D&D Rogue 5e Guide

D&D 5e Rogue Overview

Playstyle

Rogues are definitely for the players that like to lie, cheat, steal, and backstab their way to victory. Because of the way their class features are activated, Rogues need to constantly be thinking about how to get an advantage over their enemies. The tendency of rogues to be the scout of the party, combined with the unique nature of their combat abilities, means that rogues are certainly among the more technical melee classes to play.

Strengths

Rogues are the stealthy thieves and assassins of the DnD world. Commonly referred to as “skill monkeys”, they are proficient in more skills than any other class except for Bards, which allows them to take the lead on a lot situations your party will run across. Things like scouting ahead, picking locks, and silently taking out enemy patrols are common tasks on a rogue’s laundry list.

Rogues in 5e get an ability called Sneak Attack which allows them to get extra damage on unaware or flanked enemies. This ability goes hand in hand with the rogue’s tendency to be the party’s scout and also dictates their more “hit and run” style in combat. This ability provides an insane amount of single target damage and is the rogue’s main way to keep up with the damage output of the other melee classes.

Rogues also get plenty of extra action economy from their Cunning Action class feature which allows them to disengage, dash, or hide as a bonus action.

Weaknesses

Rogues are not front-line warriors; they have neither the hit points nor the AC for prolonged exchanges. If your party gets caught out in the open and without the element of surprise rogues can go down pretty easily.

Due to their high number of proficient skills, rogues are usually scouting out ahead for dangerous situations. One bad roll could mean your rogue gets discovered by a group of baddies or fails to notice a trap that drops you into a spike pit.

Best Races for Rogues

Choosing a race that complements a Rogue’s agility and cunning is essential for maximizing your character’s potential. For a detailed breakdown of the best races for your Rogue, check out our Guide to Rogue Races.

If you’re aiming for a quick decision and sticking to the Basic Rules or Player’s Handbook, Halflings are an excellent choice. Their +2 Dexterity bonus enhances your Rogue’s ranged or Finesse weapon attacks, while their Lucky trait can help avoid critical failures. Their Small size also gives you more options when it comes time to be stealthy.

Best Backgrounds for Rogues

• Charlatan: Deception and Sleight of Hand are two skills that Rogues already have access to and are great skills to have. Proficiency with forgery and disguise kits will also come in useful.
• Criminal: Proficiency with Stealth and Deception can help your ability to sneak around and lie, which is right up the Rogue’s alley. The Thieves’ Tools proficiency is redundant.
• Urchin: Sleight of Hand and Stealth are two perfect skill proficiencies for Rogues, combined with a perfect tool proficiencies in the Disguise kit and a redundant Thieves’ Tools pickup, and you’ve got yourself a very tempting class for Rogues.

Ability Scores

Ability Score Increases (ASI) at 4th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level.

The main goal of the Rogue is to have high DEX. Secondary goals can be increased CON for survivability, INT for Arcane Trickster builds, and WIS and CHA for ability checks.

STR: Leave the heavy lifting to your friends.

DEX: There is nothing more important to rogues than DEX. This represents their attack, damage, stealthiness, and AC. Pump this as high as you can and get it to 20 as soon as you can.

CON: More hit points and better CON saves make the Rogue less squishy.

INT: Don’t worry about INT unless you are playing an Arcane Trickster.

WIS: Can help with WIS saves and Perception.

CHA: Rogues can be a good character for CHA skill checks if needed by your party.

Rogue Class Progression

1st Level

Hit Points: The rogue’s 1d8 hit dice isn’t the worst around, but rogues will have to be careful about their positioning on the battlefield. They only have access to light armor and can find themselves in trouble if they get surrounded.

Saves: DEX saves are among the more useful saves, but INT won’t come up too often.

Proficiencies: A combination of good weapons and access to Thieves’ Tools makes rogues well equipped for their adventures.

Skills: Rogues get to choose four skills! Simply amazing.

• Acrobatics (DEX): Unfortunately, Acrobatics doesn’t seem to come up as often as the rogue would like. It is useful for avoiding grapples.
• Athletics (STR): Rogues are constantly seeking an advantage over their opponents. Being able to climb is one of the best ways to get this advantage.
• Deception (CHA): The Rogue is a great pick to be the one to handle social interactions with NPCs due to its synergistic class features.
• Insight (WIS): Same as Deception.
• Intimidation (CHA): Same as Deception.
• Investigation (INT): Investigation isn’t bad, but prioritizing other skills is better for the Rogue.
• Perception (WIS): We’ve said it before, Perception is the best skill in D&D. If you don’t grab it, make sure a couple other party members have high Perception.
• Performance (CHA): Compared to the other skills listed here, Performance is rather useless for rogues.
• Persuasion (CHA): Persuasion is probably the best of the social interaction skills.
• Sleight of Hand (DEX): Like Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand doesn’t see much use, but is helpful when it does.
• Stealth (DEX): The rogue class was designed with stealthiness in mind. It would be a shame not to take advantage of this.

Expertise: Not only are rogues proficient in many skills, they can either double their proficiency bonus for two skills or a combination of one skill and their Thieves’ Tools. Failing skill checks with those skills will be much less common.

Sneak Attack: The bread and butter of the 5e rogue. The damage scales as you level up ensuring that the rogue’s main source of damage will always be relevant. You’ll need either a ranged or finesse weapon to trigger this ability, which somewhat limits your choice of playstyles and weapons.

Thieve’s Cant: Thieve’s Cant is cool for roleplaying purposes, but even then it only really applies when encountering NPCs that also know Thieve’s Cant.

2nd Level

Cunning Action: This class feature pairs very nicely with the rogue’s game plan. Use a Dash, Disengage, or Hide action as a bonus action to line up some Sneak Attacks or to move around the battlefield efficiently.

3rd Level

Roguish Archetype: At 3rd level rogues get to choose their Roguish Archetype. All options have their merits, but will require different ability score distributions and feats to be at their best.

5th Level

Uncanny Dodge: Rogues aren’t the tankiest class in D&D, and Uncanny Dodge is a fantastic way of avoiding damage.

7th Level

Evasion: DEX saves are now even better, ensuring that you will never take full damage from sources requiring one.

11th Level

Reliable Talent: Your proficient skills can’t roll lower than a 10, before adding bonuses. Rogues have many proficiencies, so you will always roll well given that this combos with the Expertise class feature. With 20 DEX you will always roll at least a 23 on DEX based skills (10 from the roll + 8 from proficiency with Expertise + 5 from the DEX modifier).

14th Level

Blindsense: Invisible creatures can be punishing, and you’ll likely be glad to have this class feature at least once during a campaign.

15th Level

Slippery Mind: Rogues don’t typically roll with high WIS. Even so, proficiency is really handy.

18th Level

Elusive: By this point the rogue won’t go down easy, even with its average hit points.

20th Level

Stroke of Luck: You may have noticed how powerful the rogue’s class features are, and Stroke of Luck is the icing on the cake. Never again will you miss an attack or fail an ability check! At least once per short or long rest, that is.

Best Feats for Rogues

Check out our Guide to Rogue Feats.

Best Multiclass Options for Rogues

Multiclassing is always an opportunity cost, you have to determine if taking a level of another class is worth what you will lose from the original class. Many factors come into this decision, with the main factor being how long your campaign will run and, ultimately, what level you will be playing until.

In general, rogues do very well with multiclassing. Access to spells and extra attacks go a long way to make rogues even better at what they can already do.

Fighter: Dipping into fighter is a tried and tested option for any rogue. The Archery Fighting style is fantastic for boosting damage for bow users. At 2nd level Action Surge adds a lot more to what you can do on a single turn and opens up the possibility of getting an second attack if you miss on your Sneak Attack attempt. By 3rd level you can take the Battle Master archetype giving you useful maneuvers. Especially enticing is the Riposte maneuver that can let you get off a second Sneak Attack in the same round, as Sneak Attack can be used once per turn. If you can stomach five levels of fighter you get the Extra Attack.

Ranger: At least two levels of ranger is advised since this gives you both Fighting Style and access to Hunter’s Mark, the ranger’s signature spell. Three levels means choosing your archetype, opening up useful features like the Hunter’s Giant Killer for extra Sneak Attack opportunities or the Gloom Stalker’s bonuses at the beginning of combat if you have a decent WIS score. Going all the way to 5th level means an Extra Attack plus 2nd level spells like pass without trace. It isn’t advised to get more than five levels of ranger unless you really like your archetype’s features at higher levels.

Sorcerer: Even a single level of sorcerer gets you a good list of spells and a Sorcerer Origin which offers fantastic bonuses right away. For example, Draconic Bloodline gives you a huge boost to AC and Aberrant Mind gives telepathic communication and some useful spells.

Warlock: Rogues are extremely synerginistic with warlocks, especially in the first three levels.  At 1st-level, warlocks get access to 2 cantrips and 2 spells that they can cast using a 1st-level spell slot which will allow you to pick up booming blade/green-flame blade, eldritch blast, and hex. You also get to choose a subclass, and the Hexblade is an obvious choice. While you likely won’t use the ability that allows you to attack with CHA, Hexblade’s Curse will be hugely useful to boost damage, and the proficiency with medium armor and shields will be great for defense. Taking a two-level dip into warlock will net you an extra spell and spell slot, as well as some sweet Invocations. This will allow you to pick up Devil’s Sight which is a devastating ability for a rogue to combine with the darkness spell. Unfortunately, darkness is a 2nd-level spell, so you won’t be able to cast it until you dip three levels into warlock. With that in mind, the third-level dip into warlock allows you to choose a Pact Boon. Pact of the Blade allows you to summon your weapon out of an extra-dimensional space, which is just so cool for a rogue. That said, the Pact of the Chain’s boon might be better. With the Pact of Chain, you’ll be able to summon an imp using the find familiar spell. Seeing as the imp can transform into a rat, raven, or spider and turn itself invisible, it makes for an excellent scout and sneaking companion.

Wizard: A single level here gets you access to useful spells like Find Familiar and ritual casting. Two levels means you can choose your school of magic, and Bladesingers go perfectly with Rogues, especially Arcane Tricksters. By 6th level Bladesingers get an Extra Attack, perfect for a second chance at Sneak Attack.