D&D's Rogue Inquisitive In Xanathar's Guide To Everything

Todd Kenreck: The Rogue Inquisitive is basically the Sherlock Holmes of the D&D multiverse so, I talked to Jeremy Crawford about it's inclusion in Xanathar's Guide to Everything, how it was received and what role it will fill in anyone's D&D party.

Jeremy Crawford: The Inquisitive subclass in Xanathar's guide is in many ways, all about playing, essentially, Sherlock Holmes. This character who is fantastic at finding clues, discerning when other people are being deceitful and then using that fact them against them because the Inquisitive's abilities having to do with sneak attack, are much more psychological than our other rogue types.

Previously, we've released the Swashbuckler in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, which is very much about daring do and fancy footwork and all of that whereas, Inquisitive is ... this is the person who's going to beat you because they've outwitted you. Often in D&D, the intellectual character, the character who is triumphant for their group because of the powers of the mind, we usually associate that with spell casters.

Inquisitive is the chance for us to have that kind of intellectual character but with a non-spell casting class. Again, this person who's going to spot the thing that no one else spotted except for maybe the wizard who's having to use magic to do it, the Inquisitive is the one who just through the sheer power of their mind, is going to figure this out. Again, it's a great subclass for a person who wants to play a character that's a bit like a detective, maybe also somebody who's a bounty hunter. It would also be useful if you're in a setting where there might be an order of Inquisitors and you could use the Inquisitive as a non-magical member of some kind of inquisition.

via GIPHY

It has a lot of world building potential and it's a nice change from the thief and the assassin in the player's handbook, which tend to, as is appropriate for the rogue, lean into the classic association with criminality of some kind because the inquisitive, you can imagine making a rogue who's an inquisitive, who could also be a member of a city watch who's actually on the side of the law, hunting down members of thieves guilds and that kind of thing.

Or, the inquisitive could be a kind of spy master. Maybe a member of a Queen's secret order that is either an order of spies or hunting down spies from an enemy kingdom. There's a lot of story potential with this subclass and I think that's why people responded positively to it. People again, they like a subclass to carve out a place in the D&D multiverse that one of our player's handbook subclasses isn't already carving out for them and the inquisitive definitely does that.

Todd Kenreck: What sets it apart from say, the mastermind subclass and also, how do you tell that story with its abilities?

Jeremy Crawford: The mastermind that originally appeared in the Sword Coast Adventurer's guide is another rogue subclass that is much more about psychological power than it is about, again, fancy footwork or getting the drop on somebody. I'd say, if we were going to associate these characters with the classic ability cores, the mastermind is all about charisma whereas, the inquisitive is all about intelligence and wisdom. I mention wisdom here because in D&D wisdom is also associated not just with common sense or strength of will but noticing things.

The mastermind is all about persuasiveness and in many ways, unearthly persuasiveness where you're convincing people to do things where typically, it would be the domain of a spell caster to be so beguiling but the mastermind is so charismatic that they're able to accomplish things that again, would normally be the domain of magic.

I think as the inquisitive and the mastermind as sort of being siblings as subclasses. They're each about cunning but again, one would be Sherlock Holmes whereas the other one, the mastermind would be this person who is this master manipulator, is just extremely effective at getting others to do what they want and I could see a party where the two of them could work together as a part of again, one of these spy organizations hunting down other rogues.

Again, a lot of story potential there for each of them individually as subclasses but even more if you imagine them working together and you could even imagine a story where you could have an NPC of one of those subclasses being the rival character who has the other subclass. A mastermind and an inquisitive.

Todd Kenreck: Very much Sherlock Holmes versus Moriarty.

Jeremy Crawford: Exactly. Yeah. Holmes versus Moriarty, hating each other, one again, the expert at figuring out what's going on and the other one the expert at manipulating people to make things happen. The inquisitive, similar to the Horizon Walker and the Ranger, was one where people were overall quite satisfied with how it was designed. The version they'll see in the book really has, definitely some development tweaks to make things work a bit better, to make the play experience more satisfying but overall, people really liked how the different abilities worked together to make the inquisitive, basically the detective character. That one who's going to figure out what's going on to the adventuring party's advantage.