Best Feats for Inquisitive Rogue 5e

by Prince Phantom

Boy, this sure is a collection of abilities that are just fine. No more, no less. I get that the concept here is to be Sherlock-like, deducing clues and solving mysteries, but the actual abilities don’t really serve to fulfill that fantasy. We get a feature that becomes redundant at level 10, the ability to make perception and investigation checks as a bonus action, and an alternative way to guarantee sneak attack, and none of these are very powerful.

Things don’t get much better as we progress. Advantage on basically all perception and investigation checks is nice, but could just be replicated by an ally using the help action. Our 13th level feature reminds me of the Paladin’s divine sense, and that is not a good sign. The capstone is just a slight damage boost every round, not enough to get excited over especially compared to other capstone options. This leaves us with a subclass that is just meh, lacking anything to get excited about or really build around. Still, let’s see what we can come up with.

Best Feats for Inquisitive Rogue 5e

Crossbow Expert/Sharpshooter (ASAP): So insightful fighting is a method to do sneak attack that requires our bonus action, but we can still do sneak attack the normal way. This means that during a lot of combats we won’t need to waste the bonus action to set up insightful fighting and can instead launch straight into making bonus action attacks with Crossbow Expert. Think of insightful fighting as plan B. We don’t want to have to use it, but it’s nice to have when we don’t have any other options. I shouldn’t have to tell you why we take Sharpshooter. It’s the default best option if you plan to fight at range, adding a ton of damage round after round.
Ritual Caster (Lv 8): In a world where magic is common enough to expect to encounter during the course of your campaign (aka, every world any DM or WOTC will ever make), no detective can ever truly consider themselves effective without some way to interact with magic. Detect Magic alone is crucial to probably the majority of mysteries you’ll encounter in an average adventure, and the vast array of other rituals opened to you are a big boost to your out of combat exploration options and even have some combat applications like Phantom Steed.
Gift of the Gem Dragon (Lv 10): Yes, we do already have a defensive reaction in uncanny dodge, but that ability looses a lot of its luster against enemies who make multiple attacks, aka almost all of them past CR 3. This feat gives us an alternative and better reaction, mainly due to the fact that it can interrupt a multiattack by pushing the monster away from you. If the enemy doesn’t have enough movement to get back to you to finish their multiattack, the rest of their attacks are wasted. I do have to say that this is based on a save DC set by a mental ability score, meaning I can only recommend this if you have a mental score high enough to make this DC respectable (probably Wisdom).
Mobile (Lv 10): We take this mostly for the ability to keep making 2 attacks per turn and still be able to run away from our enemies without provoking opportunity attacks. The extra movement speed also supports this style of play, making it so enemies with a 30ft speed have to dash to reach us again, meaning they cannot attack us. Video games frequently refer to this strategy as a “train”, and if you can get your whole party on board this train, it can potentially trivialize some encounters if you’ve got enough space to move around.
Piercer (Lv 12): A meh feat for a meh subclass. Don’t take that the wrong way however, Piercer does present a genuine boost to our DPR, it just isn’t a very big one. Mostly I’d recommend this if you’re looking for a feat to round your dexterity up to an even number. Otherwise I really don’t think this is worth your time.

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