D&D 5E Rogue with Find Familiar?

[mach1.9pants]

Yeah Flyby was a HORRIBLE design decision. Owl familiars as far as the eye can see.

I blame JK Rowling

 

[Eltab]

My Arcane Trickster picked up FF, cast it, and retrained another spell at the next level. (Now I have to be VERY careful about sending it into danger.) The plus side is, since I rarely use it, it is a complete surprise to my enemy when this weasel runs up, grabs the McGuffin, and departs down the hallway at high speed. On my next turn I dismiss it to its pocket dimension ... and the enemy have no way to find it or their stolen stuff.

 

[ccs]

I was going for flavor moreso than maximum optimization. I didn't know that Arcane Trickster had access to Find Familiar so I'd have to look into that. I was probably going to take Assassin as it seems to be what I would enjoy the most, but I was at least considering Thief. I will definitely read up on Arcane Trickster. I do not want to multiclass.

I considered Ritual Caster, but it seems worse than Magic Initiate to me.

So even though I was wanting this for flavor, I still wanted it to be useful of course.

Light.
Because as a human you don't see in the dark....

 

[Zardnaar]

You could take magic initiate for ff and greenflame blade. Become a mastermind. Familiar grants advantage you cast gfb and grant advantage to someone else.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Eh, that's true. As I DM, I wouldn't be opposed to give a Flyby or a similar trait to all familiars, just for the sake of variety.

Weird. I’ve seen one owl and a bunch of nearly every other option. Ravens and cats are quite popular in my experience.

 

[Olrox17]

Weird. I’ve seen one owl and a bunch of nearly every other option. Ravens and cats are quite popular in my experience.

That's cool. I suppose many of my players can be considered optimizers, and they tend to gravitate towards mechanically powerful options.

 

[CTurbo]

After some further reading, I'm not sure I would like an Arcane Trickster. I'm not really big a the partial casters outside of the Paladin. Spells are just so limited it doesn't seem like I would get the use out of them I would want. I think I'll just stick to Assassin or Thief and get Magic Initiate at level 1 or 4. The more I read about Booming Blade on a Rogue, the more fun it sounds. It's not something I had thought much about, but being able to hit, and then disengage basically begging for the enemy to come after you for extra damage just sounds cool. I think I've sold myself on the FF idea. Just sounds fun.

If somebody wants to sell me on Arcane Trickster, now is your chance. I'm all ears. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

[tswarre]

Invisible mage hand that can pickpocket from a distance with no skill check! (Sleight of hand for it to go unnoticed.) You can also pick locks this way too if your DM likes to create trapped doors/chests/mimics.

Tasha's hideous laughter is great CC.

Gaining advantage with an owl familiar's help action makes sneak attack reliable pretty much every turn, leaving your cunning action open to dash, disengage, or whatever. Honestly the hide and snipe rogue just seems boring to me.

Having both Booming Blade then disengaging is fantastic. But you can get that with just going High Elf.

Minor Illusion and Suggestion can be great depending on the situation.

My Arcane Trickster is a Moon Elf who thinks of himself more as a treasure hunter or magic archeologist rather than a rogue.

 

[schnee]

I considered Ritual Caster, but it seems worse than Magic Initiate to me.

You mean at first? Or what about later, when you either find or purchase more scrolls?

For a Rogue, I'd love to potentially access to Alarm, Comprehend Languages, Drawmij's Instant Summons, Identify, Illusory Script, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Magic Mouth, Phantom Steed, Tenser's Floating Disc, Unseen Servant, Skywrite, and Water Breathing?

I could see any of those being really useful for a Rogue's shenanigans.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

After some further reading, I'm not sure I would like an Arcane Trickster. I'm not really big a the partial casters outside of the Paladin. Spells are just so limited it doesn't seem like I would get the use out of them I would want. I think I'll just stick to Assassin or Thief and get Magic Initiate at level 1 or 4. The more I read about Booming Blade on a Rogue, the more fun it sounds. It's not something I had thought much about, but being able to hit, and then disengage basically begging for the enemy to come after you for extra damage just sounds cool. I think I've sold myself on the FF idea. Just sounds fun.

If somebody wants to sell me on Arcane Trickster, now is your chance. I'm all ears. Maybe I'm missing something.

Take a good look at swashbuckler, or the mobile feat. Booming blade, move away without opportunity attacks, still have your bonus action.

My swashbuckler also has a hand crossbow and crossbow expert, for when I want to do a regular attack rather than booming blade, and then shoot someone.