Rogue 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Stealth and Subterfuge

You are a rogue, a scoundrel, a charlatan. Perhaps you acquire gold by picking pockets, or perhaps you instead earn it as a practitioner of the foul art of murder, as an assassin with a wealthy patron.

The rogue class in D&D is a nimble hit-and-run warrior that does incredible burst damage in combat—but also possesses invaluable out-of-combat skills such as picking locks, disarming traps, and communicating in code. Depending on your choice of Roguish Archetype, you may gain other abilities such as manifesting magical illusions, designing flawless disguises, and performing incredible feats of acrobatics.

This guide will give you an overview of the D&D rogue, how to play a rogue, and the different features you'll acquire as you level up. We'll be focusing on material from the Basic Rules and Player's Handbook, and only discussing early-level options, as to not overwhelm you with options.

Building a D&D Rogue

A rogue awaits an unexpecting target

When you're ready, head over to D&D Beyond's character builder. Below, we'll discuss the options you'll be presented during your rogue's character creation.

Step 1: Choose a Species

While any species can be a good rogue, rogues rely heavily on their Dexterity. This means that you should look for an option that will increase your Dexterity when creating your character. Some rogues may also want Charisma, Constitution, or Intelligence, so these can be the secondary abilities to look for.

  • Halflings make excellent rogues because they grant you a racial bonus to Dexterity, a rogue’s most valuable ability score. Lightfoot halflings also gain the Naturally Stealthy trait, which lets you hide behind creatures that are larger than you, such as your human-sized party members!
  • Elves are outstanding rogues as well for similar reasons. They gain a racial bonus to Dexterity, and wood elves also gain the Mask of the Wild feature, allowing them to easily hide in the natural world.
  • Forest gnomes are a rare choice but make for exceptional Arcane Trickster rogues, thanks to their bonus to Dexterity and their ability to manifest simple illusions thanks to their Natural Illusionist feature.
  • Tieflings have some useful roguish racial features, too. Darkvision makes it easier to traverse locations with dim light, and thaumaturgy is a neat tool to make a distraction... possibly allowing you to sneak into or out of a guarded location.

Step 2: Choose Your Class

Choose rogue as your class (this is a rogue guide, after all). This will grant you some class features right off the bat. We'll touch on all of these features in the Rogue Class Features section. For now, let's focus on your four skill proficiencies and Expertise.

  • Two skills that almost all rogues want are Stealth and Perception. You’ll probably be sneaking around a lot as a rogue, and having a good bonus to Stealth checks will make your life much easier. While sneaking, you’ll need a good bonus to Perception checks in order to spot lookouts and traps. 
  • Choose two more skills that fit the character you want to play. A dashing, Han Solo-like scoundrel would want to be proficient in Deception, whereas a razor-sharp investigator like Sherlock Holmes would want to be proficient in the Investigation skill. Rogues get lots of different skills, so feel free to take some unusual ones that support your unique character!
  • Now that we've chosen our proficiencies, we can choose which skills we want to double our proficiency bonus on with our Expertise feature! Most rogues will want to choose Stealth and Perception, but your rogue may be different.

Step 3: Ability Scores

Your ability scores will determine your character's baseline bonuses to all the rolls they'll make in their adventuring career. Rogues usually want to stack into Dexterity, because it provides bonuses to Stealth, their attack rolls and damage, and their Armor Class (AC). We're assuming you're using the Standard Array means of distributing your ability scores for the below example.

  • Set your Dexterity as 15. This is your primary ability and should be the highest.
  • Choose your secondary ability and set it as 14. This could be Charisma if you want to be more effective in social situations, Wisdom if you want to scout for your party, or Intelligence if you want to notice the finer details.
  • Set your Constitution as 13. This will determine how many hit points you have, which will help keep you alive in combat.
  • For your 12, select either Charisma or Wisdom, if they weren't already selected using your 14.
  • Let's skip to your 8. This will be the ability score you don't think you'll use very much. You'll get a -1 modifier to it. Most rogues can get by setting Strength to 8 because they don't use it for attacks or damage like other martial characters.
  • Set the remaining ability score at 10. 

Step 4: Description

Choose any background that fits your character concept. Below, we'll provide some ideas that can mesh well with the rogue's playstyle and class features:

  • Charlatan provides proficiencies in Sleight of Hand and Deception, two great rogue skills. It also provides tool proficiencies with disguise kits and forgery kits, which can be indispensable in your shady dealings.
  • Criminal/Spy has a lot of overlap with the rogue's class features, which allows you to switch out redundant proficiencies with proficiencies of your choice. This can allow you to craft a skilled criminal rogue with a unique skill set.
  • Pirate grant you proficiency with vehicles (water), which is handy in nautical campaigns. It also comes with some skills that your rogue may be lacking, like Athletics and Perception.

Step 5: Equipment

Finally, let's get your rogue suited up for adventure. Choose your equipment by clicking on "Starting Equipment." Then, when prompted to "Choose EQUIPMENT or GOLD," click "EQUIPMENT'" and choose:

  • A rapier if you want to fight with a one-handed weapon, or a shortsword if you want to dual wield.
  • A shortbow if you want to also be able to fight from range, or another shortsword if you want to dual wield.
  • A burglar’s sack if you think you’ll be spending time in cities, a dungeoneer’s pack if you think you’ll be exploring ancient ruins, or an explorer’s pack if you think you’ll be spending a lot of time traveling.
  • Leather armor, two daggers, and thieves’ tools (no choice to be made here).

Rogue Class Features

A pair of rogues sneaking up on dark cultists

Most rogues play more or less the same for the first two levels, and only start to diverge once they choose a Roguish Archetype at 3rd level. However, your choice of weapons and strategic preference will play a significant role in what your rogue excels at, both in and out of combat. Below, we'll cover your rogue's class features up to the 5th level, where the introductory adventures Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragons of Stormwreck Isle take you.

1st level

Sneak Attack: One of your most important rogue features. The damage you can output with your Sneak Attack is the main way rogues keep up with other classes that may have more attacks or powerful offensive spells. The way the feature is worded can be hard to dissect, so let's break it down:

How Does Sneak Attack Work?

Once per turn, when the following criteria are met, you can deal damage equal to your Sneak Attack as listed on the Rogue Table. In order to qualify for Sneak Attack, you must:

  • Have advantage on your attack roll OR have an ally adjacent to the enemy you're attacking
  • Attack with a finesse or ranged weapon
  • NOT have disadvantage on the attack

A lot of the rogue's playstyle is finding a way to trigger Sneak Attack during their turn. You may focus your fire on enemies that are near an ally, or attack from hiding to get advantage on your roll. This helps solidify rogues as a more strategic class that has plenty of options during their turn, as opposed to a mindless hack and slasher.

Expertise: You gain the Expertise feature, which lets you double your proficiency bonus in two skills or tools of your choice. We discussed this in Step 2 of the above Building a D&D Rogue section.

Thieves’ Cant: You learn a secret language spoken only by rogues and other folks with a criminal past. This feature is only as useful as you and your Dungeon Master (or other rogue players in your party!) make it. It could be crucial to breaking a secret cipher in a thief-centric arc, or it could never come up even once in play. If you want to make this ability useful and your DM isn’t giving you an opportunity to use it, talk to them about it.

2nd Level

Cunning Action: This feature lets you use your bonus action to Dash, Disengage, or Hide. You can use this bonus action each turn if you want to, granting you some incredible utility in combat.

  • By dashing, you could conceivably run up to 90 feet in a single round if you use your normal movement (assuming you have a movement speed of 30 feet). Simply move, then Dash as an action, and then Dash again as a bonus action.
  • By disengaging, you can run straight through a room full of enemies straight towards the door by dashing as an action and disengaging as a bonus action. You could also run in, attack as action, and then disengage to escape as a bonus action (if you have enough speed to move that far).
  • By hiding, you can pop out of cover, Sneak Attack a foe (remember that you have advantage on attacks against foes that aren’t aware of you), and then duck back behind cover and hide again.

3rd Level 

Roguish Archetype: You get to choose a Roguish Archetype. You can access the Thief at no cost in the Basic Rules, and there are two more available in the Player’s Handbook (Assassin and Arcane Trickster). All of these subclasses feature a mix of offensive and utility options, but some lean more in one direction than the other. We'll discuss these at length in the Rogue Subclasses section.

4th Level 

Ability Score Improvement (ASI): At 4th level, your rogue improves their ability scores. You can choose one ability score to increase by 2 or increase two scores by 1. You can also forgo this ability score improvement and choose a feat, which is a new permanent ability that can further customize your build. Feats are optional rules not covered within the Basic Rules, so talk to your DM before you choose one. If you're going for an ASI, it's typically best to increase your Dexterity by 2, so your Stealth, attacks rolls, damage, and AC all see a benefit.

5th Level 

Uncanny Dodge: Uncanny Dodge is a defensive ability that can allow rogues to mitigate incoming damage. Seeing as they don't have as good of AC or as many hit points as the tankier classes, they need this feature to help with survivability. When an attack hits you, you can use your reaction to halve the damage from the attack.

This feature comes with a couple of caveats. First, you have to be able to see the attacker. Second, the damaging effect has to be an actual attack, not an area-of-effect such as fireball. You get one reaction per round, and it resets at the start of your turn, so definitely use this option every turn and usually the first time you're hit with an attack. That is, unless a huge enemy is winding up at you with a deadly-looking club, then maybe save it for that.

Rogue Subclasses

A rogue talks with a prisoner in a jail cell

Choosing a Roguish Archetype at 3rd level is one of the most important decisions you can make for your rogue as it will further define your playstyle.

Assassin: When you choose this subclass at 3rd level, you gain the Assassinate feature. This makes it easier to Sneak Attack creatures in the first round of combat and allows you to critically damage creatures that are surprised by you. Note that surprising a creature is different from having Sneak Attack or having advantage. You can’t surprise a creature if it’s aware of your presence.

Thief: Thief rogues gain Fast Hands and Second-Story Work at 3rd level, two nifty features that make it easier for you to infiltrate places quickly. Fast Hands can even let you throw acid, oil, ball bearings or other mundane-yet-dangerous objects as a bonus action! A common combo for Thief rogues is to take the Healer feat, so you can use a healer's kit to heal or stabilize teammates as a bonus action.

Arcane Trickster: You gain the ability to cast spells. You should learn the friends and minor illusion cantrips, and the color spray, disguise self, and Tasha’s hideous laughter spells. Disguise self makes it easier to infiltrate locations and deceive others, color spray is a useful distraction when you need to escape combat, and Tasha’s hideous laughter is a simple way to gain advantage (and thus Sneak Attack) against troublesome enemies.

Get More Options for Your Rogue

If you're looking for more subclass options, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything provides four more subclass options (Inquisitive, Mastermind, Scout, and Swashbuckler) and Tasha's Cauldron of Everything includes two more (Soulknife and Phantom).

How to Play a Rogue

tiefling rogueAs a rogue, your skillset is an unusual mix of sporadic offensive power and out-of-combat utility. You might need protection from other characters in the party to survive after leaping heedlessly into the fray, but you still have plenty of ways to stay alive if your party isn’t there to tank hits for you.

While you can’t wear heavy armor, a set of studded leather and a high Dexterity score will grant you a respectable AC 15 at 1st level (assuming a +3 Dexterity), and your Cunning Action and Uncanny Dodge features (which you gain at 2nd and 5th level, respectively) grant you ways to avoid and mitigate damage.

While all rogues are a fairly even mix of offense and out-of-combat utility, your choice of Roguish Archetype at 3rd level will affect your role somewhat. Thief rogues gain plenty of features for when they're sneaking around but don't gain many ways to increase their damage output. On the other hand, Assassin rogues receive more damage-dealing features at the expense of utility.

If you're looking to enhance your rogue's sneakiness, utility, and effectiveness in combat, check out our guide for the best magic items for your rogue. That way, you'll know what to look for when looting a vault full of trinkets and treasure.

Improvising Like a Rogue

Class features, feats, and ability scores are only a tiny part of what makes a rogue fun to play. Rules are important because they set baseline expectations, but D&D comes to life when you take your character's actions into your own hands and start to improvise exciting actions on the fly. Rogues are particularly suited to this sort of gutsy improvisation for several reasons. In the fiction of the game, rogues don’t play by the rules. They fight dirty. And most importantly, they have the gumption to leap before they look, often surviving impossible situations by the skin of their teeth.

The narrative identity of a devil-may-care rogue is modeled in D&D by granting rogues lots of skill proficiencies and even granting Expertise on top of that. The danger of this system, however, is the DM. The best DMs know that it’s better to let you take wild risks, even if they have only a minimal chance of success because spectacular failure is often just as fun as a victory against all odds.

If your DM is hesitant to allow improvised actions, the only way to work it out is to talk directly with them. There’s no rules quirk or clever roguish trick more effective than just talking.

Making Your Rogue Your Own

With all this talk of rules, stats, and bonuses, don’t forget that your character is more than just numbers on a page. Your character has a personality that should impact how you play. If dealing the most damage isn’t what makes you happy about playing D&D, try and decide what does. Coming up with jokes, making cinematic moments, and making your fellow players cheer when you succeed are all worthy goals for a D&D player. You could even get deadly by using alchemy and poisons... though that's more like Rogue 102.

Embrace your lawless side and don’t be afraid to break some rules (if you and your DM agree to it). That way, even if you build a "typical" rogue, they’ll have the personality and panache to make them stand out from the crowd. 

Rogue 101: Assassin
by James Haeck
Rogue 101: Thief
by James Haeck
Rogue 101: Arcane Trickster
by James Haeck

James Haeck (@jamesjhaeck) is the former lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and theCritical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, and is also a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and Kobold Press. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his partner Hannah and two wilderness defenders, Mei and Marzipan. 

This article was originally published on April 10, 2018, and was updated on February 13, 2023.

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