Cat Burglar

 

The Art of the Impossible Entry

As a cat burglar, you've mastered the delicate dance between shadow and moonlight, transforming the city's vertical landscape into your personal highway. You don't just break into places—you flow through them like smoke, leaving behind only the faintest whisper that you were ever there at all.

Your reputation precedes you in hushed tavern conversations and panicked noble gatherings. Some speak of treasures that vanished from "impregnable" vaults, others of secrets plucked from locked desk drawers in the highest tower rooms. But you know the real prize isn't always gold or jewels—sometimes it's the thrill of standing undetected in a sleeping lord's chamber, or the satisfaction of photographing a corrupt merchant's ledgers while they dine obliviously below.

The city reveals its true face to those who traverse its rooftops and scale its walls. You've seen power brokers in their most vulnerable moments, witnessed conspiracies unfold through mansion windows, and collected favors more valuable than any coin. Whether you're liberating ill-gotten gains, gathering intelligence for the resistance, or simply proving that nowhere is truly safe from someone with your skills, you've learned that the most interesting conversations happen behind locked doors.

Every gargoyle perch and widow's walk tells a story, and you've become fluent in the language of ledges and skylights. After all, the best secrets are always kept in the places people think no one can reach.

SPECIAL THANKS TO STORMCALLER3C FOR THIS SUBCLASS IDEA.

Level 3: Supernatural Agility

Beginning when you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. When you climb, you don't need to spend extra movement, and you can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

When you fall, you can use your reaction to twist like a cat, reducing falling damage by your rogue level + your Dexterity modifier. If you take no damage from a fall, you land silently and don't fall prone. Additionally, you can move up to 10 feet horizontally while falling, potentially grabbing ledges, swinging from ropes, or landing on nearby surfaces.

Level 3: Sixth Sense

At 3rd level, your experience with deadly security measures has honed your instincts to supernatural sharpness. You have advantage on saving throws against traps and triggered magical effects like glyph of warding. When you successfully save against such effects, you take no damage instead of half damage.

Your keen eye spots the telltale signs of danger—you can sense the presence of traps within 10 feet without actively searching, though you must still use an action to locate their exact position and nature.

Level 9: Cat's Eyes

Starting at 9th level, darkness and deception hold no secrets from you. You gain darkvision out to 60 feet, or if you already have darkvision, increase its range by 30 feet. You can see through magical darkness as if it were dim light.

You have advantage on Perception and Investigation checks to detect hidden objects, secret doors, illusions, or magical surveillance. When you find a trap, you learn not just its trigger but its purpose—whether it's meant to kill, capture, or merely alert others.

Level 13: Breach Master

At 13th level, no barrier can contain you for long. You can cast knock at will, but the spell produces no sound when you cast it this way. Additionally, when you attack objects or structures blocking your path, you deal maximum damage and can choose whether the destruction appears violent or impossibly precise.

Your understanding of weak points extends to all constructed beings. You can use Sneak Attack against constructs and undead without needing advantage, representing your ability to target joints, power sources, or necromantic anchors with surgical precision.

Level 17: Ghost in the Machine

At 17th level, you move through the world like a whisper of wind. The first trap or magical trigger you would activate each turn simply fails to respond to your presence—you've learned to step between the spaces, to breathe without disturbing the air.

As an action, you can extend this supernatural stealth to allies. Choose up to 6 creatures within 60 feet. For the next hour, they gain your trap immunity and can move with perfect silence, leaving no tracks and making no sound unless they choose to. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

While this effect is active on you or your allies, magical sensors and divination spells of 3rd level or lower simply cannot detect you—you exist in the spaces between certainties.