Mike mearls on fixing sneak attack for rogues.
Mike mearls posted this on his YouTube channel and I was curious about community's opinion. Just wanted to open up the discussion.
Sneak Attack Alternative: Skillful Strike
The option below improves a rogue’s overall combat performance. It trades the swingy nature of Sneak Attack with a steadier flow of damage. It allows a baseline damage bonus on all attacks, with more dice added if an attack has advantage. It grants the rogue a second attack, with the bonus damage then applying to two attacks per turn.
Use this option if…
• You noticed that your rogue’s damage lags other characters’ damage.
• You are frustrated by the feast or famine nature of Sneak Attack.
• You want a rogue with a more combat-oriented set of features.
Level 1: Skillful Strike
Rogues are shifty, tricky combatants. They use their mastery of skills to outwit and outfight their opponents. Once per turn you can add your Skillful Strike dice to one weapon damage roll you make. Pick one of the attack’s weapon damage types to use for the Skillful Strike dice. If a class feature, feat, or other rule allows you to reduce your Sneak Attack damage by a number of dice to gain a benefit, you can apply that feature to your Skillful Strike dice. You cannot use an option that would reduce your dice to less than zero.You can also apply any benefit that applies to Sneak Attack to a Skillful Strike. If you have advantage on the attack, or if a creature friendly to you is within 5 feet of the target, you use the dice listed on the Boosted column of the Skillful Strike table.
Skillful Strike Dice
Level Base Boosted
1 – 2 1d6 2d6
3 – 4 2d6 3d6
5 – 10 2d8 3d8
11 – 13 3d10 5d10
14 – 19 4d10 6d10
20 6d10 9d10
Level 5: Skillful Flurry
You can attack twice when you use an Attack action on your turn. You can apply your Skillful Attack dice to up to two attacks each.