Rogue Archetype - Tumblr Posts
The Unseen Seer was one of my favorite prestige classes back in 3.5, so I decided to update it for 5e. If you can’t cast, you’ll go in yourself, of course… But isn’t it much more fun to sit back and let your invisible eyes do all the work? In case tumblr destroys the document, click through here: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/ryieTfmqW Alternatively, check me out on: https://5eforge.wixsite.com/foundry
The Unseen Seer was one of my favorite prestige classes back in 3.5, so I decided to update it for 5e. If you can’t cast, you’ll go in yourself, of course... But isn’t it much more fun to sit back and let your invisible eyes do all the work? In case tumblr destroys the document, click through here: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/ryieTfmqW Alternatively, check me out on: https://5eforge.wixsite.com/foundry
Conversion Kit: The Assassin
Continuing my Conversion Kit series of articles, we discuss the Assassin subclass! Turn any character into a master of ambushes and terribly efficient killer with just three levels of Rogue.
Below the readmore, you can find Additional Support for this kit, as well as Pitfalls and Character Suggestions.
Kit Overview
Investment Type: Multiclass Dip
Minimum Investment: Take 3 Levels of Rogue, selecting the Assassin archetype at level 3.
Overall Impact: Your character now has the mechanical backing to follow through on clever schemes with lethal force.
Investment
Much like our last conversion kit, once you select the Assassin subclass, you can immediately set off to do what assassins do best. Once again, you'll need to satisfy the multiclassing requirement- just a score of 13 in Dexterity, plus a score of 13 in whatever attribute your other class of choice requires.
You don't necessarily need a Dexterity higher than this, but remember that your bonus to Stealth rolls keys off of it. You can mitigate the problems of a low Dexterity score by taking proficiency in Stealth and using the Rogue's Expertise feature to double your proficiency bonus.
Truth be told, you can abandon Stealth entirely if it doesn't fit your concept. However, you'll want to keep in mind that the assassin's primary feature requires Surprise. While by the Rules as Written, Stealth is the only way to gain surprise, many GMs will allow betrayals or sudden strikes to grant surprise.
Perhaps you can take advantage of Deception or Persuasion to lure your target into a false sense of security, or use a spell like Dimension Door or Invisibility to suddenly appear behind (or even before) a foe and strike them down.
All that said, regardless of the method you'd like to use, you're very likely to want stealth proficiency. It's the least reliant on GM interpretation and applies to the greatest variety of situations.
Narrative Impact
Though the most apparent Narrative for a character using this kit is that of a professional murderer, it is by no means the only route you can take. Your character is now mechanically incredibly reliant on first strikes. Hunters-turned-warriors (such as most rangers) gravitate to this approach to combat by default, but characters lacking the stomach for battle might turn to this path to end fights quickly. Elite warriors might prefer ambush tactics, and even certain paladins may find a swift death to be all that their foes deserve. In truth, you could utterly ignore this kit's narrative impact and carry on as if you had never taken a single level in another class. However, I'm inclined to see that as something of a wasted opportunity to set your character apart- where did your character learn to fight dirty? Do they see it as a necessary evil and regret their actions, or do they believe they're justified as there's no justice on the battlefield?
Mechanical Impact
From a mechanical perspective, the Assassin offers lethal first-strikes. Whatever your method of attack- a greatsword, a spell, thrown dagger- your Assassinate feature guarantees you a Critical Hit, as long as the attack hits a surprised target.
I cannot emphasize enough how unbelievably good a Guaranteed Critical Hit is in Fifth Edition D&D, and believe me, if I had a way to highlight that bolded, italicized, underlined phrase I would use it. I thought about including a gif of someone slapping a desk. I need you to see those words and realize what they mean.
A critical hit multiplies all of your damage dice. If you can find bonus dice, you're going to hit incredibly hard. If you have multiple attacks, they will all be critical hits. A critical hit on a Paladin's Smite or Rogue's sneak attack is a lucky break. A full round's worth of critical hits on a Fighter's attack routine or a Wizard's Scorching Ray is a dream. Get the drop on an enemy, and that dream is your reality.
The simple truth is, the Assassinate feature alone is enough to enable ambushes as a tactic.
Kit Support
There are several feats you can take advantage of to make this kit more effective. However, even if feats aren't allowed in your game, or all of yours are already accounted for, you're not out of luck. If you keep some rules of thumb in mind, you'll find yourself faring better than someone who approached their build haphazardly.
This list is in no particular order. This is not an optimization guide, and I don't want to commit to the math necessary to rank these options, nor do I want to limit your creativity. That said, as an Assassin, you want to look for:
More attacks. These are easy enough to get: engage in two weapon fighting, pick a class that has the Extra Attack feature, or find a way to get Haste applied to you.
Extra dice for your attacks: Smite and Sneak Attack are good examples. If you have your eyes on a higher level Rogue feature, the extra sneak attack dice will help with this (if you're using an appropriate weapon).
Similarly, spells that grant multiple attack rolls such as Eldritch Blast or spells that have large dice counts like Chaos Bolt. Both of those can be picked up by classes that can't normally access them using the Magic Initiate feat.
You might also consider certain feats, depending on your build and game:
Alert gives you a large bonus to initiative. Depending on how your GM runs Surprise, you may need to win initiative to take advantage of Assassinate- Alert all but guarantees that you'll move first, especially if your Dexterity is already high.
Lucky adds some reliability to your assassination attempts by letting you try again when you roll poorly. Lucky is good to the point of being considered 'cheese' by the community, and many games ban it, but there is objectively no better way to ensure you don't ruin your big moment.
Skulker is somewhat similar to Lucky for ranged characters, though not as effective. If you're a ranged Assassin, this keeps your position from being revealed. You'd be hard pressed to convince your DM that the enemy is still surprised, but maybe you can retreat and try again. The other miscellaneous stealth bonuses are a nice plus.
Spell Sniper doubles your range for attack roll based spells- it'll be easier to surprise foes from a couple of hundred feat away. As a bonus, you ignore all but total cover and even get access to an attack roll based cantrip if you didn't have one already.
Actor might improve your odds of pulling off a social skill based assassin, just check with your GM to make sure they'll rule in your favor before you invest too heavily in the approach.
Pitfalls
There's not a whole lot you can do as a player to make this kit go wrong. Your biggest obstacles are overspecialization and, potentially, your DM.
In the first case, there will be times when Assassinate will fail you. Perhaps the situation isn't right, perhaps you missed your attack, maybe the enemy got the drop on you. None of that matters though- just keep in mind when making choices about your character that not everything needs to improve their critical damage. Dealing hundreds of points of damage with your first strike only matters if you pull it off.
In the second case, some DMs are combative. You might have a DM that feels as though you're somehow "cheating" by assassinating big threats and coaxing your party towards ambush tactics. Some DMs will simply grumble about it and you may need to back off somewhat.
Others will attempt to sabotage you, either by presenting scenarios that make assassinations difficult or impossible, overwhelmingly pitting you against foes that are impossible to surprise or are immune to critical hits, or, in the most egregious cases, abusing their power and arbitrarily depriving you of surprise when you should have it.
The best thing you can do here is keep a level head and talk to your DM. They likely don't actively want to ruin the game for you, and perhaps they have a reasonable motive- maybe you're taking the spotlight away from other players or even making the game less fun for the DM themselves (believe it or not, this is a reasonable concern for the DM- they should have simply been honest with you in the first place, but berating them now won't help either of you).
Whatever your DM's reasons, you can likely compromise if they're honest with you. If your DM gives you any variation of "this is your fault for picking a specialized feature" or "it's just the way it is", you may need to ask if you can rebuild, as they're unlikely to sympathize with your position. Ultimately, your playstyle may just not align with the DM's or group's. There are hundreds of articles about conflict resolution, some specifically tailored for D&D groups, so for the moment I'll table the specifics and perhaps update this article with a link to a quality one at a later date.
A Few Suggestions
I don't want to leave this article on a low note, so I'll close with some classes you can combine with the Assassin subclass for some exciting (if somewhat obvious) character concepts:
Way of Shadow Monk: This monk path offers several supernatural abilities relating to darkness, silence, and hiding- not the least of which is the ability to teleport between patches of shadow. If that doesn't scream "ninja" to you, I don't know what will. The monk also has access to Flurry of Blows, which can make your assassinations quite potent.
Oath of Vengeance Paladin: The Paladin's Smite might be the easiest on-demand way to take advantage of your Assassinate feature. Very few of this Archetype's features synergize with this kit, but access to Haste and Hunter's Mark doesn't hurt, and the narrative of an avenger fits well with the style of combat you'll be employing. If you liked Pathfinder's inquisitor class, this may be for you.
Fiend Patron Warlock: Eldritch Blast is always good, but you have an extra edge with it. Honestly, there's not much too this other than having an easy on-demand ranged damage option, but something about being a contract killer for your Patron seems like an exciting narrative. Works just as well for other patrons, but the fiend seems most likely to employ contract killers. You can take the Blade Pact Boon and Eldritch Smite invocations if you want to step on the Paladin's turf.
With some examples out of the way, I'll take my leave. There's near limitless potential for this kit, as there's some synergy to be had with nearly every class, so you can experiment with confidence.
Trap Masters: New Subclasses for the Rogue and Ranger
These subclasses developed in tandem- players are plenty familiar with suffering at the hands of devious dungeon traps, and most editions have had a means of letting players have a go at it. 5e seemed to be behind in that regard, so here’s my take on it.
The Sapper archetype lets Rogues use existing items in ever more devious ways. Thieves may deploy items on a moment’s notice, but Sappers cause devastating damage long after they’re gone, and reshape battlefields and dungeons alike in their favor.
The Trapper archetype puts the Ranger in a position to harrass their foes constantly, and make them fear each step they take. With a set of unique and powerful designs, and the ability to hide them in unexpected places, the trapper takes foes off guard, and presses that advantage until their foes break.
If tumblr wrecks the document, you can view it directly on the homebrewery here.
Check out my full range of content over on The Foundry! If you’ve got any questions, you can email me at 5eforgemaster@gmail.com.
Update: 6/25/20- The Phantom
I'm obviously a little late to the party here, but a UA article was released on May 15, 2020 that transformed The Revived into The Phantom. Because I'm quite invested in this subclass, especially as an example of pushing class boundaries, I thought I'd go over it again and offer some thoughts.
You can carry on under the cut, or read it over on The Foundry.
"Rogues can be ‘born’ rather than ‘made.’"
The most jarring, and to be frank, disappointing change was to the flavor text and the archetype's name. The Revived was just that- a rogue brought back from the dead, while The Phantom simply has "a mystical connection to death itself". The loss of this evocative theme stings quite a bit, especially since what most impressed me about the original Revived was the ways in which it stretched the rogue's narrative boundaries.
I understand the desire to generalize the themes of player options- I do it all the time, and I'm likely making a hypocrite of myself here. But I'd be remiss not to say that I simply find this new flavor bland in comparison to the original concept.
"Bolts from the Grave... read as the inherent magic of a Sorcerer"
All of the third level features of the class have been rewritten. There are several obvious parallels. I'm quite pleased by Wails from the Grave replacing Bolts from the Grave. This new version addresses my concerns about the ease of applying sneak attack damage (you have to apply it normally to get the benefit), as well as my concerns about encroaching on the sorcerer's flavor (driving a person closer to death produces the effect, rather than the effect originating from the rogue's body).
On the other hand, Tokens of Past Lives was one of my favorite features, and this has been replaced by Whispers of the Dead. This is a flavor change- in practice the features work the same, I simply found drawing on past lives a more compleling narrative. The class outright lost a powerful ribbon feature in Revived Nature, which offers a few niche traits.
"I do wish they had found ways to mesh some of the Rogue’s core features with the new narrative more explicitly"
Looking over the final three features for the Phantom, I'm quite impressed with what's happened here on the whole. Creating a death fueled trinket system and allowing the Phantom to use a limited Speak with Dead spell at any time after a creature has died nearby rather than using the full version of the spell and committing to a 5 question interrogation with an otherwise random benefit is a stroke of genius as far as I'm concerned, reducing the drag the Phantom inflicts on the party compared to the Revived.
Ghost Walk is another clever creative maneuver, adding a new use for the trinket system (Tokens of the Departed can be used to fuel the short lived etherealness added by this system). That said, Ghost Walk displaces both of the final features of the Revived.
Audience with Death functionally let you cast Augury while dying, but this encourages a player to intentionally be struck down, which while interesting is a rather unstable side effect. I understand why the designer may have grown gun shy here, but I'm sad to see such a brave feature go. I'm more saddened by the loss of Ethereal Jaunt, as a new powerful bonus action made for a far more exciting capstone than Death Knell, a simple damage boost for sneak attacks. It seems the designer, quite reasonably, thought that Ethereal Jaunt and Ghost Walk were redundant features.
All told, I think the Phantom is a well crafted successor to the Revived. I must mourn the lost narrative, but I'm glad that UA allowed such a bold experiment in design to exist. Truth be told, I'd be happy to see the phantom in print, perhaps with a stronger capstone to seal the deal.
Some Thoughts on the UA Rogue and Pushing Class Boundaries
I have to admit, when I first saw The Revived roguish archetype from the new Unearthed Arcana article, I was immediately put off by it. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to tie the concept of past lives to the Rogue of all things. I just couldn’t get my head around that matchup, and I couldn’t imagine the narrative coming together in a satisfying way. But, I suppose it’s time for a hearty helping of crow- I’ve read the full subclass, and I regret my snap judgement deeply.
The first Revived feature I read was Bolts from the Grave- I was short on time, and after reading the flavor text and becoming highly skeptical, I gave the feature with the most striking name a once over. To my mind, “unleash bolts of necrotic energy from within your revived body“ read as the inherent magic of a Sorcerer, and while I do like seeing class boundaries pushed (the Circle of the Wildfire for Druids may be one of the most interesting 5e subclasses yet), I wasn’t ready to see 5e’s class distinctions break down entirely.
The Rogue is meant, in many ways, to be a ‘mundane’ class. Much like the fighter, any magic the class had through subclasses was a learned skill, not something inherent to the character. The vast majority of subclasses relate to what you do (Fighters, Wizards), what you believe (Clerics, Paladins), or perhaps what you are tied to (Warlocks, Clerics again). The only class I can think of that has subclasses based on what you are is the Sorcerer.
Still, I took the time to read the full subclass, and I see what’s happening here. The Revived redefines a few things about what Rogues and Roguish Archetypes can be narratively:
Rogues can be ‘born’ rather than ‘made’. That is to say, the source of a Rogue’s incredible skill and versatility can be magical in nature rather than the result of experience.
Rogues don’t strictly have to be scoundrels. Until now, nearly every archetype (Assassin, Thief, Arcane Trickster, Mastermind, Swashbuckler) sounded very criminal, or at least mischievous. The outliers (Scout and Inquisitive) still leaned heavily on stealth or intrigue as themes.
(more behind the read-more)
Keep reading
Week 2: Warriors
As we saw yesterday, warriors don’t always fight fair. The Trapper and Sapper are examplars of dirty tactics. This one’s a repeat with a small update. Mostly, I just removed references to items that didn’t work how I thought they did and replaced them with more appropriate ones.
Tomorrow we’ll be looking at another Conversion Kit article, the Battle Master. I’ve posted a link before, but I’ll be reformatting it to post directly to tumblr tomorrow.
Trap Masters: New Subclasses for the Rogue and Ranger
These subclasses developed in tandem- players are plenty familiar with suffering at the hands of devious dungeon traps, and most editions have had a means of letting players have a go at it. 5e seemed to be behind in that regard, so here’s my take on it.
The Sapper archetype lets Rogues use existing items in ever more devious ways. Thieves may deploy items on a moment’s notice, but Sappers cause devastating damage long after they’re gone, and reshape battlefields and dungeons alike in their favor.
The Trapper archetype puts the Ranger in a position to harrass their foes constantly, and make them fear each step they take. With a set of unique and powerful designs, and the ability to hide them in unexpected places, the trapper takes foes off guard, and presses that advantage until their foes break.
If tumblr wrecks the document, you can view it directly on the homebrewery here.
Check out my full range of content over on The Foundry! If you’ve got any questions, you can email me at 5eforgemaster@gmail.com.
Brewfest Week 3: Strange Magic
The Unseen Seer was one of my first brews to gain traction on this site. Today, I update it with 3 Divination Spells converted from 3.5e.
These spells might be useful later, too- if you caught my last post, you’ll know this was supposed to go up on Wednesday, and traded places with the Hedge Wizard. The Oneiromancy branch of Hedge Arcana can use divinations quite effectively under certain circumstances- stay tuned for that in two days time! Tomorrow, I’ll be dropping a conversion kit for Spellswords, so it looks like we’re transitioning out of the martial classes a little more slowly than expected.
The Unseen Seer was one of my favorite prestige classes back in 3.5, so I decided to update it for 5e. If you can’t cast, you’ll go in yourself, of course… But isn’t it much more fun to sit back and let your invisible eyes do all the work? In case tumblr destroys the document, click through here: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/ryieTfmqW Alternatively, check me out on: https://5eforge.wixsite.com/foundry