Con Artist, A Homebrew Roguish Archetype

[WhiteWolf]

Hi Playgrounders, this is a homebrewed roguish archetype I came up with a while ago. Interested in what you guys/girls think. I've a feeling it may be a little stronger then the other archetypes but IMO it's easier to tone down abilities than beef them up. Please excuse the lack of flavour text, that stuff seems to take me ages to come up with.

Con Artist

Hide in Plain Sight
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, whenever you take the Hide action, if you are in a crowded environment such as a bustling market square or rowdy tavern, you can attempt to disguise yourself as an innocent bystander by making a Charisma (Deception) or Charisma (Performance) check, (whichever the DM decides is more appropriate) instead of making a Dexterity (Stealth) check.

Charlatans Escape
Starting at 3rd level, you know that once you’ve been busted, you need to make a speedy getaway and you’re practiced at dodging attacks and staying light on your toes. You can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to take the Dodge action, provided you do not take the Attack action this turn. Additionally, you may use your reaction to move up to your speed once per short rest, when targeted by an attack or spell.

Cheat the Odds
Starting at 9th level, it seems as though you’ve always got an ace or five up your sleeve. You have advantage on Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks.

Tools of the Trade
At 13th level, you’ve gained valuable skills and special capabilities unique to your line of work. You gain proficiency in any combination of three skills, tools, languages or weapons of your choice.

Rogues Reflexes
Starting at 17th level, due to your fast mind and sharp reflexes, you can act with surprising speed and agility. On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible bonus action. During the rest of your turn, opportunity attacks against you are made with disadvantage. You can use this feature once per short rest.

[Twizzly513]

Hello! First I'd like to say, nice homebrew! It has a unique feel to it, and has some diverse options as well. Now I'll go through the features.



Hide in Plain Sight
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, whenever you take the Hide action, if you are in a crowded environment such as a bustling market square or rowdy tavern, you can attempt to disguise yourself as an innocent bystander by making a Charisma (Deception) or Charisma (Performance) check, (whichever the DM decides is more appropriate) instead of making a Dexterity (Stealth) check.

This is an interesting feature, and one that rewards a rogue for putting a high Charisma and being in urban environments, both thematically correct for a con artist. No advice here, nice work.


Charlatans Escape
Starting at 3rd level, you know that once you’ve been busted, you need to make a speedy getaway and you’re practised at dodging attacks and staying light on your toes. You can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to take the Dodge action. You can also use your reaction to move up to your speed once per short rest.

I like the ability, but there are two things I would fix. First, the Dodge action is quite potent to be able to do it on most turns. To keep in line with the idea of escaping, I would restrict it to: You can now use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to take the Dodge action as long as the Attack action is not taken this turn. I think this would keep it in line and add to the escape idea. Second, a simple fix, when are you able to use your reaction? A reaction is always triggered by something specific. Is it a reaction to taking damage? To being targeted by an attack? To an enemy moving within 5 feet of you? The ability is cool, but needs a specific trigger if it will be activated by the use of a reaction.


Cheat the Odds
Starting at 9th level, it seems as though you’ve always got an ace or five up your sleeve. You have advantage on Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks.

An appropriate feature. Given the play style, I think this is a good benefit.


Tools of the Trade
At 13th level, you’ve gained valuable skills and special capabilities unique to your line of work. You may choose any 1 feat, so long as you meet the prerequisites, or you can gain proficiency in any combination of three skills, tools, or languages or weapons of your choice.

A nitpicky thing, but some games actually don't allow feats (odd as it is), so mentioning them specifically seems out of place, especially since no other feature in the game does, not even the Ability Score Improvement. I think the choice between skills, tools, languages, or weapons is potent enough for an ability, as it keeps in line with the idea.


Rogues Reflexes
Starting at 17th level, due to your fast mind and sharp reflexes, you can act with surprising speed and agility. On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible bonus action. During the rest of your turn, opportunity attacks against you are made with disadvantage. You can use this feature once per short rest.

This is a worthy capstone. Feels roguish and useful without being too much.

Once again, a great job!

[WhiteWolf]

Thanks for the feedback, I've made a few changes.

Charlatans Escape

I like the ability, but there are two things I would fix. First, the Dodge action is quite potent to be able to do it on most turns. To keep in line with the idea of escaping, I would restrict it to: You can now use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to take the Dodge action as long as the Attack action is not taken this turn. I think this would keep it in line and add to the escape idea. Second, a simple fix, when are you able to use your reaction? A reaction is always triggered by something specific. Is it a reaction to taking damage? To being targeted by an attack? To an enemy moving within 5 feet of you? The ability is cool, but needs a specific trigger if it will be activated by the use of a reaction.

Starting at 3rd level, you know that once you’ve been busted, you need to make a speedy getaway and you’re practised at dodging attacks and staying light on your toes. You can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to take the Dodge action, provided you do not take the Attack action this turn. Additionally, you may use your reaction to move up to your speed once per short rest, when targeted by an attack or spell.

Tools of the Trade

A nitpicky thing, but some games actually don't allow feats (odd as it is), so mentioning them specifically seems out of place, especially since no other feature in the game does, not even the Ability Score Improvement. I think the choice between skills, tools, languages, or weapons is potent enough for an ability, as it keeps in line with the idea.

At 13th level, you’ve gained valuable skills and special capabilities unique to your line of work. You gain proficiency in any combination of three skills, tools, languages or weapons of your choice.

[Wryte]

Hide in Plain Sight
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, whenever you take the Hide action, if you are in a crowded environment such as a bustling market square or rowdy tavern, you can attempt to disguise yourself as an innocent bystander by making a Charisma (Deception) or Charisma (Performance) check, (whichever the DM decides is more appropriate) instead of making a Dexterity (Stealth) check.

How does this differ from using RAW to make a Deception check to pretend to be a face in the crowd?


Charlatans Escape
Starting at 3rd level, you know that once you’ve been busted, you need to make a speedy getaway and you’re practiced at dodging attacks and staying light on your toes. You can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to take the Dodge action, provided you do not take the Attack action this turn. Additionally, you may use your reaction to move up to your speed once per short rest, when targeted by an attack or spell.

What's the point of being able to Dodge as a bonus action if it comes at the expense of being able to attack? If you're not using your main action to attack, what are you doing that isn't already covered by the normal Cunning Action options, which would have left you free to Dodge as your main action?


Cheat the Odds
Starting at 9th level, it seems as though you’ve always got an ace or five up your sleeve. You have advantage on Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) checks.

This is kind of boring. Any rogue is already going to have high Dex, which gives them decent SoH in the first place, and then can already take proficiency in it and give it Expertise to pump it through the roof. Advantage is just redundant at that point.


Tools of the Trade
At 13th level, you’ve gained valuable skills and special capabilities unique to your line of work. You gain proficiency in any combination of three skills, tools, languages or weapons of your choice.

Again, kind of boring. Rogues already have above average skill and tool proficiencies. You're also 4 features in now, and so far none of them reliably apply to combat with the exception of Escape, which really does nothing but help them run away. Of course not every feature in an archetype has to relate to combat, but there has to be something that sets this archetype apart from other rogues in how they approach one of the central pillars of the game other than running away from it.


Rogues Reflexes
Starting at 17th level, due to your fast mind and sharp reflexes, you can act with surprising speed and agility. On your turn, you can take one additional action on top of your regular action and a possible bonus action. During the rest of your turn, opportunity attacks against you are made with disadvantage. You can use this feature once per short rest.

So... Action Surge with an extra thing about opportunity attacks, which is kind of pointless given that they already have two bonus actions to Disengage with this feature? Kind of underwhelming for a 17th level ability when any rogue could get basically the same thing from a 2 level dip into Fighter.

Besides all that, I also keep coming back to a major thematic problem: this doesn't feel anything like a con artist to me. A con artist is someone who uses their charisma and intelligence to fool people into willingly giving up what the con artist wants, and only realizing they've been fooled long after the con artist has moved on; a Mastermind rogue. This features are all about running away and being unnoticed. That doesn't say con artist to me; it says pickpocket.

[InkisRatticus]

Tools of the Trade bugs me. Perhaps have it so that during a long rest he can pick 3 different three skills, tools, languages or weapons of your choice. Only 3 can have this effect at any one time.

This way he literaly will have the Perfect Plan (Shameless rename of the ability)