BUILD YOUR OWN WORLD Like what you see? Become the Master of your own Universe!

Rogue

Signaling for her companions to wait, a halfling creeps forward through the dungeon hall. She presses an ear to the door, then pulls out a set of tools and picks the lock in the blink of an eye. Then she disappears into the shadows as her fighter friend moves forward to kick the door open. A human lurks in the shadows of an alley while his accomplice prepares for her part in the ambush. When their target — a notorious slaver — passes the alleyway, the accomplice cries out, the slaver comes to investigate, and the assassin’s blade cuts his throat before he can make a sound.   Suppressing a giggle, a gnome waggles her fingers and magically lifts the key ring from the guard’s belt. In a moment, the keys are in her hand, the cell door is open, and she and her companions are free to make their escape.   Rogues rely on skill, stealth, and their foes’ vulnerabilities to get the upper hand in any situation. They have a knack for finding the solution to just about any problem, demonstrating a resourcefulness and versatility that is the cornerstone of any successful adventuring party.

Skill and Precision

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.

A Shady Living

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, which can be a dangerous job in a world where dire rats—and wererats—haunt the sewers.   As adventurers, rogues fall on both sides of the law. Some are hardened criminals who decide to seek their fortune in treasure hoards, while others take up a life of adventure to escape from the law. Some have learned and perfected their skills with the explicit purpose of infiltrating ancient ruins and hidden crypts in search of treasure.

Creating a Rogue

As you create your rogue character, consider the character’s relationship to the law. Do you have a criminal past—or present? Are you on the run from the law or from an angry thieves’ guild master? Or did you leave your guild in search of bigger risks and bigger rewards? Is it greed that drives you in your adventures, or some other desire or ideal?   What was the trigger that led you away from your previous life? Did a great con or heist gone terribly wrong cause you to reevaluate your career? Maybe you were lucky and a successful robbery gave you the coin you needed to escape the squalor of your life. Did wanderlust finally call you away from your home? Perhaps you suddenly found yourself cut off from your family or your mentor, and you had to find a new means of support. Or maybe you made a new friend—another member of your adventuring party—who showed you new possibilities for earning a living and employing your particular talents.

Quick Build

You can make a rogue quickly by following these suggestions. First, Dexterity should be your highest ability score. Make Intelligence your next-highest if you want to excel at Investigation or plan to take up the Arcane Trickster archetype. Choose Charisma instead if you plan to emphasize deception and social interaction. Second, choose the charlatan background.

Exclusive Roguish Archetype List


Multiclassing


Rogues In Dicathia Lore

Rogue Table


LevelProficiencySneakFeatures
BonusAttack
1st+21d6Expertise, Sneak Attack, Thieves' Cant
2nd+21d6Cunning Action
3rd+22d6Roguish Archetype, Steady Aim
4th+22d6Ability Score Improvement
5th+33d6Uncanny Dodge
6th+33d6Expertise
7th+34d6Evasion
8th+34d6Ability Score Improvement
9th+45d6Roguish Archetype feature
10th+45d6Ability Score Improvement
11th+46d6Reliable Talent
12th+46d6Ability Score Improvement
13th+57d6Roguish Archetype feature
14th+57d6Blindsense
15th+58d6Slippery Mind
16th+58d6Ability Score Improvement
17th+69d6Roguish Archetype feature
18th+69d6Elusive
19th+610d6Ability Score Improvement
20th+610d6Stroke of Luck

Rogue

hit dice: 1d8 per rogue level
hit points at 1st level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
hit points at higher levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per rogue level after 1st
armor proficiencies: Light armor
weapon proficiencies: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords
tools: Thieves’ tools
saving throws: Dexterity, Intelligence
skills: Choose four from Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth
starting equipment:
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
  • (a) a rapier or (b) a shortsword
  • (a) a shortbow and quiver of 20 arrows or (b) a shortsword
  • (a) a burglar’s pack, (b) a dungeoneer’s pack, or (c) an explorer’s pack
  • Leather armor, two daggers, and thieves’ tools

spellcasting:
class features:

Expertise

At 1st level, choose two of your skill proficiencies, or one of your skill proficiencies and your proficiency with thieves’ tools. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.   At 6th level, you can choose two more of your proficiencies (in skills or with thieves’ tools) to gain this benefit.

Sneak Attack

Beginning at 1st level, you know how to strike subtly and exploit a foe’s distraction. Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon.   You don’t need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn’t incapacitated, and you don’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.   The amount of the extra damage increases as you gain levels in this class, as shown in the Sneak Attack column of the Rogue table.

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.

Cunning Action

Starting at 2nd level, your quick thinking and agility allow you to move and act quickly. You can take a bonus action on each of your turns in combat. This action can be used only to take the Dash, Disengage, or Hide action.

Steady Aim

3rd-level rogue feature
As a bonus action, you give yourself advantage on your next attack roll on the current turn. 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.

Roguish Archetype

At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you emulate in the exercise of your rogue abilities, listed at the end of the class description. Your archetype choice grants you features at 3rd level and then again at 9th, 13th, and 17th level.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 10th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.   Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.

Uncanny Dodge

Starting at 5th level, when an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to halve the attack’s damage against you.

Expertise

At 6th level, choose two more of your skill proficiencies, or one more of your skill proficiencies and your proficiency with thieves’ tools. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.

Evasion

Beginning at 7th level, you can nimbly dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as an ancient red dragon’s fiery breath or an ice storm spell. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.

Reliable Talent

By 11th level, you have refined your chosen skills until they approach perfection. Whenever you make an ability check that lets you add your proficiency bonus, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.

Blindsense

Starting at 14th level, if you are able to hear, you are aware of the location of any hidden or invisible creature within 10 feet of you.

Slippery Mind

By 15th level, you have acquired greater mental strength. You gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws.

Elusive

Beginning at 18th level, you are so evasive that attackers rarely gain the upper hand against you. No attack roll has advantage against you while you aren’t incapacitated.

Stroke of Luck

At 20th level, you have an uncanny knack for succeeding when you need to. If your attack misses a target within range, you can turn the miss into a hit. Alternatively, if you fail an ability check, you can treat the d20 roll as a 20.   Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
subclass options:

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.  

Arcane Saboteur

Some rogues enhance their stealth and agility with magical illusions and enchantments to become renowned thieves and burglars...and then there are their distant cousins. Arcane saboteurs hone their magical ability to conjure magical traps and evoke destructive force. Many of these rogues become hitmen and explosive experts, prized for their destructive ability.

Arcane Trickster

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.

Assassin

You focus your training on the grim art of death. Those who adhere to this archetype are diverse: hired killers, spies, bounty hunters, and even specially anointed priests trained to exterminate the enemies of their deity. Stealth, poison, and disguise help you eliminate your foes with deadly efficiency.

Daggermancer

Daggermancers excel in the art of dagger combat and possess unique magical abilities to teleport to where their daggers are. Agile and deadly, daggermancers have unparalleled mobility and an infamous reputation.

Dancer

Your focus is on the movement and flexibility of dance, becoming skilled at rhythmic motion and using your momentum to skirt danger and strike faster than any other. Rogues who embrace this archetype are often performers first, using their skill at dance to awe others on and off the battlefield, but spies, bounty hunters, and the occasional noble have been known to take up this archetype as well.

Firecracker

Long ago, an alchemist accidentally blew her lab sky high after discovering the process to make what we call blastpowder today. Rogues who use this miraculous and explosive substance have sacrificed their stealthy ways for a more potent solution.

Inquisitive

As an archetypal Inquisitive, you excel at rooting out secrets and unraveling mysteries. You rely on your sharp eye for detail, but also on your finely honed ability to read the words and deeds of other creatures to determine their true intent. You excel at defeating creatures that hide among and prey upon ordinary folk, and your mastery of lore and your keen deductions make you well equipped to expose and end hidden evils.

Jackpot

There are those who gamble with every aspect of their lives. These rogues have such a fevorish drive to bet against the odds they can make deals with the greater forces of fate.

Mastermind

Your focus is on people and on the influence and secrets they have. Many spies, courtiers, and schemers follow this archetype, leading lives of intrigue. Words are your weapons as often as knives or poison, and secrets and favors are some of your favorite treasures.

Misdirector

While many rogues are adept with sleight of hand, you don’t stop there. You have developed a natural knack for deception using magic and curious projections of yourself to misdirect and confound those around you. Most rogues who follow this archetype are street magicians, burglars, or theatrical performers, but could just as well be particularly larcenous worshipers of a god of trickery

Mnemonic

Stolen memories are only one part of the services you provide, but the idea is so evocative that the name always sticks. No, in fact you are a broker of any and all information: government secrets, suppressed memories, personal thoughts and desires, or otherwise. You pride yourself on providing your clients with information that can’t be found by anyone else, ideas so heavily guarded that they might only exist within the mind of one individual. That doesn’t matter to you though. You have your methods, and those that hire you know better than to ask.

Mycelian

The archetypal mycelian practices a particularly esoteric branch of alchemy. Through experimentation with spores and mushrooms, you create poisons potent enough to bring even legendary creatures to their knees.

Phantom

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.

Relic Seeker

Your focus is on the study of archaeological sites and arcane treasures. You wish to uncover the secrets of the past and use them to solve the mysteries of the present and future. As an archetypal Relic Seeker, you likely believe that knowledge and artifacts should never be hoarded by an individual, but shared with the greater community. You practice techniques for delving into lost ruins, and for the recovery, utilization, and safe transportation of potentially dangerous magical artifacts.

Ruffian

Some rogues, especially those descended from the larger, bulkier races favor a more direct approach than their lithe, graceful counterparts in the trade. Ruffians make a living as criminal enforcers, extorting the proprietors of their honest earnings in exchange for “protection”. If met with resistance, they usually begin by breaking a few objects, and failing that, breaking a few kneecaps - using the first available piece of merchandise at hand to do so.

Runetagger

You concentrate your efforts on perfecting your art, developing special marks to claim and cripple your targets. Rebel leaders, artists, spies, and other members of the political underworld might belong to this archetype. Originally a tactic for subterfuge and assassination for denizens of the festerwood, those who employ these powerful works of art are famously difficult to pin down. The magical marks left behind become a calling card for any tagger, and as their strength and notoriety grow from their deeds, so too does their renown for their artwork

Sawbones

You have studied the humanoid body on a more intimate level than other Rogues. While others may know where best to stab in order to kill, you also know how to repair the wounds you inflict, as well as how to make them even deeper. You delve into the secrets of the body, learning as much medical knowledge as you can get your hands on, regardless of how dirty the work becomes.

Scout

You are skilled in stealth and surviving far from the streets of a city, allowing you to scout ahead of your companions during expeditions. Rogues who embrace this archetype are at home in the wilderness and among barbarians and rangers, and many Scouts serve as the eyes and ears of war bands. Ambusher, spy, bounty hunter — these are just a few of the roles that Scouts assume as they range the world.

Smuggler

For passage out of town on a fast ship with no questions asked; for securing an item that the constabulary would rather you did not; for navigating and negotiating in the local den of scum and villainy, a smuggler is for hire. Taxes, tolls, and border patrols slip unregarded into their wake. Where a daring journey is on the cards, their quick reaction time and swift wit will serve to speed any cargo through obstacles on the road or sea.

Soulknife

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.

Spellthief

Most commonly found seeking lost texts and arcane writings in the ruins of fallen empires, these rogues blend misdirection, deception and magic to overcome seemingly stronger opponents.

Stage Magician

As a master in the art of misdirection, you are accustomed to being looked at and being the center of attention. You know how to make people look where you want them to look, how to hide things in plain sight, how to shuffle your cards with deadly accuracy, and how to escape any restraints. You may not be able to truly use magic, but your use of subterfuge and sleight of hand make your crowds think otherwise.

Swashbuckler

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.

Thief

You hone your skills in the larcenous arts. Burglars, bandits, cutpurses, and other criminals typically follow this archetype, but so do rogues who prefer to think of themselves as professional treasure seekers, explorers, delvers, and investigators. In addition to improving your agility and stealth, you learn skills useful for delving into ancient ruins, reading unfamiliar languages, and using magic items you normally couldn’t employ.

Trickshot

You are a mystical, masterful worker of thrown weapons; Whether you skulk, utilize a quick wit, maintain the silence of a ninja, or the thievery of a bandit, you can strike down a target within the blink of an eye.

Comments

Please Login in order to comment!