Class is in session! It’s time to get sneaky with the roguish archetype known simply as the Thief. If you want to scale buildings with ease, pick locks with lightning speed, and all but dissolve into shadows while sneaking.
Story of the Thief
“A burglar, you call me?” said the halfling, studying the contract before her. “Ha! Burglar, indeed. I’ve read the same stories you have, heard the same fool notion of “burgling” your dragon problem away. Do you know what I have to say to that?”
And she stopped for a moment, and appraised the cadre of dwarves before her. She thought of the grand reward they were offering her—a veritable dragon’s hoard. She thought of the danger, of course, but quickly dismissed that troublesome notion from her mind. Then, her imagination concocted a scene. There she was, within the dragon’s lair, surrounded by a sea of gold dotted with such treasures that would make even Mammon weep jealous tears. She thought of how easily she could betray the rag-tag assembly of artisans and laborers that surrounded her. How easily she could grab a priceless trinket or three and vanish into the night.
A smile crossed the thief’s lips, and she leaned in towards the stern countenance of the dwarves’ leader.
“I’d say… I’m in.”
Thief Features
The rogue class has a strong class identity, meaning that most of your best class features will come from the rogue class itself, not from your subclass. Nevertheless, it’s important to consider what benefits your subclass will give you further down the line, as the rogue gains subclass features skew late—you gain your first feature at 3rd, but then must wait until 9th for your next, with your final two features eventually coming at 13th and 17th level.
You can read all of the Thief features for free in the D&D Basic Rules. In summary, your subclass features allow you to:
- Perform sleight of hand, pick locks, use items, or disarm traps in the blink of an eye.
- Rapidly climb to great heights or make long jumps—try climbing to the top of a building and jumping from rooftop to rooftop!
- Sneak exceptionally well while moving slowly.
- Improvise with magical items, bypassing any requirements of class, race, or level.
- Take two turns in the first round of all combats.
Benefits of Playing a Thief
The Thief archetype is the rogue’s most iconic incarnation, and all of its features are in service to enhancing your existing roguish talents. Your skills as a pickpocket, locksmith, and trap-buster all improve while playing this archetype, as do your Assassin’s Creed-style acrobatic talents. All of these skills make you a better rogue, but the real strength of the Thief archetype is how smoothly it introduces new players to Dungeons and Dragons.
The first subclass features the rogue gets are simple, passive improvements to things they can already do. It increases the length of your long jump, lets you climb twice as fast, or do certain roguish activities like pick a lock as a bonus action, rather than as an action. When you reach the middle levels of play, your abilities are still just improvements to your basic skills, but now you need to take deliberate action in order to gain their benefits—for instance, you need to choose to move only half your speed on your turn if you want to use Supreme Sneak.
Then, finally, when you reach the high levels, you get access to abilities that encourage you to scheme and strategize. What unusual synergies can you create with magic items that you’re not intended to be able to use? What can you do in the first turn of combat if you have two turns instead of one? The Thief archetype has successfully trained you to be a clever and tactical D&D player, starting with simple and easy-to-master passive traits, and eventually graduating to in-depth and strategic features. With this in mind, I highly recommend any DM running a game for new players encourage at least one of their players to play as a rogue of the Thief archetype.
Drawbacks of Playing a Thief
One drawback of this learn-by-playing approach is that it leaves veteran players in the lurch for about the first ten levels of play. The Thief isn’t a mechanically bad archetype—it’s quite powerful within its niche—but it’s not exactly bursting with choices. Spellcasters like clerics and wizards already have access to a wide variety of spells by 3rd level, whereas Thief archetype rogues only have passive improvements to their existing traits.
If you can stick it out to later levels, your ability to make active and tactical decisions increases immensely, but how many campaigns really last ‘til 13th level, let alone 17th? If you want to make decisions and feel like you’re actively playing a quick-thinking scoundrel, then there are other roguish archetypes that will get you there instead. The deadly and secretive Assassin, from the Player’s Handbook, as well as the Mastermind and Swashbuckler, both from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, spring immediately to mind.
Suggested Build
If you’re playing a rogue from 1st level, bear in mind that you won’t be able to choose your archetype until 3rd level. Use this time to figure out what role you want to fill in your party—a sneaky, independent burglar that supports your party both in and out of fights? Or perhaps you want to be a shadowy, damage-dealing assassin? Or maybe a magic-wielding illusionist and trickster? No matter which path you wish to pursue, you’ll want to focus on being a good rogue first and foremost.
You should choose a race that improves your Dexterity score and either your Wisdom or Intelligence scores. Dexterity is important for rogues because it helps you hide, open locks, perform feats of sleight of hand, and wield both ranged and finesse weapons. Wisdom helps rogues in perceiving danger and breaking out of enchantments, while Intelligence is vital for investigating doors and other objects for locks and traps. High elves and wood elves make excellent rogues, as all elves gain a large bonus to Dexterity, and these subraces give a smaller bonus to either Wisdom or Intelligence. Lightfoot (and to a lesser extent, Stout) halflings make for nimble and perceptive rogues—apt, given the original fantasy burglar was none other than the halfing known as Bilbo Baggins.
Ability scores like Strength and Charisma are of little use to you, but Constitution is at least somewhat important to all characters. Fortunately, you’ll be using your Cunning Action to weave in and out of combat most of the time, but a little bit of extra Constitution couldn’t hurt. Having a few more hit points than the average rogue will help you take a hit on those rare occasions when you’re unable to flee to safety in the middle of a fight. As usual, your character’s background is up to you. You can come up with all sorts of interesting stories and oddball characters by pairing unlikely backgrounds like Acolyte or Sage with the typically sly and shadowy rogue class, or go for a more standard choice, like Urchin or Criminal.
Choose EQUIPMENT instead of GOLD at the end of character creation. If you plan on fighting in close combat as a thief, choose one shortsword now, and… one shortsword instead of a shortbow! You can dual wield these shortswords, giving you more opportunities to hit an enemy and deal that all-important Sneak Attack damage on your turn. If you plan on mostly staying out of harm’s way and only fighting from range, then take a rapier and a shortbow. A burglar’s pack is all but essential for you, too.
Expertise
An important part of a Thief’s build comes into play at 1st level, when you gain the Expertise feature. Simply put, choose two skill proficiencies or with thieves’ tools. From here on out, you add TWICE your proficiency bonus to any check made with those skills or tools, instead of adding it just once. The feature explicitly calls out thieves’ tools, as if to signal that gaining expertise with them is incredibly important. It is. As a Thief, you live to unlock locks and disarm traps, and being a master with thieves’ tools is the best way to do so.
As a sneaky sort of character, gaining expertise in the Stealth skill is vitally important. When you get to gain expertise in two more skills at 6th level, however, you should feel free to be a little bit more flavorful with your choices. Consider what skills has your character really invested in over the course of their adventures, and gain expertise in the ones that really define your experiences!
Feats
As a rogue, you’ll probably want to use your Ability Score Improvements (which you gain at 4th level and every four levels thereafter) to max out your Dexterity score as soon as possible. However, if you reach 4th level and feel that you’re basically as sneaky as you need to be for now, choosing a feat can help give you some additional tactical options that the Thief archetype lacks at early levels. Some good feats for you include:
Crossbow Expert allows you to fight from range like a master, dexterously wielding a hand crossbow in one hand a blade in the other, and ignoring that pesky Sneak Attack-cancelling disadvantage you get when shooting while in melee range of a hostile creature.
The Healer feat allows you to get serious mileage out of a healer’s kit, and it just so happens that your Fast Hands trait lets you use an item like a healer’s kit as a bonus action!
Ritual Caster gets you easy access to the find familiar spell. Having a magical little partner in crime is an awesome character choice, and it’s also an easy way to gain advantage—and thus, Sneak Attack—on every turn.
Skulker is just an all-around good feat for any stealthy character, and there’s no one stealthier than a Thief.
If you want more advice for building a rogue, check out Rogue 101. Have you ever played a Thief archetype rogue? What advice would you give to players that want to play this subclass?
James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, the DM of Worlds Apart, and 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 their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.
This is an excellent spotlight on the sub, as well as rogues as a whole!
I didn't say "the opening sentences". I said "the beginning". Obviously I was referencing the part early in the book where the dwarves seek out Bilbo as a "burglar" to steal from Smaug's hoard. Please take your smugness elsewhere.
Good work! I am currently playing a level two rogue that is about to subclass a thief. Could you consider making a new type of post, Homebrew spotlights? There is a ton of good hombrew work that is not being recognized. Thanks! Can't wait until you do ancestral guardian for barbarian!
You can dual wield them (no feat required), since you can enter combat with them pre-loaded. You get two shots, then you will need to drop one in order to reload the other.
Artificers (UA) are also able to dual wield them with a certain infusion.
On Unseen Servant, you would need to use your bonus action to command it to do a task like loading a crossbow, and so it wouldn't be useful unless you have the "Extra Attack" class feature (e.g. Eldritch Knight).
I'm A) English and B) a teacher, so smugness is my main special ability.
The theme of "Thief" actually runs all the way through the Hobbit, and is an example of literary nominative determinism. In the first act Gandalf introduces Bilbo as a professional burglar in order to persuade the dwarves to take him. But having been given that name, Bilbo proceeds to become it over the course of the story. In the second act, Bilbo is branded "thief" by Gollum. In the third act Bilbo steals a golden cup from Smaug and the Arkenstone from Thorin.
Seems to be the class main take is being able to use an item as a bonus. The lvl 9 is a throwaway ability as you should already have expertise and lvl 10 makes it a minimum of d20=10. Lvl 13 can be okay but it's campaign and party dependent.
So the entire subclass is a waste if you are not making use of the lvl 3 ability. But it is a cool concept, master of gadgets. Grappling hook manacles potion bombs creativity is the limit. Not really a new player subclass imho
Supreme Sneak is hardly the throwaway you describe. Coupled with Reliable Talent, it means that you don't have to take Stealth as one of your Expertise skills.
If you wanna sneak up on an ancient dragon you'll take all the help you can get.
Your comment about being English and a teacher made me laugh.
Expertise + reliable seems better then advantage + reliable. At best its equivalent which means you have to metagame not taking expertise in stealth to benefit.
Advantage doesnt even function well with reliable. If you bungle both your d20s, now you rolled a 10 + proficeny + dex. Or you can have expertise and always roll double proficiency + dex + 10.
Grabbing expertise in stealth with reliable and having supreme sneak is massive overkill. Which is why its a throwaway talent.
So even if you use this lvl 9 as a reason for not picking up expertise stealth as a rogue, you are not really benefiting from the advantage with reliable its just a safety net for when you bungle both dice.
In this endgame situation perhaps d20=10 + double proficiency + dex is not satisfactory. In which case the supreme sneak gives two attempts to get d20>10. You are not benefiting from reliable talent at that point, its a safety net.
As a side note the rogue capstone would supersede the lvl 9 ability. You could choose to roll a nat 20 once per day. Barely worth mentioning because how many campaigns get the capstone.
Still it seems like 9 times out of 10 expertise + advantage + reliable is massive overkill. Which is why the advantage is a throwaway ability for the subclass. If rogues didnt have reliable and expertise already it would be a different story.
Not this...
Take two rounds in the first turn of all combats
Should be...
Take two turns in the first round of all combats
Crossbow Expert allows you to fight from range like a master, dexterously wielding a hand crossbow in one hand a blade in the other, and ignoring that pesky Sneak Attack-cancelling disadvantage you get when shooting while in melee range of a hostile creature.
Sorry if this is not the place. I thought that you need a free hand in order to load a crossbow.
Does "You ignore the loading property of crossbows with which you are proficient." removes that requirement?
Thank you!!
You do still need a free hand in order to load a crossbow. This is a pretty tricky feat, since its final benefit is this: "When you use the Attack action and attack with a one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding." But despite this, you still need a free hand to load it in order to fire again.
Thank you for the clarification. I was just checking a lengthy video about Crossbow Expert earlier today. Then I noticed your comment about it. I was like, maybe James knows something that we don't know?? So hopefully this will make it clear to some folks here at DnDBeyond.
I just would like to add that you are doing a tremendous job to the community here with your posts and I enjoy reading every Class 101. Thanks!!!
Could a loxodon reload a hand crossbow with it's trunk?
Dont you use strength to climb and jump now with Athletics?
Yep, but the Thief gets to add their Dexterity modifier to whatever you calculate with your Strength score. Interestingly, Athletics proficiency doesn't do much for jumping unless your DM thinks it's appropriate to be able to roll to jump higher/farther than your base Strength would allow. Certainly, I think it should be allowed if you have Expertise in Athletics.
In a two year campaign I took a halfling thief from level 3 to 20. Okay, level 17 thief. I took the last 3 levels in fighter )because action surge is stupid good with thieves reflexes). These are some of my thoughts: The thief is a fun, and at early stages of the game powerful archetype of a fun and (at early stages of the game) powerful class. Understand that you will start to feel like you are lagging behind any class with access to magic as you level. Magic (especially arcane) is more powerful and (to be blunt) necessary for high end characters in 5e D&D than it has ever been. That's why arcane trickster is so good. If you're going to play a thief, do yourself and favor, and take booming blade (or green flame blade ) from magic initiate. Just do it. You'll thank me later.
The thief is actually just as good or better damage dealer than the assassin. No, really. Many (most of) the abilities of the assassin are super situational. Forging documents and pretending to be other people, but not specific other people, isn't going to be super handy in a dungeon crawl. If your campaign is heavy on espionage on the other hand.... (Check with your DM about what kind of campaign you are going to be playing before you lock in an archetype.) Also the main damage dealing ability of the assassin is tied to your enemies being surprised. Surprise is a very specific (very rare ) condition in 5e. If it comes up twice in your campaign your DM was generous. Also, what does a poisoner's kit even do? It's not really explained anywhere, at least not where a player has access to it. On the other hand a thief's fast hands ability can be pretty clutch. Throwing caltrops in the way of approaching enemies or flower in the direction of someone who just turned invisible, or deactivating the magic trap, all while still being able to stab the crud out of someone is great. Using wands and the like at level 13 is pretty darn sweet as well. Then there's Thieves Reflexes. If you stick it out to level 17 then you get one of the best abilities in the game (short of access to high level magic). Having a whole extra turn including an extra sneak attack is just bonkers.
Some challenges: Second story work sounds cool, but who cares if you can do something quickly if you can't do it at all! Climbing is an athletics check, and strength will be one of your dump stats. If climbing was tied to your acrobatics ability (it really should be for thieves if not all rogues) then it would be another story. Ask your DM that's really a pretty easy fix. Then there is the beloved supreme sneak. On paper it's really cool, and to be fair I did use it a lot over the course of my campaign. The truth is however it had almost no impact on the game. As a thief you'll have expertise in stealth (you really should). At level 9 assuming have at gotten your dex to at least 18 it'll be almost impossible for you to not successfully hide from anything in the game. At level 11, when you have reliable talent, it will be impossible. *Sigh* one ability making another obsolete in only two levels made me sad. The last challenge is that strength is the only real dump stat for a thief (or rogue I guess). This was a good article, but I can't disagree more with the authors assessment that charisma isn't important to a thief. You'll very often need to talk, schmooze, persuade, threaten, or bribe your self into and out of trouble as a thief. Heck I would probably put charisma second after dexterity. That being said, you need (or at least want) to be perceptive to scout ahead, good at investigation to find traps and treasure, and insightful for when your "allies" are lying to you. You really do want 5 of your 6 stats to be decent. Like I said, it's a challenge.
In conclusion, the thief is a fun and challenging archetype of a fun and challenging class. It does have some mechanical issue, but most of these can be mitigated by working with your DM.
The Thief Archetype has one amazing thing going for it, and that is Fast Hands in combat.
I latched on to this while considering exactly what good a Bugbear is in combat, and realised the Thief is heavenly for them. With a high Str and Dex, you can take Expertise in Athletics and Sleight of Hand and do the following:
1. Take the attack action to grapple someone. With a Bugbear starting out on 16 Str you can have a +7 to the check at level 1, or a +10 by level 5.
2. Use your Cunning Action from level 2 onwards to Use an Object, in this case a rope, to tie up the creature you have grappled.
3. Move away from the others and 'dump' the now-restrained prisoner away from others so they are removed from combat until they break the ropes (With 16 Dex and Expertise in Sleight of Hand again, +7 to the check at level 2.
If you are on a bridge or top of a building you can also simply drop them off the side, still restrained, for added fun because combat is not always about damage numbers, but sometimes removing threats from the equation via other means!