Advice on making a dagger specialist

[Dudewithknives]

Ok, so here is the plan.

I want to build a character that specializes in using daggers, and only daggers.

I want a guy who is stealthy, relies on his dagger or daggers to handle all situations.
A predominately melee and sometimes thrower if needed, but as far as magic goes, buffing himself and utility is fine, but not really looking to be a straight caster.

Some guidelines:

1 dagger or dual daggers is fine
I am not looking to wear anything more than light armor, would even be happier with no armor at all.
No crazy 3 or 4 class builds, a dip is fine but nothing crazy.
Normal point buy stats
Starts at level 1 but game will go to 16 or so.
Anything published or UA is fine.
No race restrictions as long as it is official D&D so no planeshift but everything else is fine.
Would REALLY prefer to have dark vision.
Poison use would be nice.

Some things I thought might work but feel free to critique or add to:

Tabaxi Kensei who uses a dagger as his Kensei weapon. Not optimal at all but it makes thematic sense.
High Elf Arcane Trickster rogue, is nice but has to wait a long time to get the good buff spells.
Any race really, Eldritch Knight, Daggers are not exactly optimal but I like the idea of having daggers I can just summon and dismiss when needed.
High Elf Soulknife: everything I have seen about Mysitc points that they dropped the ball on the squlknife subclass, they get medium armor for no reason at all, and do not even get their own disciplines.

Additional Info:

My GM is rather cool with reflavoring. Ex if I cast Eldritch Blast he would be fine with it being that I magically create a handful of magic daggers and throw them.
He is also rather open with the idea of multi classing to the point that he does not make anyone meet the stat requirements.

Any info would be nice.
Especially on the idea of making a soulknife work, i like the theme and the flavor but do not care for the mechanics.

[nickl_2000]

Why not a Shadow Monk? You would be sneaky, get Darkness for Ki, be able to shadow teleport, and Daggers are a Monk weapon by default. You wouldn't really be behind in damage due to it being a Monk weapon.

[Aett_Thorn]

Well, Monks get better damage dice to use with daggers as they level up (even if they throw them), so using a Monk as a base might work. However, you would be getting additional unarmed attacks, so not sure if you're cool with that. Shadow Monk allows you to pop around and throw daggers at foes from a distance, or allows you to pop up behind them and attack them in the back. From there:

Multi-classing with Rogue would allow you to do some sneak attack damage, gain expertise in Stealth and another skill, and some other useful features.

Multi-classing with Ranger up to level 3 would give you access to Hunter's Mark, Favored Enemies (especially with revised ranger), and if you go Hunter Ranger you can either gain an additional 1d8 damage to a damaged foe, or you can make another dagger attack against a nearby enemy (allowing you to make up to 5 attacks per round).

[SaA]

You could go for

Intelligence and Dex

for a Wizard-Blade Singer / Rogue - Swashbuckler / With a Dip into Mystic for Mastery of Wood and Earth which gives you +1AC , which will stack with your Dex Ac and the extra Ac you get with Blade singer. and the Ability Animate Weapon

Animate Weapon (1–7 psi). As an action, your
mind seizes control of a one-handed melee
weapon you’re holding. The weapon flies toward
one creature you can see within 30 feet of you
and makes a one-handed melee weapon attack
against it, using your discipline attack modifier
for the attack and damage rolls. On a hit, the
weapon deals its normal damage, plus an extra
1d10 force damage per psi point spent on this
ability. The weapon returns to your grasp after it
attacks.

this would give you lots of safety to make up for lack of damage being dagger focused. You would be slipperly like a buttered fox

[Dudewithknives]

Why not a Shadow Monk? You would be sneaky, get Darkness for Ki, be able to shadow teleport, and Daggers are a Monk weapon by default. You wouldn't really be behind in damage due to it being a Monk weapon.

Nothing wrong with a Shadow Monk, they work really well.

Their constant teleporting through shadows I find a little cheesy. Nothing will piss of a DM more than going, "nah, you can't capture me, I just teleport away."

I was not a huge WOW player but thing more Combat Rogue instead of Subtlety Rogue.

[mephnick]

I mean Rogues are pretty much the best dagger class because your weapon die is pretty meaningless compared to your Sneak Attack roll.

I'd go straight up Arcane Trickster with booming blade and buffs.

[Spacehamster]

1 Fighter 19 shadow monk, pick dueling or mariner combat style. :)

[JPicasso]

I've been letting our thief use his cunning (bonus) action to draw and throw a dagger in combat. Not unbalanced. (Or at least it hasn't been abused yet.)
Perhaps your DM could be open to that idea also.

edit: We did say he needed to start his turn with an empty hand.

[tkuremento]

Not necessarily advice but just how I like making a thrower in 5e. I like EK 3/Inquisitive Rogue 17. I've played it 4 to Rogue before getting the 3 to EK. This is so you can on the first turn use Insightful Fighting as a bonus action to be able to get sneak attack on them regardless of advantage or nearby ally. Then you throw the dagger. On following turns you use the Weapon Bond recall as a bonus action and then throw again. Repeat until Insightful Fighting wears off or you target someone else with it. On the turn IF needs to be used again, well you can use your non-bonus action to use Insightful fighting instead and bonus action recall, or use that normal action for a spell since you are EK3.

And being Inquisitive gives one the ability to be a Rogue without their archetype making them feel like a criminal, though you could use their various features for evil if you ever needed. OH, and keeping Rogue to 17 if you ever make it to level 20 is so that your "capstone" is an extra 2d6 to sneak attack of the Insightful Fighting target, which basically makes up for the lost dice from the multiclassing.

[Easy_Lee]

I'm also in the Shadow Monk / Rogue camp, specifically six levels in Shadow Monk and the rest in Rogue. This combo nets you unparalleled stealth and D6 dagger damage. Rogue benefits from extra attack, pass without trace, darkness, and the added AC. Monk benefits from sneak attack, cunning action, uncanny dodge, and expertise (stealth + perception). Should you go Thief rogue, you can also use items (such as poison) as a bonus action. It's a gold star multiclass.

[Finieous]

I mean Rogues are pretty much the best dagger class because your weapon die is pretty meaningless compared to your Sneak Attack roll.

I'd go straight up Arcane Trickster with booming blade and buffs.

Yup. And an owl.

[Dudewithknives]

I'm also in the Shadow Monk / Rogue camp, specifically six levels in Shadow Monk and the rest in Rogue. This combo nets you unparalleled stealth and D6 dagger damage. Rogue benefits from extra attack, pass without trace, darkness, and the added AC. Monk benefits from sneak attack, cunning action, uncanny dodge, and expertise (stealth + perception). Should you go Thief rogue, you can also use items (such as poison) as a bonus action. It's a gold star multiclass.

I forgot a out shadow monk being able to silence as well, that is some kind of nice.

The only reason I do not just go straight rogue is because I am notorious for having horrible dice rolls and 2 attack a turn normally means I am going to be doing nothing half the time.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Instead of shadow monk, why not open hand? Your dex is still going to be crazy high, it doesn't have abilities that have weird flavor, and you can easily explain the unarmed attack portion, stuns, and open hand shenanigans as some crazy dagger CQB, like pommel strikes, elbow checks, and trips.

[Easy_Lee]

Instead of shadow monk, why not open hand? Your dex is still going to be crazy high, it doesn't have abilities that have weird flavor, and you can easily explain the unarmed attack portion, stuns, and open hand shenanigans as some crazy dagger CQB, like pommel strikes, elbow checks, and trips.

Open Hand occurred to me as well, and would allow open hand flurry trip into sneak attack (two attempts, works well against high con foes). However, open hand doesn't get spells or the shadow step that have synergies with rogue, and for that reason I find it less attractive for a dip.

[Laereth]

If you'd rather be fully mundane, I kinda like a multiclass of fighter (battlemaster) and rogue (assassin).
The rogue part lends the sneakiness (expertise in stealth) and the awesome sneak attack damage,
while the battlemaster's maneuvers can be reflavored as tricks:
- Throw a dagger at his head to make him dodge where you want him (feint attack)
- Disarm an opponent with a dagger throw
- etc.

All in all I find both classes mesh well for a "dagger fighter".

[Moosoculars]

So what about a Barbarian/rogue. Fight with a single knife and pick up expertise in athletics and stealth, pick up the sentinel feat so you gain extra attacks in enemy turns and add your sneak attack damage.

I would refluff the Barbarian rage as a knife kata, a deadly series of moves which completely focuses you on knife fighting both offensive (+2 damage) and defense (resistance), but you can't break your focus on the kata (cast spells). Later Barbarian abilities are better katas (bear totem resistance) for example.

Assassin rogue gets you poison use

You would be quite a good tank (with uncanny dodge halving damage and resistance halving it again).

You can walk up to someone and slam them to the ground and knife them or work from the shadows with good stealth and poison / assassinate them.

Oh and if you want no armour Barbarian gives you that.

I think it is very playable to Barbarian 5 rogue 7. Here personally I would add a fighter dip for dueling, action surge, second wind, and battle master maneuvers for extra dice on a crit (assassinate) and more combat utility generally - but you might not want the third class.

[Mortis_Elrod]

For this i like some mixes of a few favorite classes.

Soul knife X / Kensai X

High level in soul knife makes you more psionic and more levels in Kensai makes your soul knives base die go up. You can go for Wisdom build if you value stunning strike and want monk AC or you can go for INT build making use of disciplines and mastery of Force for your ac (14+dex), Either way dex is your stat here.


Soul Knife X / Rogue X

This works as well as anything using soul knifes as a base damage increase than regular daggers. You dont have extra attack but rogues never really needed it (it just helped). Any subclass can really do here as you damage is from SA or spending psi points. Also cunning action is great.


The above builds don't include some throwing options. So take that into account. Also the soul knife has access to poison and acid i believe through the corrosive metabolism discipline.

Rogue X / Hexblade X

So this is a bit unorthodox but...According to the wording As long as you attack with a melee weapon (dagger) you can use your charisma for attack and damage rolls. Which means that even if you throw a dagger you can use your charisma. Of course this makes for an interesting interaction because you can also pick up the smite invocation to make an epic dagger throw which then prones the enemy (because you hit it so hard). Then you run up and finish the job (since you have advantage now unless prone doesn't give it. Whats also cool is that you can go blade pact and have one of your daggers constantly change into different weapons. Obviously not very practical since it takes an action to do it but sill pretty cool.
Swashbuckler adds in better charisma, Arcane trickster adds in more spells and slots. Pick your poison.

Monk X / Rogue X

Simple combo here good for the reasons its always been good. Shadow is the go to for the standard reasons that are both thematic and mechanical. Add in 2 levels of warlock for devil sight or dip into mystic and grab mastery of light and darkness (or dip into shadow sorcerer).

Barb/Rogue
This is a good mix. Rage adds some extra damage that you may or may not like but what every rogue likes is the defense boost for going barb. Daggers are good for non dex as well though you may wish you had handaxes unless you want to go heavy rogue and use daggers for SA delivery.

Ranger / Rogue
I see alot of people keep forgetting about this class when discussing builds, but ranger (revised anyway) is cool. Deep stalker will give you that extra sneakyness you didnt need as well as the ambush factor, and the other subclasses are cool too i guess. You also get a fighting style which is as of yet been mentioned in my post.

Paladin / Rogue
Nothing wrong with a dexadin though no reason not to go strength if you want that heavy armor. Smiting is some nice addiional dice as well as general paladin aura boost your defenses which are already nice. tables do them different but i see nothing wrong with this fluff wise. vengence is good but the others are also good for different reasons.

Blade Bard X/ Rogue
So blade flourishes can be super useful. Sadly you won't be twfing but maybe xanathar's will fix that.

Anyway those are my go to options. Fighter and Wizard might have some cool stuff but i rarely play those classes...

[The Shadowdove]

Straight fighter. Take a ton of feats. Take advantage of the mobile feat. Critical a ton with champion, or control the battlefield with battle master. You have competitive hp and con proficiency.

Two or three level dip on rogue grants expertise acrobatics and more importantly DASH OR DISENGAGING AS BONUS ACTION.

The class is just a chassis for a character. It doesn't have to be a complex class to have a sweet character backstory/genuinely interesting character roleplay.