Rakish Sneak Attack (Melee)

This article is about the melee version of the attack. For the ranged version, see Rakish Sneak Attack (Ranged).

Rakish Sneak Attack (Melee) is a Swashbuckler rogue weapon action which replaces normal Sneak Attack. This ability allows the rogue to exploit an enemy's distraction and deal extra damage to their vulnerable spots with melee weapons.

The weapon must have the Finesse property, but can still utilise Strength if it is higher than Dexterity.

Description

Deal extra damage to a foe you have  Advantage against. You can also use this attack without Advantage if there are no other combatants within 2 m (7 ft) of the target, or if you have an ally within that range.

You can't use this attack if you have  Disadvantage.

Properties

Cost

 Action

Damage: 2~12

Normal weapon damage

+ 2d6⁠Weapon

Details

 Melee Weapon Attack Roll

 Melee: 1.5 m (5 ft)

 Recharge: Per turn

At higher levels

For every 2 Swashbuckler levels above 3, Rakish Sneak Attack deals an additional 1d6⁠⁠Weapon damage, up to 6d6 at level 11:

• 3d6⁠⁠Weapon at level 5
• 4d6⁠⁠Weapon at level 7
• 5d6⁠⁠Weapon at level 9
• 6d6⁠⁠Weapon at level 11

Technical details

UID

Target_SneakAttack_Rakish

Spell flags

IsHarmful, IsMelee, IsSwarmAttack

How to learn

Classes:

• Class level 3: Swashbuckler

Notes

(see notes from the normal version of  Sneak Attack (Melee))

Bugs

• The tooltip states 2 m (7 ft), but the actual distance is 1.5 m (5 ft).
• This is usable against an enemy combatant regardless of how many additional enemies are near it as long as those additional enemies are not within 1.5 m (5 ft) of the attacker.
  • If an ally of the attacker is within 1.5 m (5 ft) of the attacker, but is not within 1.5 m (5 ft) of the target, this attack will not be usable.
• Rakish Sneak Attack is able to apply twice on a single attack in real time outside of combat. This is done by directly using the Rakish action with sneak attack set to ask.