Alchemist as a Roge Subclass?

[CleverNickName]

Has anyone ever seen such a thing? I'm looking for one to add to my next campaign.

There are a lot of alchemist classes out there for 5E, and most of them try to do too much at once (like the Pathfinder alchemist). But I'm not looking for a whole new class; I'm looking for just a touch of alchemist to add to a rogue. I'm imagining a skulky sneak-thief or safecracker who brews his own bombs, alchemical compounds, and poisons. The kind of rogue who can disable a boobytrap with sovereign glue, blast open the bank vault, throw a volley of poisoned darts at the guards who come running, then cover his escape with a smoke bomb.

Basically an arcane trickster, but with alchemy instead of arcana.

Has anyone seen one of these? Or, if I should attempt to craft this subclass myself, does anyone have any advice?

 

[Ancalagon]

It's an intriguing question, but it is a lot to pack in a subclass....

Honestly, the alchemist subclass of the unearthed arcana, combined with the criminal background, would do the trick.

 

[CleverNickName]

That's a good starting point, Ancalagon....thanks for the tip. It would be easy enough to pull the Alchemist out of the Artificer class and add it to the Rogue class. It would only need a little bit of tweaking.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[gyor]

All you really need is a profiency in alchemical set to make some stuff. Maybe ritual casting cleric so you can cast ceremony as a ritual and produce holy water.

 

[Unwise]

Arcane Trickster really fits this already. You can have 'potions' with spell effects. Player and DM just get together and pick all the spells that make sense to be alchemical vials or potions, rather than the normal spell list. E.g. Glue = entangle,
Greese = Greese
shaped charge = knock
flashbang = blind/thunderwave
paralysis dart/soverign glue = hold person
itching powder = hideous laugh
smoke bomb = darkness
grenade = fireball

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The XGTE tool rules help a lot with this.

For what things you can make during a long rest for a subclass, I’d look at Arcane Trickster’s spell progression, grab 1 Alchemist (Artificer) at will formula per cantrip that AT gets at a given level, then give 1 Advanced Formula per spell known and 1 use per Spell Slot. Ie, so if you would know 4 spells, you have 4 Advanced Formulas, and if you’d have 3 spells slots you can make 3 uses on a long rest.

For power level of formulas, check out the DMG guidelines for creating new spells.

Also, Arcane Trickster gets mage hand legerdemain, so you’ll need something there. Probably Alchemists tools and Tinker Tools proficiency?