Rogue Subclass Breakdown: DnD 5e Subclass Guide – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

Rogue subclasses are extremely powerful, frequently granting features at 3rdlevel which define how your character plays for the rest of their career, andoffering a tempting prize for builds which can handle a 3-level class dip.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Rogue Subclasses
  • Arcane Trickster (PHB)
  • Assassin (PHB)
  • Inquisitive (XGtE)
  • Phantom (TCoE)
  • Mastermind (SCAG / XGtE)
  • Scout (XGtE)
  • Soulknife (TCoE)
  • Swashbuckler (SCAG / XGtE)
  • Thief (PHB)

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Rogue Subclasses

Arcane Trickster ^(PHB)

The Arcane Trickster brings magic to the Rogue. Enchantment and Illusionspells both offer fantastic options, giving the Arcane Trickster powerfuloptions utility and trickery, but also bringing powerful offensive magicoptions.

Because it’s the only rogue subclass with a spell list (or with any decisionpoints made after level 3), the Arcane Trickster is the most complex roguesubclass to build and in many ways it’s also the most complex to play becauseyou have so many options to consider in any given situation. I don’t recommendthe Arcane Trickster for new players, but managing the Arcane Trickster’sspellcasting is not nearly as complex as that of a full spellcaster like theSorcerer or the Wizard, so an arcane trickster may be a good stepping stone ifyou’re nervous about playing a spellcaster.

Because your choice of spells is so central to the Arcane Trickster, I strongly encourage you to read my Rogue Spell List Breakdown.

Arcane Trickster Rogue Handbook

3. Spellcasting: The Arcane Trickstersdefining feature. You’re limited almost exclusively to Enchantment andIllusion spells for your leveled spells, but both of those schools work verywell for Arcane Tricksters. When selecting spells, remember that SneakAttack requires Dexterity-based weapon attacks, so you can’t apply it tospell attacks. Instead, you’ll generally rely on spells like Booming Bladeand Shadow Blade.

   For help selecting spells, see myRogue Spell List Breakdown.

3. Mage Hand Legerdemain: Controlling thehand as a bonus action means that you can pick locks and pick pockets whileyou’re doing other things like fighting or casting other spells, and, since thehand is invisible, you can send it off to do those things unnoticed while youand your allies are busy hiding, fighting, carousing, or whatever else youdo with your day.
9. Magical Ambush: Since your spell DC likelywon’t be as good as that of a dedicated spellcaster, this can really do a lotto improve the reliability of your spells. I’m still nervous to recommendspells which require saving throws as a go-to option for the ArcaneTrickster, but mathematically it makes sense. Disadvantage works out toslightly more than a -3 penalty, so if your Intelligence is 14 or higheryour spells can be roughly as reliable as those of a wizard with 20Intelligence.
13. Versatile Trickster: Advantage allows youto Sneak Attack the target, which is primary appeal of Versatile Trickster. However,it has some problematic limitations due to the limitations of Mage Hand.

    Mage Hand takes an action to cast, and with a 1-minute duration you’re likelygoing to do that in combat or while at a safe distance before rushing themove the hand into wherever you’re expecting a fight. This could be neatlysolved by allowing the Arcane Trickster to cast Mage Hand as a Bonus Action,but that’s not the world we live in and a feat or class dip to get QuickenedSpell is too expensive to justify.

    Once your Mage Hand is up, you need to keep the handin range of your target. You can use your Cunning Action to move the hand thanks to Legerdemain, and enemies won’t know that you’re doing so since the hand is invisible. However, thismeans not using Cunning Action, Steady Aim, or two-weapon fighting, and you also can’t activate theAdvantage effect the same turn. If your enemy moves even slightly, they’ll be out of range of yourhand and you’ll be forced to move it again. In effect, your Bonus Action is monopolized by havingyour hand chase enemies around so that you can sometimes get Advantage. And that’s to saynothing of the Mage Hand disappearing if it’s ever more than 30 feet away from you.

    At best, this is redundant with the Steady Aim class feature, and since most rogues only make one attack per turn, theyhave the same benefit. You could use Versatile Trickster with spell attacks like ScorchingRay, but hitting with Sneak Attack is less expensive and deals comparabledamage so that’s generally a bad combination. You’re much more likely touse your hand to get Advantage before attacking when you can’t beinvisible or hidden for whatever reason, and if your DM doesn’t allow you to useSteady Aim.

17. Spell Thief: The obvious use is to stealspells from enemy spellcasters, but, in a game when you might go severallevels without seeing a spellcaster, a better option may be to “steal” spellsfrom your party’s other spellcasters. Unfortunately, this is difficult sincethey’re unlikely to fail the save and it robs your ally of their known/prepared spell for8 hours, so while it’s a more reliable source it’s also very difficult and costly.

Assassin ^(PHB)

Assassins are good at two things: Infiltration and (you guessed it)assassination. If you want to get into places unsuspected or just straight upmurder people, the Assassin is the way to go. However, they lack utilityoptions for handling situations outside their specialized skillset.

Assassins have a weird divergence in their subclass features where Assasinateand Death Strike emphasize frequent combat, while Infiltration Expertise andImposter both work in campaigns where you’re doing a lot of spying,infiltration, and intrigue. This doesn’t stop them from being excellent inyour typical dungeon crawl, but if you’re going from levels 1 to 20 in a fullcampaign you may rarely see some features come into play.

Because their premise and their features are so simple, the Assassin is one of the easiest rogue subclasses to play. They don’t have resources to track or complicated additional mechanics, so if you’re comfortable with the complexity of the Rogue’s core features you’re already ready to handle the Assassin.

Assassin Rogue Handbook

3. Bonus Proficiencies: Both tool kits arefantastic and open up wonderful options for the Rogue.
3. Assassinate: To make this work, you reallywant to go first in combat for that free Advantage. Maximize your Dexterityas soon as possible, and consider the Alert feat. If magic items areavailable to you, try to get a Weapon of Warning.

   Free Advantage is well and good, but what about those automatic Criticalhits? For those we’ll need to work harder. Surprised can be thought of asa Condition and it’s not easy to impose on a foe. By the rules, toSurprise a target your whole side has to succeed at Stealth checks versusa foe’s Passive Perception. Each foe may or may not be Surprised on anindividual basis, but essentially your whole party has to win atStealth.

   This might sound tough, but the Surprised condition is ratherdebilitating even without this feature, and will benefit your whole partyimmensely. I don’t suggest you try to force your party into a Stealthsetup, but rather see if they want the tactical advantages and are willingto try it out. Anyone that can cast Pass Without Trace will do wonders toamplify such a party, of course, but even simply having everyone getStealth proficiency is helpful.

9. Infiltration Expertise: Rules asWritten, Surprised is Stealth versus Perception, but Surprised is also up tothe DM. If you’re playing an Assassin (or if you have an Assassin player inyour game), I would suggest that Deception versus Insight is equally validfor imposing Surprise. You’re not a band of murder hobos, you’re a humblemerchant and this is your staff. And then you Surprise them with murder.

   Obviously this is only useful if your campaign has situations where lyinglike this will be helpful. Many campaigns just don’t have situations whereyou can be an operative on the inside.

13. Impostor: Infiltration Expertise is formaking up a whole new person, but this is for taking over as an existingperson. It should be useful about as often as Infiltration Expertise, whichis to say that it very heavily depends on the campaign.
17. Death Strike: If Surprised is so hard topull off, why is this rated so highly? Well, if you’re playing such a highlevel Assassin, I would assume your whole party has bought into the Surpriseattack way of doing things. With even a small amount of magical support,Surprise is far easier to achieve.

Inquisitive ^(XGtE)

If you want to be really good at Insight and Perception, this is the way todo it. Combined with Expertise there’s no one who could reasonably competewith the Inquisitive’s powers of perception.

However, the archetype offers very little to do once you notice stuff. Itwould be great in a campaign that includes lots of traps, hidden doors, andpeople who lie to you, but in situations not specifically tailored to theInquisitive’s skillset they fall back on basic Rogue class features. Incombat, the Inquisitive’s only new features are Insightful Fighting and Eyefor Weakness. Insightful Fighting can be replaced by having one ally who’sfighting in melee, and Eye for Weakness is weak compared to other subclassfeatures at the same level.

The Inquisitive is a cool concept, but it needs something active todo once it spots things beyond Sneak Attack. As a fix: Allow the Inquisitve toignore Disadvantage when attacking invisible foes which you have targeted withEye for Detail, and add the Rogue’s Wisdom bonus (or Proficiency bonus, butthat might be too much) as a damage bonus against targets affected byInsightful Fighting.

3. Ear for Deceit: This only applies toWisdom (Insight) check to determine if a creature is lying, and while it’snice to have that level of insurance, it’s still only situationally usefuland it’s easy to misread this and assume that it applies to Eye for Detailand Insightful Fighting.
3. Eye for Detail: Finding hidden creaturesnormally requires an Action to attempt, which is a serious problem if you’reever attacked by stealthy enemies which like to hide and snipe at you fromafar. Of course, in a typical party you can handle invisible enemies withmagical options like Faerie Fire or Glitterdust.
3. Insightful Fighting: I hope you tookExpertise with Insight, because it’s your signature feature and if you can’treliably pass this check you’re basically back to core rogue features incombat.

   The effect lasts for a full minute so you have plenty of time to benefitwithout repeatedly spending your Bonus Action on the same target. Even ifyou lose the opposed check, you can try again the following round, and theevery round after that until you succeed. Of course, if you have anotherally fighting your target in melee, this gets you absolutely nothing.

   Compare this to the Steady Aim Optional Class Feature: Steady Aim is aBonus Action, doesn’t require a check that you might fail, and grantsAdvantage on your attack rather than simply enabling you to use SneakAttack. Insightful Fighting lasts for a full minute, but only if you don’t changetargets.

9. Steady Eye: Combined with Eye for Detailyou’re extremely reliable at spotting traps and hidden enemies, but thelimitation on movement might be a problem in combat, especially if you’rebuilt for melee. If the movement issue isn’t a problem, this makesInsightful Fighting much more reliable.
13. Unerring Eye: Wisdom isn’t an especiallyuseful ability score for most rogues beyond skills, so it’s frustrating thatthis ability is Wisdom-based. The effect is extremely useful, but you’lllikely get no more than two or three uses per day, and you need to eitheralready know that illusions are present or you need to guess.
17. Eye for Weakness: Extra damage neverhurts, but it’s not very exciting and compared to other subclasses this is apittance. Compare this to the Thief’s Thief’s Reflexes feature or theAssassin’s Death Strike feature. In a long fight, additional Sneak Attackdamage may eventually outshine other options, but a typical fight lasts just3 to 4 rounds, and you need to climb the mountain of additional damagethat’s being dealt by the Arcane Trickster with bonus damage from spellslike Shadow Blade, the Assassin with Assasinate, and the Thief with a secondturn from Thief’s Reflexes.

Phantom ^(TCoE)

Okay, but what if Ouija boards were a subclass? What if, like, you got classfeatures from talking to dead people? And what if those class featuresincluded necrotic damage and turning into a ghost? Enter the Phantom.

The Phantom is a novel exploration of interactions with the dead as a classfeature, making necrotic damage and death-related stuff available to a classwith no ability to cast spells. Normally, interacting with the dead isprimarily done by clerics and certain necromancy spells. The Phantom has amuch more direct connection to the spirits of the dead, gaining proficiencies,damage output, and the ability to turn (mostly) into a ghost.

The Phantom’s most novel and interesting mechanic is their pool of SoulTrinkets. These trinkets allow the Phantom to fuel their most interestingfeatures by gathering trinkets when creatures die nearby, then spend thosetrinkets for extra damage or to ask dead creatures questions. Tragically, thisfeature doesn’t become available until 9th level. Waiting for creatures to dierather than being reduced to 0 hit points also makes it important for the DMto track death saves for enemy creatures, which is a minor annoyance that mostDMs are happy to avoid, so discuss how your DM would prefer to handle thataspect of the subclass.

Players may also find that Wails from the Grave is underwhelming at low levels compared to other subclass features at the same level. Phantom definitely builds slowly, and may not feel really satisfying until level 9. As a quick fix, give players the Soul Trinket mechanic at level 3 instead of level 9, but don’t grant them Advantage on Constitution saves or the ability to spend Soul Trinkets to ask dead creatures questions until they reach level 9. Essentially, you’re splitting the Tokens of the Departed feature into two. At low levels, the player’s low Proficiency Bonus will keep Wails from the Grave from getting out of hand, and even if they’re spamming it constantly the damage is minor so it’s not going to result in a massive boost in damage output. This change will make the subclass more satisfying to play and will give access to the subclass’s signature features earlier without significantly changing the balance of the subclass.

Phantom Rogue Handbook

3. Whispers of the Dead: The ability to pickup a proficiency on short notice is incredibly useful. If you can combinethis with other buffs like Enhance Ability and Guidance, you can get aroundnearly any skill-based or tool-based challenge if you have time to prepare.

   Most of the time you can leave this on a low-importance skillproficiency, but most tools won’t come up unless you’ve got time for ashort rest. No one is going to ambush you and ask you to break out theBrewer’s Tools and make them some beer (I’ve made beer. It takes a fewhours, and spending one hour to take a nap first isn’t a big ask. I’vedone that, too.).

   See Also

   Rogue - DnD5e.info - 5th Edition System Reference Document/5e SRD

3. Wails from the Grave: Starts very slow(1d6 twice a day), but ramps up exponentially as your Sneak Attack damageand your Proficiency Bonus increase. The damage is necrotic, which is rarelyresisted, and it’s automatic provided that you made a successful SneakAttack so it’s great for enemies that may be difficult to hit. Even as itgains in power, you don’t want to throw this around needlessly. You’ll neverget more than 6 uses (not counting Tokens of the Departed) and they’ll neverdeal more than 5d6 damage, so you need to be strategic.
9. Tokens of the Departed: I love everythingabout this feature. The theme is cool, the mechanic is fun, the resourcepool is appropriately limited but easy to restore, and the benefits are fun,thematically appropriate, and really good. You get three benefits at level9, but at level 13 you can recharge Ghost Walk with a trinket and at level17 you wake up from longs rests with a free soul tinket.

   The first benefit is without doubt the best of the three, and it’s goodenough that you should nearly always keep a Soul Trinket handy. Advantageon Constitution saves isn’t quite as good as proficiency, but it’s close.Unfortunately, the Phantom doesn’t need to worry about Concentrationunless you take Magic Initiate or Multiclass, so you don’t get to waveyour token around every time you cast a Concentration spell.

   The second benefit helps with Wails of the Grave, and it’s easily yourmost frequent way to spend trinkets. Wails from the Grave is a decent bitof damage by this level, matching what a spellcaster can do with manycantrips. However, the Proficiency Bonus usage limit won’t get you far, soyou can destroy a trinket to get a free bit of damage. Every time youthink “is a new trinket worth my Reaction right now?”, remember that it’sa small pile of easy necrotic damage when you need it later.

   The third benefit is basically Speak with Dead, but you only get onequestion. Otherwise, it has all the same problems where the subject can bevague, misleading, or otherwise unhelpful. Very situational, but if youcan somehow make it work it’s excellent. This also has a curious edge casewhere the creature which allowed you to produce the token might be aliveagain, especially in cases where your allies die and a raised from thedead. You might use this to ask a question of a creature who is currentlyalive, leading to hilarious situations where the ghostly apparition of aliving creature appears in the same room as that creature only to saysomething totally unhelpful before disappearing.

   The one flaw in the whole thing is that it falls prey to the classic “Bagof Rats” trick. You can kill any creature to generate a new Soul Trinket,so if you have a bag of rats or access to other easily-expendablecreatures, you can kill them out of combat to recharge. Your DM mightjustifiably make some adjustments to disallow that (requiring a CR above 0may be sufficient, especially at 9th level), so try not to lean on theabuse case too much. This generally won’t work with summoned creatures(they need to die, not just be reduced to 0 hit points), and since deathand being reduced to 0 hp suddenly mean different things, I encourage DMsto start tracking death saves for enemies.

13. Ghost Walk: A 1-minute duration on thiswould be good. A 10-minute duration on this is fantastic. 10 minutes isobviously plenty if you’re using this in combat, but it’s more importantoutside of combat where you might need to move through walls, floors, orceilings while scouting. The 10 ft. move speed is tiny, but remember thatyou have Cunning Action so you can Dash as a Bonus Action. If you can getbuffs like Longstrider, they’ll do a lot to help both because any flatnumeric increase is relatively large compared to 10 ft. and because you canessentially double the effect by dashing without spending your Action.
17. Death’s Friend: At this level Wails ofthe Grave deals 4d6 damage, just short of its maximum at 6d6. Adding thatdamage to your primary target when you use Wails of the Grave means thatyour Sneak Attack deals 50% more damage, though it’s not clear if you canmultiply the damage on a critical hit. I believe that you can’t because thedamage is applied to the target from a separate source rather than added tothe damage of original attack like effects like Divine Smite.

    The second benefit of this feature ensures that you have at least oneSoul Trinket at the end of a Long Rest. This is a crucial benefit so thatyou can benefit from Advantage on your Constitution saves, so try not toburn your trinket the first time you want to use Wail of Souls. But sinceyou get the trinket for free, this also makes it easier to spend your lasttrinket right before you take a long rest. Of course, you could just usethe bag of rats trick to get free Soul Trinkets, so this benefit isn’t asimpactful as WotC wanted it to be when they wrote it.

Mastermind ^{(SCAG / XGtE)}

The Mastermind works best in a game with a lot of intrigue and socialinteractions. The only feature which applies in combat situations or in adungeon crawl or something is Master of Tactics; everything else is for socialsituations. You can scrape by on core rogue class features, but outside of ahighly social campaign, the Mastermind is going to struggle compared to otherrogues. Even in campaigns where the Mastermind is well-suited, you will needto work to make your features meaningful and your DM will need to tailor thegame to your capabilities.

3. Master of Intrigue: A pile ofproficencies which you might never use, but in an intrigue game this offerssome very exciting tools.
3. Master of Tactics: Help gives the targetAdvantage, which is pretty great for a lot of characters. Of course, as aRogue no one needs Advantage as much as you. Using this as a bonus actionprevents you from using Cunning Action or two-weapon fighting, so your BonusActions will always be a very difficult trade-off. A good use case would beto use Master of Tactics to give your party’s Fighter-equivalent Advantage,then ask them to Shove a target prone so that you can get Advantage onsubsequent turns.
9. Insightful Manipulator: A fun way tometagame, but not always useful since in most games you typically won’t getto spend a minute chatting up enemies before weapons come out. In intriguegames this could be a neat way to learn about a creature, but you don’t geta clear mechanical way to make this information useful, so it’s often littlemore than trivia and a hint at how the creature is built.
13. Misdirection: Lightfoot Halflings havethe ability to hide behind creatures one size larger than they are, whichwill often also give you cover. It can be a bit rude to shuffle attacks ontoan ally, but if you’re using a well-armored ally as cover, sometimes yourally may be better suited to absorb the attack, and your party’s Defendergenerally goes into combat explicitly hoping that they’ll draw attacks awayfrom you and your other squishy allies.

    I think the intent is to use enemy creatures as cover while you’re beingattacked at range, but that situation is uncommon, and enemies willtypically choose to shoot one of your other allies instead rather than tryto overcome your high AC thanks to cover.

17. Soul of Deceit: Very situational.Characters in a typical campaign might be subject to such effects once ortwice if they run a full campaign from levels 1 to 20, and even in aintrigue campaign where you might face other sneaky people with options liketelepathy or spells like Zone of Truth, those options are typically limitedto powerful characters and won’t be applied to you so frequently that thisis justifiably as a level 17 feature.

Scout ^(XGtE)

Scouts easily outcompete Rangers in skill use with Nature and Survival, butlack any of the actual Ranger flavor. If you want to play a Rogue in awilderness game, you could definitely do worse, and it’s hard to think of abetter way to make a Rogue that uses a bow. The Scout manages to keep you at anice safe distance, keeping you safely out of attack range while your alliesdistract enemies long enough for you to Sneak Attack them.

3. Skirmisher: Spectacular for rangedbuilds, but less helpful for most melee builds, and since it works as aReaction it can conflict with Uncanny Dodge. Cunning Action can also solvethe same problem, so Skirmisher feels like a miniscule addition yourcapabilities.

   You can’t use this until an enemy ends their turn, so they’ve alreadydone any attacking which they plan to do, and you may have used yourReaction on Uncanny Dodge to mitigate damage from a hit. If you’re builtfor melee, using this often means spending more movement on your turn toget back into melee, so reserving your Reaction for Uncanny Dodge is abetter investment. If you’re built to fight at range, you can use this toget out of almost any creature’s reach, then you’ll still have yourmovement and your Bonus Action on your turn to use Cunning Action forsomething else more exciting than Disengage.

3. Survivalist: Two new skills and Expertisein both of them, giving you Expertise in a total of four things (providedthat you’re not also getting Expertise from other places). Both skills areWisdom-based, and Survival isn’t especially important, but Expertise willeasily make up for a relatively poor Wisdom score compared to a druid or aranger.
9. Superior Mobility: Really helpful inconjunction with Skirmisher and your need to stay as far away as youcan.
13. Ambush Master: Consider the Alert feat forthe bonus to Initiative rolls. You want to go first to maximize the utilityof this feature. Encourage your allies to focus on your target and quicklyeliminate high-priority targets early in the fight before worrying aboutother enemies.
17. Sudden Strike: This extra attack consumesyour bonus action, so two-weapon fighting is redundant. Allowing you toSneak Attack twice in a turn effectively doubles your damage output, whichis amazing at any level. Unfortunately, you can’t Sneak Attack the sametarget twice in the same turn with Sudden Strike, so this is considerablyeasier to use with a ranged weapon.

Soulknife ^(TCoE)

The Soulknife is a psionics-based option for the rogue. Your subclass features are fueled from a pool of Psionic Energy dice which work in many way like the Battle Master Fighter’s pool of Superiority Dice (spend a die to do a thing, and you typically roll the die and add it to the effect in some way).

The most notable aspect of the Soulknife is how safe it is to use Psionic Energy Dice. Rolling dice to use your subclass features is almost never a gamble for the Soulknife, and few other classes/subclasses with similar resources can say that. Battle Masters gamble their Superiority Dice. Bards gamble their Bardi Inspiration. Even the Psi Warrior gambles their Psionic Energy Dice to some degree.

With some exceptions, the Soulknife always get something for their Psionic Energy Dice, and if you fail on whatever roll you often get to keep the die you used. That makes it easy to stretch your limited resources through the day, and it’s an incredible comfort for players who have consistently poor rolls (or who feel like they do).

The Soulknife’s reliable resource pool makes them a comforting option for players who might have trouble weighing risk/reward calculations at the table when handling things like spell slots. But even if you’re fine with those decision points, it’s an all-around reliable and effective subclass with a lot of offer.

Soulknife Handbook

3. Psionic Power: The most important part of the subclass. Your pool of Psionic EnergyDice are your defining resource. You get a number equal to double yourProficiency Bonus and the size goes from d6 to d12 over the course of yourcareer. That sounds like a big pool, but they mostly recharge on a LongRest, and between long rests you can recharge just one die as a Bonus Actiononce per Short Rest.

   If your DM adheres to the Adventuring Day rules, that means you canrecharge as many as three dice per day. Across a full day of adventuringthat’s a small pool to work with and you need to be cautious aboutspending your dice rather than burning through them in the firstencounter. The Soulknife’s Psionic Energy Dice are much easier to retainthan the Psi Warrior’s because they often aren’t expended if you fail aroll, but even so at low levels you’ll need to be prudent about whensomething is worth a die.

   • Psi-Bolstered Knack:Psi-Bolstered Knack This feature is all about being the best skill monkey.If you faila check you can roll a die even if the chances are incredibly slimthat it will make a difference. There’s no waste if you still don’t make it.Every other ability like this requires you to gamble theresource on the possibility of success.

     That said, there is the incredibly nebulous definition of “success” with regards to certain skills. If you’re making an Investigation check and you don’t find anything because there was nothing to find, did you succeed or did you fail? This is a conversation to have with your group and deciding the answer is beyond the scope of this article, but I have a suggestion for how to run it: because you choose to roll the Psi-die after you see what you rolled and the results of the initial d20 roll, my suggestion is that the Psi-die is only considered spent if the results are different after rolling it.

   • Psychic Whispers: So what if your party always had walkie-talkies? Maybe you’re scouting ahead, maybe your wizard wants to tell you where the fireball is going to be before she casts it. Rary’s TelepathicBond is a 5th-level spell, and you’re replicating its effects (mostly)at level 3. Rary’s Telepathic Bond also notably has a 1-hour duration,and you get 1d6 hours (up to 1d12 hours at 17th level). You’re limitedto adding 2 allies when you get this (you’re in the group for free), butthe number increases with your Proficiency Bonus.

     Don’t forget: you get this once per day for free, so there’s noreason to not use it.

3. Psychic Blades: This is your primarycombat option. You can attack with the blades equally well in melee and atrange, and with a range of 60 feet your range is much greater than that of arogue using daggers, and this is one of the best features if you want to be a ranged rogue. The fact that this deals psychic damage is great, too,since it’s so rarely resisted and easily bypasses common resistances tonon-magical weapon damage. Oh, and it’s a d6 damage die instead of thedagger’s d4.

   The ability to make a second attack as a Bonus Action if you have anotherfree hand is great. Two-weapon fighting is already a great fallback optionand since you don’t need to draw daggers to repeatedly throw them youdon’t need to strain your Free Item Interaction every turn to keep yourhands full of pointy things. But the benefits go further. The secondattack applies your Ability Modifier to damage since you’re not actuallyusing the two-weapon fighting rules. Sure, the second blade uses aslightly smaller damage die, but who cares? That’s such a tiny,meaningless difference that I’m surprised they bothered to print it.

   However, this feature does have some drawbacks. The blades only manifest when you take the Attack action, so you’ll be unarmed afterattacking with both blades, which means that you can’t use OpportunityAttacks to get extra Sneak Attack on other people’s turns (unarmed strikesare still possible, but don’t qualify for Sneak Attack) and you won’t benefitfrom allies using things like a Battlemaster using Commander’s Strike or Order Domain Clerics’ Voice of Authority feature. Remember that Sneak Attack is once per turn, not per round, so you’re giving up a substantial piece of rogue optimization. These also don’t gain attack bonuses like a magic weapon, and you’re locked into a damage type that some things (unintelligent creatures, especially) have unmitigatable resistance or even immunity to.

   You can mitigatethe off-turn attack limitations somewhat by drawing and stowing a dagger before or after attacking onalternate turns, but that trades your Free Item Interaction every turn forthe ability to make meaningful attacks as a Reaction every other turn at most.That’s a hard trade, not to mention how annoying it is. You could also getFighting Style (Thrown Weapon) which will allow you to draw a dagger aspart of the making the Opportunity Attack, but that may not be worth thecost to do so unless you’re really leaning into the ability to Sneak Attack withyour Reaction.

   Also, since your Psychic Blades can only deal psychic damage, if you runinto something immune to it you lose half the functions of your subclass.You’ll need to carry a dagger (ideally a magic one) as a backup.

9. Soul Blades: Two ways to turn your PsychicEnergy Dice into solutions to frequent problems. This is also the first time where your psychic dice are consistently useful in combat.
   • Homing Strikes: Use this on the lastattack of your turn (maybe you don’t want to attack with both of yourPsychic Blades every turn; Cunning Action also exists), provided thatyou can deal Sneak Attack with that attack. If you miss theattack roll, you can try to turn a near miss into a hit. If you still miss,this costs you nothing. If you do hit, you’re trading your PsionicEnergy Die for a Sneak Attack. That’s a very good trade a lot of thetime. Even so, you don’t want to use this constantly because it will deplete your psionic dice pool too quickly. Use it when you need it to land that crucial blow.
   • Psychic Teleportation: A bonus action short ranged combat teleport. Even movingthe minimum of 10 feet is enough to get you out of grapples and manyarea control effects, as well as through many tight openings like arrowslits. However, if you need to cross a large gap you’ll find that theunpredictable range is frustrating. Fortunately, you choose whether ornot you want to teleport after you roll the die so you neverneed to worry about accidentaly teleporting yourself above a pit of acidor something, but you’re committing to spend the die before you roll itso look for other options if you’re not likely to get as far as you needto go.
13. Psychic Veil: Invisibility for a fullhour, and you get it once per day for free. An hour is a long time, and youcan do a lot of things without breaking Invisibility, including things likedisarming traps and taking the Help action to help allies in combat. Combined with Psychic Whispers and Expertise, you’re an amazing scout.

    You canspend a Psionic Energy Die to recharge it, but that’s an easy way to spendyour dice very quickly when mundane Stealth checks will often suffice.

17. Rend Mind: Note quite as good as HoldMonster, but about as close as you can get without casting it. Stunned takesthe target out of the fight and makes it very easy to kill them. Since theDC is Dexterity-based your DC will match that of spellcasters, and the one-minuteduration is nice.

    You get thisonce per day for free, but spending a quarter of your Psionic EnergyDice to recharge it is very costly, so you want to save this for powerful singlefoes rather than using this in every encounter.

Swashbuckler ^{(SCAG / XGtE)}

The Rogue’s biggest challenge in combat is applying Sneak Attack reliably.While that’s relatively easy in 5e, there are still times when you won’tmanage to Sneak Attack. The Swashbuckler all but eliminates these times,making the Rogue an even more reliable source of damage. In addition, theSwashbuckler has fantastic abilities for moving through combat, evadingenemies, and even forcing them to engage the Swashbuckler, thereby allowingthe Rogue to serve as the party’s Defender on top of their typical roles as aScount and Striker.

On top of their excellent combat abilities, the Swashbuckler encourages you to invest in Charisma and play a Face, allowing the Swashbuckler Rogue to thrive both in combat and in social situations. If you diversify your skill proficiencies, you can be just as effective in exploration scenarios as other rogues, but you may find that you’re strained for skill proficiencies unless you get extra from your race or pick up a feat like Skill Expert. It’s hard to be amazing at all three pillars of the game (exploration, social interaction, and combat), but the Swashbuckler manages it without relying on magic. Few characters can say that.

Swashbuckler Rogue Handbook

3. Fancy Footwork: You only need toattack the target, not hit them, so if you miss and don’t want tostay in melee range you’re free to retreat unimpeded. Using twolight-weapons for two-weapon fighting allows you to move past and attack twoenemies if you feel the need. The choice between using Cunning Action toDisengage and relying on Fancy Footwork will depend both on what you’rewielding and on how many enemies you need to evade.
3. Rakish Audacity: This is absurdly good.Any Rogue can Sneak Attack if an ally is within 5 feet of the target. RakishAudacity allows you to Sneak Attack if no one except the target is adjacentto you, which means that as long as you’re not getting mobbed you canreliably Sneak Attack whenever you hit.

   As long as you can get away from other enemies (such as by using CunningAction to Disengage) you’re nearly guaranteed to be able to Sneak Attack.Since you still need to be within 5 feet you’re likely making meleeattacks, but you could technically use a crossbow with Crossbow Expert.

   Oh, and as if this wasn’t absurdly good already, you add your Charismabonus to Initiative checks on top of your Dexterity.

9. Panache: Be sure to take Expertise inPersuasion to make this work. It’s worth the investment.

   Tanking generally isn’t in the Rogue’s skillset, but the first portion ofthis feature is a taunt mechanic. The DM could technically end the abilityby having the creature walk out of the 60 foot range before returning, butthat would be a cheap metagame trick, so feel free to shame your DM ifthey try it. With passable AC and Uncanny Dodge, you can easily handlebeing one creature’s sole focus for extended periods, leaving the rest ofyour party to handle the rest of the encounter until one section of theparty comes to help the other.

   Out of combat, you can use this to Charm creatures, making them a veryloyal friend for a very brief period. The effect doesn’t let the creatureknow it was charmed or that you did anything unusual, and since it doesn’tgrant temporary immunity or have a usage limitation, you can use Panacheon the same creature repeatedly to keep it Charmed. If you can succeed onthe initial Charisma (Persuasion) check, this will trivialize socialinteractions with single creatures that aren’t already hostile to you.

13. Elegant Maneuver: Advantage is great,especially on a skill like Athletics which is used to Shove enemies prone.Unfortunately, this uses your Bonus Action just to grant you Advantage, soyou still need to use your Action to use the skill, leaving you noopportunity to attack. You’re most likely to use this to escape grapples, toleap over difficult terrain, or do other fancy stuff like that.
17. Master Duelist: Sometimes you can’t riskmissing, and in those cases this is a life saver. Most of the time you canstill use Fancy Footwork to move away and return to attack later, butsometimes that just isn’t an option and you need to deal damage right awayrather than letting things drag on.

Thief ^(PHB)

The Thief is the iconic Rogue, but that is not to say that it’s boring. AThief is reliable and very effective at the tasks which you most associatewith Rogues.

Most of the Thief’s complexity is tied up in Fast Hands, and if you can’t get a good understanding of Fast Hands you’re going to struggle with the Thief. Be sure to read my Practical Guide to Fast Hands, then load of up on caltrops and flasks of oil and get ready to rock.

3. Fast Hands: Disarming traps and open lockscan typically wait until you finish combat, but using an item as a BonusAction can include cool things like caltrops, healer’s kits, even attackswith certain items. This is the most complex part of the Thief, so Istrongly recommend reading myPractical Guide to Fast Handsto get clarity on how this works.
3. Second-Story Work: Very situational, andseveral years into 5e’s life, this feels like a weird relic from muchearlier in the games history. At this point, there are abundant options forclimb speeds and magical flight, so this is only impactful when thoseoptions are unavailable to you. Still, adding up to 5 feet to your jumpdistance makes it easy to jump over difficult terrain and otherobstacles.
9. Supreme Sneak: If you combine this withExpertise, you are as close to undetectable as you can get without beingmagically silenced and invisible. But as nice as this is, you can replicateit with a Cloak of Elvenkind, which is an Uncommon magic item.
13. Use Magic Device: This opens up allmanner of weapons, wands, and staves which are normally limited to specificcharacters. Go poke around in the magic item sections of my class handbooksand look for treasures to steal.
17. Thief’s Reflexes: Two entire turns iscrazy. You can Sneak Attack twice and use Fast Hands to throw two vials ofalchemist’s fire, possibly all before enemies get a chance to act if yourinitiative roll was really good.