Base Class: Rogue
This is the archetype of con artists, movers, and shakers; but anyone who prefers social finesse as their primary weapon can pursue this path. You not only develop your ability to persuade and deceive foes off the battlefield, but also hone your skills in distracting and manipulating them during combat.
Social Finesse
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Deception and Persuasion skills if you don’t already have them. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of those proficiencies.
Distracting Presence
Your presence and way with words draws attention even on the battlefield. Starting at 3rd level, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to do one of the following:
- Grant advantage to an ally (not yourself) on their next attack roll against a designated enemy who can see or hear you.
- Allow an ally (not yourself) to Hide as their reaction, even if they're within sight of an enemy.
Disinformation
Starting at 9th level, your lies spread more easily from creature to creature. When you succeed on a Deception check to lie to a creature, anyone that creature spreads the lie to has disadvantage on any checks made to spot the lie or verify the false information. Furthermore, creatures with disadvantage on such checks use your initial Deception result as the DC for those checks.
Rumormonger
By 13th level, your words spread so quickly that entire settlements can be swayed in a relatively short time.
You can attempt to spread information or rumor through a small town sized region or larger settlement by making a check. You can do so a number of times per week equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 0). The DC is based on the size of the settlement, and it takes a week for the information or rumor to propagate through the settlement. If the check succeeds, the information or rumor is practically accepted as fact within the community, even if false. Succeeding by 2 or more over the DC decreases the time it takes the rumor to propagate by 1d4 days. A failed check means the rumor failed to gain traction, while failing by 5 or more causes the opposite of the rumor or some other competing theory involving the rumor’s subject to take hold.
|
Community Size |
DC |
|---|---|
|
Small Town |
16 |
|
Large Town |
18 |
|
Small City |
20 |
|
Large City |
22 |
|
Metropolis |
24 |
Battlefield Beguiler
Starting at 17th level, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to verbally persuade an enemy creature who can hear you and shares a language. The creature must succeed on Wisdom save (DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) or take one of the following actions on its next turn:
- The target spends its turn moving toward a space of your choice, provided they can do so without coming to harm or provoking opportunity attacks. The creature may Dash or Disengage as necessary.
- The target attacks or casts an offensive spell at another creature you designate. The designated creature can't be an ally of the target.
- The target doesn't move and takes the Dodge action.
- The target moves to nearest cover, provided they can do so without coming to harm or provoking opportunity attacks, and takes the Hide action.
- The target Uses an Object; a specific item it has or any item it has that matches a general description ("drink a potion"). The Object usage can't be something the target knows will cause them harm.
Any actions must be plausibly in the creature's self-interest. The creature can be made to take other actions beyond those above at the GM's discretion.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of once), and you regain all expended uses of it when you finish a long rest. Multiple uses can be used on multiple targets as part of the same action.
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Posted Dec 11, 2020This is my first time formally writing fifth edition content! I think some of the wording could be clearer and I think the Rumormonger feature could be streamlined a bit more (this subclass is inspired heavily by the Charlatan archetype for Pathfinder 1E rogues, and the wording for that feature lifts heavily from that for this draft). What do others think?