I am... pretty confident this subclass is completely unbalanced. I wanted to make a class that was all-in on stealth, darkness, and assassination.
Currently, the way I've "balanced" it is that your shadow multitool can only have one purpose at a time, making it effectively a concentration spell without relying on concentration. The other part is that it only acquires its alternative effects in later levels.
Something I'm considering as an alternative is to give you multiple options for it early on, and only provide it some of the more powerful options in later levels.
But even with the balancing I've put in place, I have a feeling it may be too powerful, between having some pretty strong stealth/teleport/crit %/evasion/support/damage output options that can be easily changed once every turn. And if, somehow, the player had two bonus actions, I think it may be even worse, although the multitool having only one form at a time might be enough in that regard (ie, you can't have an enemy marked and get a bonus attack on them with the shadow hand, but you could finish someone off and then switch to stealth or evasion).
I'm still working out a little about how the abilities will work, obviously, as well as determining whether you get multiple abilities at once and they upgrade later or more along the current lines of acquiring the different ability options at different levels. And I'm clearly working on the language, but I think that a level 20 version of the class may be a good way to gauge its current state. I also have truly no idea what would be "balanced" concerning Shadow Serration's added cold damage.
And I'm clearly working on the language, but I think that a level 20 version of the class may be a good way to gauge its current state.
Ok so this is your first mistake, at level 20 the game is largely broken so balance is not all that important at level 20. Balance is most important at levels 1-10 as these are the levels that are most played and when the bulk of a character's abilities are obtained via their class/subclass rather than magic items. The bulk of HB is over powered because it gives too many features/abilities at these levels - often by combining abilities from multiple other classes/subclasses and giving all of them together at these early levels.
While you have a neat concept here, the wording is very clumsy and unclear in places and several of the Knightshade abilities are overpowered.
Specific comments:
1) What is the Knightshade? Is it a creature that can be attacked? Is it an object that could be stolen? From the description it sounds like it is a creature since you describe it as "acting"? In which case it would need a statblock and rules on what happens if it dies. Or maybe it is an object like the Echo Knight's echo? Is it magical - i.e. would it inactive in an anti-magic field? When it reproduces spells are those spells able to be countered by Dispel Magic?
2) Shadow Serration is a classic homebrew mistake of just adding together a whole bunch of abilities into one feature thus making it OP. First of all - changes in Crit Range should never stack, that is asking for trouble and also confusing since no other Crit Range changes say they stack - so e.g. if they MC into Champion Fighter after getting this ability what is their Crit Range? The Champion Fighter's abilities doesn't stack and they got it after this so...??? Stuff that stacks is just asking min/maxy players to try to break the game, don't do it.
You gain proficiency in Death's weapons.
What does this mean? What are Death's weapons?
When you attack a target that is in Dim Light or Darkness, you make the attack roll with Advantage and add additional 1d8 Cold Damage.
This alone is a perfectly good subclass feature for a Rogue. The Rogue base class is already very good, so most of their subclasses give very minor buffs, just have a look at what sort of features the other subclasses give and compare it to your creation. You want yours to be roughly as powerful as them. This is a great feature because it incentivizes the player to play in a specific way and use specific tactics that reinforces the theme of your subclass - i.e. creating darkness before killing your enemy. You might want to add to this feature a 120ft Darkvision in case someone playing this subclass is a species that doesn't normally get Darkvision.
3) Shadowstrider is unnecessarily complicated. If I've understood it right it works like: I move 15 ft (out of 30 total movement) then can teleport 30 ft which counts as another 15 ft of movement so now I can't move any more???? Or I could teleport 60 ft if I didn't move at all? I guess you made it like this so it could be a free action some times and not just be completely unlimited teleport across the entire world. But... why? Teleportation that doesn't have limited use is Extremely powerful mainly for out-of-combat uses - teleporting up cliffs, across hazards, through key-holes, through windows, escaping being bound / captured, through jail cell bars, etc.... You can just look at responses to Echo Knight, and 2024 Trickery Cleric to see how powerful people think this is.
4) Nightcloak - this is a clumsy list of abilities that are largely redundant: you can't make stealth checks if you aren't at least Lightly Obscured so the "you cannot have disadvantage.." is redundant since you already have advantage which cancels out any disadvantage you might have. Being Heavily Obscured does exactly the same things as being Invisible so turning invisible while you are Heavily Obscured doesn't do anything. Pass without Trace in 2014 is kinda broken, giving out unlimited uses of it is extremely broken. Similarly being able to produce Darkness that you can see through by itself is an entire subclass feature for Shadow Monk - and it is worth noting, the monk base class is much weaker than the Rogue base class so just giving a Rogue the subclass features of a Monk subclass is OP, it looks like you are doing that and more!
5) Phantom Limb is completely unclear how it works, just make it work like Mage Hand.
6) Shadowclone is completely busted. Mirror Image is exceptionally powerful, and is balanced out by the fact that it requires a limited use resource (spell slot) and a full action to active. This one is insanely broken and effectively makes it impossible to hit the rogue at all.
7) Reaper's Mark - see above about "crit range can stack",
When the marked creature is killed, its killer refreshes their action. After the target is killed, the mark transfers to the next creature you attack.
These two are what make the feature broken. Combat is about choices limited by your limited actions available. You should almost never be making stuff free actions, transfering the mark should require using your Knighshade again, and get rid of this "refreshes their action" it's just asking for a chain reaction against weak enemies where you teleport, attack & kill, teleport again, attack & kill etc.. until you've killed like 20 creatures on a single turn while everyone else if your party has to sit there an wait doing nothing until you're 20 minute turn is over.
OK Fixed version:
Knightshade (3rd level)
In becoming a Darkblade, Death has decided to show you his favor. As a bonus action, you can magically manipulate your shadow to produce one of the effects below, this effect lasts until you are incapacitated or die, or you use this feature again.
Phantom Limb - Your shadow condenses into a hand, which acts like Mage Hand.
Your blades are enveloped in freezing shadows. When you attack a target that is in Dim Light or Darkness, you make the attack roll with Advantage and add additional 1d8 Cold Damage.
Shadowstrider (9th level)
As a bonus action you can teleport up to 30 ft to a location you can see that is within Dim Light or Darkness.
Shadowclone (13th level)
When you use your Knightshade ability, you gain the following option:
Shadowclone - your shadow creates an illusory duplicate of yourself within 30ft of you at a location you can see. Your shadow clone counts as an ally if it is within 5ft of an enemy for the purposes of sneak attack. In addition, if you are within 5ft of your clone when an enemy targets you with an attack they must roll a 1d4 on a 1 or 2 they attack the shadowclone instead of you, after your clone is attacked it dissipates.
Reaper's Mark (17th level)
When you use your Knightshade ability, you gain the following option:
Reaper's Mark - Your shadow attaches itself to a creature of your choice within 60 ft of you that you can see. When you roll an attack against the marked creature you have advantage on the attack and a 17 or higher on the d20 is a critical hit. In addition, you always know the exact location of the marked creature, and it automatically fails any Stealth checks against you.
Kudos to the op seems like a fun take on a rogue - and kudos to Agilemind that revision really cleans up the wording and features.
If I had one comment - generally speaking I feel like melee classes get pretty hosed in the overall power meta so if tweaking one I would have done this:
Shadow Serration (3rd level)
3rd-4th level: Additional 1d8 Necrotic
5th-10th level:Additional 2d8 Necrotic
11th-16th level: Additional 3d8 Necrotic
17th-20th level: Additional 4d8 Necrotic
This change basically brings a dagger attack up to ~ the dps of a firebolt. Even if the rogue specs for 2 attacks + SA - its no different than a caster with Illusionists bracers and an item that gives a significant + to attack and damage - and the rogue is in the thick of the fight so I feel like that is fair.
I would also slightly modify the wording of Reapers Mark to "when you make a melee attack" - thematically for me this class hanging out in the back and firing arrows does not seem like its the intent of the design.
Kudos to the op seems like a fun take on a rogue - and kudos to Agilemind that revision really cleans up the wording and features.
If I had one comment - generally speaking I feel like melee classes get pretty hosed in the overall power meta so if tweaking one I would have done this:
Shadow Serration (3rd level)
3rd-4th level: Additional 1d8 Necrotic
5th-10th level:Additional 2d8 Necrotic
11th-16th level: Additional 3d8 Necrotic
17th-20th level: Additional 4d8 Necrotic
This change basically brings a dagger attack up to ~ the dps of a firebolt. Even if the rogue specs for 2 attacks + SA - its no different than a caster with Illusionists bracers and an item that gives a significant + to attack and damage - and the rogue is in the thick of the fight so I feel like that is fair.
A couple of notes: Rogues can use Rapiers, and Shortswords not just Daggers. They can also use two-weapon fighting right from level 1 to be making: 1d6+DEX + 1d6 (Sneak Attack) + 1d6 (off-hand Attack) at 1st level = 13.5 damage! vs Firebolt = 5.5 damage. Sneak Attack continues to scale much faster than cantrips and with the ability to deal it if either attack hits ends up with a Rogue dealing MUCH more damage than a caster using Firebolt at every level. There is no need to give Rogues extra damage at any point, their baseline damage from their class keeps up with that of most other martial character builds and is ~2x the damage from any cantrip (except Eldritch Blast).
Illusionist's Bracers are a very rare magic item that is banned at many tables, but even where it isn't banned a caster shouldn't bet getting that until level 11+, and if the caster is getting a powerful Very Rare item you cannot compare that to a Rogue with no magic items, a Rogue with a pair of Awakened Dragon Wrath Shortswords would be dealing:
Well it seems you are correct I did the math in my head and was off but here is the math it actually makes it hit much harder than fire bolt and slightly higher than Eldritch Blast assuming the rogue gets a SA off every round (doubtful), yes I used daggers as its the quintessential rogue weapon the +1/2 avg damage per round from short sword rapier does not really impact the math.
So depending on how strong you want to make the subclass I stand by my comment - an attack that requires positioning and being in melee range and gaining advantage vs a fire and forget cantrip with a range of 120.
As for illusionists bracers - I have never played at a table where they where banned. Its the go to item for most casters I know.
Still great idea for a sub class and I just disagree on the damage component with Agile:
Hmm, I see. Yeah the actual descriptions are a little vague (editing homebrews is a serious PITA), the more specific changes exist only in the actual character creator/character page.
I'll give a quick description of some differences here:
A Knightshade (originally just called Dark Companion) is literally just your shadow. While I sometimes give it its own turn, generally it was not intended to be something that could take damage, except I suppose when it is struck as a Shadowclone. That being said I wouldn't be opposed to making it take Radiant damage or something.
Phantom Limb acts like Mage Hand, sort of. It currently also does not need tools for lockpicking or disarming traps (as it molds to take the form of the tools it needs), has advantage on those things in Dim Light/Darkness, and is invisible in Dim Light/Darkness.
It also has combat capabilities, namely: it can either be equipped with a weapon and make an additional attack on its turn, or it can make any of your weapons have the Thrown property, and subsequently on its turn either return your weapon to you or equip it and use it itself at range. Basically, it's a third hand for whatever purposes the Rogue needs it for.
For Shadow Serration: I wasn't aware of other abilities (in DnD) that stack crit, I got the crit stacking from BG3 (which is pretty much my only experience in DnD thus far, save for like two sessions a couple years ago). It is mainly intended to stack crit with Reaper's Mark and any other abilities that would have provided crit bonuses, such as perhaps a modified Nightcloak, or additional passive bonuses/upgrades to Shadow Serration down the line. You also ask what Death's Weapons are; not that that really matters that much aside from creating clarity in the ability, but I will mention that I wanted to get as close to a scythe as I could so I included a glaive and sickles, as well as longsword and longbow which I felt are just classic weapons, and the double bladed scimitar because I thought it was pretty fitting for Death as well.
For Nightcloak; I wasn't aware of the Shadow Monk's abilities (I'm only working with base classes and one subclass, ie the Free Rules, for any references - I'm not sure if Shadow Monk is even included in that). You say that creating darkness that you can see through is a subclass feature, though, right? Are these not themselves entire subclass features? The purpose of the Knightshade abilities using your shadow is that only one of them can be active at a time. I don't personally care about creating Darkness that only you can see through, though - the idea behind it is really just to feed into your stealthing abilities, and I thought it made sense to create magical darkness with the Knightshade that you could see through rather than giving you Darkvision for what is otherwise a normal Darkness spell.
As for the language around Hide, Invisible, Lightly Obscured, and Heavily Obscured: yeah, this gets a bit clunky because there are some things that are confusing when it comes to Invisibility, specifically; namely that there is magical Invisibility that lasts until action (or Greater Invisibility that lasts for a duration) as well as the Hide action's Invisibility, which is not clear when it ends (ie, if you enter Bright Light, are you suddenly visible?). Specifically what I am going for here is basically free Hide actions at the end of your turn when it's possible, and creating the ability to Hide or have advanced stealth ability when it's normally impossible.
The Shadowstrider ability was created with combat in mind, and I didn't think of its use outside of combat much at all. My main experience with DnD is Dimension 20 and BG3; the former, I don't think they really take turns when they're out of combat, and the latter, while technically it is turn based, it also isn't. Shadowstrider is really just intended to give you free action teleport actions when you're moving between shadows at the cost of movement instead, or a bonus action teleport if you're teleporting raw. It's definitely intended to lean into creating/using darkness as you move.
Shadowclone being busted: makes sense, I hadn't put much thought into it yet. I like your take on it. As your Knightshade basically has its own turn, though, I still think that it makes sense for it to reform to whatever its current purpose is on its turn if it gets "destroyed"; but, that said, I suppose the cost of a bonus action to reform it is not too significant. I just think of what I was reading which is that "telepathic" conversation does not take bonus action but things like commanding a pet with verbal commands do. As your Knightshade can only have one form at a time, I figured that changing that form makes sense as a bonus action; basically it's meant to be a constant buff or debuff, with balancing things like the clone being destructible but then the buff basically restarting on your turn, unless you change its purpose. That said though I really like your take on the one clone because that is the perfect combination of Invoke Duplicity and Mirror Image that I was going for.
Reaper's Mark: the mark transfer goes back to the "constant buff" idea, but again I'll keep workshopping that. As for the action refresh: yeah, I can see how that would be overpowered. I've been workshopping this one a bit and it got a bit jumbled. For one thing, the Mark allows anyone attacking the target to have a crit threshold bonus and action refresh on kill. Originally it was designed such that if someone else got the kill, the mark would be lost and you'd need to refresh it, but if you got the kill then you'd be able to become a shadow and strike the next target. I also was getting a bit of the idea from Great Weapon Master, ie getting a bonus action attack on a kill, combined with Action Rush; but as one of those has a Bonus Action cost and the other is a once-per-rest Free(?) Action, I can see how the refresh might be OP. Now I'm thinking that, when the mark is killed, you can use a Knightshade ability as a reaction. I think that might be much more balanced and provide the "strike hard and slip away into darkness" vibe I'm going for, though I definitely had a kill-chain idea in my mind for wiping weak adds or focusing someone strong when creating the ability. I'll keep workshopping it a bit.
Ultimately I like your adjustments and have just a couple tweaks to make it more in line with what I'm going for.
You also say that the Cold stacking at higher levels becomes OP; why is that? I was thinking about adding another d8 at 9 and maybe a third at 17, but I do know that stacking with the crist might make it become too powerful. Number balancing is not my forte in any capacity.
@James_Bard
Glad you like my take on it, I am always disappointed with shadow-assassin classes and, honestly, not even fully happy with this one haha but wanted to get it to be as focused on being a shadow/stealth-oriented glass cannon/dodge tank as I could. The Knightshade just kind of became a necessary balance component for that and was completely unintentional in the original design... but ended up being kinda cool so I leaned into it. Originally it was only the Mage Hand. I kinda want to give it some more alternative capabilities but for now I have some balancing changes to make already haha
Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast is supposed to be similar to ranged martial damage - it is BAD that your proposal for this subclass is significantly above EB+AB damage. Rogues do not need to be in melee, the only rogues that routinely go into melee are Swashbucklers or Arcane Tricksters using Booming Blade (which is an OP combo) the rest much prefer to fight at range either by throwing daggers or firing a shortbow. Since they can Hide to get advantage on their attack to guarantee sneak attack, or use Steady Aim to get advantage to guarantee sneak attack. Most rogues will sneak attack at least 90% of the time, it really isn't difficult - you just need to avoid being frightened or poisoned.
In melee they need to team up with a friend because Rogues don't have the hit points or armour class to absorb the attacks of all the enemies. That friend will also give them sneak attack even if they don't have advantage and two-weapon fighting gives them the same probability of triggering sneak attack.
PS your damage estimates actually underestimate the true difference in damage between the builds, also you have the scaling wrong for EB/AB. If you have a 65% chance to hit with an attack, sneak attack has a 87% chance of being dealt this means the correct damage calculations are:
Still great idea for a sub class and I just disagree on the damage component with Agile:
Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast is supposed to be similar to ranged martial damage - it is BAD that your proposal for this subclass is significantly above EB+AB damage. Rogues do not need to be in melee, the only rogues that routinely go into melee are Swashbucklers or Arcane Tricksters using Booming Blade (which is an OP combo) the rest much prefer to fight at range either by throwing daggers or firing a shortbow. Since they can Hide to get advantage on their attack to guarantee sneak attack, or use Steady Aim to get advantage to guarantee sneak attack. Most rogues will sneak attack at least 90% of the time, it really isn't difficult - you just need to avoid being frightened or poisoned.
Hmm, while I suppose I wanted to create the ability to be a sniper with granting the Longbow, I also do want this to be more of a melee-encouraged class. Maybe I will provide scaling cold damage to only melee weapons, although when I was creating the ability I did have ranged weapons in mind as well; I just wasn't aware that rogues prefer to stay at range. I am trying to create a stealth-glass cannon dodge tank that basically gets in, hits hard, and tries to get to safety either by getting out or getting to stealth. Obviously that sounds a bit OP outright so I guess I really gotta lean into the "glass" part of glass cannon, so nerfing Shadowclone to nerf the dodge tank aspect a bit seems like a good idea.
Reaper's Mark working for everyone is also meant to provide support for what would otherwise be a very "I work alone" lone wolf style class vibe that I was going for (obviously not actually working alone, but the sort of class that's designed to pick off stragglers rather than fight on the front lines, ideally up close and personal). I'll keep workshopping the class.
Hmm, while I suppose I wanted to create the ability to be a sniper with granting the Longbow, I also do want this to be more of a melee-encouraged class. Maybe I will provide scaling cold damage to only melee weapons, although when I was creating the ability I did have ranged weapons in mind as well.
I'd leave it as both. One of the fun thing about Rogues is their ability to either fight in melee or at range depending on the situation.
I am trying to create a stealth-glass cannon dodge tank that basically gets in, hits hard, and tries to get to safety either by getting out or getting to stealth. Obviously that sounds a bit OP outright so I guess I really gotta lean into the "glass" part of glass cannon, so nerfing Shadowclone to nerf the dodge tank aspect a bit seems like a good idea.
If you're using the word "tank" it is not a glass canon. Most RPGs have a trade off between damage and defense to create these different "niches" for characters to exist in. If my Rogue can't get hit, why would I duck out of combat? I can just stand there in the middle of the melee to provide flanking or to try to get an AoO to get a second sneak attack in. If you're going for a glass cannon, it's best not to include any extra defensive abilities - Rogue already gets Uncanny Dodge and Evasion which are really effective defenses except against swarms, which incentivizes them to try to pick out one enemy to go and kill at a time, and keep out of the main melee where the bulk of the enemies are. Whereas if you are going for a dodge-tank you should exclude any extra damage abilities, and give them a special Cunning Strike ability to reduce their sneak attack damage to boost their armour class / take the Dodge action. You should not include both in the same subclass though.
Reaper's Mark working for everyone is also meant to provide support for what would otherwise be a very "I work alone" lone wolf style class vibe that I was going for (obviously not actually working alone, but the sort of class that's designed to pick off stragglers rather than fight on the front lines, ideally up close and personal)
It is very un-Rogue-ish though. Only the Mastermind gets any support features, none of the other subclasses get any support focused features. I really didn't get the vibe from the flavour text and the other abilities that this rogue is supposed to play a support role - generally support as similar trade offs with damage as defense does. So you'd want to make the feature only help the allies and not help the rogue itself. But with all the darkness-based abilities it really feels like this should be a lone-wolf-type subclass because it's very likely your allies will have magic weapons or spells going that produce light and ruin all your darkness based abilities. If you don't want it to be a lone wolf, it would need quite a lot of adjusting to make it work.
Oh, okay, you just made it sound like the rogue generally wants to avoid melee, but yes I agree that the versatility (plus stealth) is what makes it my personal favorite.
Yeah "tank" and "glass cannon" do tend to seem like they conflict, but I guess what I meant was more a class that relies on hitting hard and not getting hit. Leaning into the versatility of Stealth vs the Shadowclone, I guess what I mean by "glass cannon" is that you can't take hits, not that you can't avoid them. "Dodge tank" isn't the best description because the Shadowclone wouldn't really work against swarms, nor is it intended to. Now I'm thinking, maybe it makes some sense if it provides you with a free disengage in addition to your suggestions? Idk, the idea behind the Knightshade to lean into the versatility of rogues; so maybe the Clone makes sense to provide a high AC, or perhaps work like the mirror image, or perhaps a distraction like an illusion. Idk, it's hard to do this without redundancy or making an ability overpowered. Perhaps the Nightcloak provides the disengage while stealthing you. I don't know.
Yes, it's definitely intended to be a lone wolf; Reaper's Mark, though, is intended to make focusing a target easier. Whether that means focusing the target yourself or making it easier for your team to focus it doesn't really matter to me, but I thought that such a lone wolf class could use one support ability as I know that people tend not to love classes that don't provide much team support. I'm happy to make it only work for the Darkblade, though... and, now I'm also thinking that I might even buff it if there's a darkness aspect involved, to lean into that further (or more likely, nerf it if darkness is not involved... perhaps it's -1 to crit if the rogue is in the dark, -1 if the enemy is in dark, and -1 generally, plus -1 for serration and maybe even another -1 for serration in darkness leaving it at 15 for crit or 30% chance... buuut that's really getting up there, though it is pretty situational).
Perhaps instead of "dodge tank" what I'd really be going for is the opposite, something beyond stealthing that diverts aggro. The Shadowclone could help a bit with that (maybe in addition to your suggestions), is what I meant to say above.
The baseline Rogue class already does this. You have Disengage and Hide as bonus actions to avoid getting hit. Uncanny Dodge to avoid the brunt of the damage from a hit as long as you only get hit once. Evasion makes you super resistant to AoE damage. Rogue doesn't need any additional defenses unless you intend for them to stand on the front-lines. - I played a Swashbuckler Rogue as a 2nd frontliner in a party with a bard, a paladin, a caster-cleric, and a archer-ranger and I was fine, I could have hit & run but most of the time I didn't because healing is so easy and available it didn't matter if I got hit a few times I was only a little bit less tough than the Paladin was. The Shadowclone as I wrote it will easily make this Rogue as tanky as a paladin or fighter, unless they end up surrounded, so they won't need to play hit & run they can just run forwards hit and stand there and they will be fine. If you make it Mirror Image instead like you had it originally, then this rogue could solo kill most dragons.
No you should not make Disengage or Hide a free action because that takes away from the tactical trade-off that is based on the limitation of 1 BA per turn: Do you risk getting hit in order to maximize your damage using two-weapon fighting or Steady Aim? Do you play it safe and Hide or Disengage? Do you simply run away out of the enemy's reach using Dash?
Strategy and player agency arises from rule limitations as much as it does from character abilities. If your character can just do everything, everywhere, all at once there are no choices, there is no strategy.
Hmm, got it. I'll just focus on making stealthing even easier then
Edit: Just saw your edits. Thieves already get disengage stealth attacks, allowing them to disengage and then hide. Why would making Hide a free action in Dim Light/Darkness be a problem? It is conditional, so it still relies on proper conditions and/or strategic setups, no?
This is the current, updated version. I'm still making edits and open to suggestions for anything that still sounds overly powerful. Also, I haven't done the rephrasing/proper organization of abilities or anything like that because this is being automatically populated from the class abilities list and getting everything written out properly is a pain and my lowest priority atm. But the level groupings are as you suggested in your post, Agilemind:
Darkblade rogues manipulate the very shadows to suit their needs. Shadows become cloaks, portals, illusions, and even tools.
Knightshade
In becoming a Darkblade, Death has decided to show you his favor. As a bonus action, you can magically manipulate your shadow to produce one of the Knightshade effects. This effect lasts until you are incapacitated or die, or you use this feature again.
Shadow Serration
Your blades are enveloped in freezing shadows. Any weapon damage you do is augmented by Cold Damage. You gain proficiency in Death's weapons (Glaives, Sickles, Longswords, Longbows, and Double-Sided Scimitars).
When you attack a target that is in Dim Light or Darkness, you make the attack roll with Advantage and add additional 1d8 Cold Damage.
When you attack with Advantage, Critical Hits require one less number on your attack roll. This effect can stack with Knightshade abilities that adjust your required attack roll.
Knightshade: Nightcloak
On activation, your Knightshade takes the form of a cloud of Darkness at your location. While in this form, your Knightshade provides you these boons:
You create a hand out of shadow at a point you choose within range, which acts independently of you in order to try to accomplish a goal set when it is created. The hand vanishes if it is ever more than 60 feet away from you. When in dim light or darkness, the hand is Invisible and it has advantage on [Tooltip Not Found] rolls.
The hand can’t activate magic items or carry more than 10 pounds. It can travel up to 60 feet per turn. As it is mentally linked, its actions are controlled by its summoner on its turn via telepathy. Its turn always happens immediately after its summoner.
The Phantom Limb can perform one of these actions on its turn.
Equip. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of you, it equips a weapon or item under 10 lbs from your inventory. If the Phantom Limb is destroyed, it will drop the equipped item in place.
Return. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of you, it can return its equipped item to your inventory.
Attack. If the Phantom Limb has a weapon equipped, it can attack.
Lockpick. If the Phantom Limb does not have a weapon equipped, it can attempt to pick a lock. It does not need a tool to do so.
Disarm. If the Phantom Limb does not have a weapon equipped, it can attempt to disarm a trap. It does not need a tool to do so.
Utilize. If the Phantom Limb does not have a weapon equipped, it can attempt to utilize an object.
The Phantom Limb can perform an unlimited amount of these reactions.
Nether Throw. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of you and does not have a weapon equipped, it allows you to treat any weapon as though it has the Thrown property. When you perform a throw action under these conditions, the Phantom Limb gives you Advantage on the throw and it Equips the thrown weapon at the end of the throw action.
Peekaboo. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of an enemy that you are attacking and does not have a weapon equipped, it performs a DC10 attempt to make that enemy Blinded until the end of your attack.
Linked. When you move, the Phantom Limb moves with you.
The Phantom Limb can perform one of these reactions per round.
Dark Fencer. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of you and has a weapon equipped, it can attempt to parry an enemy attacking you.
Can't See Me. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of you and does not have a weapon equipped, it can perform a DC10 attempt to make the enemy Blinded until the Phantom Limb's turn.
The Phantom Limb can perform one of these bonus actions per turn.
Pick Up. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of a weapon or item under 10lbs on the ground, it can pick it up. This counts as equipping a weapon.
Drop. If the Phantom Limb is carrying an item, it can drop the item.
Shadowstride
As a bonus action you can teleport up to 30 ft to a location you can see that is within Dim Light or Darkness.
Knightshade: Shadowclone
Your shadow becomes an illusory duplicate of yourself within 30ft of you at a location you can see. Your shadow clone counts as an ally if it is within 5ft of an enemy for the purposes of sneak attack. In addition, if you are within 5ft of your clone when an enemy targets you with an attack they must roll a 1d4. On a 1 or 2 they attack the shadowclone instead of you; after your clone takes damage it dissipates. While your shadow clone is active, you can use Shadowstride to switch positions with it.
Possible: while your shadow clone is active, you can use a bonus action each turn to have up to three shadow clones active.
Knightshade: Reaper's Mark
Your Knightshade takes the form of a curse mark. Choose a creature you can see and mark it for death. The number you need to roll for a Critical Hit when attacking this creature is reduced by 3. The marked creature also automatically fails any Stealth checks against you and you know their exact location at all times. You always have Advantage while attacking the marked creature.
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I am... pretty confident this subclass is completely unbalanced. I wanted to make a class that was all-in on stealth, darkness, and assassination.
Currently, the way I've "balanced" it is that your shadow multitool can only have one purpose at a time, making it effectively a concentration spell without relying on concentration. The other part is that it only acquires its alternative effects in later levels.
Something I'm considering as an alternative is to give you multiple options for it early on, and only provide it some of the more powerful options in later levels.
But even with the balancing I've put in place, I have a feeling it may be too powerful, between having some pretty strong stealth/teleport/crit %/evasion/support/damage output options that can be easily changed once every turn. And if, somehow, the player had two bonus actions, I think it may be even worse, although the multitool having only one form at a time might be enough in that regard (ie, you can't have an enemy marked and get a bonus attack on them with the shadow hand, but you could finish someone off and then switch to stealth or evasion).
I'm still working out a little about how the abilities will work, obviously, as well as determining whether you get multiple abilities at once and they upgrade later or more along the current lines of acquiring the different ability options at different levels. And I'm clearly working on the language, but I think that a level 20 version of the class may be a good way to gauge its current state. I also have truly no idea what would be "balanced" concerning Shadow Serration's added cold damage.
So. Thoughts on balancing this class?
https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/2245037-darkblade
Ok so this is your first mistake, at level 20 the game is largely broken so balance is not all that important at level 20. Balance is most important at levels 1-10 as these are the levels that are most played and when the bulk of a character's abilities are obtained via their class/subclass rather than magic items. The bulk of HB is over powered because it gives too many features/abilities at these levels - often by combining abilities from multiple other classes/subclasses and giving all of them together at these early levels.
While you have a neat concept here, the wording is very clumsy and unclear in places and several of the Knightshade abilities are overpowered.
Specific comments:
1) What is the Knightshade? Is it a creature that can be attacked? Is it an object that could be stolen? From the description it sounds like it is a creature since you describe it as "acting"? In which case it would need a statblock and rules on what happens if it dies. Or maybe it is an object like the Echo Knight's echo? Is it magical - i.e. would it inactive in an anti-magic field? When it reproduces spells are those spells able to be countered by Dispel Magic?
2) Shadow Serration is a classic homebrew mistake of just adding together a whole bunch of abilities into one feature thus making it OP. First of all - changes in Crit Range should never stack, that is asking for trouble and also confusing since no other Crit Range changes say they stack - so e.g. if they MC into Champion Fighter after getting this ability what is their Crit Range? The Champion Fighter's abilities doesn't stack and they got it after this so...??? Stuff that stacks is just asking min/maxy players to try to break the game, don't do it.
What does this mean? What are Death's weapons?
This alone is a perfectly good subclass feature for a Rogue. The Rogue base class is already very good, so most of their subclasses give very minor buffs, just have a look at what sort of features the other subclasses give and compare it to your creation. You want yours to be roughly as powerful as them. This is a great feature because it incentivizes the player to play in a specific way and use specific tactics that reinforces the theme of your subclass - i.e. creating darkness before killing your enemy. You might want to add to this feature a 120ft Darkvision in case someone playing this subclass is a species that doesn't normally get Darkvision.
3) Shadowstrider is unnecessarily complicated. If I've understood it right it works like: I move 15 ft (out of 30 total movement) then can teleport 30 ft which counts as another 15 ft of movement so now I can't move any more???? Or I could teleport 60 ft if I didn't move at all? I guess you made it like this so it could be a free action some times and not just be completely unlimited teleport across the entire world. But... why? Teleportation that doesn't have limited use is Extremely powerful mainly for out-of-combat uses - teleporting up cliffs, across hazards, through key-holes, through windows, escaping being bound / captured, through jail cell bars, etc.... You can just look at responses to Echo Knight, and 2024 Trickery Cleric to see how powerful people think this is.
4) Nightcloak - this is a clumsy list of abilities that are largely redundant: you can't make stealth checks if you aren't at least Lightly Obscured so the "you cannot have disadvantage.." is redundant since you already have advantage which cancels out any disadvantage you might have. Being Heavily Obscured does exactly the same things as being Invisible so turning invisible while you are Heavily Obscured doesn't do anything. Pass without Trace in 2014 is kinda broken, giving out unlimited uses of it is extremely broken. Similarly being able to produce Darkness that you can see through by itself is an entire subclass feature for Shadow Monk - and it is worth noting, the monk base class is much weaker than the Rogue base class so just giving a Rogue the subclass features of a Monk subclass is OP, it looks like you are doing that and more!
5) Phantom Limb is completely unclear how it works, just make it work like Mage Hand.
6) Shadowclone is completely busted. Mirror Image is exceptionally powerful, and is balanced out by the fact that it requires a limited use resource (spell slot) and a full action to active. This one is insanely broken and effectively makes it impossible to hit the rogue at all.
7) Reaper's Mark - see above about "crit range can stack",
These two are what make the feature broken. Combat is about choices limited by your limited actions available. You should almost never be making stuff free actions, transfering the mark should require using your Knighshade again, and get rid of this "refreshes their action" it's just asking for a chain reaction against weak enemies where you teleport, attack & kill, teleport again, attack & kill etc.. until you've killed like 20 creatures on a single turn while everyone else if your party has to sit there an wait doing nothing until you're 20 minute turn is over.
OK Fixed version:
Knightshade (3rd level)
In becoming a Darkblade, Death has decided to show you his favor. As a bonus action, you can magically manipulate your shadow to produce one of the effects below, this effect lasts until you are incapacitated or die, or you use this feature again.
Phantom Limb - Your shadow condenses into a hand, which acts like Mage Hand.
Nightcloak - You have advantage on Stealth checks.
Shadow Serration (3rd level)
Your blades are enveloped in freezing shadows. When you attack a target that is in Dim Light or Darkness, you make the attack roll with Advantage and add additional 1d8 Cold Damage.
Shadowstrider (9th level)
As a bonus action you can teleport up to 30 ft to a location you can see that is within Dim Light or Darkness.
Shadowclone (13th level)
When you use your Knightshade ability, you gain the following option:
Shadowclone - your shadow creates an illusory duplicate of yourself within 30ft of you at a location you can see. Your shadow clone counts as an ally if it is within 5ft of an enemy for the purposes of sneak attack. In addition, if you are within 5ft of your clone when an enemy targets you with an attack they must roll a 1d4 on a 1 or 2 they attack the shadowclone instead of you, after your clone is attacked it dissipates.
Reaper's Mark (17th level)
When you use your Knightshade ability, you gain the following option:
Reaper's Mark - Your shadow attaches itself to a creature of your choice within 60 ft of you that you can see. When you roll an attack against the marked creature you have advantage on the attack and a 17 or higher on the d20 is a critical hit. In addition, you always know the exact location of the marked creature, and it automatically fails any Stealth checks against you.
Kudos to the op seems like a fun take on a rogue - and kudos to Agilemind that revision really cleans up the wording and features.
If I had one comment - generally speaking I feel like melee classes get pretty hosed in the overall power meta so if tweaking one I would have done this:
Shadow Serration (3rd level)
This change basically brings a dagger attack up to ~ the dps of a firebolt. Even if the rogue specs for 2 attacks + SA - its no different than a caster with Illusionists bracers and an item that gives a significant + to attack and damage - and the rogue is in the thick of the fight so I feel like that is fair.
I would also slightly modify the wording of Reapers Mark to "when you make a melee attack" - thematically for me this class hanging out in the back and firing arrows does not seem like its the intent of the design.
A couple of notes: Rogues can use Rapiers, and Shortswords not just Daggers. They can also use two-weapon fighting right from level 1 to be making: 1d6+DEX + 1d6 (Sneak Attack) + 1d6 (off-hand Attack) at 1st level = 13.5 damage! vs Firebolt = 5.5 damage. Sneak Attack continues to scale much faster than cantrips and with the ability to deal it if either attack hits ends up with a Rogue dealing MUCH more damage than a caster using Firebolt at every level. There is no need to give Rogues extra damage at any point, their baseline damage from their class keeps up with that of most other martial character builds and is ~2x the damage from any cantrip (except Eldritch Blast).
Illusionist's Bracers are a very rare magic item that is banned at many tables, but even where it isn't banned a caster shouldn't bet getting that until level 11+, and if the caster is getting a powerful Very Rare item you cannot compare that to a Rogue with no magic items, a Rogue with a pair of Awakened Dragon Wrath Shortswords would be dealing:
[1d6+2+3d6 (weapon) ] *2 +5 (DEX) + 6d6 (Sneak Attack) = 58 damage
Fire Bolt + Illusionist's Bracers = 6d10 = 33 damage
Fitting exactly with the scaling I mentioned above of martials dealing ~2x the damage of a caster using a cantrip.
Your modification of Shadow Serration is unnecessary and unbalanced in tier 1&2.
Well it seems you are correct I did the math in my head and was off but here is the math it actually makes it hit much harder than fire bolt and slightly higher than Eldritch Blast assuming the rogue gets a SA off every round (doubtful), yes I used daggers as its the quintessential rogue weapon the +1/2 avg damage per round from short sword rapier does not really impact the math.
So depending on how strong you want to make the subclass I stand by my comment - an attack that requires positioning and being in melee range and gaining advantage vs a fire and forget cantrip with a range of 120.
As for illusionists bracers - I have never played at a table where they where banned. Its the go to item for most casters I know.
Still great idea for a sub class and I just disagree on the damage component with Agile:
@Agilemind
Hmm, I see. Yeah the actual descriptions are a little vague (editing homebrews is a serious PITA), the more specific changes exist only in the actual character creator/character page.
I'll give a quick description of some differences here:
A Knightshade (originally just called Dark Companion) is literally just your shadow. While I sometimes give it its own turn, generally it was not intended to be something that could take damage, except I suppose when it is struck as a Shadowclone. That being said I wouldn't be opposed to making it take Radiant damage or something.
Phantom Limb acts like Mage Hand, sort of. It currently also does not need tools for lockpicking or disarming traps (as it molds to take the form of the tools it needs), has advantage on those things in Dim Light/Darkness, and is invisible in Dim Light/Darkness.
It also has combat capabilities, namely: it can either be equipped with a weapon and make an additional attack on its turn, or it can make any of your weapons have the Thrown property, and subsequently on its turn either return your weapon to you or equip it and use it itself at range. Basically, it's a third hand for whatever purposes the Rogue needs it for.
For Shadow Serration: I wasn't aware of other abilities (in DnD) that stack crit, I got the crit stacking from BG3 (which is pretty much my only experience in DnD thus far, save for like two sessions a couple years ago). It is mainly intended to stack crit with Reaper's Mark and any other abilities that would have provided crit bonuses, such as perhaps a modified Nightcloak, or additional passive bonuses/upgrades to Shadow Serration down the line. You also ask what Death's Weapons are; not that that really matters that much aside from creating clarity in the ability, but I will mention that I wanted to get as close to a scythe as I could so I included a glaive and sickles, as well as longsword and longbow which I felt are just classic weapons, and the double bladed scimitar because I thought it was pretty fitting for Death as well.
For Nightcloak; I wasn't aware of the Shadow Monk's abilities (I'm only working with base classes and one subclass, ie the Free Rules, for any references - I'm not sure if Shadow Monk is even included in that). You say that creating darkness that you can see through is a subclass feature, though, right? Are these not themselves entire subclass features? The purpose of the Knightshade abilities using your shadow is that only one of them can be active at a time. I don't personally care about creating Darkness that only you can see through, though - the idea behind it is really just to feed into your stealthing abilities, and I thought it made sense to create magical darkness with the Knightshade that you could see through rather than giving you Darkvision for what is otherwise a normal Darkness spell.
As for the language around Hide, Invisible, Lightly Obscured, and Heavily Obscured: yeah, this gets a bit clunky because there are some things that are confusing when it comes to Invisibility, specifically; namely that there is magical Invisibility that lasts until action (or Greater Invisibility that lasts for a duration) as well as the Hide action's Invisibility, which is not clear when it ends (ie, if you enter Bright Light, are you suddenly visible?). Specifically what I am going for here is basically free Hide actions at the end of your turn when it's possible, and creating the ability to Hide or have advanced stealth ability when it's normally impossible.
The Shadowstrider ability was created with combat in mind, and I didn't think of its use outside of combat much at all. My main experience with DnD is Dimension 20 and BG3; the former, I don't think they really take turns when they're out of combat, and the latter, while technically it is turn based, it also isn't. Shadowstrider is really just intended to give you free action teleport actions when you're moving between shadows at the cost of movement instead, or a bonus action teleport if you're teleporting raw. It's definitely intended to lean into creating/using darkness as you move.
Shadowclone being busted: makes sense, I hadn't put much thought into it yet. I like your take on it. As your Knightshade basically has its own turn, though, I still think that it makes sense for it to reform to whatever its current purpose is on its turn if it gets "destroyed"; but, that said, I suppose the cost of a bonus action to reform it is not too significant. I just think of what I was reading which is that "telepathic" conversation does not take bonus action but things like commanding a pet with verbal commands do. As your Knightshade can only have one form at a time, I figured that changing that form makes sense as a bonus action; basically it's meant to be a constant buff or debuff, with balancing things like the clone being destructible but then the buff basically restarting on your turn, unless you change its purpose. That said though I really like your take on the one clone because that is the perfect combination of Invoke Duplicity and Mirror Image that I was going for.
Reaper's Mark: the mark transfer goes back to the "constant buff" idea, but again I'll keep workshopping that. As for the action refresh: yeah, I can see how that would be overpowered. I've been workshopping this one a bit and it got a bit jumbled. For one thing, the Mark allows anyone attacking the target to have a crit threshold bonus and action refresh on kill. Originally it was designed such that if someone else got the kill, the mark would be lost and you'd need to refresh it, but if you got the kill then you'd be able to become a shadow and strike the next target. I also was getting a bit of the idea from Great Weapon Master, ie getting a bonus action attack on a kill, combined with Action Rush; but as one of those has a Bonus Action cost and the other is a once-per-rest Free(?) Action, I can see how the refresh might be OP. Now I'm thinking that, when the mark is killed, you can use a Knightshade ability as a reaction. I think that might be much more balanced and provide the "strike hard and slip away into darkness" vibe I'm going for, though I definitely had a kill-chain idea in my mind for wiping weak adds or focusing someone strong when creating the ability. I'll keep workshopping it a bit.
Ultimately I like your adjustments and have just a couple tweaks to make it more in line with what I'm going for.
You also say that the Cold stacking at higher levels becomes OP; why is that? I was thinking about adding another d8 at 9 and maybe a third at 17, but I do know that stacking with the crist might make it become too powerful. Number balancing is not my forte in any capacity.
@James_Bard
Glad you like my take on it, I am always disappointed with shadow-assassin classes and, honestly, not even fully happy with this one haha but wanted to get it to be as focused on being a shadow/stealth-oriented glass cannon/dodge tank as I could. The Knightshade just kind of became a necessary balance component for that and was completely unintentional in the original design... but ended up being kinda cool so I leaned into it. Originally it was only the Mage Hand. I kinda want to give it some more alternative capabilities but for now I have some balancing changes to make already haha
Eldritch Blast with Agonizing Blast is supposed to be similar to ranged martial damage - it is BAD that your proposal for this subclass is significantly above EB+AB damage. Rogues do not need to be in melee, the only rogues that routinely go into melee are Swashbucklers or Arcane Tricksters using Booming Blade (which is an OP combo) the rest much prefer to fight at range either by throwing daggers or firing a shortbow. Since they can Hide to get advantage on their attack to guarantee sneak attack, or use Steady Aim to get advantage to guarantee sneak attack. Most rogues will sneak attack at least 90% of the time, it really isn't difficult - you just need to avoid being frightened or poisoned.
In melee they need to team up with a friend because Rogues don't have the hit points or armour class to absorb the attacks of all the enemies. That friend will also give them sneak attack even if they don't have advantage and two-weapon fighting gives them the same probability of triggering sneak attack.
PS your damage estimates actually underestimate the true difference in damage between the builds, also you have the scaling wrong for EB/AB. If you have a 65% chance to hit with an attack, sneak attack has a 87% chance of being dealt this means the correct damage calculations are:
Hmm, while I suppose I wanted to create the ability to be a sniper with granting the Longbow, I also do want this to be more of a melee-encouraged class. Maybe I will provide scaling cold damage to only melee weapons, although when I was creating the ability I did have ranged weapons in mind as well; I just wasn't aware that rogues prefer to stay at range. I am trying to create a stealth-glass cannon dodge tank that basically gets in, hits hard, and tries to get to safety either by getting out or getting to stealth. Obviously that sounds a bit OP outright so I guess I really gotta lean into the "glass" part of glass cannon, so nerfing Shadowclone to nerf the dodge tank aspect a bit seems like a good idea.
Reaper's Mark working for everyone is also meant to provide support for what would otherwise be a very "I work alone" lone wolf style class vibe that I was going for (obviously not actually working alone, but the sort of class that's designed to pick off stragglers rather than fight on the front lines, ideally up close and personal). I'll keep workshopping the class.
I'd leave it as both. One of the fun thing about Rogues is their ability to either fight in melee or at range depending on the situation.
If you're using the word "tank" it is not a glass canon. Most RPGs have a trade off between damage and defense to create these different "niches" for characters to exist in. If my Rogue can't get hit, why would I duck out of combat? I can just stand there in the middle of the melee to provide flanking or to try to get an AoO to get a second sneak attack in. If you're going for a glass cannon, it's best not to include any extra defensive abilities - Rogue already gets Uncanny Dodge and Evasion which are really effective defenses except against swarms, which incentivizes them to try to pick out one enemy to go and kill at a time, and keep out of the main melee where the bulk of the enemies are. Whereas if you are going for a dodge-tank you should exclude any extra damage abilities, and give them a special Cunning Strike ability to reduce their sneak attack damage to boost their armour class / take the Dodge action. You should not include both in the same subclass though.
It is very un-Rogue-ish though. Only the Mastermind gets any support features, none of the other subclasses get any support focused features. I really didn't get the vibe from the flavour text and the other abilities that this rogue is supposed to play a support role - generally support as similar trade offs with damage as defense does. So you'd want to make the feature only help the allies and not help the rogue itself. But with all the darkness-based abilities it really feels like this should be a lone-wolf-type subclass because it's very likely your allies will have magic weapons or spells going that produce light and ruin all your darkness based abilities. If you don't want it to be a lone wolf, it would need quite a lot of adjusting to make it work.
Oh, okay, you just made it sound like the rogue generally wants to avoid melee, but yes I agree that the versatility (plus stealth) is what makes it my personal favorite.
Yeah "tank" and "glass cannon" do tend to seem like they conflict, but I guess what I meant was more a class that relies on hitting hard and not getting hit. Leaning into the versatility of Stealth vs the Shadowclone, I guess what I mean by "glass cannon" is that you can't take hits, not that you can't avoid them. "Dodge tank" isn't the best description because the Shadowclone wouldn't really work against swarms, nor is it intended to. Now I'm thinking, maybe it makes some sense if it provides you with a free disengage in addition to your suggestions? Idk, the idea behind the Knightshade to lean into the versatility of rogues; so maybe the Clone makes sense to provide a high AC, or perhaps work like the mirror image, or perhaps a distraction like an illusion. Idk, it's hard to do this without redundancy or making an ability overpowered. Perhaps the Nightcloak provides the disengage while stealthing you. I don't know.
Yes, it's definitely intended to be a lone wolf; Reaper's Mark, though, is intended to make focusing a target easier. Whether that means focusing the target yourself or making it easier for your team to focus it doesn't really matter to me, but I thought that such a lone wolf class could use one support ability as I know that people tend not to love classes that don't provide much team support. I'm happy to make it only work for the Darkblade, though... and, now I'm also thinking that I might even buff it if there's a darkness aspect involved, to lean into that further (or more likely, nerf it if darkness is not involved... perhaps it's -1 to crit if the rogue is in the dark, -1 if the enemy is in dark, and -1 generally, plus -1 for serration and maybe even another -1 for serration in darkness leaving it at 15 for crit or 30% chance... buuut that's really getting up there, though it is pretty situational).
Perhaps instead of "dodge tank" what I'd really be going for is the opposite, something beyond stealthing that diverts aggro. The Shadowclone could help a bit with that (maybe in addition to your suggestions), is what I meant to say above.
The baseline Rogue class already does this. You have Disengage and Hide as bonus actions to avoid getting hit. Uncanny Dodge to avoid the brunt of the damage from a hit as long as you only get hit once. Evasion makes you super resistant to AoE damage. Rogue doesn't need any additional defenses unless you intend for them to stand on the front-lines. - I played a Swashbuckler Rogue as a 2nd frontliner in a party with a bard, a paladin, a caster-cleric, and a archer-ranger and I was fine, I could have hit & run but most of the time I didn't because healing is so easy and available it didn't matter if I got hit a few times I was only a little bit less tough than the Paladin was. The Shadowclone as I wrote it will easily make this Rogue as tanky as a paladin or fighter, unless they end up surrounded, so they won't need to play hit & run they can just run forwards hit and stand there and they will be fine. If you make it Mirror Image instead like you had it originally, then this rogue could solo kill most dragons.
No you should not make Disengage or Hide a free action because that takes away from the tactical trade-off that is based on the limitation of 1 BA per turn: Do you risk getting hit in order to maximize your damage using two-weapon fighting or Steady Aim? Do you play it safe and Hide or Disengage? Do you simply run away out of the enemy's reach using Dash?
Strategy and player agency arises from rule limitations as much as it does from character abilities. If your character can just do everything, everywhere, all at once there are no choices, there is no strategy.
Hmm, got it. I'll just focus on making stealthing even easier then
Edit: Just saw your edits. Thieves already get disengage stealth attacks, allowing them to disengage and then hide. Why would making Hide a free action in Dim Light/Darkness be a problem? It is conditional, so it still relies on proper conditions and/or strategic setups, no?
This is the current, updated version. I'm still making edits and open to suggestions for anything that still sounds overly powerful. Also, I haven't done the rephrasing/proper organization of abilities or anything like that because this is being automatically populated from the class abilities list and getting everything written out properly is a pain and my lowest priority atm. But the level groupings are as you suggested in your post, Agilemind:
Darkblade rogues manipulate the very shadows to suit their needs. Shadows become cloaks, portals, illusions, and even tools.
Knightshade
In becoming a Darkblade, Death has decided to show you his favor. As a bonus action, you can magically manipulate your shadow to produce one of the Knightshade effects. This effect lasts until you are incapacitated or die, or you use this feature again.
Shadow Serration
Your blades are enveloped in freezing shadows. Any weapon damage you do is augmented by Cold Damage. You gain proficiency in Death's weapons (Glaives, Sickles, Longswords, Longbows, and Double-Sided Scimitars).
When you attack a target that is in Dim Light or Darkness, you make the attack roll with Advantage and add additional 1d8 Cold Damage.
When you attack with Advantage, Critical Hits require one less number on your attack roll. This effect can stack with Knightshade abilities that adjust your required attack roll.
Knightshade: Nightcloak
On activation, your Knightshade takes the form of a cloud of Darkness at your location. While in this form, your Knightshade provides you these boons:
You have advantage and remove all disadvantage on Stealth checks.
When you are in dim light or darkness at the end of your turn, you automatically become Invisible until your next turn.
You have Darkvision up to 30 feet.
Knightshade: Phantom Limb
You create a hand out of shadow at a point you choose within range, which acts independently of you in order to try to accomplish a goal set when it is created. The hand vanishes if it is ever more than 60 feet away from you. When in dim light or darkness, the hand is Invisible and it has advantage on [Tooltip Not Found] rolls.
The hand can’t activate magic items or carry more than 10 pounds. It can travel up to 60 feet per turn. As it is mentally linked, its actions are controlled by its summoner on its turn via telepathy. Its turn always happens immediately after its summoner.
The Phantom Limb can perform one of these actions on its turn.
Equip. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of you, it equips a weapon or item under 10 lbs from your inventory. If the Phantom Limb is destroyed, it will drop the equipped item in place.
Return. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of you, it can return its equipped item to your inventory.
Attack. If the Phantom Limb has a weapon equipped, it can attack.
Lockpick. If the Phantom Limb does not have a weapon equipped, it can attempt to pick a lock. It does not need a tool to do so.
Disarm. If the Phantom Limb does not have a weapon equipped, it can attempt to disarm a trap. It does not need a tool to do so.
Utilize. If the Phantom Limb does not have a weapon equipped, it can attempt to utilize an object.
The Phantom Limb can perform an unlimited amount of these reactions.
Nether Throw. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of you and does not have a weapon equipped, it allows you to treat any weapon as though it has the Thrown property. When you perform a throw action under these conditions, the Phantom Limb gives you Advantage on the throw and it Equips the thrown weapon at the end of the throw action.
Peekaboo. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of an enemy that you are attacking and does not have a weapon equipped, it performs a DC10 attempt to make that enemy Blinded until the end of your attack.
Linked. When you move, the Phantom Limb moves with you.
The Phantom Limb can perform one of these reactions per round.
Dark Fencer. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of you and has a weapon equipped, it can attempt to parry an enemy attacking you.
Can't See Me. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of you and does not have a weapon equipped, it can perform a DC10 attempt to make the enemy Blinded until the Phantom Limb's turn.
The Phantom Limb can perform one of these bonus actions per turn.
Pick Up. If the Phantom Limb is within 5ft of a weapon or item under 10lbs on the ground, it can pick it up. This counts as equipping a weapon.
Drop. If the Phantom Limb is carrying an item, it can drop the item.
Shadowstride
As a bonus action you can teleport up to 30 ft to a location you can see that is within Dim Light or Darkness.
Knightshade: Shadowclone
Your shadow becomes an illusory duplicate of yourself within 30ft of you at a location you can see. Your shadow clone counts as an ally if it is within 5ft of an enemy for the purposes of sneak attack. In addition, if you are within 5ft of your clone when an enemy targets you with an attack they must roll a 1d4. On a 1 or 2 they attack the shadowclone instead of you; after your clone takes damage it dissipates. While your shadow clone is active, you can use Shadowstride to switch positions with it.
Possible: while your shadow clone is active, you can use a bonus action each turn to have up to three shadow clones active.
Knightshade: Reaper's Mark
Your Knightshade takes the form of a curse mark. Choose a creature you can see and mark it for death. The number you need to roll for a Critical Hit when attacking this creature is reduced by 3. The marked creature also automatically fails any Stealth checks against you and you know their exact location at all times. You always have Advantage while attacking the marked creature.