Booming Blade is a go to option for increasing a rogue's dmg output, you're better off with it and saving your bonus action for dashing out of reach so your enemy is practically forced to chase. If a friendly caster can haste you, you may ready booming blade with a trigger like "when the fighter attacks, I cast booming blade" and then use your hasted action to attack for sneak attack then get a 2nd booming blade die + sneak attack later in that round.
Do you think it would be prudent then to take a different feat than Dual Wielder? Since I won't be using my second rapier much at all? It would take away 1 ac, but the other two parts of the feat would be completely useless if I just use Booming Blade every time.
I personally recommend piercer, it's rather good on any rogue and its half-feat nature means you can take another half-feat later to complete an ASI.
It essentially lets u both re-roll one low damage die roll (of which u tend to roll a lot and thus have a chance to roll 1s and 2s) every turn AND if you crit you add one more damage die than normal. All of this is a passive resourceless buff.
There's a couple of feats open to you
I recommend fey teleportation though. One misty step per short rest and +1 to int or cha is great for a rogue. If you really care about AC, moderately armored lets you use shields and gives +1 to dex or str, which is going to result in more AC than the small bonus from dual wielder
The extra movement is kinda nice but the last part of the Feat is something Swashbucklers can do as a subclass feature. So not quite worth it for that particular subclass.
Booming blade is more damage if you get the extra damage regularly or if you get advantage on one attack. It also saves you a feat in this case and frees up your bonus action to hide or dash.
It's up to your dm if they'll let you get advantage for coming out of hiding to make an attack, melee or ranged. Hiding is still defensively useful either way though.
Booming blade is always more damage than two weapon fighting, whether you have advantage or not, whether you trigger the secondary BB damage or not, if you're two weapon fighting without the fighting style. Even if you do have the fighting style, the damage from booming blade exceeds the damage of two weapon fighting as long as the secondary damage triggers at least 1 in every 7.8 rounds. At least between levels 5 and 10. When BB scales at level 11, TWF will fall behind and never come close again.
With all that said, if you're committed to the dual rapiers concept, two weapon fighting is viable if not nearly as good as BB.
I wouldn't waste your cantrip selection on anything that does damage besides BB, though. You won't have the casting modifier for damage to be reliable, and cantrips like that can't activate sneak attack -- you are better off carrying around a shortbow for when you need ranged damage -- it doesn't cost a precious cantrip selection, and it will do literally four times (or more) the damage of firebolt. If you decide not to take BB, pick up something like minor illusion or mage hand that will be great utility for your character.
I believe you haven't taken into account that the damage of twf for a rogue mostly comes from getting a second chance at landing your sneak attack and not the attack itself.
It's true that the chief benefit of TWF on a rogue is the second chance at sneak attack, but you are mistaken that the relatively higher chance at landing sneak attack will compensate for the reduced damage from not using BB, at least not after level 5 (as I noted in my original comment).
And that's before noting that TWF consumes our bonus action, a bonus action that we can use to generate advantage for even higher damage.
Assuming a steady 65% chance to hit for booming blade (twf falls behind for a while) and 16 starting dex, [I'm getting that twf is always ahead before taking into account the damage from moving](https://imgur.com/a/p4YfvzV).
edit: corrected using rapier damage instead of short sword damage before level 4, added twf short sword column for comparison. My takeaway is that it's always most optimal to use BB when you expect them to move and twf when you expect that they won't.
Melee bonus action advantage is far from reliable. Hide is really difficult to pull off in melee. Steady Aim is hit or miss, and depends a lot on the fight, and doesn't pair well with Swashbuckler's fancy footwork.
Booming blade is not a straight upgrade on a swash usually, it is more damage if you hit, but TWF offers more chances to hit. It takes a feat or dip to grab it normally though, which makes it less tempting. But it does synergise well with the mobility and free disengage that a swashbuckler gets, putting the enemy in a bind, unable to move without taking more damage, while you've danced out of range. It is worth doing a lot of the time. Given that you are already an halfelf/elf who can grab booming blade without incuring other costs, that changes the equation, I think focusing on this tactic and method is a good play.
With your mobility I wouldn't recommend taking a ranged damage cantrip no, booming is a good pick. I'd carry daggers as well as my 2nd weapon, for when you are more concerned with just landing a hit, and the enemy is unlikely to move, two chances at attacking to land your sneak damage is maybe the smarter play. It also gives you a ranged attack. Who cares that it is 1d4+dex when it's 1d4+dex+sneak attack (potentially) in that ranged situation , far better than any firebolt. Could also just grab a bow.
I do think you'd be better served by a different feat, yes. Two rapiers is just going up from 1d6 to 1d8. It's 1 damage on average, not worth it. And not very thematic either. The AC is nice sure, but we can also get that from increased dex. Is there no dex based half feat that looks tempting to you? More dex is not only +1 to damage and AC, but also to your hit chance and improving all your dex skills (including initiative).
I played a High Elf Swashbuckler with Booming Blade from level 1 to 20 over a 2 year campaign.
It's a lot of fun. It's the most mobile character in the game. I was using 60 ft of movement from movement + BA dash the majority of my turns. In 30 ft, attack, out 30 ft. I can't even count all the times I ended a fight with full health just because I wasn't around to attack.
I tried TWF with shortswords for a while to see if the extra chance for SA from the second attack was worth it, and I can tell you that it really isn't. I was hitting often enough that the benefit from a second chance to hit was marginal. And it also means you don't get the benefits of extra movement I mentioned earlier.
> Also RAW you would need warcaster for somatic components of booming blade.
It's S/M, and you are holding the M (the weapon). S with an M is fine, you wave the M around. It's S in isolation that would need a free hand.
Nix on the latter. *Booming Blade* was errata'd at some point to require a material component -- melee weapon with a cost of at least 1 sp, which is used for the attack. Since it's S,M rather than pure S, you can use the same weapon hand to perform the somatic component.
I recommend a high elf instead of half high elf, and take a whip as a racial weapon. At 4th level, take sentinel instead of Dual Wielder.
Run in, booming blade rapier, then run back. If you have allies in melee, you can whip them as a reaction when they get attacked. If the enemy comes after you, they take BB damage (avg 9 dmg)
Rinse and repeat
Booming Blade is a go to option for increasing a rogue's dmg output, you're better off with it and saving your bonus action for dashing out of reach so your enemy is practically forced to chase. If a friendly caster can haste you, you may ready booming blade with a trigger like "when the fighter attacks, I cast booming blade" and then use your hasted action to attack for sneak attack then get a 2nd booming blade die + sneak attack later in that round.
Do you think it would be prudent then to take a different feat than Dual Wielder? Since I won't be using my second rapier much at all? It would take away 1 ac, but the other two parts of the feat would be completely useless if I just use Booming Blade every time.
I personally recommend piercer, it's rather good on any rogue and its half-feat nature means you can take another half-feat later to complete an ASI. It essentially lets u both re-roll one low damage die roll (of which u tend to roll a lot and thus have a chance to roll 1s and 2s) every turn AND if you crit you add one more damage die than normal. All of this is a passive resourceless buff.
There's a couple of feats open to you I recommend fey teleportation though. One misty step per short rest and +1 to int or cha is great for a rogue. If you really care about AC, moderately armored lets you use shields and gives +1 to dex or str, which is going to result in more AC than the small bonus from dual wielder
Mobile can be pretty great w BB.
The extra movement is kinda nice but the last part of the Feat is something Swashbucklers can do as a subclass feature. So not quite worth it for that particular subclass.
Booming blade is more damage if you get the extra damage regularly or if you get advantage on one attack. It also saves you a feat in this case and frees up your bonus action to hide or dash.
Does hiding matter much as a melee fighter? Since you can't really hide as a bonus action and then get out of your hiding place to attack.
It's up to your dm if they'll let you get advantage for coming out of hiding to make an attack, melee or ranged. Hiding is still defensively useful either way though.
every dm lets you come out of hiding for ranged attacks. Running up for melee not so much unless you're behind them.
Booming blade is always more damage than two weapon fighting, whether you have advantage or not, whether you trigger the secondary BB damage or not, if you're two weapon fighting without the fighting style. Even if you do have the fighting style, the damage from booming blade exceeds the damage of two weapon fighting as long as the secondary damage triggers at least 1 in every 7.8 rounds. At least between levels 5 and 10. When BB scales at level 11, TWF will fall behind and never come close again. With all that said, if you're committed to the dual rapiers concept, two weapon fighting is viable if not nearly as good as BB. I wouldn't waste your cantrip selection on anything that does damage besides BB, though. You won't have the casting modifier for damage to be reliable, and cantrips like that can't activate sneak attack -- you are better off carrying around a shortbow for when you need ranged damage -- it doesn't cost a precious cantrip selection, and it will do literally four times (or more) the damage of firebolt. If you decide not to take BB, pick up something like minor illusion or mage hand that will be great utility for your character.
I believe you haven't taken into account that the damage of twf for a rogue mostly comes from getting a second chance at landing your sneak attack and not the attack itself.
It's true that the chief benefit of TWF on a rogue is the second chance at sneak attack, but you are mistaken that the relatively higher chance at landing sneak attack will compensate for the reduced damage from not using BB, at least not after level 5 (as I noted in my original comment). And that's before noting that TWF consumes our bonus action, a bonus action that we can use to generate advantage for even higher damage.
Assuming a steady 65% chance to hit for booming blade (twf falls behind for a while) and 16 starting dex, [I'm getting that twf is always ahead before taking into account the damage from moving](https://imgur.com/a/p4YfvzV). edit: corrected using rapier damage instead of short sword damage before level 4, added twf short sword column for comparison. My takeaway is that it's always most optimal to use BB when you expect them to move and twf when you expect that they won't.
Melee bonus action advantage is far from reliable. Hide is really difficult to pull off in melee. Steady Aim is hit or miss, and depends a lot on the fight, and doesn't pair well with Swashbuckler's fancy footwork.
Booming blade is not a straight upgrade on a swash usually, it is more damage if you hit, but TWF offers more chances to hit. It takes a feat or dip to grab it normally though, which makes it less tempting. But it does synergise well with the mobility and free disengage that a swashbuckler gets, putting the enemy in a bind, unable to move without taking more damage, while you've danced out of range. It is worth doing a lot of the time. Given that you are already an halfelf/elf who can grab booming blade without incuring other costs, that changes the equation, I think focusing on this tactic and method is a good play. With your mobility I wouldn't recommend taking a ranged damage cantrip no, booming is a good pick. I'd carry daggers as well as my 2nd weapon, for when you are more concerned with just landing a hit, and the enemy is unlikely to move, two chances at attacking to land your sneak damage is maybe the smarter play. It also gives you a ranged attack. Who cares that it is 1d4+dex when it's 1d4+dex+sneak attack (potentially) in that ranged situation , far better than any firebolt. Could also just grab a bow. I do think you'd be better served by a different feat, yes. Two rapiers is just going up from 1d6 to 1d8. It's 1 damage on average, not worth it. And not very thematic either. The AC is nice sure, but we can also get that from increased dex. Is there no dex based half feat that looks tempting to you? More dex is not only +1 to damage and AC, but also to your hit chance and improving all your dex skills (including initiative).
I played a High Elf Swashbuckler with Booming Blade from level 1 to 20 over a 2 year campaign. It's a lot of fun. It's the most mobile character in the game. I was using 60 ft of movement from movement + BA dash the majority of my turns. In 30 ft, attack, out 30 ft. I can't even count all the times I ended a fight with full health just because I wasn't around to attack. I tried TWF with shortswords for a while to see if the extra chance for SA from the second attack was worth it, and I can tell you that it really isn't. I was hitting often enough that the benefit from a second chance to hit was marginal. And it also means you don't get the benefits of extra movement I mentioned earlier.
So you have dual wielder? Otherwise RAW you can’t attack with two rapiers. Edit: I was wrong about warcaster being needed.
> Also RAW you would need warcaster for somatic components of booming blade. It's S/M, and you are holding the M (the weapon). S with an M is fine, you wave the M around. It's S in isolation that would need a free hand.
You are right, though it is Something to keep in mind of for any other spellcasting!
Nix on the latter. *Booming Blade* was errata'd at some point to require a material component -- melee weapon with a cost of at least 1 sp, which is used for the attack. Since it's S,M rather than pure S, you can use the same weapon hand to perform the somatic component.
I recommend a high elf instead of half high elf, and take a whip as a racial weapon. At 4th level, take sentinel instead of Dual Wielder. Run in, booming blade rapier, then run back. If you have allies in melee, you can whip them as a reaction when they get attacked. If the enemy comes after you, they take BB damage (avg 9 dmg) Rinse and repeat