Rogue

Rogues devote as much effort to mastering the use of a variety of skills as they do to perfecting their combat abilities, giving them a broad expertise that few other characters can match. Many rogues focus on stealth and deception, while others refine the skills that help them in a dungeon environment, such as climbing, finding and disarming traps, and opening locks.

When it comes to combat, rogues prioritize cunning over brute strength. A rogue would rather make one precise strike, placing it exactly where the attack will hurt the target most, than wear an opponent down with a barrage of attacks. Rogues have an almost supernatural knack for avoiding danger, and a few learn magical tricks to supplement their other abilities.

Every town and city has its share of rogues. Most of them live up to the worst stereotypes of the class, making a living as burglars, assassins, cutpurses, and con artists. Often, these scoundrels are organized into thieves’ guilds or crime families. Plenty of rogues operate independently, but even they sometimes recruit apprentices to help them in their scams and heists. A few rogues make an honest living as locksmiths, investigators, or exterminators.

Subclasses

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Basics

Base Hit Points: 56
Hit Points per Advancement: 14
Actions: 1 Attack, 1 Bonus, 1 Reaction
Casting Attribute: Dexterity
- Arcane Trickster: Intelligence
Starting Kit
- Dagger
- Dagger (Off Hand)
- Leather Armor
- Thieves' Tools

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence
Skills: Acrobatics, Investigation, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Attack Bonus:
- Level 8: +2
- Level 10: +1 (3)
- Level 12: +1 (4)

Cunning Action

Your quick thinking and agility allow you to move and act quickly. You may take the dash or disengage action as a bonus action on your turn.

Sneak Attack

You know how to exploit a foe’s distraction. Once per turn, you can deal an extra 5d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if that creature is currently knocked down, you have an ally that has targeted them in the last or current turn within 1 tile, or if the creature has not targeted you at all in the last or current turn.

Steady Aim

As a bonus action, you give yourself +2 on your next attack roll. You can use this bonus action only if you haven’t moved during this turn, and after you use the bonus action your speed is 0 until the end of the current turn.

If the attack hits, you are able to use Sneak Attack.

Thieves' Cant

During your rogue training you learned thieves’ cant, a secret mix of dialect, jargon, and code that allows you to hide messages in seemingly normal conversation. Only another creature that knows thieves’ cant understands such messages. It takes four times longer to convey such a message than it does to speak the same idea plainly.

In addition, you understand a set of secret signs and symbols used to convey short, simple messages, such as whether an area is dangerous or the territory of a thieves’ guild, whether loot is nearby, or whether the people in an area are easy marks or will provide a safe house for thieves on the run.

Uncanny Dodge

When an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack you may use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.

Roguish Archetypes

Rogues have many features in common, including their emphasis on perfecting their skills, their precise and deadly approach to combat, and their increasingly quick reflexes. But different rogues steer those talents in varying directions, embodied by the rogue archetypes. Your choice of archetype is a reflection of your focus—not necessarily an indication of your chosen profession, but a description of your preferred techniques. Choose your roguish archetype (subclass) from the four listed below. These will be unlocked at Level 10 and reach their full potential at Level 12.

Some rogues enhance their fine-honed skills of stealth and agility with magic, learning tricks of enchantment and illusion. These rogues include pickpockets and burglars, but also pranksters, mischief-makers, and a significant number of adventurers.

Bonus Proficiencies

Skills: Arcana
Spell Bonus:
- Level 10: +3
- Level 12: +1 (4)

Mage Hand Ledgerdomain

You may pickpocket anyone within 3 tiles using your Mage Hand, with no penalty. All other pickpocket rules apply.

Versatile Trickster

As a bonus action, you can designate a creature within 1 tile and distract them with your Mage Hand. Granting you a +2 bonus to Attack Bonus until the end of your turn. This enables the use of Sneak Attack.

Spell Thief

Requires Level 12

Immediately after a creature casts a spell that targets or includes you in the area of effect, you may use your reaction to force the creature to make a saving throw with its spell casting ability modifier. On a failed save, you negate the spell’s effect against you and refunds you one 2nd and one 3rd level spell slot. Usable once per Long Rest.

(8 + Spell Bonus vs INT/WIS/CHA Saving Throw)

Spell Slots

Spells

Level 10

1st: 4
2nd: 2
3rd: 0

Level 12

1st: 4
2nd: 3
3rd: 2

Fire Bolt

Evocation

1 Action

V, S

You hurl a mote of fire at a creature or object within range.

2d10 Fire Damage

(1d20 + Spell Bonus vs AC)

Charm Person

Enchantment

1 Action

V, S

You attempt to charm a humanoid you can see within range. It must make a Wisdom Saving Throw. If it fails the saving throw it is charmed by you for the remainder of combat or until a hostile action is taken against them by you or one of your allies. They may also repeat the saving throw at the end of each of their turns.

(8 + Spell Bonus vs WIS Save)

Disguise Self

Illusion

1 Action

V, S

You make yourself—including your clothing, armor, weapons, and other belongings on your person—look different for two hours or until you use another action to dismiss it. You can seem 1 foot taller or shorter and can appear thin, fat, or in between. You can’t change your body type so you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs. Any changes created by this spell are purely visual.

You cannot grow additional body parts with this spell, and if someone touches a part of your illusion that does not match with your physical being by shape or texture, they will immediately be aware that an illusion is at play. If someone for any reason whatsoever suspects you for being disguised, they may roll Investigation against your Spell Bonus + 8 as the DC to learn an illusion is in use. This spell will be automatically dispelled upon entering combat.

Acquired at Level 10

Cloud of Daggers

Conjuration

1 Action

V, S

You fill the air with spinning daggers in a 1 tile cube. Every creature within 1 tile of that tile takes 4d4 slashing damage.

Dispel Magic

Abjuration

1 Action

V, S

Choose one creature within range. Any magical effects on the target end.

Fireball

Evocation

1 Action

V, S

A bright streak flashes from your pointing finger to a point you choose within range and then blossoms with a low roar into an explosion of flame.. Each creature in a 2 tile radius sphere centered on that point must make a Dexterity Saving Throw. A creature takes 6d6 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one.

(8 + Spell Bonus vs DEX Save)

Flavor Spells

The following spells are included in the arcane trickster's repertoire, however; these spells cannot be used in combat and do not consume a spell slot. They are only to be used to enrich the narrative of your roleplay. For spells that involve affecting another person, they should be treated as social rolls. They are fully consent based and cannot be used to force an outcome in a roleplay scenario. Some are available to a newly created character (Level 8) and others are unlocked at Level 10.

Dancing Lights

Evocation

1 Action

V, S, M

You create up to four torch-sized lights within range, making them appear as torches, lanterns, or glowing orbs that hover in the air for the duration. You can also combine the four lights into one glowing vaguely humanoid form of Medium size. Whichever form you choose, each light sheds dim light in a 10-foot radius.

As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the lights up to 60 feet to a new spot within range. A light must be within 20 feet of another light created by this spell, and a light winks out if it exceeds the spell's range.

Mage Hand

Conjuration

1 Action

V, S

A spectral, floating hand appears at a point you choose within range. The hand lasts for the duration or until you dismiss it as an action. The hand vanishes if it is ever more than 30 feet away from you or if you cast this spell again.

You can use your action to control the hand. You can use the hand to manipulate an object, open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item from an open container, or pour the contents out of a vial. You can move the hand up to 30 feet each time you use it.

The hand can't attack, activate magic items, or carry more than 10 pounds.

Control Flames

Transmutation

1 Action

You choose nonmagical flame that you can see within range and that fits within a 5-foot cube. You affect it in one of the following ways:

You instantaneously expand the flame 5 feet in one direction, provided that wood or other fuel is present in the new location.
You instantaneously extinguish the flames within the cube.
You double or halve the area of bright light and dim light cast by the flame, change its color, or both. The change lasts for 1 hour.
You cause simple shapes—such as the vague form of a creature, an inanimate object, or a location—to appear within the flames and animate as you like. The shapes last for 1 hour.

If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.

Gust

Transmutation

1 Action

V, S

You seize the air and compel it to create one of the following effects at a point you can see within range:

One Medium or smaller creature that you choose must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed up to 5 feet away from you.
You create a small blast of air capable of moving one object that is neither held nor carried and that weighs no more than 5 pounds. The object is pushed up to 10 feet away from you. It isn’t pushed with enough force to cause damage.
You create a harmless sensory effect using air, such as causing leaves to rustle, wind to slam shutters shut, or your clothing to ripple in a breeze.

Minor Illusion

Illusion

1 Action

S, M

You create a sound or an image of an object within range that lasts for the duration. The illusion also ends if you dismiss it as an action or cast this spell again.

If you create a sound, its volume can range from a whisper to a scream. It can be your voice, someone else's voice, a lion's roar, a beating of drums, or any other sound you choose. The sound continues unabated throughout the duration, or you can make discrete sounds at different times before the spell ends.

If you create an image of an object--such as a chair, muddy footprints, or a small chest--it must be no larger than a 5-foot cube. The image can't create sound, light, smell, or any other sensory effect. Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it.

If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature.

Prestidigitation

Transmutation
1 Action
V, S

This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice. You create one of the following magical effects within range:

You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor.
You instantaneously light or snuff out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.
You instantaneously clean or soil an object no larger than 1 cubic foot.
You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour.
You make a color, a small mark, or a symbol appear on an object or a surface for 1 hour.
You create a nonmagical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in your hand and that lasts until the end of your next turn.

If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.

Illusory Script

Conjuration

1 Minute

S, M

You write on parchment, paper, or some other suitable writing material and imbue it with a potent illusion that lasts for the duration.

To you and any creatures you designate when you cast the spell, the writing appears normal, written in your hand, and conveys whatever meaning you intended when you wrote the text. To all others, the writing appears as if it were written in an unknown or magical script that is unintelligible. Alternatively, you can cause the writing to appear to be an entirely different message, written in a different hand and language, though the language must be one you know.

Should the spell be dispelled, the original script and the illusion both disappear.

A creature with truesight can read the hidden message.

Many rogues walk a fine line between life and death, risking their own lives and taking the lives of others. While adventuring on that line, some rogues discover a mystical connection to death itself. These rogues take knowledge from the dead and become immersed in negative energy, eventually becoming like ghosts. Thieves’ guilds value them as highly effective information gatherers and spies.

Many shadar-kai of the Shadowfell are masters of these macabre techniques, and some are willing to teach this path. In places like Thay in the Forgotten Realms and Karrnath in Eberron, where many necromancers practice their craft, a Phantom can become a wizard’s confidant and right hand. In temples of gods of death, the Phantom might work as an agent to track down those who try to cheat death and to recover knowledge that might otherwise be lost to the grave.

Bonus Proficiencies

Skills: Perception
Class Resources
- Level 10: +4 (Tokens of the Departed)

Wails from the Grave

As you nudge someone closer to the grave, you can channel the power of death to harm someone else as well. Immediately after you deal Sneak Attack damage to a creature on your turn, you can spend 1 CR to target a second creature that you can see within 4 tiles of the first, then deal half of your sneak attack damage in necrotic damage to them aswell.

Token of the Departed

When a life waivers in your presence you’re able to snatch a token from the wounded soul, a sliver of its life essence that takes physical form. As a reaction you open your free hand and cause a tiny trinket to appear there, a soul trinket.

You may only collect a soul trinket from a creature once per day. And you may only carry up to 4 of these at a time.

For each soul trinket you currently possess, you gain +5 max HP.

Destroy Token of the Departed

Destroy one of your Tokens of the Departed to regain a class resource.

Ghost Walk

Requires Level 12

As a bonus action, you assume a spectral form. While in this form, your movement speed becomes fly speed and increases by 1 tile. Your AC is increased by 2, and you may pass through walls and solid objects on the first turn this ability is activated. Usable once per long rest. Dispelled by Ghostslayer Sundering.

Death Knell

Requires Level 12

Your association with death has become so close, that you gain the ability to cause additional necrotic damage to the original target of your sneak attack immediately after using it.

Most assassins strike with physical weapons, and many burglars and spies use thieves’ tools to infiltrate secure locations. In contrast, a Soulknife strikes and infiltrates with the mind, cutting through barriers both physical and psychic. These rogues discover psionic power within themselves and channel it to do their roguish work. They find easy employment as members of thieves’ guilds, though they are often mistrusted by rogues who are leery of anyone using strange mind powers to conduct their business. Most governments would also be happy to employ a Soulknife as a spy.

Bonus Proficiencies

Skills: Insight
Class Resources:
- Level 10: +6
- Level 12: +2 (8)

Psychic Blades

You can manifest your psionic power as shimmering blades of psychic energy. If your mainhand is free, you can manifest a psychic blade and make an attack with that blade. This magic blade is a simple melee weapon with the finesse and thrown properties. It has a range of 6 tiles, and on a hit, it deals psychic damage equal to 1d6+dex. The blade vanishes immediately after it hits or misses its target, and it leaves no mark on its target. After you attack with the blade, you can make a melee or ranged weapon attack with a second psychic blade as a bonus action on the same turn, provided your off hand is also free to create it, also being 1d6+dex.

Homing Strikes

For 1 class resource, make an attack roll with your Psychic Blades against a target and add 1d10 to the number rolled to hit. If the attack misses you are refunded that class resource. Allows Sneak Attack on hit.

Psychic Teleportation

As a bonus action for 1 class resource, you manifest one of your Psychic Blades and throw it at an unoccupied space you can see within 5 tiles. You then teleport to that space.

Psychic Veil

Requires Level 12

As an action, you can magically become invisible, along with anything you are wearing or carrying, for the duration of combat or until you dismiss this effect (no action required). This invisibility ends early immediately after you deal damage to a creature, or you force a creature to make a saving throw. Usable once per long rest.

Rend Mind

Requires Level 12

You sweep your Psychic Blades directly through a creature’s mind. When you deal Sneak Attack damage to a creature you can force that target to make a Wisdom Saving throw for 2 class resource. If the save fails ,the target is stunned until the end of their next turn. Can only be done once per target, per combat.

(8 + Attack Bonus vs WIS Save)

You focus your training on the art of the blade, relying on speed, elegance, and charm in equal parts. While some warriors are brutes clad in heavy armor, your method of fighting looks almost like a performance. Duelists and pirates typically belong to this archetype. A Swashbuckler excels in single combat, and can fight with two weapons while safely darting away from an opponent.

Bonus Proficiencies

Skills: Athletics
Master Dualist:
- Level 12: +4

Rakish Audacity

When rolling initiative, your charisma bonus will be added to the total. You also gain an additional way to use your Sneak Attack; you may use it on any target you strike aslong as no other enemies are within' 1 tile of you.

Fancy Footwork

After landing a strike, you are able to move up to 2 tiles. Moving this way does not proc Attack of Opportunity.

Master Duelist

Requires Level 12
Your mastery of the blade lets you turn failure into success in combat. If you miss with an attack roll, you may spend 1 Master Dualist point and gain 1 Attack Action.