Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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In many cases, the detective archetype is associated with the Rogue class (see the Inquisitive subtype). However, Rogues are a DEX-based class, and a typical detective - has a lot of knowledge (INT), keen observation and understanding of people's behavior (WIS). Fitting all of those attributes into a Rogue can be challenging. Could one make a detective out of the Wizard base class?
The first question is how does one define a good detective? Mechanically, I think a good detective would have Expertise in Perception, Investigation, and Insight.
First attempt at the Build: Wizard 8+
The Wizard class can choose two proficiencies from this list: Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, or Religion. But before deciding what to take from our class list, let's start with the Background.
Scribe is a good fit. The background flavor emphasizes an attention to detail, which is important for a detective. It also fits mechanically:
Even using standard array scores, you could put the +2/+1 from Scribe into INT and WIS and still have a 14 for CON. The Skilled origin feat will let you have proficiency in three skills of your choice. With Investigation and Perception from Scribe and Insight from Wizard, that's proficiency in all three key skills even before selecting our second class proficiency or anything from Skilled (or any bonus proficiencies from species).
How to get Expertise in our three key skills, though?
Under the 5.5e/2024 rules, at level 2, Wizards have the Scholar feature.
That can cover the Expertise for Investigation.
At level 3, it's time to choose the subclass. Only one Wizard subclass stands out as good for a detective: the Diviner. Divination is all about increasing knowledge and uncovering what is hidden.
How to get our remaining two Expertises? There are two General feats which can help.
Observant
- +1 to INT or WIS
- You gain proficiency in Insight, Investigation or Perception. If you already have proficiency, you gain Expertise instead.
- You can take the Search action as a bonus action
Skill Expert
- An ASI of your choice
- Another skill proficiency
- Expertise in one of your skill proficiencies.
Take one of those at level 4 and another at level 8 and your detective can come fully online with Expertise in Investigation, Perception, and Insight at level 8.
...But level 8 is quite deep into the game for most campaigns. Is there a way to do this faster?
Yes, actually, by delaying progress in Wizard by one level, and in fact, not starting as a Wizard at all.
Alternate Build Idea: Rogue 1 / Wizard 3+
First level Rogues can choose four proficiencies from this list: Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, or Stealth
Much of the concept is the same. We'll still use the Scribe background. The big difference is the Expertise feature Rogues get at level 1, which could immediately be put into Perception and Insight (from Rogue).
Getting two additional skill proficiencies as well as proficiency with Thieves' Tools is another good benefit which fits the detective, and starting as a Rogue allows one to take Sleight of Hand and Stealth if desired. Starting as a Rogue does mean not being able to choose some knowledge skills and Arcana, but the Skilled origin feat from Scribe can make up the difference. Knowledge of Thieves Cant is a boon to a detective. Light armor and additional weapon proficiency are ribbons, but they don't hurt. The 1d6 of Sneak Attack will likely never come into play, much less be meaningful.
The Scholar feature from Wizard 2 can go into Investigation again, putting the build online by character level 3, which is substantially earlier.
The feats mentioned before -- Observant and Skill Expert -- could still be used at total levels 5 or 9 if you wanted to gain Expertise in even more skills. For instance, putting a Rogue 1 Expertise into Stealth or Sleight of Hand and waiting until total level 5 to get Expertise in the one of Perception or Insight you didn't take at level 1.
In theory, one could take additional levels in Rogue, but that would delay Wizard progression significantly, and I don't think the tradeoff is worth it.
Species
I have been avoiding discussion on species on purpose to show that you can achieve the build regardless of your choice of species. Which is not to say that there are not species which have better synergy. Humans gain an additional Origin Feat (which could even be Skilled, but with a different choice) and an additional Proficiency. Elves gain proficiency in Insight, Perception and Survival, which could be used to free up another choice from your class. The High Elf lineage also comes with inherent Detect Magic and an extra Wizard cantrip.
Conclusion
I believe that there are quite a few variants on how one can build a detective archetype on a the chassis of a Wizard main instead of a Rogue main. (Even if the most efficient way is to start out as a Rogue). Thoughts?
only way to easily get the expertise's is rogue or bard
But hear me out
Go rogue and go swashbuckler you can use charisma for attacks with finesse, get the expertise and then do skill expert at 4
Sherlock was smart, charismatic and agile
Just sayin
Nothing i can really add to your wizard theory except perhaps to think about artificer purely for flash of genius
I'm uncertain why you mentioned needing Rogue to get Expertise, since the second version of my build in the OP discusses starting with 1 level of Rogue specifically for Expertise.
I'm sure that the fictional Sherlock Holmes is smart, charismatic, and agile. If he was a D&D character, he might very well start out with 18's in all stats. But the chances that 6 random rolls of 4d6kh3 would roll up a character with stats as good as the novel/movie version of Sherlock are extremely low, so I don't give a rat's behind what Sherlock Holmes's stats would be. One has to prioritize for actual play. One problem with the existing Inquisitive subclass of Rogue is that it wants good DEX, WIS and INT (plus CON shouldn't be dumped in general). The Wizard version doesn't require as much of a DEX investment as a Rogue.
If you're going back to a Rogue main and also throwing in high CHA as a requirement, that makes the MAD the Inquisitive subclass suffered from even worse. Swashbuckler is also a combat-focused class and offers nothing at all to the knowledge or investigative side. If I'm going to be a detective archetype who mainly takes levels in Rogue, which is not the intent of this post made in the Wizard forum, I would rather stay with the Rogue's Inquisitive subclass (or even Arcane Trickster) and not go anywhere near Swashbuckler.
Flash of Genius requires 7 levels of Artificer. Considering how few campaigns go much farther than 10th level, that's far too high of a commitment for one feature.