Silencing Blade; Anti-Mage Rogue

[sandmote]

A rogue subclass themed around horrifying your enemies. Still struggling with anti-caster subclasses, but think I'm getting a bit better.


Shred Communication
From 3rd level, when a creature within 25 feet of you uses its action to make a deception, intimidation, performance, or persuasion check that involves sound, you can silence them until the start of your turn as a reaction. When you do so and the roll would require making sound to succeed, the target automatically fails; otherwise the target has disadvantage on the roll. While the target can repeat the check later without the penalty.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your charisma modifier (minimum of once), and regain all uses at the end of a short rest.


Maddening Silence
When you choose this subclass at 3rd level, you can muzzle your enemies. You can cast the silence spell, requiring no components a number of times equal to your charisma modifer (minimum of once), and regain all uses of this feature at the end of a short rest.

At the end of your turn, creatures of your choice that are affected by the spell must make a Wisdom saving throw with a save DC of 8 + your proficiency modfier + your Charisma modifier or take 1d4 psychic damage.


Twisting Personality
From 9th level, you gain an almost supernatural ability to recognize what others will sense. When you make an skill check using your Dexterity modifer, you gain a bonus equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of +1).


Silencing Strike
Starting at 13th level, any target that takes damage from your sneak attack must make a Constitution saving throw against a DC of 8 + your proficiency bonus + your charisma modifier or take 1d6 psychic damage and become unable to speak or cast spells with verbal components until the start of your next turn.


Horror of the Darkness
At 17th level, you can cast maddening darkness requiring no components, using charisma as your spellcasting ability score. When you cast the spell in this manner, the radius of the spell is onl 20 feet, but you can choose up to ten creatures to not take damage from the spell.

You regain this ability at the end of a short rest.

[PhantasyPen]

What class is this for again? It doesn't say anywhere in your post.

[JNAProductions]

What class is this for again? It doesn't say anywhere in your post.

Rogue. It references Sneak Attack.

I had to look closely to figure that out too.

[sandmote]

What class is this for again? It doesn't say anywhere in your post.


Rogue. It references Sneak Attack.

I had to look closely to figure that out too.

I knew was forgetting something. Thanks.

[Trandir]

For how long does Shred Communication "silence" a creature ?

[Phhase]

I like it! I've been waiting to see a silence-based subclass, and this looks pretty cool. Interesting that you're also making Cha a secondary stat here. Twisting Personality looks potentially really powerful.

I feel like Shred Comms could have a little more range, perhaps 25 feet? And yeah, how's duration work? And can you use it to silence any communication, not just something that involves a skill check? Like, a spell, for example? That feels like the intended use.

Does Silencing Strike also disable the target's ability to make noise altogether? For example, would clapping their hands to get an ally's attention work? That seems a little odd.

Also note that a select few (And all subtle) spells do not require verbal components. I think that's balanced, though. Leave it to another subclass to disable those.

[Bannan_mantis]

I overall like this but one thing I might recommend is changing the option of charisma to any of the mental stats for all the abilities that specifically use charisma in it's DC or number of uses. I say that as it means you can be more versatile with the character concepts with this subclass with the only mental stat that could be a problem being maybe wisdom from the amount of wisdom saves but even then it's not by a large amount.

[sandmote]

For how long does Shred Communication "silence" a creature ? I'm not sure how to quantify this myself. It's supposed to apply to a single check. For a check that takes longer than 1 round, I suspect you could manage an equivalent effect by timing it property.


I feel like Shred Comms could have a little more range, perhaps 25 feet? And yeah, how's duration work? And can you use it to silence any communication, not just something that involves a skill check? Like, a spell, for example? That feels like the intended use.

Does Silencing Strike also disable the target's ability to make noise altogether? For example, would clapping their hands to get an ally's attention work? That seems a little odd. The intended use is for interfering with another character's actions during a role play/in game discussions, as I feel not enough features interact with them. Particularly given you get to cast a buffed version of silence at the same level.

The sort of thing I'd consider to be the intended uses:

Muffling someone who calls for help
Making a fool of someone trying to seem threatening.
Disguising part of a conversation to change it's interpreted meeting (creating miscommunication).
Making someone's instrument silent when they start playing.


Being able to cast silence and silence a spell as a reaction is a bit strong. Particularly at 13th level, when you can also silence someone using you sneak attack.

What about the following change?


Shred Communication
From 3rd level, when a creature within 25 feet of you uses its action to make a deception, intimidation, performance, or persuasion check that involves sound, you can silence them until the start of your turn as a reaction. When you do so and the roll would require making sound to succeed, the target automatically fails; otherwise the target has disadvantage on the roll. While the target can repeat the check later without the penalty.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your charisma modifier (minimum of once), and regain all uses at the end of a short rest.


I overall like this but one thing I might recommend is changing the option of charisma to any of the mental stats for all the abilities that specifically use charisma in it's DC or number of uses. I say that as it means you can be more versatile with the character concepts with this subclass with the only mental stat that could be a problem being maybe wisdom from the amount of wisdom saves but even then it's not by a large amount. It would grant more flexibility, but I'm entirely sure this is weak enough to keep that kind of flexibility from becoming broken.