Soulforge Adventures

Join

Rogue


In the shadowy alleys and bustling cities of Faerun, where intrigue and danger lurk around every corner, there exists a class of individuals who thrive on cunning, stealth, and quick wit: the rogues. Masters of deception and subterfuge, rogues are skilled operatives who excel in the arts of stealth, espionage, and opportunistic combat.

Rogues are not bound by the strictures of honor or tradition; instead, they embrace the chaos and uncertainty of the world around them, using their wits and agility to navigate the murky waters of intrigue and deception. They are experts at exploiting the weaknesses of their enemies and striking swiftly and decisively when the moment is right.

Though rogues are often viewed with suspicion by society at large, they are not without their virtues. Many rogues operate outside the law not out of malice or greed, but out of a desire to right wrongs and seek justice where none exists. They are champions of the downtrodden and defenders of the weak, using their skills to expose corruption and topple tyrants.

Rogues come in many shapes and sizes, from nimble thieves and cat burglars to suave con artists and deadly assassins. They are masters of disguise and infiltration, able to blend seamlessly into any environment and strike with deadly precision when the opportunity presents itself.

In the ever-shifting landscape of Faerun, where danger lurks in the shadows and betrayal is always just a whisper away, rogues stand as silent sentinels, ever vigilant and always ready to seize the moment and turn the tide in their favor. With their quick reflexes, sharp minds, and indomitable spirit, rogues are the true masters of the art of survival in a world where only the cunning and the resourceful can hope to thrive.

LevelProficiency BonusSneak AttackFeatures
1st+21d6Expertise, Sneak Attack, Thieves’ Cant
2nd+21d6Cunning Action
3rd+22d6Roguish Archetype, Steady Aim (Optional)
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

Class Features

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.
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.
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.
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.
At 3rd level, 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.
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.
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.
Beginning at 7th level, you can nimbly dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a 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.
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.
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.
By 15th level, you have acquired greater mental strength. You gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws.
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.
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.

Roguish Archetype

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

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.
Source: Player’s Handbook
Arcane Trickster Spellcasting Spell Slots per Spell Level
Rogue Level Cantrips Known Spells Known 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
3rd Mage Hand + 2 3 2 – – –
4th Mage Hand + 2 4 3 – – –
5th Mage Hand + 2 4 3 – – –
6th Mage Hand + 2 4 3 – – –
7th Mage Hand + 2 5 4 2 – –
8th Mage Hand + 2 6 4 2 – –
9th Mage Hand + 2 6 4 2 – –
10th Mage Hand + 3 7 4 3 – –
11th Mage Hand + 3 8 4 3 – –
12th Mage Hand + 3 8 4 3 – –
13th Mage Hand + 3 9 4 3 2 –
14th Mage Hand + 3 10 4 3 2 –
15th Mage Hand + 3 10 4 3 2 –
16th Mage Hand + 3 11 4 3 3 –
17th Mage Hand + 3 11 4 3 3 –
18th Mage Hand + 3 11 4 3 3 –
19th Mage Hand + 3 12 4 3 3 1
20th Mage Hand + 3 13 4 3 3 1

Spellcasting

When you reach 3rd level, you augment your martial prowess with the ability to cast spells.
Cantrips
You learn three cantrips: Mage Hand and two other cantrips of your choice from the wizard spell list. You learn another wizard cantrip of your choice at 10th level.
Spell Slots
The Arcane Trickster Spellcasting table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your wizard spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. For example, if you know the 1st-level spell Charm Person and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast Charm Person using either slot.
Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher
You know three 1st-level wizard spells of your choice, two of which you must choose from the enchantment and illusion spells on the wizard spell list. The Spells Known column of the Arcane Trickster Spellcasting table shows when you learn more wizard spells of 1st level or higher. Each of these spells must be an enchantment or illusion spell of your choice, and must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 7th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level. The spells you learn at 8th, 14th, and 20th level can come from any school of magic. Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the wizard spells you know with another spell of your choice from the wizard spell list. The new spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots, and it must be an enchantment or illusion spell, unless you’re replacing the spell you gained at 3rd, 8th, 14th, or 20th level from any school of magic.
Spellcasting Ability
Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your wizard spells, since you learn your spells through dedicated study and memorization. You use your Intelligence whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a wizard spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one. Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier

Mage Hand Legerdemain

Starting at 3rd level, when you cast Mage Hand, you can make the spectral hand invisible, and you can perform the following additional tasks with it:
  • You can stow one object the hand is holding in a container worn or carried by another creature.
  • You can retrieve an object in a container worn or carried by another creature.
  • You can use thieves’ tools to pick locks and disarm traps at range.
You can perform one of these tasks without being noticed by a creature if you succeed on a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check contested by the creature’s Wisdom (Perception) check. In addition, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to control the hand.

Magical Ambush

Starting at 9th level, if you are hidden from a creature when you cast a spell on it, the creature has disadvantage on any saving throw it makes against the spell this turn.

Versatile Trickster

At 13th level, you gain the ability to distract targets with your Mage Hand. As a bonus action on your turn, you can designate a creature within 5 feet of the spectral hand created by the spell. Doing so gives you advantage on attack rolls against that creature until the end of the turn.

Spell Thief

At 17th level, you gain the ability to magically steal the knowledge of how to cast a spell from another spellcaster. Immediately after a creature casts a spell that targets you or includes you in its area of effect, you can use your reaction to force the creature to make a saving throw with its spellcasting ability modifier. The DC equals your spell save DC. On a failed save, you negate the spell’s effect against you, and you steal the knowledge of the spell if it is at least 1st level and of a level you can cast (it doesn’t need to be a wizard spell). For the next 8 hours, you know the spell and can cast it using your spell slots. The creature can’t cast that spell until the 8 hours have passed. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
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.
Source: Player’s Handbook

Bonus Proficiencies

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with the disguise kit and the poisoner’s kit.

Assassinate

Starting at 3rd level, you are at your deadliest when you get the drop on your enemies. You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet. In addition, any hit you score against a creature that is surprised is a critical hit.

Infiltration Expertise

Starting at 9th level, you can unfailingly create false identities for yourself. You must spend seven days and 25 gp to establish the history, profession, and affiliations for an identity. You can’t establish an identity that belongs to someone else. For example, you might acquire appropriate clothing, letters of introduction, and official- looking certification to establish yourself as a member of a trading house from a remote city so you can insinuate yourself into the company of other wealthy merchants. Thereafter, if you adopt the new identity as a disguise, other creatures believe you to be that person until given an obvious reason not to.

Impostor

At 13th level, you gain the ability to unerringly mimic another person’s speech, writing, and behavior. You must spend at least three hours studying these three components of the person’s behavior, listening to speech, examining handwriting, and observing mannerisms. Your ruse is indiscernible to the casual observer. If a wary creature suspects something is amiss, you have advantage on any Charisma (Deception) check you make to avoid detection.

Death Strike

Starting at 17th level, you become a master of instant death. When you attack and hit a creature that is surprised, it must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your Dexterity modifier + your proficiency bonus). On a failed save, double the damage of your attack against the creature.
The sea lanes of the Nightmare Isles are home to many who have lived on the water their entire life. Many are born to fishing families; others very quickly join the ranks of pirates who patrol the Isles and surrounding waters. For many of these born to the sea, fighting on a deck as it buckles violently during a storm and moving about the rigging of a ship to get the drop on an opponent become second nature. These masters of shipboard combat are known as buccaneers. Their value is not limited to this sphere, however. The lessons learned on a bucking deck—move fast, strike hard, dance away from danger—translate very well to land, making buccaneers a valuable addition to any raiding party. Buccaneers often operate independently of whatever force they are currently allied with. Despite having a reputation for being headstrong and temperamental, they are well  respected by the captains who employ them. Because all buccaneers share a rough bond of kinship, two buccaneers employed by opposing forces will often ignore the fighting around them and seek one another out for single combat, saluting each other before falling into a graceful but deadly dance.

THE BUCKING DECK

By 3rd level, you have trained and fought on ships for so long that you are skilled at adapting to the movements of any surface you’re standing on. You have advantage on saving throws to avoid being knocked prone or moved against your will.

SWASHBUCKLING

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn maneuvers that are fueled by special dice called swashbuckling dice.
  • Maneuvers. You learn three maneuvers of your choice, which are detailed under “Maneuvers” below. Many maneuvers enhance an attack in some way. You can use only one maneuver per attack. You learn two additional maneuvers of your choice at 9th, 13th, and 17th level. Each time you learn new maneuvers, you can also replace one maneuver you know with a different one.
  • Swashbuckling Dice. You have four swashbuckling dice, which are d8s. A swashbuckling die is expended when you use it. You regain all of your expended swashbuckling dice when you finish a short or long rest. You gain another swashbuckling die at 9th level and one more at 17th level.
  • Saving Throws. Some of your maneuvers require your target to make a saving throw to resist the maneuver’s effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:

Maneuver save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (your choice)

WILD WINDS

Starting at 9th level, when you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can make your second attack without using a bonus action. After using this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.   In addition, when you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can wield any two weapons as long as both have the light or versatile property, and you can draw or sheathe either weapon without taking the Use an Object action.

SWAGGER

At 13th level, your swashbuckling dice turn into d10s. At 17th level, they turn into d12s.

BLOW THE MAN DOWN

Starting at 17th level, if you hit with a melee weapon attack, you can make another attack as a bonus action and have advantage on the attack roll. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Dexterity modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

MANEUVERS

The maneuvers are presented in alphabetical order.
  • All Hands on Deck. On your turn, you can use a bonus action and expend one swashbuckling die to boost the performance of your companions. When you do so, the next friendly creature to act after you in initiative order who can see you can add the swashbuckling die to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw it makes during its turn.
  • Any Port in a Storm. You can expend one swashbuckling die and use a bonus action on your turn to make an attack with an improvised weapon and add the swashbuckling die to the attack’s damage roll.
  • Belay. When you miss a creature with a melee attack, you can use your reaction and expend one swashbuckling die to trip and entangle your opponent instead. Your target is knocked prone and takes bludgeoning damage equal to the number you roll on your swashbuckling die.
  • Fire in the Rigging. When you take the Attack action on your turn and a ship is within range of one of your weapons, you can forgo one of your attacks and use a bonus action to sabotage the ship’s infrastructure by cutting lines, smashing instruments, and so on. When you do so, choose one of your weapons that deals bludgeoning or slashing damage and expend one swashbuckling die. The ship takes damage equal to the number you roll on your swashbuckling die. This damage ignores damage thresholds and is of the same type dealt by your weapon.
  • First on Deck. During the first round of any combat, you can use a bonus action and expend one swashbuckling die to make an attack. If you hit, you add the swashbuckling die to the attack’s damage roll.
  • Heave Ho. When you shove a creature your size or smaller, you can expend one swashbuckling die to lean into your foe. You add the swashbuckling die to the number of feet the target is pushed, and the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
  • Offhand Shot. On your turn, you can use your reaction and expend one swashbuckling die to make a ranged attack with a pistol that has the light property. If you hit, you add the swashbuckling die to the attack’s damage roll.
  • Press. On your turn, you can expend one swashbuckling die to close in on a foe and press your advantage as you look for an opening. Choose one creature within 5 feet of you as your target. You move straight toward the target for a number of feet equal to the number you roll on your swashbuckling die, and if the target is Medium or smaller, it must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pushed back an equal number of feet. If the target is pressed against a wall or another obstruction or otherwise can’t move, you can make an opportunity attack against it. You do not provoke opportunity attacks during this maneuver.
  • Press Gang. When a creature damages you with a melee attack and another creature is within your opponent’s melee range, you can expend one swashbuckling die to reduce the damage by the number you roll on your swashbuckling die and deal that amount of damage to the second creature instead. The damage is of the same type dealt by the original attack.
  • Swing from the Rigging. When you take the Dash or Disengage action while aboard a ship, you can expend one swashbuckling die to use the ship’s ropes and rigging to land in the perfect position for your next attack. When you do so, you gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed for the duration of that action. If you already have a climbing speed, your climbing speed is doubled instead. The next weapon attack you make before the end of your next turn deals additional weapon damage equal to the roll of your swashbuckling die.
Bushwhackers are outstanding wilderness hunters, snipers, and forward scouts. They are the expert ambushers of the wilds, both valued and feared for their deadly skill with long arms. Talented bushwhackers are often hired as mercenaries or inducted into criminal bands. Their ability to mount sudden ambushes makes them extremely important to the raiding parties who take on the better-armed caravans and military patrols of the Wraith Coast. An experienced bushwhacker can name their price despite the brigands for hire who litter the remote roads. Source: Borderlands & Beyond

CRACKSHOT

Starting at 3rd level, you are skilled at lining up the perfect shot against a target. If you move no more than half your movement speed, you can use a bonus action to aim a ranged weapon attack. If you do so, you can use your Sneak Attack against that target even if you don’t have advantage on the attack roll but not if you have disadvantage on it. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

SILENT SURVIVOR

Starting at 3rd level when you choose this archetype, you gain proficiency in the Survival skill. You also gain proficiency with your choice of an exotic ranged weapon. Additionally, you learn a signal language of coded gestures that allows you to communicate silently with others. You can instruct other intelligent creatures to interpret your signal language with 1 minute of instruction. Any creature you instruct can understand your signal language but can’t communicate with it.

GO TO GROUND

Starting at 9th level, you make the most of any cover available to you. When you use your Cunning Action to hide, you gain the benefit of three-quarters cover if you don’t already have it. This cover lasts until you move from your hiding spot. This cover is not effective against creatures within 10 feet of you.

SLIP AWAY

At 13th level, you can move up to your speed immediately after you use your Uncanny Dodge. You must finish a short or long rest before you can use this feature again.

SHOOTIST

Starting at 17th level, the attacks you make from hiding reliably put down your targets. When you use your Crackshot feature on a creature, you can reroll any Sneak Attack damage dice but must use the new roll.
See the Protectorate for this subclass.
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 sharp eye make you well equipped to expose and end hidden evils.
Source: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Ear for Deceit

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you develop a keen ear for picking out lies. Whenever you make a Wisdom (Insight) check to determine whether a creature is lying, treat a roll of 7 or lower on the d20 as an 8.

Eye for Detail

Starting at 3rd level, you can use a bonus action to make a Wisdom (Perception) check to spot a hidden creature or object or to make an Intelligence (Investigation) check to uncover or decipher clues.

Insightful Fighting

At 3rd level, you gain the ability to decipher an opponent’s tactics and develop a counter to them. As a bonus action, you make a Wisdom (Insight) check against a creature you can see that isn’t incapacitated, contested by the target’s Charisma (Deception) check. If you succeed, you can use your Sneak Attack against that target even if you don’t have advantage on the attack roll, but not if you have disadvantage on it. This benefit lasts for 1 minute or until you successfully use this feature against a different target.

Steady Eye

At 9th level, you gain advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Intelligence (Investigation) check if you move no more than half your speed on the same turn.

Unerring Eye

At 13th level, your senses are almost impossible to foil. As an action, you sense the presence of illusions, shapechangers not in their original form, and other magic designed to deceive the senses within 30 feet of you, provided you aren’t blinded or deafened. You sense that an effect is attempting to trick you, but you gain no insight into what is hidden or into its true nature. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest.

Eye for Weakness

At 17th level, you learn to exploit a creature’s weaknesses by carefully studying its tactics and movement. While your Insightful Fighting feature applies to a creature, your Sneak Attack damage against that creature increases by 3d6.
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.
Source: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Master of Intrigue

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with the disguise kit, the forgery kit, and one gaming set of your choice. You also learn two languages of your choice. Additionally, you can unerringly mimic the speech patterns and accent of a creature that you hear speak for at least 1 minute, enabling you to pass yourself off as a native speaker of a particular land, provided that you know the language.

Master of Tactics

Starting at 3rd level, you can use the Help action as a bonus action. Additionally, when you use the Help action to aid an ally in attacking a creature, the target of that attack can be within 30 feet of you, rather than 5 feet of you, if the target can see or hear you.

Insightful Manipulator

Starting at 9th level, if you spend at least 1 minute observing or interacting with another creature outside combat, you can learn certain information about its capabilities compared to your own. The DM tells you if the creature is your equal, superior, or inferior in regard to two of the following characteristics of your choice:
  • Intelligence score
  • Wisdom score
  • Charisma score
  • Class levels (if any)
At the DM’s option, you might also realize you know a piece of the creature’s history or one of its personality traits, if it has any.

Misdirection

Beginning at 13th level, you can sometimes cause another creature to suffer an attack meant for you. When you are targeted by an attack while a creature within 5 feet of you is granting you cover against that attack, you can use your reaction to have the attack target that creature instead of you.

Soul of Deceit

Starting at 17th level, your thoughts can’t be read by telepathy or other means, unless you allow it. You can present false thoughts by making a Charisma (Deception) check contested by the mind reader’s Wisdom (Insight) check. Additionally, no matter what you say, magic that would determine if you are telling the truth indicates you are being truthful if you so choose, and you can’t be compelled to tell the truth by magic.
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.
Source: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Skirmisher

Starting at 3rd level, you are difficult to pin down during a fight. You can move up to half your speed as a reaction when an enemy ends its turn within 5 feet of you. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks.

Survivalist

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Nature and Survival skills if you don’t already have it. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of those proficiencies.

Superior Mobility

At 9th level, your walking speed increases by 10 feet. If you have a climbing or swimming speed, this increase applies to that speed as well.

Ambush Master

Starting at 13th level, you excel at leading ambushes and acting first in a fight. You have advantage on initiative rolls. In addition, the first creature you hit during the first round of a combat becomes easier for you and others to strike; attack rolls against that target have advantage until the start of your next turn.

Sudden Strike

Starting at 17th level, you can strike with deadly speed. If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can make one additional attack as a bonus action. This attack can benefit from your Sneak Attack even if you have already used it this turn, but you can’t use your Sneak Attack against the same target more than once in a turn.
Shadowdancers are a rarity, or more correctly they are rarely seen. And when they are, they look to be no more than any other nimble rogue, dancing and leaping across the dimly lit battlefield. Those with keen eyes sometimes see more though. They might in fact see a darker, near impenetrable black mass of shadows cascade around the rogue like water and follow their every footstep. They will likely watch in wonder as the darkness pushes blades aside and absorbs attacks. They will be finally struck with horror when the same shadows lash out at them, to wrap their arms and hold them tight while the rogue’s dagger finds its mark.
Source: Soulforge Adventure’s Homebrew

Shadow Dance

Learning how to carefully weave the partial substance of shadow into your very essence, you have truly become one with the dark.

Starting when you choose this roguish archetype at 3rd level, while in dim light or darkness, you can take two actions with your Cunning Action feature as part of the same bonus action, though you can’t take the same action twice as part of the same bonus action.

You can use this feature once. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

When you reach certain levels in this class, you can use this feature more often between rests: twice at 5th level, three times at 11th level, four times at 17th level.

Shadow Vision

Also starting at 3rd level, you gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet and you can discern color in darkness. If you already have darkvision from your race, its range increases by 30 feet. In addition, you can’t be blinded while in dim light or darkness. If you are already blinded when entering an area of dim light or darkness, the effect is suppressed while you’re there.

Umbral Camouflage

Accustomed to the dark, you become more adept than others at blending in with it as the shadows stretch around you to obscure you. Beginning at 9th level, you can take the Hide action even while being observed, so long as you are in dim light or darkness, or there is a source of dim light or darkness within 10 feet of you.

Shadow Magic

You learn to shape the raw essence of shadow into powerful illusions and effects. At 13th level, you learn the investiture of shadow* and silent image spells. You can cast these spells at their lowest level without expending spell slots or components, and only while in dim light or darkness. An illusion hit by bright light disappears in a flash of black smoke.

Once you use this feature to cast a spell, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Umbral Defense

Beginning at 17th level, while in dim light or darkness, you can take the Dodge action as a bonus action with your Cunning Action feature; if you do so, the effect ends early if you are touched by bright light.

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.
Source: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Fancy Footwork

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn how to land a strike and then slip away without reprisal. During your turn, if you make a melee attack against a creature, that creature can’t make opportunity attacks against you for the rest of your turn.

Rakish Audacity

Starting at 3rd level, your confidence propels you into battle. You can give yourself a bonus to your initiative rolls equal to your Charisma modifier. You also gain an additional way to use your Sneak Attack; you don’t need advantage on the attack roll to use your Sneak Attack against a creature if you are within 5 feet of it, no other creatures are within 5 feet of you, and you don’t have disadvantage on the attack roll. All the other rules for Sneak Attack still apply to you.

Panache

At 9th level, your charm becomes extraordinarily beguiling. As an action, you can make a Charisma (Persuasion) check contested by a creature’s Wisdom (Insight) check. The creature must be able to hear you, and the two of you must share a language. If you succeed on the check and the creature is hostile to you, it has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets other than you and can’t make opportunity attacks against targets other than you. This effect lasts for 1 minute, until one of your companions attacks the target or affects it with a spell, or until you and the target are more than 60 feet apart. If you succeed on the check and the creature isn’t hostile to you, it is charmed by you for 1 minute. While charmed, it regards you as a friendly acquaintance. This effect ends immediately if you or your companions do anything harmful to it.

Elegant Maneuver

Starting at 13th level, you can use a bonus action on your turn to gain advantage on the next Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check you make during the same turn.

Master Duelist

Beginning at 17th level, your mastery of the blade lets you turn failure into success in combat. If you miss with an attack roll, you can roll it again with advantage. Once you do so, you can’t use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

Most who live the hard life in the underworld take to thieving or murder for hire. Their grim demeanors show the harsh reality of their lives. Not the Jester. A Jester listens to the grand joke that is life and laughs maniacally at its fatal punchline. With flashing blades and a razorsharp wit, the Jester spends their life showing others the truth: that eventually, everything is funny…if you just keep laughing. Some Jesters find their way to the high courts, their dark humor being appreciated by pampered court royals, while others take a more evangelical approach to spreading the laughter.

Jesters tend to dress their part, wearing a mix of dark and bright colors to highlight the duality of their sense of humor. Many wear brightly painted masks as well, showing the world an unwavering smile. The Jester is a master of goading their enemies into making mistakes and striking when an enemy is at their weakest.
Source: Adapted from Happy Jack’s Funhouse

Jester Ability

Your save DC is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier.

Every Joke Needs A Butt

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn to follow the golden rule of humor: it’s only funny if someone doesn’t think so.

You gain proficiency in the Charisma (Performance) skill. If you are already proficient, you gain expertise.

Set ‘Em Up

Also at 3rd level, you gain the ability to set up targets. As a Bonus Action, you choose a creature that you can see within 30 feet of you. The creature must have an Intelligence score of 6 or higher, but you do not need to share a language with the creature as physical humor is universal. You begin a particularly clever insult at their expense.

The target makes an Intelligence saving throw against your Jester DC. On a failed save, the creature is considered set up until the end of your next turn. If you attempt to set up the same creature on your next turn, they have disadvantage on the save.

A creature that is set up has disadvantage on weapon attack rolls made against any creature other than you.

Punchline

Starting at 3rd level, as an Action, you can drop the punchline to a joke at your target’s expense.

You may cast the vicious mockery spell twice per day.

This spell’s damage increases by 1d4 when you reach 5th level (2d4), 11th level (3d4), and 17th level (4d4).

If the creature is set up, you add your sneak attack bonus as psychic damage if the creature meets the requirements for sneak attack. This does not end the set up condition.

Knock ‘Em Down

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn to goad your enemies into unbalanced attacks. As an Action, you make an intentionally clumsy melee attack against a target to goad them into exposing themselves. You roll a melee attack against a target that you can see within range subtracting 10 from the result. If the attack hits, resolve damage normally. If the attack misses, the target must use its action on its next turn to make a melee attack against you. If it is set up, it makes the attack with disadvantage. If the creature misses this attack, it falls prone and its movement is reduced to 0 until the start of its next turn Regardless of the result, this ends the set up condition.

You cannot use this ability again until you finish a short or long rest.

Dark Comedy

Starting at 9th level, you find humor in even the grimmest moments. You see death as the greatest joke of all and are not afraid to laugh in its face. If any member of the party is reduced to 0 hit points, you may use your Reaction to make a bleak joke about the party’s chances. All allies within a 30-foot-radius of you gain temporary hit points equal to twice your Jester level and may add the Jester’s proficiency bonus to their next spell or weapon attack in addition to their own.

You cannot use this ability again until you finish a long rest.

Joke’s on You!

Starting at 13th level, your skill at goading enemies into attacks and your combat experience allow you to manipulate enemies into inadvertently attacking each other. As a Reaction, when a creature misses a melee attack against you, you can deflect that attack at another creature you can see within 5 feet. If the original attack roll would hit the new target, damage is resolved normally.

If the new target is set up, both creatures are knocked prone, regardless of the result of the attack. This ends the set up condition.

Last laugh

A Jester always gets the last laugh. At 17th level, when you critically strike a creature that is set up and Sneak Attack is available, you may immediately make an additional attack. If the attack hits, you may use your Sneak Attack dice again. This ends the set up condition.

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.
Source: Player’s handbook

Fast Hands

Starting at 3rd level, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, use your thieves’ tools to disarm a trap or open a lock, or take the Use an Object action.

Second-Story Work

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain the ability to climb faster than normal; climbing no longer costs you extra movement. In addition, when you make a running jump, the distance you cover increases by a number of feet equal to your Dexterity modifier.

Supreme Sneak

Starting at 9th level, you have advantage on a Dexterity (Stealth) check if you move no more than half your speed on the same turn.

Use Magic Device

By 13th level, you have learned enough about the workings of magic that you can improvise the use of items even when they are not intended for you. You ignore all class, race, and level requirements on the use of magic items.

Thief’s Reflexes

When you reach 17th level, you have become adept at laying ambushes and quickly escaping danger. You can take two turns during the first round of any combat. You take your first turn at your normal initiative and your second turn at your initiative minus 10. You can’t use this feature when you are surprised.
Necrosurgeons are specialists tasked with maintaining thralls and crafting replacements as they are destroyed in battle. They spend countless hours bent over carcasses, enthusiastically drilling, digging, and sewing while attended to by stitch thralls—small undead assistants that mindlessly collect bits of corpses for their attending surgeon. As they sift through the piles of fresh human debris their stitch thralls bring them, they often set aside the choicest parts for later use in improving thralls or fabricating stitch thrall assistants.

The necrosurgeon workshops are more like abattoirs than laboratories. There, in the heart of the Nightmare Isle, necrosurgeons are free to gather their gruesome resources openly. The meat markets and slave stalls of Blackwater and Dreggsmouth provide them with an ample supply of parts, and great harvests of bodies are delivered to them daily from battlefields near and far, either claimed by the Dark Lord’s own forces as fresh kills or scavenged from the sites of recent conflicts. With each wagonload of parts that makes its way to these shapers of dead flesh, the Unholy Covenant’s army grows as its enemies’ forces diminish.

GUT SPLITTER

At 3rd level, you learn how to study your foes’ anatomy to identify physical vulnerabilities. As a bonus action, you can make an Intelligence (Medicine) check against a humanoid you can see that isn’t incapacitated. The DC of the check is equal to 8 + the creature’s challenge rating (minimum 1). If you succeed, you can use your Sneak Attack feature against that target even if you don’t have advantage on the attack roll, but not if you have disadvantage on it. This effect lasts for 1 minute or until you successfully use this feature against a different target.

NECROSURGERY

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Medicine skill if you don’t already have it, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses this skill. Additionally, you gain proficiency with a necrosurgeon’s kit.

RESURRECTIONIST

At 9th level, you are capable of rapidly stitching together disparate pieces of corpses into simple thralls that act as your assistants on the battlefield—and as mindless meat shields against attacks.

If you have a necrosurgeon’s kit in hand, you can use an action and expend 5 corpse tokens to create a stitch thrall.

Stitch Thrall
Small undead
Armor Class: 8 + your proficiency bonus
Hit Points: 2 + your PB + your INT modifier

Speed: 30 ft.
STRDEXCONINTWISCHA
1010106103
Damage Immunities poison

Condition Immunities blinded, poisoned

Senses blindsight 60 feet (blind beyond this distance), Passive Perception 10

Languages Understands your languages but cannot speak
Proficiency bonus equal to your bonus
Undead Fortitude If damage reduces the thrall to 0 hit points,
it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the
damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit.
On a success, the thrall drops to 1 hit point instead.

Reactions
Sacrificial Pawn. When a creature the thrall can see attacks a
target within 5 feet of it, it can use its reaction to become the
target of the attack instead.
Corpse Picker. When a humanoid drops to 0 hit points within
30 feet of the thrall, it can use its reaction to move up to its
speed toward the creature. If it ends its movement within 5 feet
of the creature, it can carve off a piece of it as a corpse token. A
thrall can have a single corpse token at a time and can give the
token to a friendly creature within 5 feet as a bonus action.
The stitch thrall is friendly to you and your companions and acts on your initiative after you take your turn but can’t make attacks. On your turn, you can use a bonus action to issue verbal commands to the stitch thrall, which will follow your orders to the best of its ability. You can control a number of stitch thralls equal to your proficiency bonus.

BODY SNATCHER

At 13th level, you are adept at plucking useful bits of fallen creatures from the battlefield. When a humanoid within 30 feet of you or one of your stitch thralls drops to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to move up to your speed toward the creature. If you end your movement within 5 feet of the creature, you can carve off a piece of it as a corpse token. You can have a number of corpse tokens equal to your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1). In addition, if you have a necrosurgeon’s kit in hand, you can use a bonus action and expend 1 or more corpse tokens to heal a friendly undead within 5 feet of you. The chosen creature regains 1d6 hit points for each expended corpse token.

PREP FOR SURGERY

At 17th level, your stitch thrall assistants aid you in combat against your foes. When you use your Gut Splitter feature to use your Sneak Attack, your Sneak Attack damage increases by 2d6 for each friendly stitch thrall within 5 feet of your target.

Restrictions

  • There are no special restrictions for this class, unless noted elsewhere.

As a rogue, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points
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

Proficiencies
Armor: Light and medium armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords, arming sword, bastard sword, estoc, garotte wire, longsword, parrying dagger, rondel, sabre
Shields: Buckler
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

Equipment
You start with 150 gp to spend on equipment. The following equipment is a suggested shopping list:

  • (a) any martial finesse weapon, or (b) an arming sword
  • (a) a simple ranged weapon and 20 pieces of ammunition or (b) a shortsword
  • Leather armor, two daggers, and thieves’ tools

Multiclassing and the Rogue

  • Ability Score Minimum: As a multiclass character, you must have a Dexterity score of at least 13 to take a level in this class or to take a level in another class if you are already a rogue.
  • Proficiencies. If rogue isn’t your initial class, you gain proficiency with light armor, one skill from the class’s skill list, and thieves’ tools when you gain your first level as a rogue.
  • Spell Slots. Add one third your levels in the rogue class to the appropriate levels from other classes to determine your available spell slots.