The Arcane Trickster has been around in various incarnations as of 3rd edition when it was a Prestige class, and you could argue that it has been around even longer with a thief/mage multi-class in 2nd edition. A rouge with some dabbling in magic to help them sneak and steal better. Sounds like a good mix but how does it play out in 5th edition?
Arcane trickster starts like a normal rouge until third level when they start getting abilities from Arcane Trickster to supplement the rouge abilities.
The only other thing to keep in mind before this is your intelligence. Most rouges have a decent intelligence stat, but as your spells use intelligence,it is best to make it one of your priority stats.
So what does an Arcane trickster get for abilities? The main item is of course spell casting.
They can choose a few cantrips from the wizard table,with mage hand being required. Then also eventually learn to cast up to 4th level spells, but only from the wizard spell list, and only from enchantment or illusion spell schools.
They also begin to do more with mage hand, from picking locks to making the hand invisible to having it distract enemies to give you the advantage on attacks.
They also gain the ability to cause their target to suffer a disadvantage on saves vs the tricksters spells when they are cast from hiding.
Their final ability is very cool, but needs level 17. Spell thief lets the rouge take a spell cast on them and for the next 8 hours, they can cast it if they have the spell slot for it, and the target can no longer cast it.
Final thoughts, TL;DR: I really like this archetype. If I was to play a rouge, this is probably the path I would take. Spells, sneaky mage hands, back stabs and spell stealing. Sweet awesomeness.
Champion Final Rating: A+: Versatility of rouges, versatility of some spells. Awesome!
Facebook Comments