The Arcane Trickster: D&D Build #145

if you really enjoy playing a rogue in DND but you kind of wish that you could get a little more damage to go along with all of that fantastic flavor and utility then I think you're going to want to watch this video Welcome to D4 [Music] hey everybody so here at D4 each week we take a deep dive into one sometimes more specific character builds for our favorite role-playing games we crunch numbers about them we Theory craft about them not so that I can tell you the right way or the best way to play a particular character but to explore one potential way to build something in the hopes of creating a character that is both really fun but also really powerful to play so if you enjoy creating characters for your favorite role-playing games almost as much as you enjoy playing the actual game itself or if you're just looking for tips or ideas on how to build something that you're thinking about playing then welcome home this is where you belong and I'm really glad you're here so thanks for watching my name is Colby not Cody not Colton really quick if you would be interested in getting a written step-by-step cheat sheet to this build and every other build that I do on this channel so that you could recreate the character without having to go back and re-watch the video or take notes then I would appreciate it if you'd consider joining as a member there's a little button down there for a couple of bucks a month you get access to the library of write-ups that I create for each one of these builds it's a great way to support the channel as well so huge thank you and shout out to all of my channel members you guys are amazing and for everybody else you're amazing too thanks for just being here watching liking subscribing commenting clicking on the notifications Bell those are also great ways to support the channel and I'm grateful to you for just doing any and all of them so thanks all right I am really excited today to get back to a dungeon dudes inspired 5e build it's actually been over a month since I've created one though only a couple of weeks since I posted the last one but Baldur's Gate 3 has kind of taken over my life and the life of the channel lately as you probably know for those who are new here and don't know Kelly and Monty the dungeon dudes are basically the coolest dudes in the universe for all things D and you should absolutely subscribe to their Channel and watch all of their videos over the last few months they've been doing this series where they rank all of the multi-class options for each class I take inspiration from a particular combo that they talk about and do a build on it this week we finally get to do the Rogue so excited now here's the thing about Rogues I've said this kind of thing a lot on this channel in past videos but the bass class Rogue is just not all that strong in that Rogue video Monty even said this the Rogue is actually in fifth edition d d it's not a very strong class it actually is a pretty weak class and so Rogue wizard is better than straight up Rogue but worse than Straight Up Wizard and that's the issue and I totally agree with him I mean I argued a couple of weeks ago that Paladin was the hardest class in the game to multi-class out of right in that night of naves video I think the Rogue might be the hardest class in the game to not multi-class out of to just stay in of course that all depends on the way you want to play your character it depends on what kind of table you're playing at for skill heavy role play Heavy stealthy sneaky trap and hidden doors heavy campaigns that's not necessarily going to be true if you care a lot more about your utility then you do your damage that's not going to be true and also of course as long time or heck even short-time viewers of my channel no I don't do a lot of utility focused Builds on this channel not because I don't like them or because I don't think they're important for the game or that they're any fun or anything like that mostly because I have no way of knowing how important utility is to you nor how much your DM is going to require stealth checks lock picking checks or finding hidden door checks but what I do know for certain is that for 99.9 percent of you you're going to have combat in your DND game and probably a lot of it and also it's a lot harder to put your skill prowess into a spreadsheet and graph it right now that hasn't stopped me from building characters who have amazing utility in the past the skill monkey of course being probably the best of those but I mean the Fey Wanderer comes to mind as well as a whole host of others but yeah in the end for the reasons I've explained my tendency is to look to dealing damage or maybe mitigating damage or healing damage when I build characters and here's my hot I don't know maybe not so hot take generally speaking and with few exceptions the best Rogues usually only take one maybe three levels in Rogue and that's it with one to three levels of Rogue you're going to get some sneak attack a lot of skills and proficiencies expertise and those things are all going to give you most of what you need to effectively fulfill the role in your party of scouting stealthing picking locks and disarming traps beyond that if you want to be more effective in combat at least you're going to want extra attack third level spells or maybe both and that means at least five levels in another class because here's the thing I complain a lot on this channel about classes that don't scale well right and how because of the way that classes are front loaded and their damage doesn't scale well it's usually better from a damage perspective at least to multi-class you could absolutely argue and I'm sure some of you might be doing so in the comments right now that Rogues scale better than any other class in the game right and in a way that's true no class just gets a consistent extra D6 of damage every two levels in that light sneak attack is amazing and you should never multi-class out of Rogues so you can keep that sneak attack damage scaling but the sad reality is this because things like Sharpshooter and great weapon Master exist because things like Spirit shroud or rage or hexblade's curse that add damage to every attack you make exist because magic weapons exist in d d that can do lots of damage per attack heck because we get to add our ability score modifier in damage to every attack we make getting more attacks in a turn just outpaces adding more damage to one attack per turn like sneak attack does and Rogues don't get extra attack so again you're pretty much always going to be better off in combat as a rogue taking at least five levels in another class and I don't want to do that this week because yes as again I'm sure some of you are screaming at the screen right now there is value to taking more Rogue levels Beyond just more sneak attack damage uncanny Dodge is cool evasion is awesome Reliant Talent is fantastic more rounds of expertise so great so some subclass features are really nice and damn it all Kobe it's not just about the numbers ah and I get it I do so today here's what I'm going to try to do create a character who takes no more than four levels in anything that isn't Rogue so that it truly just feels like a dip and make them as viable as I possibly can in combat that means I'm intentionally not going to get extra attack or third level spells and just see how competitive we can be damage wise with other damage focused builds so that we can still hold on to most of our best rogus utility as we progress oh and if you're interested in adapting this character for Baldur's Gate 3 stay tuned and in the final thoughts I'll talk for a minute or two on how I might adjust this build for that game alright I'll get off my soapbox I proudly present DND episode number 145 the mostly rogue rogue Inigo Montoya the Spaniard nah to nebulous and might defend some Spaniards how about just the rogiest Rogue huge thanks to my good friend Randall Hampton for the Fantastic artwork that he created for this character concept he does this for my d d builds every time I make one he's a fantastic artist if you'd be interested in following him on social media or potentially reaching out to him to see if you can commission him to create some art for your character or even your entire party I'll put links in the video description as always but before we get into the build I am super excited to tell you guys about world Anvil who has been so kind as to again sponsor the video this week I use World Anvil and I am a huge fan of what they do and I'm confident that if you are not already a huge fan yourself you would become one if you would just give them a try for those who don't know about world Anvil they are basically the best software out there for DMS to build their home brew world and for players to interact seamlessly with that world for you world Builders World Anvil supports over 45 gaming systems including DND and Pathfinder as as well as many more it will even facilitate letting you create your own system to work with their software they make it super easy to create Wiki style presentations of your world and your writing so that you can keep track of everything you build they also have a fantastic interactive map Builder that you can customize and even Chronicles that combine timelines with those Maps so that you can plot and keep track of what happened where and when in your world whether before your campaign started or while your campaign is going presenting information to your players with World Anvil is so easy and yes speaking of players World Anvil is for you too it will not only make it easier than ever to access everything that your GM wants you to know about their world and their campaign but you can even build your own character right from within World Anvil's site regardless of the setting that your game is taking place in it lets you keep track of hit points spell slots inventory and it even has a user-friendly system for backstory creation as well as journal entries and even note for each session now here's some interesting info that might be news to you it was actually news to me world Anvil right now is extremely close to launching version wait for it 1.0 that's right despite being available for years they haven't even yet released what they consider to be their first complete and full version that blows me away I mean if this is beta mode sheesh but World Anvil subscribers are actually currently testing version 0.9 and that's the thing that's so great about these guys they communicate so closely with their users subscribers are constantly testing and giving feedback and World Anvil listens to that feedback and makes changes based on that feedback so that they're delivering with their end product exactly what their users want and I love that so please do yourself a favor and go check them out you won't regret it sign up for a free account if nothing else to see what you might be missing when you do I'd appreciate it if you used this URL right here so that they know I sent you I'll put a link in the video description as well of course and if you decide decide to purchase a yearly subscription regardless of the level that you purchase at if you use the code D4 at checkout you will save a whopping 40 yes 40. go become a grand master at that kind of discount all right huge thanks to World Anvil you guys are the best let's jump into the build at level one we are going to start off as a fighter just kidding I'm just kidding if we're claiming to build a character who's mostly a rogue we better start with freaking Rogue levels right so that's what we're doing here though admittedly we will be taking fighter levels later and yes it probably goes without saying but I do anticipate this character being really really good at all the things that Rogues are good at picking locks scouting stealthing disarming traps and being a general skill monkey so yes starting Rogue is really nice for that because it gives us four skill proficiencies when we start as a rogue and that's more than any other class character concept wise I really like starting as a rogue because I sort of envisioned this character as like I said an Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride right this was actually I think Monty's idea from the video but yes we are a bit of a scoundrel at the moment maybe down on our luck looking to write a great wrong that was done to us long ago but we're destitute without a lot of resources with which to exact Our Revenge we're starting out Scrappy trying to claw our way towards Vengeance with whatever resources we can beg borrow or steal as for our race I'm kind of of two minds here on the one hand we could go custom lineage and start with an 18 dexterity or variant human and either route would get us a free feat and I actually really want at least one feet here for sure and could use more of course but also we're going to be super mad on this build multiple ability score dependent right and so I really need more than just two little ability score bumps also we are going to be attacking with dexterity on this character and we'll often have Advantage at least during our burst or Nova round and yes I'm building this character for Nova damage which is where I think Rogues can potentially both shine numbers wise but also conceptually I really like to make my Rogues burst damage dealers I'm not really here to just stand in the fight and go toe-to-toe with you for 10 Rounds yeah I'm here to put a blade in your kidney when you least expect it and then flit away into the Shadows so that you can't retaliate well because you're dead it so maybe so that your friends can't retaliate I guess anyways yes using decks to attack with Advantage you know what that means we want to have an accuracy so we've got to be an elf or a half elf and yeah I'll take half elf here for the better ability score increases as for which half elf sub race pick your favorite if I only have like a mediocre Charisma score or worse like we're going to here then I tend to favor wood elf half elf personally for the increased move speed but you do what you want to do here as for our starting ability scores I assume that we're going with the point by Method as always and say let's go 15 dexterity plus two from our ratio there a 13 Constitution plus one there a 13 strength a 13 Charisma and an 11 wisdom plus one so that we can at least get it up to 12. like I said we are pretty mad and though I am happy to at least get Dex to 16 con to 14 and and wisdom's 12. I'd love a higher wisdom score not just for the important wisdom saving throws but also because we use our wisdom score based perception to find traps and hidden doors and things we'll be hoping to make that at least a little decent though so no worries as for starting equipment I'm gonna suggest the gold buy route as I often do and say let's grab some studded leather and a Rapier right we are not going to be using two weapon fighting on this character you could using your bonus action to make like an offhand attack if you do a wielding short swords for example right and sure that will give us a little more damage plus another chance to potentially trigger sneak attack if we miss on our first attack right but without the two weapon fighting style the damage from that offhand attack is really small and will actually have a way to both add more damage to our attack if we don't take the attack action which is necessary to do for two weapon fighting right and also our first attack is going to have a really high hit rate anyway and I really like keeping my bonus action free on my Rogues for cutting action or Steady Aim so we'll stick with a single rape here throughout our career I think as a rogue one then we get thieves can't yes they can am so dumb but I must say it every time uh yeah this is the special coded language that thieves get to be able to decipher messages that they write to one another but then we get expertise this lets us double our proficiency bonus for either two skills that we're proficient in or one skill and the proficiency bonus that we get when we use our thieves tools I think I would go here for perception first of all with our 12 wisdom we need all the help we can get on spotting things that are hidden and that's kind of a big part of the rogue's job when they're out there scouting and stealthing ahead right secondly I'd take either our proficiency bonus with thieves tools or stealth I wish I could get both but you're gonna have to choose do you want to be harder to see or more reliably be able to pick locks and disarm traps I'd probably say the latter but it's going to depend on your table your campaign and your character concept Rogues also get sneak attack at this level which tells us that when we make an attack with either a finesse or ranged weapon against an enemy who we either have advantage on or is standing next to one of our allies we can add an extra D6 of damage that scales with level once per turn and that wording is super important because as many of you know that means that yes we can do that damage on our turn but if we're making an attack against an enemy on their turn with our reaction for example then we can apply sneak attack damage then as well so long as we otherwise qualify for sneak attack and that's going to be really important for us if we want to stay competitive damage wise with other builds at level 2 we get cunning action this lets us Dash disengage or hide as a bonus action instead of an action and that's actually really important and Powerful I probably undervalue this when I do builds and under appreciate how often we might be using it in game to get to our next Target or hit and run or keep to the Shadows super useful at level 3 we get our roguish archetype our subclass and we are going to go with Arcane trickster on this build I have a lot of reasons for wanting to go this route with this character and I still think it's probably overall the most powerful brogue subclass because well spells so yeah we get to learn can trips and first level wizard spells as an Arcane trickster but two of those first level spells have to be from the enchantment or Illusion schools and the other one can be from any school we want as for the Spells we should take I'm going to say for cantrips grab message because it's great for utility especially if you're scouting or stealthing ahead of your party and then either booming blade or green flame blade in case you need a reminder both of these can trips will let you make a weapon attack as part of casting the spell and then after level 5 at least add extra damage to the attack itself in addition with booming Blade the enemy takes more damage if they move with green flame blade you can do some extra damage to an enemy standing nearby we are going to be using one of these all the time on this build as for first level spells for the non-enchantment or illusion spell I would grab find familiar this is going to let you have a handy little pet who can not only do some great scouting for you but can also in DND at least as opposed to bg3 take the help action on their turn granting you advantage on your first attack an advantage is of course important for any attacking character in this game but none more so than Rogues since that can trigger our sneak attack if our enemy isn't standing next to one of our allies right if you're new to this tactic I always advise taking the owl as you're familiar since they can swoop in take that help action and then fly away without provoking an opportunity attack thus helping to keep them safe Arcane tricksters also get The magehand Ledger domain feature which gives them the Mage hand can trip but lets it be like super magehand because it's invisible and can use your thieves tools to like pick locks and disarm traps from a distance right among other things incredibly useful I often forget to mention the Steady Aim feature that Rogues get at level three that comes to us from Tasha's cauldron of everything right this tells us that if we haven't moved this turn and are okay reducing our move speed to zero until next turn we can get advantage on our first attack this turn by using our bonus action I think this is a lot better on ranged weapon users but you might want to use it if you're familiar is dead and you don't have a way to trigger sneak attack otherwise speaking of sneak attack don't forget that at this level it does scale up to 2d6 now at level 4 we get our first ability score increase or feat and of course we are going to take Elven accuracy this bumps our dexterity by one rounding it up to a nice even 18 and then tells us that if we are an elf or a half elf and are making attacks with dexterity or Charisma or wisdom or intelligence for that matter and we have advantage on that attack then we get to roll three d20s instead of two basically and that really does wonderful things for our numbers and is my favorite feat in the game for that reason but at level five now that we've got our first ability score increase that Elven accuracy secured our subclass us and some sneak attack dice under our belt I think it's time for our first dip into another class to really increase our burst damage potential and yeah that's gonna mean fighter levels so at this point in our character's career they've maybe managed to pull themselves out of the slums maybe with help from some Newfound friends of course and have decided that if they really want to kill that six-fingered man they're going to need to get better at fighting maybe specifically at the art of fencing so we're diving into our Marshall prowess with fighter levels and that means as a fighter one we get second win this lets us peel for a d10 plus our fighter levels as a bonus action once per short rest and then we get our fighting style and even though I do want dueling to get more damage on our Rapier attacks we get a lot more mileage at least on our burst damage round from Superior technique this lets us learn one maneuver from the Battle Master maneuver list and gives us a single superiority die per short rest to spend on that maneuver that die is only a D6 but we want yes trip attack because drip attack would potentially let us knock our enemy prone and if we're attacking a prone enemy from within five feet then we have advantage on our attacks meaning that on our turn we could get advantage on our first attack thanks to our familiar and then advantage on the rest of our attacks this round until they stand up making it a lot easier to both hit them and also trigger our sneak attack wait a second you may be thinking we are not too weapon fighting and we don't have extra attack why does this matter so much give me a second uh don't forget also that since we are proficient with shields now as a fighter there's no reason why we couldn't equip one to give ourselves a plus two to our Armor class we're not regularly casting spells that require a free hand and were not too weapon fighting so more survivability is always welcome also importantly booming blade and green flame blade go up at this level to do an extra deity of damage to that initial attack against the enemy and up to 2d8 if they move for booming blade or an extra d 88 on the Ally standing next to your target if you're using green flame blade but the main reason we wanted to go fighter of course is because at level 6 we would be a fighter 2 and that means we get the almighty action surge so that once per short rest we can take two actions instead of one now this is good on every single character really but it might be better on Rogues than any other class arguably the reason simple because sneak attack can trigger once on a turn like we've said and in DND not in Baldur's Gate 3 unfortunately one of the things you can do with your action is to take the ready action when you do this you simply hold your action until a trigger that you decide on takes place when that trigger occurs you can use your reaction to do the thing you said you were getting ready to do so for example you might say I want to ready my action to cast the booming blade spell on this enemy as soon as it's their turn or if that's like too cheesy or metagamy for you or your DM then as soon as they move even a hairs breath or whatever and this then is going to lead us to our level 6 damage report which is perfect timing because we need to talk about what our tactics look like at this level on our Nova round we would simply approach our Target and cast booming blade on them making a Rapier attack that will do 2d8 damage one for the Rapier one for booming blade calling on our friendly familiar to help us so that we have Elven accuracies like triple Advent Advantage right 3d20 is giving us an incredibly High likelihood of hitting assuming we hit we would apply both 2d6 in sneak attack damage plus one D6 and our trip attack maneuver to the enemy assuming that they're large or smaller and that they fail their saving throw they're not prone we would then action surge but instead of hitting them again we would just ready that action to cast booming blade on the enemy again at the beginning of their turn as soon as that trigger happens we hit them with another booming blade and since it's being done on their turn not ours yes we get to add sneak attack again plus the extra damage from booming blade though not from our superiority die of course we spend that anyway all told if both attacks land we will be hitting for a total of 4d8 plus 5d6 plus 8 damage and thus against an enemy with a 10 Armor class we would on average do 49 damage here during our Nova round and against an enemy with a 15 AC it would be just a teeny bit less 47 and compared to other burst damage builds I've done to date that's good not great call it like middle of tier three compared to other Nova builds at this level so yeah it's hard for Rogues to keep up even when they're getting sneak attacked twice per round right don't worry though we're going to do some things to make it a lot better and we're going to be scaling quite nicely and hey we're still mostly a rogue here meaning we have all of that skillish utility that we came to the class for in the first place right right all right at level seven I mean we are a melee combatant looking to do burst damage and we already have some spell slots we gotta take a Pally dip right of course you don't have to you could stick with Rogue you could do a little more Fighter for a subclass Battle Master looks nice for more superiority dice more Maneuvers Eldritch Knight to double down on spells or I mean heck even Champion wouldn't be a bad thing maybe a little boring but I mean Elven accuracy critting on a 19 or 20 means a 27 chance to crit and remember sneak attack dice get doubled on a crit too plus booming blade it's not bad but but Pali will give us more guaranteed on-demand burst damage and when I'm building a burst damage focused character I'll always take burst damage you can plan on over surprise burst damage you know but yeah character concept wise for me this is the time in our hero's journey where they swear their oath vowing to exact revenge on the one who has killed their father or wronged them or those they love in some other way even though we're not technically going to be getting a paladin oath or subclass on this character maybe you're making a vow of Vengeance now as a budding Paladin yeah anyway as a paladin one we get the wonderful Leon hands ability which gives us five lay on hands points per Paladin level to either heal with an action and a touch one hit point per Point spent or we could spend all five to cure a disease or poison super useful in a pinch and then we also get the much less useful Divine sense which lets us detect Undead fiends or celestials that aren't behind total cover maybe it'll come in handy once in a while maybe not at level eight we would be a paladin two and that means we get all kinds of goodies first up another fighting style meaning that we can grab that dueling fighting style after all to give us another two damage per attack with our Rapier so long as we don't decide to put another weapon in our offhand we also get Paladin spells here but since Charisma is our spell casting stat as a paladin and we only have a 13 Charisma I'd stick with stuff that just works so cure wounds for some nice on-demand healing when our lay on hands points are spent and blessed for one of the best Buffs in game adding a D4 to the attacks and saves of you and potentially all your allies depending on your party size or how high you can upcast the spell but you know what else we could cast as a first level Pally spell that requires our concentration I mean why not thunderous might hear me out I know that the 2d6 damage it can do to an enemy is less than the 2d8 we'd get by spending that spell slot on Divine Smite which we'll get to in a second but we aren't necessarily using our bonus action for anything at the moment and while sure we could and arguably should be concentrating on bless for our entire party I mean there's a pretty good chance that someone else is doing that already no we're level eight okay so in all seriousness if no one else is using bless in your party then you should totally do that it will do wonders for your entire team but you guys know me I like to throw caution to the wind and explore what's possible damage wise even if it might seem ill-advised and hey sometimes the difference between a dangerous enemy surviving one more round to wreak havoc on your party and dying right here right now will be the 2d6 damage that thunderous Smite can bring so let's pretend we're in that situation and thus using the spell okay for science okay so yes we often forget about Paladin Smite spells since we generally just use Divine Smite instead right at least until one d d goes live but as a reminder with thunderous Smite you cast it as a bonus action it requires concentration and then the next time you hit with a melee weapon attack hopefully later this turn you smack them for an extra 2d6 Thunder damage and they are both pushed 10 feet away away from you and knocked prone the nice thing about that is there's no size restriction here trip attack only works against large or smaller creatures if you're fighting something huge or gargantuan even now you've got a chance at knocking them prone too and regardless if you apply trip attack still they're gonna have to succeed on both saving throws to stay on their feet this is actually seriously worth considering using depending on the fight and I love it for our Nova round right I haven't even talked about Divine Smite yet which is the main reason we went Paladin in the first place so with Divine Smite you hit with a melee weapon you spend a spell slot to do 2d8 extra radiant damage to the attack plus another 1d8 for every spell level you upcast it Beyond first unfortunately we only have first level spell slots at the moment even with our multi-classing into half and one-third casters as an Arcane trickster right like we've done but we do have three of them to spend at this level which is exactly how many we could potentially blow during our Nova round if we want it to but at level nine yeah we have reached our limit on the non-rogue levels that we can take as per the rules that I set up for myself at the beginning so back to Rogue we go as a rogue 5 that means uncanny Dodge a wonderful ability that lets us use our reaction to have the damage on a single attack made against us of course we're using our reaction during our Nova round anyway but outside of that we don't have a way to reliably attack with our reaction every turn so this will get plenty of use to help us stay alive don't forget sneak attack scales now to 3d6 when we use it just in time for our level 9 damage report alright things have changed for us quite a bit since last check now on our turn we're still making a familiar assisted booming blade trip attack with our first action but before that we will be using our bonus action to cast thunderous Smite and then if we hit we'll be spending a spell slot for divine Smite to boot then action surge again ready the action and then when we attack with our reaction we're going to be adding another 2d8 Smite potentially our sneak attack has increased by a D6 as well and we've added two to each of our attacks thanks to the dueling fighting style and thus at this level against an enemy with a 10 Armor class we would on average do 89 damage during that Nova round and against a 16 AC it would be 86. okay that's more like it almost double since last check compared to other Nova builds I've done to date at this level were more like middle of tier two climbing the charts baby and still filled with a boatload of utility really strong defense and even some nice Support options to boot best mostly Rogue ever at level 10 we would be a rogue six and that means we get another round of expertise and I think I'd be taking either stealth or thieves tools here whichever we didn't take last time and then maybe sleight of hand unlike in Baldur's Gate I don't find sleight of hand checks coming up all that often for me at my DND table anyways though it does feel like an important Rogue skill to have if you don't think that you'll get too much use out of sleight of hand maybe consider investigation here at some tables I know that you have to like make an investigation check to like figure out how to disarm a trap once you've discovered it for example and it's generally a pretty useful skill to have importantly keep in mind thanks to multi-classing we do now get second level spell slots for bigger and better smites at level 11 we would be a rogue seven and that means we get evasion this is a favorite of Rogues and monks the world over it tells us that if we have to make a deck save to take half damage on something say a fireball for example well with evasion we take no damage if we succeed on the save and only half damage if we fail very nice keep in mind sneak attack scales up to 4d6 at this level and we do get access to second level illusion and enchantment spells here the ones I would prioritize would be invisibility just in case we need to be extra stealthy and mirror image for some fun you're seeing four of me right now defensive shenanigans that could help keep you safe and no since some of you might be wondering we will be passing on Shadow Blade this time Sad Panda if you can cast booming Blade with Shadow Blade at your table then go for it but the reality is that we'd actually do less damage making a regular attack with Shadow Blade here than we would using booming blade and rules as written there's a Prohibition against using Shadow Blade to booming blade not to mention shadowblade requires concentration so we'd have to give up thunderous Smite and it takes a bonus action and a second level spell slot to summon it one day I might do an Arcane trickster who focuses on Shadow Blade but yeah the spell slot progression is so slow it makes it tough but yeah I mean at this level level 11 right booming blade gets another d8 bump on both the initial hit and on the damage they take if they move so again that's going to be more than the 2d8 damage that you'd get from a shadowblade attack and besides we're level 11. surely we've got a great Magic Weapon by now right anyway at level 12 we would be a rogue eight and that means we get another ability score increase our feet and even though we could do more to increase our burst damage by taking a feat I have in mind here I just don't think I could sleep at night with this character if I didn't cap my dexterity first what I thought you were always beholden to the spreadsheet I know I know but if we're really trying to be the best road we could be I mean Dex increases everything we do our important skills our armor class our damage plus our saving throw and our initiative it's a no-brainer even for me also at Arcane trickster level 8 we can swap out a second spell from enchantment or Illusion to a spell of a different school right and you know what there are actually a ton that I would consider here I mean Shield of course for defensive purposes but Misty step is always handy maybe slightly less so for those of us who can Dash with a bonus action but still Vortex warp is great for moving people around the battlefield spider climb if you need to get up a wall even cloud of daggers is worth a look since the damage it does just happens without the enemy getting to make a saving throw against our crappy intelligence-based spell DC right at level 13 we would be a rogue nine and Arcane tricksters get magical Ambush at this level and alas we are not going to get much use out of it if I had a nickel for every time I said one day I'm gonna make an Arcane trickster build that really takes advantage of magical Ambush I would have at least 25 cents at least but yeah this feature tells us that if we cast a spell from hiding enemies affected by the spell have disadvantage on their saving throw against it which might be nice if we didn't have any intelligence and thus a really lousy spell DC I mean sure with disadvantage you still might get a wisdom or intelligence or Charisma based save spell to stick to targets a little more reliably even with our crappy intelligence but I just don't think this is a feature to build around for this character anyway sorry but hey chin up sneak attack scales to 5d6 so it's still a great level for us for our level 13 damage report since last check our divine Smite has gone up to 3D our sneak attack has scaled to 5d6 our booming blade damage has gone up by 58 we've kept our dexterity at 20 and we've picked up some nice defensive end utility stuff as well and so against an enemy with a 10 armor class on and over around here we'd do 128 damage on average and against a 17 AC it would be 125. okay some decent scaling but compared to other Nova builds I've done to date at this level that's actually more like bottom of tier 2 top of tier 3. so still quite good but yeah slipping just a bit by comparison since last time no worries we are still the erogiest Rogue compared to all those other Pretenders at level 14 we would be a rogue 10 and Rogues very happily get a bonus ability score increase or feat at level 10 unique among all classes and as much as I'd love to grab something sensible to help out with our defenses I think the best thing we could do for our Nova damage would actually be to grab the metamagic Adept feat this lets us pick two metamagic options from the sorcerer's metamagic list and gives us two sorcery points per long rest man I wish it were per short rest so bad to use on one of our spells right and while yes I think subtle spell is a great option here letting us actually get a spell with verbal and or somatic components off while hidden without revealing ourselves the more important one for burst damage purposes is yeah quick and spell letting us cast a spell that normally requires an action as a bonus action this means that from here on out once per long rest anyways we could Quicken booming blade as a bonus action right and smite with it then booming Blade with our action against smiting and then action surge ready action booming blade Smite with our reaction three smite-fueled booming blade attacks on our turn in around two of them applying sneak attack that is a glorious thing at level 15 we would be a rogue 11 and we get that darling of skill monkeys everywhere reliable Talent this is so good I wish I could have gotten here sooner but I'm just happy we got here at all with as much damage as we're putting out reliable Talent says that when we make an ability check in a skill that we are proficient in we treat anything rolled lower than a 10 as a 10. so yeah at this point the lowest we could get for a stealth or thieves tools check would be what 25 and perception isn't much worse it's like 21. that's so awesome don't forget sneak attack scales again here to 6d6 at level 16 we would be a rogue 12 and that means we get another ability score increase or feat and I think that I would probably go warcaster here resilient Constitution would actually do a better job of protecting our concentration but warcaster helps by giving us advantage on those concentration checks and also lets us cast a spell as an opportunity attack if we get one meaning we could booming blade them as they move away from us right plus sneak attack plus booming blade damage that they get for moving that makes for a heck of an opportunity attack if one comes up for us probably outside of our Nova round and by the way if your DM is one of those who says that the enemy stops moving upon getting hit with a booming blade opportunity attack so that they don't take that extra Thunder damage then they need to go to time out happily also we do get third level spell slots from multi-classing Paladin with Arcane trickster Rogue at this level for bigger smites but then finally for us at level 17 we would be a rogue 13 and that means we get versatile trickster as an Arcane trickster and you know what I'm pretty sure that as often as I've used Arcane trickster in builds it might be my most used Rogue subclass I've never gotten to this feature as I always end my builds at level 17 and I'm pretty much always taking at least five levels in other classes on my rogue builds if not more so yay because it's a nice feature it says that we can use our bonus action to cause our Mage hand which remember is invisible to give us advantage on attacks against an enemy until the end of our turn alas it's not until the end of the round but still it's kind of like they're doing super help so if our familiar is no longer with us and or we can't get the enemy prone or whatever this will be a nice way to ensure Advantage probably outside of our Nova round when we're using that bonus action for quick spell anyways we do get third level illusion or enchantment spells here as well and my favorite would actually be catnap I think this lets us once per day basically give our party a short rest in just 10 minutes instead of the usual hour it takes otherwise bg3 players are like well a lot of the resources that we're using for burst damage action surge our superiority diet come back on a short rest so this will be handy for both recovering hit points and for our damage capabilities aside from that fear and hypnotic pattern are of course the standout spells in these schools at third level but alas we have a crappy intelligence and no way to respe back that feels harsh pg3 has spoiled me uh we'll be fine also just FYI at Next Level we could swap out another spell from enchantment or Illusion right to grab a different third level spell here and I'm 100 taking haste this would let us get an extra attack on our turn which sure is nice during our Nova round but the real value is for sustain damage you use your hasted action to make a weapon attack and get sneak attack damage but use your regular action to ready your action and then hit with your reaction right and with haystub you can do this every single round not just when you have action search available we actually built around this in the quickened blade a while back which was a sorcerer Rogue and was pretty awesome I think anyway sneak attack scales here to 76 I think that might be the highest I've ever gotten sneak attack damage in a build before and when you get it twice in a round it's a lot of damage finally don't forget booming blade gets its final scaling here two to three d8 on a hit 48 if they move for our final damage report then since last check we've seen scaling on booming blade scaling on our divine smites scaling on our sneak attack and above all we're dropping thunderous Smite for a third booming blade and smite-fueled bonus action attack during our Nova round via Quicken spell this actually means that you could and maybe should be using bless for concentration now again someone else might have it and we'd need to spend around casting it instead of going Nova right at the beginning of combat but let's assume that we've got it on ourselves at this point yes for fun don't forget to we've had some big bumps to our utility support and survivability along the way as well but against an enemy with a 10 Armor class here we would do 199 damage on average during our Nova round I wanted to get to 200 so bad and against an enemy with an 18 AC it would be barely less 196. I love you Elven accuracy and yeah that's a big bump since last time I mean when everything goes up and you get another attack that's bound to have happen right compared to other Nova builds I have done to date at this level this puts us back pretty solidly in like the middle of tier two for Nova damage and yeah with as much utility as we have that's a good place to be all right let's dig into some final thoughts the tier score for this character if you take the damage that they do during their Nova round against every armor class that we calculated for at all four of the damage reports just averaged into one big number we end up with a 107 and that puts us right at the bottom of tier two as I kind of expected just below the storm sorcerer Tempest cleric do I have any cards left I don't know I guess we'll find out admittedly if we would have gone metamagic Adept before capping dexterity it would have raised our numbers a little higher a little earlier in time for that level 13 damage report would have raised our average would have been better for our Nova damage but worse for like everything else so I'm not sorry alright I have a bunch of thoughts on this build actually it was a fun experiment trying to make the rogue's numbers viable without taking five levels in another class was a challenge but I think we got there at least for a Nova damage focused character right but I am left feeling just a tad dissatisfied I think I mean it's like oh two levels of fighter and two levels of Paladin are really good for burst damage on a Melee character who knew of course the way we're using that action surge feels a lot different on this build than others and getting to the numbers we got to without extra attack felt pretty unique but I think finding the exception kind of proved the rule if you want your Rogues damage to keep up with other damage focused builds you pretty much have to find a way to get sneak attack with your reaction I feel like I've explored just about every way to try and do that with different Builds on this channel to date on a single character especially but even on team up like two build videos like the wolf and the coyote or the battery in the blender or the mountain blade and while finding those interesting and creative ways to do stuff on a character is fun sometimes I can't help but feel like I shouldn't have to twist myself into knots to keep up here also it's a lot easier to do this for burst damage than it would be for a sustained damage build without extra attack or the haste spell I don't even know if I could though I guess I'll keep the idea on my to-do list the question I always have to ask with these dungeon dudes inspired builds of course is is this build better than a straight class Rogue would be and I mean this one's easy right like Monty said in their video yeah pretty much every multi-class with Rogue is better than a straight Rogue in my opinion and at least when we're talking about damage and this one is no exception but I do think it is better damage wise than most Rogue builds that you could come up with especially if you're limiting yourself to four levels in other classes or less right of course like we've said at the end of the day yes there's more to the game than just big damage I know and being able to bring almost all of what makes Rogues fun and useful and versatile in game along with big Nova number feels really cool and I'm really glad that we got there and I certainly hope that you find them someday you all ready then whether I am or not you've been more than fair you'll see me decent fellow I hate to kill you you seem a decent fellow I hate to die finally yes as promised how would I adjust this build for Baldur's Gate 3. I mean in bg3 there's no such thing as ready action right so those two levels of fighter are a lot less impactful I'd probably cut them entirely we also don't have booming blade in the game currently so we'd just be making weapon attacks of course you could go Battle Master to kind of sort of imitate what you're getting from booming blade and still tripping and giving yourself Advantage but yeah I think instead I would focus more on Paladin you could take both of Vengeance at Paladin 3 to both keep in line with our character concept but also guarantee you advantage on at least one enemy for short rest and we're a Nova damage character so that's not a bad thing familiars don't work quite the same way in bg3 the superior technique fighting style isn't a thing so vow of enmity is a nice way to ensure Advantage for us right and it's a lot easier to take short rests in bg3 than 5e generally so you're probably going to have valve enmity for every fight I might go Thief Rogue instead of Arcane trickster losing those spells and spell slots for stronger smites would be a bit of a bummer but two bonus actions each round with thief in bg3 is really strong especially when you need a bonus action for valve enmity right in that scenario though I'm dual wielding instead of using a rave here so that I can make Smite infused bonus action attacks with my offhand so yeah a dual wielding Thief Rogue with probably four levels of Paladin to get oath of Vengeance advantage and three spell slots to Smite with plus the feat from pali4 are the major changes I'd make I think or alternatively two levels of Paladin for Smite and two levels of your favorite full spellcaster so that you can have second level spell slots for more and bigger smites anyway that's the video for the week I hope you guys enjoyed it I love you guys you're the best thank you so much for all that you do for me for the channel I hope you have a really great day and a fantastic week and if you don't hang in there I hope that you stay safe and that you be kind and that I see you again really soon but until then take care bye [Music] blackbird singing in the dead of night [Music] take these broken wings and Learn to Fly all your life you were only waiting for this moment to arise Blackbird flies blackbird fly into the light of the dark black night oh what is your favorite Beatles song I'm introducing my kids to them right now and so many good ones to choose from blackbird's got to be near the top of the list I think for me though [Applause] carpe diem Seize the Day boys make your lives extraordinary name that movie here's a hint I named my firstborn child after one of the characters in it I thought do we learn one or maybe it's two hmm just one okay don't fall don't fall Maple waffle no we could Quicken booming blade during our Nova round smut smite do tell me more oh anybody else feeling sleep deprived from too many late nights playing bg3 if only my kids didn't have to be out the door at 7 45 in the morning for school I I wouldn't be quite so tired worth it

Channel: d4: D&D Deep Dive

Views: 86,104

Keywords: D&D, dungeons & dragons, dnd, rogue, multiclass, fighter, paladin, damage, dpr, dps, burst, nova, utility, arcane trickster, character, build, guide, tips, tricks, how to, dungeon dudes, bg3, baldur's gate 3

Id: Jdvf0SVkdwU

Length: 51min 9sec (3069 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 12 2023