Rogue Mastermind Archetype Up, Courtesy of Extra Life

They stole my my help as a bonus action idea...

 

[ccooke]

This is lovely, I'm grabbing that for the new setting I'm working on (It's a lovely fit, actually; the setting is circa-1800 tech; just before the industrial revolution really kicked in, horribly decadent society that's almost modern. Lots of space for a mastermind to take advantage of things)

As to balance, it looks pretty much dead on to me. Obviously we'll have to see how it plays, as with everything in 5e, but it looks on par with the PHB to me.

Greenflame blade is comparable with other cantrips, too - compare it to Acid Splash:

Acid Splash has a range of 60', targets one or two creatures and does 1d6 damage, increasing by 1d6 at levels 5, 11 and 17.
Greenflame blade has a range of 5', targets one or two creatures and does your weapon damage to the first target and your spellcasting ability mod to the second. It increases by 1d8 at levels 5, 11 and 17.

Those look quite nicely balanced to me - Greenflame blade does higher damage, at the cost of requiring you to get into melee (and hence hav a greater risk of taking damage) and optimise two ability scores - one for magic and one for melee. I would call it a very interesting cantrip that's entirely in line with the power level in the PHB.

Of course, as I said, I haven't seen it in play yet

 

[Psikerlord#]

But, advantage isn't rare at all. There's a dozen different ways to gain advantage, and getting one more isn't really a big deal is it? And, as Saviomagy points out, this is a 3rd level power. Compare that to any other 3rd level power and it's hardly game breaking. I mean, at the time the rogue is granting advantage to one attack, the casters are all gaining 2nd level spells. It does help to keep things in perspective.

Getting adv is rare in my game, and/or has a significant opportunity cost, unlike this ability.

 

[Osgood]

I like the subclass, but man I wish they would stop with the deformed halfling art. I realize that more than most, halfling depictions have changed a lot over the years--chubby and barefoot, slim and athletic, to bobble-headed--and I'm sure everyone had their favorites... So why not alternate styles, so people can latch on to whatever inspires them. Art matters.

 

[ZickZak]

Not a fan. Good for some MC builds though.

 

[Mercule]

Well, at least there are those sections telling us how to use the material in other campaign settings. If they at least say something like "in Greyhawk, Purple Dragon Knights are known as <lore I do not know>, and serve as <more lore I do not know>," that would be a pretty cool way of expanding usability of such classes. Ideally though, I'd prefer they have given it a generic name and then just said "in the kingdom of Corymr, <generic name> are known as Purple Dragon Knights..."

I'm 100% on board with this. I don't see myself ever getting this book because it's an FR book and, well, I just don't buy stuff labeled FR.

If they released a generic "Adventurer's Guide" that had the crunchy bits as stand-alone, but included sidebars for "The PDKs of Cormyr are one example of an order made up largely of Warlords. The Royal Guard of the Great Kingdom is another, with a somewhat darker take," I'd be pretty happy. They could even pay substantively more attention to the Realms, as long as it wasn't exclusive. The biggest problem with that is they don't want to do a crunch-only book and probably don't have enough publishable crunch to do so, anyway. They also want to push the Realms as much as possible because they can't tell one brand from another.

All that aside, the Mastermind looks pretty cool. Even though I don't see me breaking my 26ish year (i.e. since the gray box) streak of avoiding Forgotten Realms products, I'll happily use the free crunch in my games.

 

[Hutchimus Prime]

Mastermind is Sherlock Holmes. I love it!

 

[ChrisCarlson]

Don't compare "original rules" and "new rules", because that's misrepresenting things. This is a 3rd level combat class feature. Compare it with critting on 19-20, getting combat maneuvers or getting advantage on any creature that hasn't acted plus automatic criticals on anything you surprise.

I think it's interesting, and should be pointed out, that this one ability is the entire 3rd-level combat feature for a subclass. Because it is quite potent. Anyone toying around with home-brew classes that are built around helping/bolstering allies should keep that in mind when weighing what all else they are giving them...

 

[Xeviat]

My Beast Master alt uses help as a bonus action (moved from the 7th level ability), as I found it compares well against the Hunter's Colossus Slayer. It's a good 3rd level ability, but not gamebreaking. It's best use is going to be paired with another rogue, and a two rogue party will deal with some overlaps in other areas of the game. I do really want to play an archer mastermind rogue leading from the rear, pick up the healer feat and the inspiring leader feat too.

 

[halfling rogue]

that creeper looks like they mashed together the very things I hate most about 4e and 5e halflings

 

[Staffan]

Getting adv is rare in my game, and/or has a significant opportunity cost, unlike this ability.

Just wondering, do you also remove the Barbarian's Reckless Attack feature? Or their 3rd level Wolf totem feature? The Battlemaster's Distracting Strike? Shadow Step? Versatile Trickster? Tides of Chaos?