Base Class: Rogue
Some rogues excel at the night, basking in the void. Some of these special individuals are given special powers. You are one of those individuals, marked by the void. If you prove yourself, you will be richly rewarded.
Note: I am new to 5e and this is very much in beta,so please comment with any balance changes/ cool ideas to add and I will try to make this as viable as possible. I want the balance and play style to be about like the assassin, but I want to give players more options. I will add small notes as to why I did what I did.
Assassinate
Starting at 3rd level, you are at your deadliest when you get the drop on your enemies. You have advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn't taken a turn in the combat yet. In addition, any hit you score against a creature that is surprised is a critical hit.
Assassin's Blade
At level 9, you are gifted with a special Shortsword. It is classed as a magical weapon and is +1 to hit. This increases to +2 at Rogue level 9 and +3 at level 17.
You can use a bonus action to call the Assassin's Blade to your hands, as long as you have a free hand. If you are holding the blade, you gain +15 movement.
During a long rest, you can spend your time performing a 1-hour long ritual with your assassins blade as well as another weapon on hand. After this ritual completes, your Assassin's Blade gains any of the magical effects or powers that the other weapon held. This ritual destroys the original weapon.
If you perform this ritual while the assassins blade has an effect from another magical weapon, you replace the other benefit with the new one.
Additionally, if the magical weapon has a bonus to its hit and damage modifiers, you use the higher of the two between that weapons and your assassins blade.
//This adds some sustainability in combat, so I am not completely useless after the first round or if I miss the surprise attack. According to Reddit, that is a real issue with the current balance of the assassin.
Void Step
By 13th level, you have been gifted with the ability to enter the void in order to travel quickly. As long as you are hidden, you can cast misty step as a bonus action as often as you like. You then have advantage on the first melee attack you make this turn.
//This is meant to help make getting the super powerful sneak attacks a bit easier, so I can kill monsters too, along with a bit of extra mobility to keep my character light on their feet, so they don't get destroyed by a gust of wind (literally or figuratively.)
Death Strike
Starting at 17th level, you become a master of instant death. When you attack and hit a creature that is surprised, it must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your Dexterity modifier + your proficiency bonus). On a failed save, double the damage of your attack against the creature.
Void mark
This mark signals to the world that you are chosen of the void. It burns with voidish energy and gives you strange abilities.
//The idea with this is to provide some minor downsides to help balance the class a bit more. Best case scenario it would be close enough balanced that these could be things that can be used as a bonus if used right, but mostly are kinda bad aka paralysis check every time you try to intimidate. This would be annoying (since a successful check means nothing), but fun because you could paralyze people with infomercials.
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Posted Aug 17, 2019thanks for the ideas
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Posted Jul 3, 2019Good flavor of the class, very Dishonored feel.
Couple things, while I like the idea of the instant death at level 17, it is also slightly redundant given the feature it has at level 3. In 5e, a critical hit is automatically doubling the dice damage. While I understand that the feature is meant to double ALL damage, once you include sneak attack into the mix which will always be the case if the enemy is surprised. Now you're doubling the dice damage, and then you have to double all damage, and that is a lot of different math which will slow down the game, plus if the creature has resistance or immunity, then it complicates things further. But that's just me. And yes I know both of those features are in the base assassin subclass.
Also your assassin's Blade feature is in need of a fix. You get a +1 shortsword at level 9, which then becomes a +2 shortsword at level 9??? That and an additional +15 feet of movement is very powerful seeing as how it is both better than the Mobile feat and equivalent to a Monk's unarmored movement after 7 levels or so.
Void step is also too powerful in my opinion. Misty step is an incredible spell, and while I like the limitation of the player must be hidden, an unlimited amount of times is very powerful. It's equivalent to a Wizard's level 18 feature of spell mastery at level 13 for a class (subclass) that has no magical powers. That and guaranteed advantage means that there will never be an attack where sneak attack can't be applied.
A few suggestions for fixes:
1. Put Assassin's blade as the level 3 feature. Gives the rogue a magical weapon much earlier than most of the party, yet it will scale appropriately. In addition make it a +5 feet at level 3, +10 at level 9, and +15 at level 17, just to show proper scaling and not reducing the value of other class abilities/feats.
2. Void Step is good, yet it just needs to be brought down a little. I would say able to use that feature equal to Dex modifier per short rest. That's 5 times per short rest with max Dex at level 7 or 13 wherever you decide to put this feature. Guarantees use in combat, yet limits on spamming. Short rest also might be too powerful, but give it a shot.
3. For me, reconciling the level 3 and level 17 features of the assassin subclass is hard. It just complicates the math of the game. I recommend taking a look at either the Monk's quivering Palm ability which is the only save or die ability in the game really, or the warlock's hurl through hell ability which is also very much save or suck, and re-flavor/re-balance them for this class at level 17.
4. Since we're now short a feature and if assuming this is Dishonored inspired, I have a suggestion for one. The Domino ability, where say once per short rest the character can magically link two creatures within 30 feet of each other. Until the end of your next turn, half of all damage suffered by one creature is dealt to the other creature as psychic damage, (that or the same type for simplicity sake). This feature can be upgraded to either include multiple creatures per use, multiple times per rest, or upgrading to include all damage. Gives the rogue some crowd control which it sorely lacks.
These are just my suggestions, but nice class so far!