Rogue Deep Dive

 The Rogue is one of the most unique classes in D&D, as the only martial/physical damage dealer that doesn't get extra attack, but can deal massive bursts of damage, as well as having tons of capabilities outside of combat, with a strong emphasis on skills. As Jeremey Crawford says in the beginning of today's deep dive on the 2024 Rogue, the main goal was simply not to break what already worked.

Rogues will be getting the shiny new toy that is Weapon Mastery, as all non-Monk martial classes do. I think it's worth noting that the Vex mastery can be very good for Rogues - it causes you to gain advantage on the next attack you make against that target, meaning that a Rogue who hits with a Vex weapon could be setting themselves up for Sneak Attack turn after turn if they keep hitting. While other Masteries will certainly have their appeals for the Rogue, Vex feels particularly built for them.

The other really awesome new feature coming in for all Rogues is Cunning Strike. Gained at level 5 (and with additional options coming in at later levels, including from subclasses,) this allows the Rogue to essentially spend Sneak Attack dice as a resource on a hit. For example, if you landed a Sneak Attack on a target, you could forgo one of your d6s (of which you'd be getting 3 at level 5) to force the target to make a Dex save or be knocked prone. (The DC is determined by your Dexterity, so note that Arcane Tricksters will need to be aware of two separate DCs, one for your spells and another for your Cunning Strike).

What I think is really cool about this is that the Rogue remains endlessly renewable - while Arcane Tricksters and Soulknives will still have some diminishing resources to track, other Rogues will basically be fully capable as long as they've got their Hit Points all day long - the resource this feature spends is one that is generated in the moment with each sneak attack.

Steady Aim, an optional feature from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, will also be making it into the base Rogue, so you can forgo movement on your turn in order to give yourself advantage on an attack as a bonus action.

Essentially, it'll be rare that a Rogue doesn't get Sneak Attack on their turn, which is pretty good given that's the main way that they deal damage.

    The Assassin has gotten some love. The Assassinate feature is still only going to be relevant in the first round of combat, but given how Surprise has changed, you now simply get advantage on initiative rolls (to help you get the drop on people) and then gain the bonus damage (in the most recent playtest, rather than giving an auto-crit, you now dealt extra damage equal to your Rogue level, which is probably a nerf if you had gotten Sneak Attack, but of course, now you can also benefit from actually critting).

Assassins also got a buff to Infiltration Expert, which still includes some of the mimicry stuff, but also now allows you to use Steady Aim without sacrificing your movement speed. This is, honestly, a simply but potentially really powerful feature - again, Assassins are almost always going to get Sneak Attack. The feature was pitches as allowing you to fight John Wick-style.

Imposter, one of two old Assassin features that I always felt was kind of a "I'd let any character do that" features, has been fully replaced with Envenom Weapons. This interacts with the Poison Cunning Strike option, which, at the cost of 1d6 of Sneak Attack, forces the target to make a Con save or be poisoned for a minute (save ends at end of turn). Now, when the Assassin uses this, the target will take 2d6 poison damage if they fail their saving throw and that damage ignores resistance to poison damage.

So, you actually wind up doing more damage if the target fails its saving throw, but it's a gamble because if they succeed you've only lost that die from the Sneak Attack. Ignoring poison resistance is nice, but I worry that so many types of monsters are just fully immune to poison that this bonus might not actually come up that much.

Death Strike also now only requires you get a Sneak Attack off on the first round of combat - a necessary adjustment given that Surprised isn't a condition anymore, but also this is definitely a buff.

    The Arcane Trickster is largely unchanged - one of those "ain't broke, don't fix" situations. Like the Eldritch Knight, they will now be able to use a spell focus (though I really hope that we can have weapons that double as spell foci if that's the case! I'm tired of dropping my Battleaxe every time I want to cast Shield!) and, also like the EK, they no longer are subject to any spell school restrictions.

One changed feature is that Versatile Trickster now lets you trip a second target when you use the Trip option for Cunning Strike by having your Mage Hand trip them up.

    The Soulknife is getting a couple of changes to Psychic Blades to solve some perhaps unforeseen problems that the original had. You will now be able to make Opportunity Attacks with your Psychic Blades, which is fantastic (I'm curious to know if this will simply be "any time you would make a weapon attack" and thus working on a Battle Master's Commander's Strike, or if it will be solely with Opportunity Attacks).

The other great change is that the Psychic Blades will now come with the Vex property, so Soulknives will be able to benefit from the fun of Weapon Mastery. While they won't be able to pick and choose other options (I sort of wish they could pick one from a curated list of Rogue-appropriate masteries at the end of a long rest to apply to their blades) Vex is probably the one they'd most likely be going for, and because you can make a second Psychic Blades attack as a bonus action, Vex will be pretty good for setting up Sneak Attack if you didn't get it on the first hit.

    Thieves got a few feature reshuffles.

Fast Hands can now activate magic items as a bonus action - though I'll note that the later feature of "Use Magic Device" has been altered a little, so you won't be a Rogue going around with a Staff of the Magi (I guess ignoring class restrictions is now the exclusive domain of the Artificer).

Second-Story Work now simply gives you a Climb Speed (which it did already but for some reason didn't word it that way) and also lets you use your Dexterity score to determine jump distance - meaning you'll be quite good at hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Almost makes me sad that all Rogues don't get this feature (much as Monks will be able to Grapple and Shove using Dexterity).

Thieves will also gain a new Cunning Strike option, called Stealth Attack, which allows you to remain hidden if you hit a target while hiding from them. This has the potential to be very helpful, but you had better hope you hit when you're hiding from that Beholder, because if you miss the jig is up!

Use Magic Item has been pretty seriously redesigned: you can no longer ignore attunement restrictions, but you get a fourth attunement slot. Also, when you use a magic item that expends charges, you have a 1 in 6 chance to not spend any charges. Finally, you can get a little extra magic, as you'll be able to use Spell Scrolls of other classes. If the spell scroll is for a cantrip or 1st level spell, you can simply do it anyway, but if it's higher level, you need to make an Arcana check with a DC equal to 10 plus the spell's level. Notably, as this comes on at level 14, a Thief might consider getting at the very least proficiency in Arcana, as Reliable Talent will make any spell of 5th level or lower an automatic success even with a +0 to Intelligence.

    And there we have it! I think the Rogue is looking pretty good in the new PHB. Cunning Strikes seems very fun.