Arcane Trickster.. Start Out with a Fighter level???

[Aplus]

I am making a High Elf Arcane Trickster to play in Season 4 Adventurer's League. On the surface, it seems like a good idea to start out as a Fighter 1 to pick up armor/weapon proficiencies, a little extra hp, dueling, and second wind, and then put levels into rogue thereafter. Here are basic stats:

STR 10, DEX 16, CON 13, INT 16, WIS 12, CHA 8
Background: Urchin
Skills: Acrobatics, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Survival
Other Profs: Disguise Kit, Thieves' Tools

Armor: Leather + Shield (AC 16)
Weapons: Rapier, Longbow

Cantrip: Green-Flame Blade

Is there any reason NOT to do this? Seems like the upside outweighs any potential downside of not going full rogue by quite a bit. In fact, it seems so much better, I feel like I must be missing something.

Thanks!

 

[miburo99]

It's a fair trade-off. The HP and dueling damage is certainly nice for a melee Arcane Trickster. I'm also planning a High Elf AT with a focus on melee rapier goodness.

Although, as a High Elf do you really need the extra weapons proficiencies (you get rapier either way, and you already have longbow)? In addition, the medium armor is probably useful now (make sure you get breastplate asap) but you will surpass it later when you boost dex. The shield is also nice, but you may have issues with spellcasting unless you get Warcaster--and you might be strapped for feats as is. Assuming 2 Dex ASIs, 2 Int ASIs, and Resilient: Con to round out your odd Con score and get better saves, you get one more feat available. That could go to Warcaster, though I've been looking at Mobile so that I can save the bonus action for Versatile Trickster. You also will eventually lose out on the 20th level Rogue ability but that's not a huge deal.

Again, your call. Advantages with some trade-offs.

 

[Z. H. Darkstar]

If you're trying to get the most out of your AC, I'd consider two-dipping Wizard for Bladesinger instead at character levels 2-3 or 3-4, depending on how much you value Cunning Action in Tier 1 play. You'd take a loss on HP, but gain the ability to cast 1st level rituals, gain a few more cantrips, and have a slightly boosted spell slot profession.

Edit: I'd take Booming Blade over GFB as your starting cantrip. Being able to do up to 2d8+1d6+3 on a BB+SA at 1st level is too good to pass up.

Edit 2: AL allows point buy, so I'd drop Str to 8 and bump Con to 14.

 

[miburo99]

If you're trying to get the most out of your AC, I'd consider two-dipping Wizard for Bladesinger instead at character levels 2-3 or 3-4, depending on how much you value Cunning Action in Tier 1 play. You'd take a loss on HP, but gain the ability to cast 1st level rituals, gain a few more cantrips, and have a slightly boosted spell slot profession.

Edit: I'd take Booming Blade over GFB as your starting cantrip. Being able to do up to 2d8+1d6+3 on a BB+SA at 1st level is too good to pass up.

Edit 2: AL allows point buy, so I'd drop Str to 8 and bump Con to 14.

Yeah, Bladesinger 2 is a pretty good dip for a Rogue AT. Although you lose level 4 spells (especially Greater Invisibility) but that only applies if you plan to make it to very high levels. Otherwise totally worth it for the Bladesong benefits and 1st level unrestricted spells.

IMO I would say if using point buy, drop Str to 8 but use it to move Cha to 10. Con 13 is fine so you can take Resilient: Con later. Rogues can make good use of Deception and Persuasion skills (and Performance if you go Bladesinger) so it might be worth not having a negative Cha.

 

[Kithas]

Yeah, Bladesinger 2 is a pretty good dip for a Rogue AT. Although you lose level 4 spells (especially Greater Invisibility) but that only applies if you plan to make it to very high levels. Otherwise totally worth it for the Bladesong benefits and 1st level unrestricted spells.

IMO I would say if using point buy, drop Str to 8 but use it to move Cha to 10. Con 13 is fine so you can take Resilient: Con later. Rogues can make good use of Deception and Persuasion skills (and Performance if you go Bladesinger) so it might be worth not having a negative Cha.

You also only get the boost a couple times a day, while bladesinging.
The main trade-off you are doing is Con saves for Dex saves. Con saves help you more with your concentration spells, if you have them. Dex saves with the Evasion ability make it very hard to damage you with aoe.
Other than that there is no real cost and it works awesomely, I have personally done it on my ranged arcane trickster and have had no issues.
All of the spells you want to cast in combat most likely don't need s/m components so you are fine there. If you find that you need/want to cast those Warcaster is your friend. Not only does it make this really easy it also lets you use booming blade as an opportunity attack. You will have 5 asis which should be fine to max your dex, and con and have a decent int, as for feats this kind of character is already very feat-light. You don't have a weapon specific feat (except defensive duelist and uncanny dodge is arguably better or equivalent) Savage attacker doesn't work with sneak attack. There really aren't many feats you want, so getting Warcaster is easy.

My advice would be to definitely take the 1-3 levels in fighter. Start in it. Only go the extra 2 levels if you want to get action surge and either that sweet sweet 19-20 crit range or battlemaster maneuvers which also rock. As I said earlier you are not very feat reliant or multiple ability score dependent so you could even get the feat for another die/2 more maneuvers without much issue.

 

[Aplus]

Thanks, you guys have given me some good stuff to look at.