May 24

May 24 Rogue Subclasses: Creating Homebrew

Header Image: Torturer by Paolo Puggioni

You probably know what rogues are all about. Stabbing. Sneaking. Stealing. Being all-around edgelords with a tragic backstory of dead parents and sworn revenge. You know, those guys. Alright, maybe they aren’t all like that, but this subclass I created is definitely all about that.

A rogue has a lot of responsibilities placed upon them by the party. They are a support class that suffers immensely if they have no allies in the front line for them to tag team with. They are responsible for big bursts of consistent damage, for locating traps, avoiding damage, and sneaking into places. The whole concept of a rogue is that they are skilled and dangerous, but don’t have the survivability of a fighter or barbarian. If they get hit, it hurts. A rogue relies on their team just as much as their team relies on them, and they can be fairly versatile. In fact, their versatility can sometimes have them stepping on the bard’s toes when it comes to social encounters as they gain a ‘reliable talent’ ability that just ensures they at least roll average in everything they do.

Rogue Class

Rogue’s wear a lot of hats and have just as much utility outside of combat as they do in combat. They get expertise in skills, meaning that extra proficient and that much better at it than a regular hero, and can deal a large amount of damage on their turn. This versatility has given them a bit of a bad reputation though, and I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve seen players complaining that their DM has limited or outright removed their Sneak Attack feature. Don’t do that, rogues are expected to get that on all their attacks and without it, they are basically a level 1 fighter with a single attack on their turn which just sucks.

Rogues rely on their subclasses to help define how they are roguish, but not really to boost their power, unlike someone like a cleric. A subclass’ responsibility is to give the rogue new ways to interact in combat that emphasize being sneaky and mobile. For example, the assassin archetype grants rogues auto-crits against targets who are unaware of them, while the scout is good at running away from violent creatures who wish to hurt them… a lot.

Subclasses

A rogue archetype provides features at levels: 3rd, 9th, 13th, and 17th. The archetype is meant to convey the flavor of the rogue with few focuses on boosting their power, only their ability to exemplify their theme. A rogue’s main power comes from their sneak attack and the subclass may find unique ways that a rogue can use it to their advantage.

I will be using the archetypes featured in the Player’s Handbook, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything as examples as we begin building our new archetype.

Let’s go over the basics of a rogue archetype.

3rd Level

This level provides a lot of the flavor to a rogue, turning them from yet another generic-thief-edgelord-sneaky-guy to an assassin, thief, mastermind, trickster, and many others. A rogue typically gets two abilities at this level, one focused on proficiencies and one focused on combat.

When a rogue gains new proficiencies, it is focused on their flavor. An assassin gains proficiency in poisons and disguises while a scout gets them for nature and survival. If you do give proficiencies to a skill, think about how this level feature changes things up. For example, the scout grants nature and survival and if a player had already planned their archetype based on the theme of that, one would expect them to already want to grab those two necessary skills to act as flavoring their scout at 1st level. With scout, they at least do more than just grant proficiency, they increase the proficiency bonus to those two skills. Of course, that means that a scout-character should avoid potentially even getting those skills at 1st level so they can have more skills known to them, or not increase those skills with their 1st level expertise feat.

Their other feature at this level is focused on doing something in combat and it very rarely actually is focused on dealing more damage. Typically it is focused on movement, like how a swashbuckler can attack and then run away without reprisal or how a thief can climb without it costing extra movement. On the other hand, it could have you help your allies by literally allowing you to take the help action as a bonus action for the mastermind. Finally, you could create a feature that somehow affects the sneak attack of the rogue, like the inquisitive can get sneak attack on a target they study or the phantom who can cause pain and misery on another creature but only dealing half their normal sneak attack damage and only a limited number of times.

Of course there are always weird ones, like arcane trickster and soulknife, but they gain spells and new ways to use them or can manifest a psionic blade and have other ways to help their allies.

9th

It takes a while before the rogue gets their next archetype feat at 9th level and, for many, it isn’t an especially powerful feature. These features further increase the flavor of the archetype and give the rogue greater chances at succeeding with things they are proficient in. They have something to do with combat, even if it is combat adjacent, though the assassin is the exception to this rule as their ability just allows them to be better disguised. These features expand upon what has already came before, like inquisitive gets advantage on using their proficiencies they enhanced at 3rd level. Or how the scout gets increased movement. The swashbuckler can either aid their allies or charm a creature by using a rather underwhelming feature.

Thieves get better at stealth, phantom gets another way to just be creepy af, and the arcane trickster has even more incentive to be as stealthy as possible. All of these features are focused on exploring the flavor of the archetype as well as expanding on what they got at 3rd level. Very few actually focus on giving completely new things.

13th

These features are low-powered abilities that grant new options within combat and typically provide something wholly new for the rogue. A scout gets advantage on initiatives, inquisitive learn of illusionary or shapechanging presences, thieves get to use magical devices, while phantoms can turn somewhat spectral. These features don’t increase the power of a rogue, but give them more ways to actually get their sneak attack in without specifically stating it. Most get better at hiding, like the soulknife who can just turn invisible or the scout who encourages their allies to focus their attacks on a single creature, ensuring that they provide sneak attack for the scout on future turns.

Many of these features are less powerful than their 3rd level counterparts and are here to help the rogue just continue to be as flavorful as possible within the mechanics.

17th

The final feature rogues get is also quite a powerful one for them. This often helps increase their overall damage output, like how the thief gets two turns in the first round or how the swashbuckler can miss an attack and then try again with advantage. Scouts get another attack they can make with sneak attack and phantoms can affect multiple creatures with their spookyness. This level often increases the power of the rogue, though not everyone gets something like that like the mastermind who can’t have their thoughts read, while that’s neat, doesn’t really do much for you when a pit fiend is trying to eat you. This can be a new way for a rogue to use their sneak attack, or increases the power of something they got at 3rd level.

Torturer Archetype

We have now gotten to the party where I make a roguish archetype and go over it all based on what we have learned previously. This rogue is focused on debuffing an enemy instead of dealing lots of damage. These powerful debuffs are great for helping their allies deal more consistent damage, like lowering the AC and giving them a greater chance to hit, or by decreasing the monster’s attack bonus, ability checks, or saving throws.

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Torturer Archetype
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Torturer Archetype
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3rd Level

This is where the rogue gets their unique feature. When they would normally deliver sneak attack damage on an attack, they can choose to forgo that damage and instead chose a feature (ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, or armor class) and then roll a d4. They impose a penalty on the chosen feature equal to the number they roll on the d4, this is flavored as them targeting a specific weakness on the creature. While this decreases the total damage output of the rogue, it does give them more ways to wade into a fight, like helping a spellcaster land their spells by target saving throws or by reducing the armor class of a plated knight by knowing just where to strike. As the rogue gets stronger, the penalty they can impose increases with them. At 9th level it turns to a d6 and at 17th level it turns into a d8.

They also get to become even more imposing! They gain proficiency in Intimidation and can double their proficiency bonus when using that skill. Of course, this gets into one of my least favorite aspects about subclasses. Often they grant proficiencies in skills that a player is already going to grab because it fits their theme, but because the subclass doesn’t come for a few levels, it could mean a wasted feature or the player shoots the flavor of their character in the foot and holds off on becoming proficient in something so they don’t feel like they are wasting anything.

I added a stipulation that if a rogue already can double their proficiency bonus for intimidation, they can pick another skill to become proficient in. This means that if a player chose intimidation and then added expertise to it at 1st level, they aren’t being penalized for sticking with flavor instead of optimization when they do get to 3rd level.

So these two features provide the flavor for the torturer and find a different way that they can use their sneak attack.

9th Level

This level doesn’t get the rogue too much, but their crippling strike does get slightly more powerful as they now get a d6 instead of a d4. In addition, they get more things they can do outside of combat to help them in combat. If they spend a minute interacting with a creature, they get specific information in regards to the creature like if they are vulnerable to anything and any resistances or immunities they might have. This goes along with the flavor of being a torturer, someone who is always looking for another creature’s weaknesses and how to avoid its strengths.

13th Level

This level provides the rogue with a new way of interacting on the battlefield and allows them to scare other creatures. When they are targeted by an attack, the rogue can force fear upon them and cause them to be frightened as a reaction on their part. This becomes a battle of will as the rogue makes an intimidation check while the attacker must make a wisdom saving throw. If the rogue succeeds, they successfully frighten the creature, which imposes disadvantage on attack rolls so long as they can see the rogue - which is a good way to use your scariness as a weapon against your enemies.

17th Level

Our final feature is designed to give the rogue a power boost and they get that in two ways. Now the penalty they apply on attack rolls is a d8 and when they using their crippling strike, they can add half of their sneak attack dice as damage on the attack. Not only does this allow them to do burst damage, but also includes a staggering penalty to the creature to help their allies.

Wrapping Up

This archetype now just needs to be playtested and running through its paces. No matter the amount of theory-crafting you do, you will always need to fine-tune until you can get it just right. Maybe the 3rd level feature for the torturer is too powerful to always be on, maybe we’ll have to give the rogue back their sneak attack damage but make it so that they can only deal a crippling strike a number of times equal to their proficiency bonus once per long rest. Or perhaps at 17th level, getting a d8 penalty and half your sneak is too powerful. Then again, a reaction at-will frighten might be the biggest hangup at 13th level. These all must be tried out and adjusted. If you get a chance to run this archetype for a few levels, I’d love to hear about it!

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