue but now i can see how to better use my rogue
Thanks for the guide. I've been playing solo since BG3 came out on PS5, but have now started a play through with my girlfriend, as she saw me playing and was really interested in the game (which is surprising because she's not really into games). As I've been enjoying using Astarion in combat, I decided to roll a rogue for the co-op play through. There's definitely some nuance to playing Rogue, and I look forward to taking tips from in this video forward. So, thank you. I've seen a lot of strong Rogue builds but none of the guides really go into detail about how to get the most out of the sneak attack mechanic.
Sneak Attack is the #1 reason to go rogue, IMO. ANYONE with a good dex can lockpick / find traps effectively in 5th Edition D&D, so the "need" for a rogue has gone way down from a mechanical sense compared to previous editions. A fun as hell class to play for sure.
Rogue is a fantastic main. Right now I’m rolling with a Rogue, Cleric, Fighter, and Druid. Not really bring a lot of caster damage or AOE (Cleric and Druid have some) but for me it’s a great combo. I’m currently playing Arcane Trickster with two hand Crossbows. It’s the least strong subclass for rogue but it still slaps.
I apologize if this was covered but does anyone know how to switch group mode on console? The toggle that allows a rogue to go in alone if that makes sense. Thank you in advance and great video. I have really wanted to learn how to use Astarion better.
Just a tip if you do the popular multiclass of class X plus Thief 4 to get the extra bonus action (multi smite Paladin comes to mind). Sneak attack scales up every odd lvl (I think by 1d6), so if you have Thief 4 and plan to use Sneak Attack it will be noticeably weaker than a lvl 11 Thief's sneak attack, so it is usually not worth it at end game unless you are solo classing a thief. Also that controller UI is atrocious :)
It’s a very confusing system to me because when they got surprised you should have been able to sneak attack them again but it doesn’t let you. I find myself having to use my orange color hide skill and then I can stab them in the back again. It’s super confusing sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t
When you're invisible you can just walk all over the red and they won't notice at all. Just be careful if there's mindflayers there as they do have detect invisibility BUT they have to be in combat to use it.
@@Renfail Sneak attack can proc on any physical damage, so bow or melee weapon, as long as you have advantage or an ally within 1.5m of the target. The only reason to use Cunning Action: Hide is for flavor or to try and guarantee advantage but spells like Blindness or Tasha's that give advantage will still let you do the same thing.
It's a lot of fun with a LOT of complexities to it if you want to truly take advantage of it. I haven't even gotten into the whole "distract a traget with another character in conversation so you can sneak up and backstab them" portion =P
Honestly I need some help because I'm getting frustrated. While in combat, my game will literally tell me I have advantage with a regular melee attack, in this example let's say shadowstep is giving me advantage in this situation. But then when I go to sneak attack it says I can't do it because I DON'T have advantage. I don't see how it's possible to have advantage with a regular melee attack but then not have it with sneak attack? Any input would be helpful thanks!
Ok I’m confused about sneak attack So I see that I have high ground and even threatened up and I still can’t use sneak attack It says I need advantage but I know for a fact that I have advantage sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and it’s very confusing.
I’ve tried a few times to walk another party member up to get close to an enemy and it enters them into combat before they ever get close. Is that because the enemy maybe isn’t surprised? Or do they need to be sneaking to do so?
Sorry if this is a dumb question but did this tactic get nerfed in a recent update? When I stealth attack outside of combat it still costs an action. Bringing an ally within 1.5m doesn't allow for a second attack with my rogue. Thanks.
Thanks for the quick response. When I sneak attack outside of combat it's still costing me an action. In your video it doesn't cost you an action for the first attack, so I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or they just changed it with the latest update. I'm playing on Xbox if it makes any difference. Thanks again.
@@Renfail the way I read it, it seems like you should be able to sneak attack on a bonus action, reaction, or any special kind of attack. 5e says “with an attack”, not “with an action attack”
I've been using Astarion to solo nearly every single enemy encounter. I just have him sit just outside the vision cones of enemies, and then casually snipe all the bad guys to death. In Act 2 now, and I think I've only properly fought maybe only 2 or 3 battles? :D
I find the sneak attack kinda underwhelming... You have to focus in single target dps and cant really compete with other dps classes (specially if you don't multiclass). Having one attack is kinda boring in situations where you have multiple low hp mobs. Also the sneak attack does not get any modifier besides the random nature of the dice. I find rogue a great class to dip into it but terrible to make your unique class. Also the mechanics of sneak attack are kinda cumbersome, specially for assassin you need to separate, you need to start the fight, etc, not everytime you can do that
If it didn't have rules governing the mechanic, it would be far too OP. As it stands, I can go on killing sprees with my rogue and not once have I ever needed to multiclass to get the most out of the character.
@@Renfail you can do that in very specific situations, not every fight (not in the most important fights). I think that disappoints me the most is that you don't have sneak attack on ur offhand attacks. And dont talk about balance because other classes are way more broken without even need to multiclass
I think you're looking at the main strengths of the Rogue class in general, how it's meant to be played, and calling it a weakness. It's not an AoE/trash clearing class. It's burst DPS. It deals a load of damage to a single target and changes the odds of fights, i.e., it can quickly turn a 4v4 encounter into a 3v4, for example. Granted, I'm pretty new to BG3, but I've played enough RPGs to understand what it is the class does at a glance. There are classes in games that can deal with trash pulls, but then there are classes that also deal a boat load of damage to stronger enemies, and therefore specialise in taking them out. But I dunno, you're complaining about wanting to speed up encounters against low level enemies, but you're poo-pooing Rogue, who just straight up removes mobs from the turn order.. If you want some AoE, try Arcane Trickster. A lot of spells allow you to CC enemies. It's not damage, but it stops them attacking.
@@CakeorDeath1989 I have lots of thoughts on this: First, BG3 mechanics are NOT 5th edition mechanics, especially when it pertains to Rogue. Typically, 5e allows for Rogue to generate Sneak Attacks outside their own turn, and this is not the case for BG3 Rogues, as your SA resets at the end of your turn, meaning you won't have it if you got it as a reaction from say, Commander's Strike. This in itself is a huge nerf to Rogues and almost cuts their damage in half. Second, they don't even do a very good job at being single target burst DPS unless you cheese the AI with Assassin and Gloom Stalker MC. At level 12, assuming a semi competent build, a Rogue will be dealing 7D6+15 or 1D8+6D6+15 without magic items, possibly with Savage Attacker. Doesn't sound too bad, but when you factor in magic items, and factor in the fact that all the other classes scale with the buffs in the game MUCH better (Potions of Haste don't feel as good on a Rogue as it does on a Fighter, for example, and innumerable items that have on hit effects which don't benefit Rogue) and you're left with a class with pretty much no role in the game from a combat perspective. Don't get me wrong, Rogue is a ton of fun and few things feel as cool as seeing the Crit! modifier and doing north of 100 damage in a single attack, it's really awesome. But then I also have to be aware that my Monk in the same party attacks for 21-32 damage and gets 6 of those attacks a turn, and my thrower Barbarian does easily 40 damage per throw and gets 4 of them, and these numbers AREN'T factoring in Haste, in which case the numbers look even worse for the Rogue (oh and btw did I mention my Barb applies Radiating Orb while doing it, and the Monk can Stun?) Now, it's totally okay if none of this bothers you, not everyone is a habitual optimizer, but I think it stands to reason that Rogue could use a bit more. More items that can scale SA damage better, and please let the SA reset after *every* single turn, I want to be rewarded for finding cool ways to generate SAs outside of my own turn, and the sad thing is that even if I was able to do that, I still would be behind even a somewhat well built Monk, Paladin, Bladelock, Wild Shape Druid or Fighter.
people are over strategy. you don't need hide or advantage to do seanky attack. you only need your party member near your enemies. Just follow your frontline melee (laezel or kalach) do a sneaky attack (ranged or melee) and move away.
Maybe YOU are "over strategy", but this is a beginner's guide for players who want to learn and are new to things. Short version: don't be a dick in your comments, mate.
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Thanks for the simple and clear explanation! I had no idea how to play Astarion at all so it was very helpful :)
Glad I could help!
Thank you i ddint had a clear idea of what advantage meant , i even tought of reseting my game because i choose rlgue but now i can see how to better use my rogue
Glad I could help
I appreciate this guide, I had no idea about having other part members close by for advantage i always keep them as far as they can be from enemies 😅
Glad it helped!
I had the same problem. I feel more prepared now. lol
Thanks for the guide. I've been playing solo since BG3 came out on PS5, but have now started a play through with my girlfriend, as she saw me playing and was really interested in the game (which is surprising because she's not really into games). As I've been enjoying using Astarion in combat, I decided to roll a rogue for the co-op play through.
There's definitely some nuance to playing Rogue, and I look forward to taking tips from in this video forward. So, thank you. I've seen a lot of strong Rogue builds but none of the guides really go into detail about how to get the most out of the sneak attack mechanic.
Sneak Attack is the #1 reason to go rogue, IMO. ANYONE with a good dex can lockpick / find traps effectively in 5th Edition D&D, so the "need" for a rogue has gone way down from a mechanical sense compared to previous editions. A fun as hell class to play for sure.
Just picked the game up. Thanks for the guide. I knew I could be smarter on how I approach things.
Glad I could help!
I'm starting a tactician run with a thief, gloomstalker ranger, trickery cleric, and shadow monk. I'm excited for it lol
have fun!
Super helpful. I’m like 35 hours in but just now getting astarion somehow lol.
You got this! Take your time :)
Ah yes... when you spend 34 hours in the character selection screen.
@@mistahwaffles3196relatable😂
Awesome video man, and the voice surprised me xD
Glad you enjoyed!
I haven't even finished this video and I'm going to go ahead a comment. Great video, thank you this helped me.
Glad it helped!
Rogue is a fantastic main. Right now I’m rolling with a Rogue, Cleric, Fighter, and Druid. Not really bring a lot of caster damage or AOE (Cleric and Druid have some) but for me it’s a great combo. I’m currently playing Arcane Trickster with two hand Crossbows. It’s the least strong subclass for rogue but it still slaps.
Very nice!
wow great break down. ty
cheers
Thac0
That brought back memories 😊
indeed
Good guide, thanks.
No problem!
Pretty important tip. If you have the wrong armor on your rouge you can't sneak attack.
I apologize if this was covered but does anyone know how to switch group mode on console? The toggle that allows a rogue to go in alone if that makes sense. Thank you in advance and great video. I have really wanted to learn how to use Astarion better.
Left trigger for character selection....then click the button to split or join party members.
@@Renfail Awesome, thank you so much!
Just a tip if you do the popular multiclass of class X plus Thief 4 to get the extra bonus action (multi smite Paladin comes to mind). Sneak attack scales up every odd lvl (I think by 1d6), so if you have Thief 4 and plan to use Sneak Attack it will be noticeably weaker than a lvl 11 Thief's sneak attack, so it is usually not worth it at end game unless you are solo classing a thief.
Also that controller UI is atrocious :)
I don't multclass, and I love the controller UI :)
It’s a very confusing system to me because when they got surprised you should have been able to sneak attack them again but it doesn’t let you. I find myself having to use my orange color hide skill and then I can stab them in the back again. It’s super confusing sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t
Mechanics FTW
When you're invisible you can just walk all over the red and they won't notice at all. Just be careful if there's mindflayers there as they do have detect invisibility BUT they have to be in combat to use it.
yeah but that's not necessarily the same thing as sneak attack, which is what we're after here =P
@@Renfail Sneak attack can proc on any physical damage, so bow or melee weapon, as long as you have advantage or an ally within 1.5m of the target. The only reason to use Cunning Action: Hide is for flavor or to try and guarantee advantage but spells like Blindness or Tasha's that give advantage will still let you do the same thing.
Wow, before seeing the video... This read my mind 😅. Sneaking is alot more difficult to me than these 'rogue build' video's seem to portray.
It's a lot of fun with a LOT of complexities to it if you want to truly take advantage of it. I haven't even gotten into the whole "distract a traget with another character in conversation so you can sneak up and backstab them" portion =P
@@Renfail Or use spells for distraction and/or fog/blind, etc.! Good stuff as usual, Ren
Ayep! Cheers@@STRET24
Honestly I need some help because I'm getting frustrated. While in combat, my game will literally tell me I have advantage with a regular melee attack, in this example let's say shadowstep is giving me advantage in this situation. But then when I go to sneak attack it says I can't do it because I DON'T have advantage. I don't see how it's possible to have advantage with a regular melee attack but then not have it with sneak attack? Any input would be helpful thanks!
The tooltip has the info you need in-game in terms of distance to mobs/etc.
Ok I’m confused about sneak attack
So I see that I have high ground and even threatened up and I still can’t use sneak attack It says I need advantage but I know for a fact that I have advantage sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and it’s very confusing.
I also want to add that I don’t have disadvantage in these situations. It just says that I need advantage when I have multiple scenarios.
The in game rules are different than the actual tabletop rules on sneak attack
I’ve tried a few times to walk another party member up to get close to an enemy and it enters them into combat before they ever get close. Is that because the enemy maybe isn’t surprised? Or do they need to be sneaking to do so?
Both
Sorry if this is a dumb question but did this tactic get nerfed in a recent update? When I stealth attack outside of combat it still costs an action. Bringing an ally within 1.5m doesn't allow for a second attack with my rogue. Thanks.
Sneak attack is not a second attack, it is a main action
Thanks for the quick response. When I sneak attack outside of combat it's still costing me an action. In your video it doesn't cost you an action for the first attack, so I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or they just changed it with the latest update. I'm playing on Xbox if it makes any difference. Thanks again.
Sneak attack not being a toggle-able that applies to any attack is an unfortunate nerf that imo should not be.
well technically that's just how 5th edition works
@@Renfail the way I read it, it seems like you should be able to sneak attack on a bonus action, reaction, or any special kind of attack. 5e says “with an attack”, not “with an action attack”
I've been using Astarion to solo nearly every single enemy encounter. I just have him sit just outside the vision cones of enemies, and then casually snipe all the bad guys to death. In Act 2 now, and I think I've only properly fought maybe only 2 or 3 battles? :D
That's not really what we're discussing here ;) But yes, you can snipe from out of combat as well, which isn't the same thing as sneak attack.
@@Renfail Yes, that's what I meant, sneak attack, not snipe.
I find the sneak attack kinda underwhelming... You have to focus in single target dps and cant really compete with other dps classes (specially if you don't multiclass). Having one attack is kinda boring in situations where you have multiple low hp mobs. Also the sneak attack does not get any modifier besides the random nature of the dice. I find rogue a great class to dip into it but terrible to make your unique class. Also the mechanics of sneak attack are kinda cumbersome, specially for assassin you need to separate, you need to start the fight, etc, not everytime you can do that
If it didn't have rules governing the mechanic, it would be far too OP. As it stands, I can go on killing sprees with my rogue and not once have I ever needed to multiclass to get the most out of the character.
@@Renfail you can do that in very specific situations, not every fight (not in the most important fights). I think that disappoints me the most is that you don't have sneak attack on ur offhand attacks. And dont talk about balance because other classes are way more broken without even need to multiclass
Nothing is broken. 5th edition mechanics are what they are. @@danielcaparros
I think you're looking at the main strengths of the Rogue class in general, how it's meant to be played, and calling it a weakness. It's not an AoE/trash clearing class. It's burst DPS. It deals a load of damage to a single target and changes the odds of fights, i.e., it can quickly turn a 4v4 encounter into a 3v4, for example. Granted, I'm pretty new to BG3, but I've played enough RPGs to understand what it is the class does at a glance. There are classes in games that can deal with trash pulls, but then there are classes that also deal a boat load of damage to stronger enemies, and therefore specialise in taking them out.
But I dunno, you're complaining about wanting to speed up encounters against low level enemies, but you're poo-pooing Rogue, who just straight up removes mobs from the turn order..
If you want some AoE, try Arcane Trickster. A lot of spells allow you to CC enemies. It's not damage, but it stops them attacking.
@@CakeorDeath1989 I have lots of thoughts on this:
First, BG3 mechanics are NOT 5th edition mechanics, especially when it pertains to Rogue. Typically, 5e allows for Rogue to generate Sneak Attacks outside their own turn, and this is not the case for BG3 Rogues, as your SA resets at the end of your turn, meaning you won't have it if you got it as a reaction from say, Commander's Strike. This in itself is a huge nerf to Rogues and almost cuts their damage in half.
Second, they don't even do a very good job at being single target burst DPS unless you cheese the AI with Assassin and Gloom Stalker MC. At level 12, assuming a semi competent build, a Rogue will be dealing 7D6+15 or 1D8+6D6+15 without magic items, possibly with Savage Attacker. Doesn't sound too bad, but when you factor in magic items, and factor in the fact that all the other classes scale with the buffs in the game MUCH better (Potions of Haste don't feel as good on a Rogue as it does on a Fighter, for example, and innumerable items that have on hit effects which don't benefit Rogue) and you're left with a class with pretty much no role in the game from a combat perspective.
Don't get me wrong, Rogue is a ton of fun and few things feel as cool as seeing the Crit! modifier and doing north of 100 damage in a single attack, it's really awesome. But then I also have to be aware that my Monk in the same party attacks for 21-32 damage and gets 6 of those attacks a turn, and my thrower Barbarian does easily 40 damage per throw and gets 4 of them, and these numbers AREN'T factoring in Haste, in which case the numbers look even worse for the Rogue (oh and btw did I mention my Barb applies Radiating Orb while doing it, and the Monk can Stun?)
Now, it's totally okay if none of this bothers you, not everyone is a habitual optimizer, but I think it stands to reason that Rogue could use a bit more. More items that can scale SA damage better, and please let the SA reset after *every* single turn, I want to be rewarded for finding cool ways to generate SAs outside of my own turn, and the sad thing is that even if I was able to do that, I still would be behind even a somewhat well built Monk, Paladin, Bladelock, Wild Shape Druid or Fighter.
people are over strategy. you don't need hide or advantage to do seanky attack. you only need your party member near your enemies. Just follow your frontline melee (laezel or kalach) do a sneaky attack (ranged or melee) and move away.
Maybe YOU are "over strategy", but this is a beginner's guide for players who want to learn and are new to things. Short version: don't be a dick in your comments, mate.