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Alt Rogue Preview - Xanathar's & Tasha's Archetypes!
🕑 Added 2023-11-20 23:55:36 +0000 UTCHey all! In the final stages of my update for the Alternate Rogue class, but I wanted to share a sneak peak of some new content with you all - the five Roguish Archetype from XGtE and TCoE (minus the Swashbuckler as it is included with the base class).
These subclasses were all over the place. Some had abilities that are really only good in roleplay heavy games (Inquisitive, Mastermind), some were entirely combat focused and offered nothing else (Scout), and some from TCoE used proficiency bonus way too much!
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Inquisitive. I compressed all of its 3rd level features into Eye for Detail and left Predictive Fighting alone as I think it works great. As you get to higher levels you can learn about foes while fighting (Insightful Strike), really interact with exploration/investigation Exploits (Adept Investigator), gain scaling Truesight that works with your Rogue Blindsense (Unerring Sight) and eventually boost your Sneak Attack bonus to d8s (Exploit Weakness).
Mastermind. I made a tough call here and cut out this Archetypes access to the Tactical Exploits of the Warlord in favor of more powerful Rogue-centric features. Scheme and use the Help action to great affect (Master of Machinations), intuit the motivations of your foes (Manipulative Intuition), use your Sneak Attack on other creature's turns (Potent Insight), use enemies and allies alike as humanoid shields (Devious Tactics), and never have your mind controlled again (Inscrutable Mind)!
Phantom. Hopefully just horizontal shifts in power that make this subclass work better with the Alt Rogue. Grave Bolt is no longer tied to a number of uses, but the bonus damage is now gated behind a saving throw, Soul Trinkets now work with you Wisdom modifier and use speak with dead rules, Ghost Walk is only limited by you using the Dash action (possibly too strong with flight), and Death Knell is a once per short/long rest necrotic AoE that would make Death itself blush.
Scout. One of my favorite subclasses of all time (it is soo sleek!) so there are few changes here. Ambush Master gives you some more reliable buffs to your initiative rolls and that is it.
Soulknife. (I still think this should be a Monk subclass...). I've completely removed any mention of Psi Dice in favor of the Psi Points used by my Psion Class and any/all psionic subclasses. No "Soulknife Exploit" list in favor of a more universally useful way to use Psi Points with skill checks (Mystical Skill) and a potent exploration/social ability (Telepathy Network). Your Psionic Blades now just use the statistics of a dagger (I think this solves all their issues?) but they deal psychic damage. Soul Strike allows you to apply an effect similar to the mind whip spell, Shimmer allows you to cast a concentration-free invisibility spell, and Mental Scourge allows you to try and stun each turn.
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Artist Credit: Scott Murphy, Richard Long, and Alexander Makhov for Magic the Gathering
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As always, I'm open to constructive criticism, so let me know what you think about my adaptations of these beloved subclasses for the Rogue! Comments here or on Discord are welcome!
~laserllama
Comments
laserllama
Well, the Soulknife was always going to use Psi Points in my mind (pun intended) since that's the system I use for my Psionics. I'll take a look at buffing the subclass up a bit. And, to be fair, the Swashbuckler really requires you to invest in Charisma as a secondary stat, and it's widely regarded as one of the best subclasses for the Rogue. I personally, don't think it's too much to as a Soulknife to do the same thing with Intelligence.
Andrew Downs
Awesome! So glad to see all the official martial subclasses finally be given a LaserLlama alt. take.
MrMcBad
I am not a fan of psi points over the dice, especially when they only scale off int, maybe I just don’t value in as a player and this is a way to do that, idk, I would maybe have the d4 scale off exploit dice
