I think this is a great change. It opens up new room for character building that previously weren't possible. For instance, a failed Wizard's Apprentice:
Variant Human, taking the Magic Initiate feat (True Strike (this is lovely for a scouting Rogue!) and Minor Image as cantrips, so many useful 1st level spells but let's go with Mage Armour)
S: 8(-1), D: 16(+3), C: 14(+2), I: 14(+2), W: 10(+0), Ch: 12(+1)
Class: Rogue
Background: Urchin, replacing Sleight of Hand with Arcana.
Expertise in Arcana and Stealth.
At level one, she would need to roll 4+ to cast a Cantrip, 5+ for 1st level spell from a scroll - doable, but not perfect. That quickly goes up, though, with expertise.
By level 5, she needs 2+ which is pretty decent. 5% failure chance.
At level 9, automatic success on cantrips and 1st level, 5% failure chance per level above 1st.
At level 11, thanks to Reliable Talent, she can cast any scroll automatically (+8 from expertise (double proficiency), +2 from Int, any roll lower than 10 treated as 10 makes the minimum check 20, enough to cast a 9th level spell).
She asks a lot of questions (Trait), believes in helping people who help her (Ideal), still believes she owes a debt to the Wizard who took her in, even though she ended up stealing from her (Bond) and has a bit of a weakness for gold (Flaw)
I'd probably get her a few 1st level scrolls and cantrips (cantrip scrolls should be cheapish, and she can keep on picking them up to "stay in practice". Mending, Light and Mage Hand are probably the most likely ones). Maybe pick up the ritual caster feat eventually.
She doesn't even need to go with the Arcane Trickster subclass, although it would be completely natural (and provide automatic success to some scrolls much sooner)
Variant Human, taking the Magic Initiate feat (True Strike (this is lovely for a scouting Rogue!) and Minor Image as cantrips, so many useful 1st level spells but let's go with Mage Armour)
S: 8(-1), D: 16(+3), C: 14(+2), I: 14(+2), W: 10(+0), Ch: 12(+1)
Class: Rogue
Background: Urchin, replacing Sleight of Hand with Arcana.
Expertise in Arcana and Stealth.
At level one, she would need to roll 4+ to cast a Cantrip, 5+ for 1st level spell from a scroll - doable, but not perfect. That quickly goes up, though, with expertise.
By level 5, she needs 2+ which is pretty decent. 5% failure chance.
At level 9, automatic success on cantrips and 1st level, 5% failure chance per level above 1st.
At level 11, thanks to Reliable Talent, she can cast any scroll automatically (+8 from expertise (double proficiency), +2 from Int, any roll lower than 10 treated as 10 makes the minimum check 20, enough to cast a 9th level spell).
She asks a lot of questions (Trait), believes in helping people who help her (Ideal), still believes she owes a debt to the Wizard who took her in, even though she ended up stealing from her (Bond) and has a bit of a weakness for gold (Flaw)
I'd probably get her a few 1st level scrolls and cantrips (cantrip scrolls should be cheapish, and she can keep on picking them up to "stay in practice". Mending, Light and Mage Hand are probably the most likely ones). Maybe pick up the ritual caster feat eventually.
She doesn't even need to go with the Arcane Trickster subclass, although it would be completely natural (and provide automatic success to some scrolls much sooner)
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