You Might Be a Soulknife| Rogue Subclass Guide for DND 5e

hey do you put the stab in stabbing headache have you ever dreamed of living out your favorite dagger tossing delinquent but are having a hard time justifying hauling around a duffel bag full of razor sharp blades well congratulations you might be a soul knife but what is a soul knife well brush up on your stolen classic literature break out that old copy of brain age for the Nintendo DS and probably get in the habit of wearing a helmet on adventure seeing as your primary weapon is essentially a large clump of Play-Doh and a calcium box because it's time to sharpen our mind do you know the worst thing about assassination the mess I mean it's crazy blood ental Brains it's just all gross you think by now a rogue would have come up with a better way to do this kind of work well lucky for you and unlucky for somebody they did enter the soul knife this versatile assassin is the perfect choice for infiltration Espionage and of course elimination but the road to getting this good is tough and requires a little more brains than your aage average Ruffian and while Might and Magic are the favorite tools of most classes in 5 your abilities are a little more cerebral you see building your body to withstand an extreme amount of punishment or uncovering the secrets of the universe to enhance your magical portfolio are both incredible ways defend off danger and respond to threats but they both fall short of protecting your greatest asset the mind and that my young Scoundrels is our Target and while we're on the topic of Minds make sure to keep yours clear clutter with this week's sponsor World Anvil most of y'all know how much I love World Anvil but if you're new to the channel and somehow haven't heard World Anvil is the One-Stop shop for keeping up with every detail of your campaigns plan sessions create sprawling maps and help your players focus on adventure while World Anvil takes care of the hard part and if you'd like to take a break from D and D World Anvil supports 45 RPG 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as a rogue Rogues are good at stuff and by default gooder than you so they get a lot of skills I recommend skills that boost your ability to remain un seene and deliver on your sneak attack so stealth perception and slight of hand or goto's but don't forget you also get expertise to enhance two of those skills even further by doubling your proficiency bonus making you a near invisible nightmare but we wouldn't be a rogue if we didn't get sneak attack letting you add a D6 of damage to any attack that meets the sneak attack criteria this damage also increases by a D6 for every two levels you take in Rogue so lay in wait for the perfect time to strike and then reach out and deliver that heinous killing blow but you also get thieves can which is a secret language known only to Rogues and while technically supposed to be a disconnected series of words and phrases from different regions and languages I like to imagine it is whatever Donnie is saying in the Wild Thornberries second level gets us cunning action so we can dodge duck dip dive and Dodge around the battlefield allowing us to dash disengage or hide as a bonus action perfect for popping in and out of danger or attacking from the Shadows but all that time stalking and doing stakeouts has given you the opportunity to think and more importantly explore your own mind in doing so you discover a power lying dormant in your subconscious psionics psionics is like magic but actually not at all why would you think that silly more like brain magic that can't be detected by normal magical means or counterspelled if this sounds familiar it's the power set of everyone's favorite octopus face brain loving sexy cephalopod the Mind flare but lucky for you we can harness some of that sweet brain juice without turning into that this comes with a suite of abilities that utilize your psionic energy die you get a number of D6 die equal to twice your proficiency bonus which increases to a d8 10 and 12 at levels 51 and 17 respectively but you'll need a hat to cover up that huge swollen Noggin with your new Big Brain plays like s bolstered Knack letting you roll your psionic D like a Bic inspiration to add to a skill or tool check you have Proficiency in and psychic Whispers to establish a telepathic link between a number of creatures equal to your proficiency bonus for number of hours equal to a roll of your psionic energy die you can speak telepathically through this link and even connect to a creature with which you do not share a language and still understand them this connection expands for up to a mile and its first use every day is actually free expending a Dy on each additional use but that's why they call you the soul knife because you cut right to the heart of people's internal struggles to form a better connection and understanding just kidding loser it's for the blades of pure mind matter these psychic blades manifest in your hands and take whatever form you wish but count as simple melee finesse weapons with a thrown range of 60 feet dealing a D6 of psychic damage on a hit but two free hands means two blades letting you follow up with a bonus action attack that does a D4 the best part is that 60t range letting you snipe from the Shadows with a piercing Brain Blast but this also pairs exceptionally well with your optional ability Steady Aim so you can dump your movement and bonus action to lock in some advantage on a Target Target and guarantees sneak attack these blades are incredible and the signature ability of the subass making you less knifethrower and more mindblower and maybe the class that finally makes Throne weapon fighting really good maybe Boomerang subclass win probably never at fifth level we get uncanny Dodge to spend a reaction to half the damage of an incoming attack and at seventh level we become evasive allowing us to dodge some of the most powerful effects in the game taking no damage on successful deck saves and only half damage on failed ones but it's ninth level where we unleash the true power of our malicious Minds turning our psychic blades into Soul blades as long as we don't get sued by Namco but being infused with our soul means these blades are much better if following your commands meaning if you miss a target with a melee or Throne attack you can add your psionic energy diet to it which at this point is a d8 this cionic die is only expended if you hit which is super cool and means there's no reason Reon you shouldn't be trying this on every failed attack but if you need to get around better you can instead spend your bonus action to expend a psionic die throw your blade a number of feet equal to 10 times the dice roll and then teleport to that space that's just stupidly fun in one turn you can dive on an enemy stab to your heart's content and then bamp up to the rafters all before they have a chance to [ __ ] their pants at 11th level we get one of my favorite abilities with reliable Talent so we never roll below attend on any skill we're proficient in which may be one of the wildest Buffs in 5e and like nobody ever talks about it probably because we get much flashier abilities like psychic Veil at 13th level this allows you to use your psionic energy to warp the perception in the minds of those around you and become invisible to them for an hour or until you deal damage to a creature or force them to make a save it's basically the invisibility spell but once again cannot be detected by Magic and cannot be counter spelled you get one one free use of this per day unless you spend a psionic energy die to use it again so spend that wisely on your infiltration missions or do what I would and make sure no one ever sees you leaving Little Caesars why do I keep coming back is $5 Pizza really worth all this diarrhea but at least we can detect invisible creatures within 10 ft of us with the blind sense at 14th level so no one can take away your $5 cheesy goodness stop with the little Cesar it's weird you're weird anyway at 15th level we develop a slippery mind which is probably more in character than it ever has been gaining proficiency with wisdom saving throws so you can keep your most important weapon under tight lock and key but we really can't say the same for our enemies as our 17th level ability Ren mine lets you use your psychic blades to completely fry the brains of anyone they come in contact with as a part of an attack action you can force your target to make a wisdom saving throw versus your DC of a plus proficiency plus Dex modifier stunning the target for a full minute on a failure the creature gets to roll this save at the end of each of their turns but with any luck they'll be down long enough so you can pop off a few sneak attacks and they can kiss their ass goodbye rounding us off at 18th level we get elusive making sure no attack roll has advantage against you and Stroke of Luck at 20th level so we can turn a Miss into a hit or treat a failed ability check as a 20 on the die once a day instead but does the soul knife completely blow the mind it sure does this subass does so many things right that it works as a standard sneaky Rogue a front to mid-range fighter and a run and Gun dip diver that can fill about any role in the party not to mention its signature ability is just cool as hell the glowy brain blades are such a wonderful addition to the Rogue lineup because it capitalizes on what the Rogue is best at and excels from there as much as I like the swashbuckler one of the things this does better is allow you the versatility and range to dive in close or attack from AF far on top of that the idea of the psychic blades is just really fun so fun I think I've seen seen them somewhere before ah yes as though someone watched the X-Men apocalypse movie and was able to prevent themselves from immediately throwing up this subass takes heavy inspiration from the Marvel character psylock in pretty much every way but remember kids if it's an inspiration it can't be copyright infringement probably needless to say your ability to go directly for the brain instead of the regular slice and stab techniques your Rogue buddies emplore is an incredibly useful tool though I worry about its sustainability coming into the late game while your damage will pretty much always do well with your sneak attacks your psychic blades never get a plus one bonus like many shortswords you may come across by about level five by level 17 if you're fighting things that are resistant or even immune to psychic damage this becomes even more of a problem taking away your main asset however your assortment of other options like teleportation your psychic Veil or even the Mind Rend ability make up for this in my opinion and while your psychic blades may get outpaced later on there'll always be a great backup in situations where your stuff is taken away where subtlety is required so if your greatest weapon will always be the thing rattling between your ears you avoid slicing and dicing enemies preferring to cause damage by forcing them to relive a highlights reel of their most embarrassing middle school snafus and an autopsy of the skull of your latest victim looks less like a human brain and more like a potato that exploded in the microwave guess what you might be a soul knife hey everybody once again thanks for watching and if you like the video make sure to leave a like or a comment or subscribe you know the drill however leaving one of those not only tells me how I'm doing but pushes us a little further in the algorithm so others can join in on the fun the poll will be out soon so make sure to vote in that and tell me what you want to see next but until next time thanks again and I'll see you very soon

Channel: You Might Be A DND

Views: 70,558

Keywords: dnd, 5e, guide, dnd one, dnd 5e, dungeons and dragons, ymba, you might be a, swashbuckler, rogue, zorro, robin hood, musketeer, rapier, soulknife, psylocke, x men, apocolypse, movie, marvel

Id: pSsF030OjBA

Length: 11min 54sec (714 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 25 2023