| HydraKnight47 |
It seems weird to me that the categories of weapons which qualify for sneak attack and the categories of weapons which qualify for weapon critical specialisation for the rogue (via weapon tricks) aren't the same. Rogues can use a ranged weapon to apply sneak attack damage, but can't (according to base rules) access the critical spec of bows, crossbows, or firearms. With the recent changes to crossbows in the remaster, it seems like the critical spec is a pretty core part of their expected damage output. This is made additionally weird by the fact that the arbalest looks like such a good match for a ranged mastermind racket rogue. It's made even more weird in my mind when considering how rogue's combat options just got increased in the remaster - sneak attack and weapon spec on all agile or finesse martial weapons or unarmed attacks.
Taking the archer dedication makes a lot of sense to fill out this particular character concept, since it grants access to crossbow terror and running reload. However, the archer dedication doesn't have a remaster yet. As such, the dedication only grants weapon specialisation to the bow group (RAW). Maybe the text will be changed if/when the combat style archetypes get remastered?
I'm curious to know what others think about this. Did I miss something in my understanding here? Otherwise, is withholding the crit spec of range weapons from rogues balanced?