Roguish Archetype: The Jester [Fifth Draft]

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The last time I touched this one is three years ago? My god, how time flies.

I've got a backlog of revisions due a mile long, and I'm not content to just edit old content. I've learned so much in the time I've spent doing this, and I aim to re-imagine old options, making them distinct, well-rounded, and complete!

The jester, for one, had a unique casting system that I always felt was somewhat lacking. It was very much "Here are some spells! Make the spells happen!" without any distinguishing system mechanics behind them.

No longer! The jester thematically was always about blind luck, silly situations, and grim humor over sheer utility, so I've re-imagined it as an extremely variant 1/3-caster that relies mostly on luck to determine its spell list.

I expect that this won't be a final version (woe betide me, a sixth draft?!), but it's a bold reworking that I imagine will carve more of a niche for itself than the four other jesters that have come before it.

CHANGELOG:

• Arcane Buffoonery is now Arcane Wit, which comes with a full (if decidedly different) 1/3 caster spell progression!
• Harlequin's Mask doesn't specifically reference vicious mockery, because it created weirdness whether it or Arcane Wit should be first.
• New Ability: Tumbling Fool! Get some extra mileage out of your Disengage, roll around the battlefield like a maniac.
• Cruel Comedy has been raised from 9th to 13th level, which seems like a better space given what it does.
• Most of the spells you know are completely random! But don't worry, they reset every long rest.
• Now uses a 1/3-caster version of warlock spell mechanics, instead of eluding to it sidelong like it did before.

CONCERNS:

• Oh, so very many.
• Will randomized spellcasting be fun?
• Is 1/3-caster warlock progression balanced?
• Is Arcane Wit clear in its language as to what it does?

WHAT I LEARNED:

• I guess if I need to revise my entire catalog, I might as well start right now.

Roguish Archetype: The Archaeologist [Third Draft]

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Sometimes, with the content I produce, things get lost in the shuffle. Good, flavorful options fall behind and don't get updated properly, and don't quite get to that finished-n'-polished stage I like to have my whole library at.

The Archaeologist rogue was definitely one of those options. As strong with flavor as it was, it never quite got to where I was happy with it. I kept coming at it, revising it, and giving up, because I just couldn't seem to make it work. 

So when a Walrock-level Patreon backer (thanks @DrMoradin!) asked me to revise this option, I knew what I had to do:

I gutted 90% of this option, and started over fresh!

I've learned a lot of things about making class options function well recently, and I've put everything I've learned to work here on this project. As it stands now, the Archaeologist is fully functional, well-flavored, and likely will be a treat to play. 

CHANGELOG:

• Field Training has been modified slightly, giving a slower climbing speed that scales with existing climbing speeds.
• Intelligent Combat is now Explorer's Tricks, using a number of points equal to your INT mod + 1, that confer mostly non-combat benefits as rewards for being a researcher!
• The Ruin Researcher feature, a similarly non-combat feature, which grants a level of archaeology-type knowledge whenever you want to spend your short rest studying a ruin that you find yourself in. 
• Get out of a bad spot with Fortune's Favor, and spend those handy explorer's points to dodge some nasty nat 1's!
• Paragon of Adventure has been fully reworked, and how provides all the explorer's points you could ever need, every short rest.

CONCERNS:

• Lots of changes means at least a few bugs. Always.
• Explorer's Tricks are powerful, but their usage is few and far between. I wonder how they'd feel in actual play. 
• Fortune's Favor might not be powerful enough? Or could it be too powerful, with a full INT mod and Paragon of Adventure?

WHAT I LEARNED:

• As much as it hurts, if it's not working, sometimes you just have to throw out what you've made and start over.

Roguish Archetype: The Daggermaster [ROUGH DRAFT]

Unsurprisingly, it's been a busy time for me and new content. When I take a hiatus, I usually generate a backlog of ideas that I come up with, half-finish, and then move on from before completing, because that's just kind of how my mind works. When I get back to work on my homebrew, then, it usually becomes a pretty simple task to complete my assortment of half-done ideas, give them a proper treatment, and produce some new content.

The daggermaster was a paragon path in 4e and a prestige class in 3.5, and both times (naturally) focused on using daggers to their fullest potential. In 3.5, 4e, and 5e, a dagger is usually an inferior weapon to use, strictly speaking, its utility in 5e coming mostly from the thrown property, making it an effective offhand weapon for when an enemy is just out of reach, and honestly not much else.

One of the popular conceptions of the rogue class is a character with a daggers in both hands, which is odd considering that such a build is usually suboptimal. The daggermaster has traditionally been the answer to this: part mechanical solution, part carnival knife-thrower, and part person-who-is-way-too-into-their-knives, the daggermaster has been a fan favorite in both editions immediately before 5e.

And now, with luck, I might be able to produce a viable 5e version of this beloved classic.

FEATURES:

• Use daggers for everything! Say goodbye to your thieves' tools, you won't be needing them.
• Trickshot anything you see, from the apple on someone's head to the sword in their hand. 
• Two-Weapon Fight, but only with daggers because we need to make sure you're not just using this as a convenient 3-level dip. 
• Hide knives anywhere you feel like, no one will ever find them. 
• Strike with incredible accuracy, from far, far away! Give your daggers slightly better range than a hand crossbow.

CONCERNS:

• This has a lot front-loaded at 3rd level, but most of what's there are ribbons aside from Two-Weapon Fighting and the trickshot disarm. Not sure how much that matters.
• Unerring Precision is very good. I crunched the numbers though, and it does about as much as a dual-wielding thief rogue. Less up-front, but it catches up by the 5th round of combat. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• It's nice to do something simple and knife-y after making new invocations, spells, and all those bizarre sea-themed warlock features. 

Roguish Archetype: The Shadow-Weaver [Third Draft]

Man, have I not thought about this one in a while. One of my favorite roguish archetypes (along with the ninja), and definitely one of the ones most in need of a rework.

One of the fortunate/unfortunate things about doing this for as long as I have is that I learn so much about how things are balanced. Eventually, I start seeing the glaring mistakes earlier on, and either have to whistle and pretend they don't exist, or sigh mightily, go back, and start revising them.

What IS handy, though, is this allows me to update to more modern templates I have developed, standardizing the look of my material while I rework it from the ground up.

So how did everyone's favorite shadow-assassin-counterpoint-to-the-arcane-trickster change in this most recent iteration? Well...

CHANGELOG:

• Doubled the length of the Shadowy Organization table, and fixed some of the sillier choices. Sorry, members of the Venom Cave.
• Added Phantasmal Force to the spell list, because why wasn't that there before.
• Shrouds are no longer a smite-type ability, and instead act as a vehicle to confer Sneak Attack. Less potent than before, but also more in-line with how rogues typically scale. 
• Heart of Darkness is now Eyes in the Dark, because Heart of Darkness honestly didn't do much. It was one of those ideas that sounded better in my head, and EitD gives a good little bit of fun utility not represented by the spell list. 
• Black Agony is now Deathly Shroud, because the idea of calling in shrouds for damage needed to be represented somehow. Deathly Shroud strikes me as a more thematic ability than Black Agony's "hey you do extra damage," anyhow. 

CONCERNS:

• I basically changed everything except Gloomstride, so there's liable to be some mistakes in there. That's just how it goes, really.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Dang did I used to have a real problem letting images collide with text. Now every time I see that, it annoys the pants off of me. Revision revision revision!

Roguish Archetype: The Corsair [Third Draft]

One of the biggest things I wanted to do during my absence was update older content. So much of what I make can use additional iterations, especially with the quantity of good feedback it has been collecting.

The Corsair has always been one I've been meaning to update. I didn't leave it in a good place, and the familiar it introduced stole the spotlight and bogged it down with math.

So, I fix that by just getting rid of the damn thing. Here's what I did.

CHANGELOG:

• Removed First Mate, brought Dirty Fighting to 3rd level to give a distinctive feature early on that wasn't a nightmare for everyone involved.
• Added Lookout feature, to give this pirate a good fluff ability and to keep the option from being centered almost exclusively on combat.
• Moved familiars to an optional rule, because they should still be there, but should definitely be about as useful as a wizard's familiar. 
• Added a Feint-like ability to Dirty Fighting, to introduce CHA-dependence at an earlier level.

CONCERNS:

• Maybe I bunged something up without noticing in Lookout, but I'm betting not. This seems pretty water-tight to me.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Half-year turn around time for project updates? Maybe I want to do these sooner instead of later.

Roguish Archetype: The Archaeologist [Second Draft]

As a rule, I'd never run one of my rough drafts in a real game. When I release one, I always am thinking one of two things:

A) This rough draft is 100% perfect and nothing could be wrong with it (I am always wrong)

or

B) Eh... well, it's definitely a proof of concept.

With the rough draft of the Archaeologist, it was definitely in B territory.

Usually when I'm in that zone, I release a draft because I'm stuck and need some insight from you guys. You all haven't failed me yet, and you didn't fail me with the rough draft of this one.

With your help, I think this class option is in a shape to properly present. It's still a little rough around the edges - think of it as a second rough draft - but it could certainly use a look-over and some quality criticism.

CHANGELOG:

• Fiddled with Field Training. No longer offers you a skill from a list, now gives you a climb speed!
• Revamped Intelligent Combat. Doesn't reduce (or require) your Sneak Attack any more. Needs a saving throw for everything, hinges on Intelligence heavily. 
• Switched the levels for Forgotten Magic and Seasoned Explorer, and added an initiative boost to Seasoned Explorer in place of its missing climb speed. 
• Paragon of Adventure has been adjusted to account for changes in Intelligent Combat. 

CONCERNS:

• Still not 100% on the balance of Intelligent Combat. Input would be appreciated.
• Paragon of Adventure is flavor-lite. I'm open to suggestions on how to make it more flavorful. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Apparently, the criticism on the blog alone is quality enough to revise a rough draft. Thanks!

Roguish Archetype: The Archaeologist [ROUGH DRAFT]

So, this one went through an interesting development process.

It started out as a bard college, and as I was building it, I slowly realized that I was building a (thematic) rogue that could cast spells like a full caster. That didn't seem like a terribly great idea.

So, as I sometimes do in moments of doubt, I went over to d20pfsrd to see how Pathfinder handled it. Pathfinder, for its flaws, does a great job of engaging and creating more obscure class options that have a lot of thematic weight. While not everything they do works for 5e, seeing how Pathfinder handles thematic content usually works very well.

It didn't. Pathfinder ended up doing exactly what I already did: Take a bard, and slowly make them into a rogue (plus spells, minus Sneak Attack).

I deconstructed everything, then, and rebuilt the class option from the ground up as a rogue. I figured if it was going to be trying with its every class feature to be a rogue, it might as well actually be a rogue in the first place.

What does it do? Why is the archaeologist worth playing? Let's take a look-see:

FEATURES:

• Proficiencies to help your rogue feel like a world-class explorer, complete with whips (of course)!
• Reduce your Sneak Attack damage to deal added effects with attacks, with Intelligent Combat!
• A small assortment of low-magic spells, picked up from a lifetime studying ancient, eldritch secrets.

CONCERNS:

• I'm not sure how balanced the effects of Intelligent Combat are against one another, or against the trade-off of 2d6 damage.
• Overall, I feel like this option trends weak, but rogues have a wide power spread for archetypes. This option feels closer to what is offered by the Thief and Assassin, rather than the (higher) power level of the Arcane Trickster or the Swashbuckler. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Don't be afraid to scrap it and try again. That, and Pathfinder doesn't have all the answers.

Roguish Archetype: The Corsair [Second Draft]

People loved the first corsair!

...except for just about everything mechanical about it. Ah well.

But that's okay. I got even more quality criticism than usual, and revised most of the corsair's abilities to improve flavor and general, all-around power balance.

CHANGELOG:

• Compressed Sea Legs and Bonus Proficiencies into Scallywag's Tricks, removing the additional skill proficiency while maintaining the rest.
• Moved the animal companion to 3rd level as its own feature, First Mate! The animal companion can even use a diminished form of your Sneak Attack, and is balanced against having an off-hand attack.
• Replaced Captain at the Helm with Dirty Fighting to give the class option more things to do itself, and less abilities reliant on others doing things.
• Compressed Captain at the Helm into Infamy, offering players a choice of abilities depending on whether they're a naughty or nice pirate. 
• Added rules for having a hook, because really, what's a pirate without a hook?

CONCERNS:

• Balance on First Mate is something I'm sure will come up, but I'm fairly certain it trades off well against an off-hand attack. Unless there's something I didn't notice, but we'll find out. 
• Touched up the companion stats a little bit, maybe not enough, let me know. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• If you're trying to make a pirate, don't make some sort of rogue-warlord. Just make a pirate. 

Roguish Archetype: The Corsair [ROUGH DRAFT]

The Swashbuckler in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide is a really cool option - probably my favorite in the book. And while it's great for a duelist, rake, or general seeker of adventure, it's just not a pirate in the same way that 3.5's Dread Pirate class was.

So, based on a great suggestion from one of my readers, I created the Corsair roguish archetype option! Lead your crew into battle on land and ship, and teach those landlubbers why you are the most-feared pirate to sail the seven seas!

FEATURES:

• Sea Legs and Bonus Proficiencies, both designed to make you feel perfectly at-home on the deck of a ship!
• Captain at the Helm and Infamy, designed to make you feel like a rogue ne 4e warlord as you lead your crew.
• Avast, ye Scurvy Dogs! which is probably the most team-focused a rogue level 17 ability can be.
• Monkey and Parrot familiars for pirates of sufficient station.

CONCERNS:

• Sea Legs and Bonus Proficiencies give you a lot, but none of what they give you seems particularly game-breaking.
• Captain at the Helm may be worded oddly, and its tHP math could use a look to see if it's overpowered or not.
• I like Infamy a lot, but it could probably use a look at its power balance.
• Avast, ye Scurvy Dogs! strikes me as almost a non-concern - rogue level 17's should do situationally an additional ~40 damage, and the situation on Avast is if everyone's attacks hit. Still, verbage might be shaky, and that's where I'd look there. 
• The Monkey and Parrot likewise could use a look. As usual, I outright suck at monster math, and appreciate any help that can be rendered. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Y'all have some great ideas. Thanks, Lee Robins!

Roguish Archetype: The Ninja [Second Draft]

Normally, I like to work on two (or three) projects at a time. It switches it up, keeps it interesting.

But this ninja, man. This ninja and all the things I've had to fix.

The rough draft of the ninja was mostly fine. Almost everything needing fixing was relatively small, fiddly stuff, but literally everything needed some amount of fixing, and it all snowballed into a landslide of balance tweaks. In the end, whole abilities and features got revamped.

But! It seems like it's in a good place, and that means its time for a new build. Tell me what you think, and what game-breaking bits I missed, same as always.

CHANGELOG:

• Everything. Just, everything.
  
• Jutsu, Ninja Tricks, and the latter half of Ki have been combined into just "Ninja Tricks" and a Elemental monk style list of abilities that you can take, two per level. This allows you to use later levels to choose previous levels' abilities, if you want.
  
• This archetype now requires Wisdom as reflected in the Ki save DC. Most, but not all, of the abilities now have some component that scales on Wisdom.
  
• Several Ki abilities have had their costs adjusted. Mostly increases, because that was necessary.
  
• Feathery Tread and Immaculate Footwork have been rearranged, lumping run-on-water and balancing advantage into Immaculate Footwork, and jumping and a new half-fall-damage ability into the new ability, Crane's Ascendance.
  
• Everything is a Weapon now has a ranged throw with Ki that can sneak attack and scales with Wisdom, replacing its proficiency-with-anything mechanic.
  
• Step onto Air has been replaced with Flawless Strike, as the scaling between Step onto Air and Crane's Ascendance would've been bananas. Flawless Strike allows you to spend ki to reroll your failed attacks.
  
• Eyes of the Ghost is now Sense the Heartmind, an ability that allows you to feel people through walls and increases the range of your blindsense.
  
• Deathblow is now Shadow Clone Jutsu. This ability creates a shadowy double of you, which sneak attacks enemies and confers bonuses to you. 

CONCERNS:

• The balance on Flawless Strike seems about right, but I'd appreciate someone else looking at it.
  
• I could've missed something in the rest of the overall balance. Entirely likely, in fact.

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Sometimes, you have to drop everything to fix everything. 

Roguish Archetype: The Ninja [ROUGH DRAFT]

One of the great pleasures of this hobby is taking a crack at old fan-favorites and drafting them into 5th edition, making them work within existing schema in imaginative ways.

This in mind, the ninja is a shadowy roguish archetype that uses Ki, same as a monk, to activate quasi-spiritual abilities while straight-up assassinating folks.

Sounds fun? Of course it does, it's a ninja. Let's see what it can do:

FEATURES:

• Choice of two of four ki-based abilities at 3rd, 9th, and 13th level, focusing on utility, combat, and utility respectively.
• Deliver a Deathblow to reroll Sneak Attack dice at 17th level by spending Ki.
• A 1/3 caster Ki system, based on the class assumption of the monk as a half-caster.

CONCERNS:

• Ki abilities cost either 1 ki or 3 ki, which I figure is a good general representation of their utility, but may be too bland or not balanced correctly - it's hard to tell.
• Class options that have a "choice of" abilities can end up having a lack of flavor, as with early drafts of my Vampire PrC. I don't think that's the case here, but I could be wrong.
• I make the assumption that the monk is approximately a half-caster in regards to ki - a fair assumption given how much punching monks do, but also one that could be wrong.
• Ki is mostly a damage resource to monks, but to ninja it is mostly a utility resource. I don't see this as much of an issue, but it could have ramifications I haven't thought of. 
• 10 + total character level for a saving throw is kind of odd and unprecedented, but I specifically didn't want to tie the saves to a secondary stat. Save-using options for this archetype are few and far between, and a player could easily avoid taking them to avoid having to put points in a secondary stat, so I didn't want to disincentivize the options in that way.  

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Making 1/3-caster options out of alternative resource systems is possible. I wonder what else I could apply that idea to.

A newer version of this option is available.

Roguish Archetype: The Shadow-Weaver [Second Draft]

Some homebrew is universally beloved right off the bat, while other homebrew is markedly less so.

What's interesting to me is when a homebrew project falls in between, absolutely loved by some and completely reviled by others. The response to the shadow-weaver was pretty markedly polarized, but within all of that was some really quality criticism, such that I feel confident in releasing another build.

WHAT I CHANGED:

• The usual slew of textual errors, blady-bloo.
• Revamped the cantrips list and added silence to the spell list. Man, is it a pain in the butt to reference spells from EEPC and SCAG, though.
• Retooled Shroud of Shadow such that it deals 1d6 necrotic per spell level on a hit OR a miss. Now specifies that only one shroud may be out at any one time, and that you cannot place a shroud the same turn you remove one, or vice versa.
• Buffed Black Agony from d10's to d12's, adding ~10 damage to the ability.
• Feed the Darkness is now Heart of Darkness, and is a significant fluff power closer in balance to the Assassin's Impostor than the Arcane Trickster's outrageous Versatile Trickster.

CONCERNS:

• The new Shroud of Shadow math is based on magic missile (1d4+1 [median 3.5] per slot vs. SoS's 1d6 [median 3.5] per slot). Still not entirely satisfied, as SoS does this alongside a normal attack, but it seems like the most balanced I can make it while keeping it faithful to the Oassassin's feel.
• Really, that's about it. Most of my worries about this archetype are tied to how shrouds work. If that's 100% functional and balanced, the rest of the subclass probably is as well. 

WHAT I LEARNED: 

• If you're trying to somewhat emulate Smite, on a rogue, don't make it out-damage Smite what the hell were you thinking. 

Roguish Archetype: The Huckster [Second Draft]

Second verse, same as the first!

People were all-around satisfied with the first version of the huckster, but wanted a few tweaks and changes here and there. When things get tweak-y change-y, I know the material is in a good place and nearing completion, which is always so satisfying when I can get there in just two versions.

But let's not get ahead of myself. For all I know the whole thing could be fundamentally flawed and need a ground-up rework. Judge for yourself, here's the changelog:

WHAT I CHANGED: 

• Hucksters can now choose their spells from a list, rather than learn a linear path of spells. Hucksters have a ton of utility spells, making them a very handy rogue to have in a party.
  
• Faith Healing has been reworked, and rather than buffing healing at the cost of it being tHP, it now functions as an effective overheal, allowing solid huckster / actual healer synergy and selling party members on hit points they don't actually need.
  
• Patched up some wording here and there, made things more clear. Usual stuff. 

CONCERNS:

• Not many, really. The subclass seems like a solid choice, includes some unique flavor, and isn't grossly overpowered (far as I can tell).

WHAT I LEARNED:

• If you're making something contentious (like a holy rogue), keep it simple and stick to a strong theme. The more out-there it is, the stronger the central thematic idea needs to be. 

Roguish Archetype: The Shadow-Weaver [ROUGH DRAFT]

Does anyone remember the original 4e assassin? Used invisible marks and shadows, jumped around with shadowstep, was optimized with a greatsword for some reason?

I always thought it was a fantastic concept. Not, y'know, exactly as it was - the eventual Executioner was a much better representation of the idea of an Assassin - but a rogue-type sneak with shadow powers struck me as a particularly fun, interesting thing to play.

So I remade it for 5e. Tried to address some balance and fun issues present in the 4e version while keeping it consistent with 5e, hopefully it came out well!

FEATURES:

• 1/3 Spellcaster Casting, complete with shadow-focused spell list thematically differentiated from Arcane Trickster.
• Shrouds, a 4e oassassin mainstay, play into bonus action economy while allowing you to regain abilities, gain tHP, and even deal damage on a miss.
• Shadowstep Gloomstride, a thematic ability allowing you a greater range of motion and synergy with sneak attack.
• Black Agony, a level 17 capstone allowing you to temporarily upgrade your sneak attack damage dice for a single, debilitating attack, dealing overall less damage but being more versatile than the 5e assassin capstone. 

CONCERNS:

• Definitely more rough than the huckster. Balance across the board needs some general looking at, but the core ideas are solid.
• The 2d10+ on a miss for shrouds seems reasonable (especially since it costs spell slots), but may affect overall damage balance in a way I haven't anticipated.
• Black Agony's damage numbers and Feed the Darkness' tHP reward both seem reasonable, but I'd like someone to take a second look at them.
• Any thematic spells I missed? How necessary is invisibility to a shadow rogue's spell list?

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Thematic roll tables are definitely worth the time and effort, as having a basic idea of an archetype's significance does a lot to sell people on the fun of the subclass. 

A newer version of this option is available. 

Roguish Archetype: The Huckster [ROUGH DRAFT]

Rogues are pretty cool. They can be a lot of things, from dashing rakes to bookish spell-thieves to bell-jangling jesters.

The Huckster is a different approach, and is to clerics as the Arcane Trickster is to wizards. A huckster is a holy charlatan, knowing just enough in the way of rite and ritual to convince others of any religious affiliation, all the while having several crafty tricks in reserve to help with their roguish ways.

Let's look at some specifics.

FEATURES:

• Wisdom-based spellcasting off a small spell list. More total spells allotted than Arcane Trickster, less player choice in the spell list.
• Series of two class features that build upon each other to encourage roleplaying before and during combat, to confer advantages in combat.
• Higher level class features emulate the further gaining of holy power, despite spell list being limited to 4th level spells. 

CONCERNS:

• The limited spell list may potentially be less fun than choosing. However, the cleric spell list has a great deal of pitfalls that would either be thematically unfitting or overpowered for this subclass, and is eclectic enough that breaking the list apart by spell school doesn't really work.
• Faith Healing may be better or worse than intended, a small but nice additional bonus that'd stack well with legitimate healing. It'd be nice to have someone look at it with a critical eye and tell me if the verbage means what I think it means.
• Faithless Fervor is situationally strong, and is intended to loosely mirror the Arcane Trickster level 17. However, considering the huckster's spell list and the necessary trigger for the feature, it's most likely fairly balanced. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• 1/3 caster subclasses have a surprising amount of latitude to them. Constrained, obviously, but there's plenty of room to make them unique and fun.
• Breaks aren't bad. Just, maybe not two-and-a-half months off next time. 

A newer version of this option is available. 

Roguish Archetype: The Jester [Fourth Draft]

A fourth draft? Well, the confusing morass that was applying sneak attack damage to spells sure needed one, and so a fourth draft is what we've got!

I tightened up what needed tightening up, I fixed what was inelegant, and what we have now is a beautiful, fun archetype that synergizes very, very well with existing rogue mechanics.

And how does it do that, you ask? To the changelog!

What I Changed:

• Harlequin's Mask no longer gives charm immunity. Rather, it gives you the ability to cast vicious mockery as a bonus action (thus intentionally competing with Cunning Action much as the Mastermind rogue does with the Help action). When cast in this way, vicious mockery deals no damage, thus keeping DPR similar.

• Arcane Buffoonery and Jesting Magician now only grant three spells each, keeping your total arsenal of spells down to three (and then six) specific spells per short rest, that can each be cast once. 

• Cruel Comedy has been completely reworked. It now additionally buffs vicious mockery, giving you advantage on your next attack after using it, thus allowing you to use vicious mockery to get sneak attack damage without directly applying the damage to the cantrip. The charm immunity of Harlequin's Mask now finds itself here, as charm immunity is much better as a 9th level feature in any case. 

Concerns:

• I better damn well have this right after four drafts. 

What I Learned:

• Keep It Simple, Stupid. I was trying to make the features more elaborate to shoehorn together two things that don't work. Rather, use what already exists more fully to make the new stuff function.

Roguish Archetype: The Jester [Third Draft]

With a third draft, I think the jester is finally either complete or very well nearing completion. Mechanically sound, balanced, and with abundant flavor, this definitely looks like a rogue archetype worth playing.

A lot changed in this draft, and not all of it obvious, so let's have a look at the changelog to see what's what:

What I Changed:

• I used an entirely new template for this! Based off of the formatting I used on the Vampire PrC, the type is smaller and the headers are a closer match to what the PHB uses. Overall, it's cleaner and gives more room to add graphics and features while maintaining readability, which is always a good thing.

• Fixed my Photoshop (finally) to allow for high-resolution PDFs. A great thing, which will mean I'll probably have to go back and high-resolution all of my previous work (a less great thing). 

• I added faerie fire and feather fall to Arcane Buffoonery, and enthrall, mirror image, and misty step to Jesting Magician. I capped Arcane Buffoonery at "choose four spells," and Jesting Magician at "choose five" - one less than Jesting initially got, but the fact that you can choose from a list means it needed the minor rebalance. 

• Cruel Comedy can now be used defensively as soon as you are the target of an attack. This means a gamble for the jester: Do you wager that the enemy is going to fail its Wisdom save, and then miss on its attack against you while it is suffering disadvantage, or do you expect that the enemy will make its save or hit regardless, and take the damage while using Uncanny Dodge to mitigate it? 

• Cruel Comedy also has had the verbage changed up on the qualifiers for vicious mockery's sneak attack, which should make it come up more often. 

Concerns:

• Cruel Comedy doesn't have the clearest, most intuitive verbage for the aforementioned sneak attack, but I truly believe it's about the best I could do. Making sneak attack apply to spells with saves is hard work. 

Roguish Archetype: The Jester [Second Draft]

So, other than one major hiccup, the rough draft was mostly okay!

Well, as mostly-okay as rough drafts ever are. It had a bunch of bumps that needed ironing out, but iron them out I did, and we have a rather promising second draft before us.

So let's take a look at the changelog, then, to see why this is so much better.

What I Changed:

• Midway through the rough draft, I changed Pratfall to Cruel Comedy. Pratfall almost perfectly emulated another core rogue feature, which didn't seem like anything close to good design, and so I changed it.

• Cruel Comedy is designed to compete with Uncanny Dodge somewhat - when hit by an attack, you can decide whether to ignore half the damage or to cause minimal damage and disadvantage on the enemy's next attack. When taking damage from a spell, however, it's more of a no-brainer, and you can insult the asshole who hit you to your heart's content. 

• I streamlined Cruel Comedy from the rough draft - instead of emulating vicious mockery, it now just casts vicious mockery. This is a trade-off, as it decreases the damage done from 1d10 to 1d4, but it also has a massive buff because...

• Cruel Comedy now allows you to apply Sneak Attack damage to vicious mockery once per short rest. This can function off a standard casting, or the revenge-casting that Cruel Comedy provides. 

• Jesting Magician now buffs the spell slot level of spells cast from Arcane Buffoonery to 2nd level - which is nice for color spray, and not much else. 

• Included a sidebar on the last page directly addressing the multiclassing spell slot weirdness. 

Concerns:

• Spell progression here is still weird, which makes sense because I've been doing weird things with the archetype. I don't think it's terribly unbalanced, though - you may get extra spells, but only four with any direct combat application, and your spell level caps at 2nd level rather than 4th. 

• Other than that, not much. I think this archetype is good to ship!

What I've Learned:

• Roguish Archetypes are weird. Unlike paladin oaths and warlock otherworldly patrons and pacts, rogues have most of their combat potential stored in core features of the class that cannot be directly altered, really. Thus, roguish archetypes are great for flavoring the core experience of being a rogue, which is essentially what they do in canon materials. 

• It's really, really fucking hard to find pictures of high fantasy festivals. Seriously, try it. It's even more bananas than finding a non-sexy female necromancer. 

Roguish Archetype: The Jester [ROUGH DRAFT]

It's not a warlock! It's not even a paladin!

It's a rogue! Or, really, it's a Jester.

The Jester was a fan-favorite of 3.5, a comical magical rogue who utilized tricks, arcane know-how, and grease paint to entertain, beguile, and frequently annoy both friends and foes alike.

There was some hullabaloo from people involved with 5e about the Jester early on in its production run, and seeing it as a genuine subclass in the core rules seemed like a possibility. Sadly, though, this was not in the cards, which brings us to this offering, here and now.

Features:

• Charisma-based spellcasting similar to the inherent magic some races get. No spell slots here, just spells that you can cast once per short rest. 

• Being clumsy to escape damage: it's not a bug, it's a feature.

• Burns so sick they hurt your enemies' brains. 

• Face-paint and high-level death avoidance.

Concerns:

• Roguish Archetype design schema is kinda weird. Most archetypes (including the new Mastermind) follow a two-combat / three-utility delineation of class features, regardless of the level those features are awarded at. However, Swashbuckler and Arcane Trickster break this hard, themselves having only one utility and four combat powers. In the end, I shrugged my shoulders, said "meh," and attempted to have almost every feature in this archetype have both a utility and a combat purpose. 

• Multiclassing with this is inherently weird. Unlike the 1/3 caster options like Arcane Trickster, this has no spell slots, and the spells are cast entirely as a function of class features. Therefore I'd consider this not even a fraction of a caster option when determining multiclass spell slots - it's zero caster. 

• Arcane Buffoonery and Jesting Magician give more spells than you'd normally have at your equivalent level of Arcane Trickster - however, you have no choice in which spells you receive, and ultimately get less spells overall. 

• I considered allowing vicious mockery to synergize with sneak attack, because that'd make some amount of thematic sense, but decided against it on the grounds that it might break the game in unexpected ways. So: would it?