D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook Reveal: "New Rogue"

"Even tricksier than it was before".

New Rogue video --


The last version of the rogue we saw as in the UA Playtest 6, last September. There's not many changes being announced here, the biggest being that the Soulknife gets to use Psychic Blades on opportunity attacks (so you don't need to have a knife as a backup weapon, and get into drawing/sheathing shenanigans), and that they now have the Vex property, and that Trip has apparently been withdrawn from the Cunning strike options.

OVERVIEW

• "our main job with the rogue was not to mess it up" -- add new twists to already wonderful design.
• Weapon mastery, such as short sword and dagger for TWF. Enough masteries to make a difference (i.e. 2).
• Cunning Strike (at 5): gives trade SA [sneak attack] dice for other effects. (Has anyone ever felt they had too many SA dice?). Poison, Trip, Withdraw [NOTE: no mention of Disarm!], with more later. Knockout at level 14.
• Steady Aim at 3, Reliable talent at 7 (as in PT6)
• Thieves Cant gives additional language too.
• Slippery Mind at 15 gives proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma (harder to banish)

SUBCLASSES

Assassin (earlier discussion here)

• benefits from Steady Aim.
• 2014 depended too much on surprise.
• Assassinate: adv on initiative, extra damage if opponent hasn't acted yet.
• NEW: You get disguise and poisoners kit with proficiency.
• NEW: Roving aim at 9: speed not reduced to zero if we use Steady Aim. (so you can move after making an attack with steady aim, but (apparently) not before
• Envenom Weapons, Death Strike (as in PT6).

Arcane Trickster

• NEW: spellcasting has no school restrictions, can now use arcane focus. more options and variety of builds.
• NEW versatile trickster at 13 lets you Trip two people (again, no mention of disarm.)
• discussion emphasizes the silliness and hijinks.

Soulknife

• "supernatural equivalent of the assassin"
• NEW: soulknife can be used on opportunity attacks ("Thank you!")
• NEW: soulknife has a mastery property (Vex -- next attack will have advantage)

Thief

• Fast Hands can activate magic item as a bonus action (as in PT6)
• Dex instead of Str for Jump and gives Climb speed. (JC claims "it technically gave you a climb speed before" -- I don't think this has ever been explicit).
• Supreme Sneak and Use Magic Device as in PT6.

I'm a little surprised at the (apparent) loss of Disarm from the options for Cunning Strike. Is this just to keep Wizards a bit safer? It was such a great option, for recreating those cinematic moments that I want a rogue to be able to do.

EDIT: SOME MORE NEW THINGS, from this video.

Some General rules revealed:

• New PHB has a sidebar for backwards compatibility and using abilities that haven’t been replaced/overwritten.
• NEW: Classes have a (class-specific) starting amount of gold – so for rogues it’s 100gp, + 50gp from background.
• In his build he takes Alert as background feat (not framed in terms of needing it to tie to Background). Possibly there is explicit permission to take any origin feat you want, and the one listed with backgrounds is exempli gratia.
• NEW: Piercer feat in the PHB (from Tasha’s, and so likely also Crusher and Slasher)
• Dazed condition from the playtest is gone.

Spoiler

More info for Rogues.

• NEW: Expertise for Rogues no longer allowed to be applied to Thieves’ tools.
• The Knock Out option at level 14 is awesome thematically, and he compares the idea of a rogue knocking someone out with a blackjack. Yes, that’s cool, and (for me) is the reason there should be finesse weapons that don’t do the stabby stabby

Info on his own build:

• If you know his builds, Colby is permissive with his exploits, allowing a lot of things that aren’t strictly RAW. In that light, it seems to me significant that he sees, even when using Variant Human in backwards compatibility, that he would only allow himself an Origin Feat (i.e. no half-feat) at level 1. That is only one person’s interpretation, but since he is generally VERY permissive in terms of his interpretations of rules, that (to me) speaks volumes.
• First Feat choice is Sentinel, lets him take an opportunity attack (to get SA again).
• Strategy: Most rounds attack with Vex, then Nick (so Bonus Action is free). In round 1, Nick first, bonus for Vex, which then would apply for any opportunity attack.
• He starts wielding Short sword and Scimitar, but later takes the Piercer feat, with which he’d want to swap the scimitar for a dagger (don’t think this was mentioned)

 

[OB1]

Loving a lot of the changes to the Rogue.

I think I may homebrew the Assassin to hit a little harder. Current plan is to double the Assassinate bonus, so twice level instead of just level, since it is once per combat. I've also considered giving them +prof to all hits, but that is likely far too much.

Had the same thought about the Assassinate bonus. At the very least I'll allow it to double on a crit. I think the problem is that even though the math is probably right on given all the other changes, it just doesn't quite have the feel of a head shot from the dark (ala John Wick).

That said, the Steady Aim feature for Assassins is freaking amazing and perfectly on point.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

We have seen statements from people who have the books that a lot of the Class portrait characters show up in multiple pictures throughout the books. So she is jot alone in that respect.

I predict we will see a Gnome Bard (and probsvly a Gnome Illusionist Wizard, to boot), and Cleric and Warlock will be a Human and an Elf (being the two Species to get double representation as the most popular choices).

I'm sure I saw the splash page of the Bard in some video, and it was a Tiefling.

 

[GarrettKP]

I'm sure I saw the splash page of the Bard in some video, and it was a Tiefling.

We have seen all the Iconic splash art for classes except the Warlock I believe.

Goliath Barbarian
Tiefling Bard
Dwarf Cleric
Human Druid
Dwarf Fighter
Dragonborn Monk
Orc Paladin
Elf Ranger
Halfling Rogue
Elf Sorcerer
??? Warlock
Human/Aasimar Wizard (still think she’s a human)

 

[Kobold Stew]

The OP has been updated to include some additional reveals about the Rogue from this video, d4/Colby.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm a little surprised at the (apparent) loss of Disarm from the options for Cunning Strike. Is this just to keep Wizards a bit safer? It was such a great option, for recreating those cinematic moments that I want a rogue to be able to do.

I would guess that's being held back for the Swashbuckler, who is the rogue whom you'd most want to have it. (See The Princess Bride.)

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Thief features should just be core Rogue features. As is, you need to have guaranteed access to rods or similar to get any combat use out of your subclass until lv9 - its lv3 is just tiny ribbons outside of that.

Use Object would be neat with scrolls, but only people who can already cast spells can use scrolls, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of scrolls existing as anything other than Wizard buffs. 'But you can do so with Use Magic Device at lv13' oh you mean 10 levels too late and it is a 50/50 check on failure you destroy the scroll.

As to bonus actioning normal items... Throwing an acid vial at someone with a bonus action is neat at lv3 (and affordable if someone has an Alchemist Kit proficiency to craft more), but that does not scale... especially because improvised weapons are a no-proficiency Str-based attack. Somehow, I'm not expecting that they've gone in and added different tiers of consumables to the item list to cover this one subclass. They even removed improvised weapon proficiency from Tavern Brawler(!!!)

'But I used manacles to put an opponent into a DC20 to escape unspecified condition' you mean you talked your GM into letting you do something with no rules support for actually applying it, good job, that's exactly what I want out of my class features.

 

[Kurotowa]

The write-up also says the Psychic blades now have a range of 60/120 (as opposed to 60/-). That means that Soulknife Rogue benefit significantly from the sharpshooter feat* -- no range penalties up to 120', attacking with advantage (if using Steady Aim), and able to bypass half- and 3/4-cover, using a weapon that leaves no material trace but can inflict the poisoned condition (through Cunning Strike).

The Soulknife tactical matrix is interesting.

They can't use Steady Aim and the Psychic Blades' innate off-hand attack on the same turn, because they're both Bonus Actions. And two attacks is better than one attack with Advantage, because you can hit twice. Except that sometimes the Rogue will want to attack a target that isn't engaged with an ally, and will need Steady Aim to enable Sneak Attack. But their Psychic Blades now come with Vex, so sometimes they'll have another source of Advantage already available.

It's an interesting little flowchart. Not too complex, but with several conditions deciding between the two paths.

 

[Kobold Stew]

They can't use Steady Aim and the Psychic Blades' innate off-hand attack on the same turn, because they're both Bonus Actions.

good call, but I think Sharpshooter is still worthwhile for a versatile build.

 

[GarrettKP]

We have seen all the Iconic splash art for classes except the Warlock I believe.

Goliath Barbarian
Tiefling Bard
Dwarf Cleric
Human Druid
Dwarf Fighter
Dragonborn Monk
Orc Paladin
Elf Ranger
Halfling Rogue
Elf Sorcerer
??? Warlock
Human/Aasimar Wizard (still think she’s a human)

The D&D YouTube page just scheduled their Warlock premier video and revealed the Iconic Warlock is a Gnome.

So the only question is if the Wizard is a human or an Aasimar.

 

[Parmandur]

So the only question is if the Wizard is a human or an Aasimar.

Based on tge way she looks, I'm pretty sure she is an Aasamir, similar to the Soul Knife.