Roguish Archetype: Thief 5e
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
I think Thief is a bit of a misnomer; thieves are great at sneaking and stealing. They want to yoink all kinds of valuables, and tools to assist entering and exiting places. Where technically the names of these features and their abilities can enable you to play a thief, they’re far better at making you a trapsmith or alchemist. Your whole being is about using items effectively, almost like an artificer. This can lead to a ton of opportunity in the low tiers to mess around with some underutilized items in powerful ways, and ask you to spend a lot of gold doing it!
See Also: Best Feats for Thief Rogue
3rd Level: Fast Hands and Second Story Work
Fast Hands is the core pillar this subclass leans on, primarily focusing on their bonus action Use an Object. This opens up a world of possibilities buried in the equipment section of the Player’s Handbook, each acting as a new ability to put in your thief utility belt.
Use an Object encompasses a huge swath of effects; you can Use an Object to throw Acid, deploy Ball Bearings, set a Hunting Trap, or fling Holy Water. Alchemist’s Fire gives you a bonus action deployable burning sensation, which pairs nicely with Oil to create a pool of flames that can cover a decent amount of space. Manacles can be swiftly deployed to bind small or medium creatures. You can swiftly apply basic Poison to your weapon for some extra damage to your weapon attacks. Even a simple Tinderbox can be a swift fire starter you use alongside stabbing something in the face!
The rest of Fast Hands is gravy; sure, you can swiftly palm an object or pick a lock, but most of the time you’ll want to be throwing around your backpack of odds and ends that define your character.
Second Story Work isn’t as defining as Fast Hands, but does add a lot to a typical rogue. You basically get a Climb Speed equal to your movement speed, which is great to have, and changing jump distance to work Dexterity makes your typically lackluster Strength score less of a pain.
9th Level: Supreme Sneak
Supreme Sneak is kind of like getting a free help action to hide. Neat! Not revolutionary, nor that impactful or exciting. Most of the time, you’re going to have Expertise in stealth anyway, and if you’re not in combat, you can have friends help you for that advantage. In combat, Steady Aim has entered as a way to continue getting advantage on your attack rolls, making hiding less pivotal to rogue’s game plan. Still, it's a nice to have boon for rogue’s consistently ducking behind various forms of cover to hide round after round.
13th Level: Use Magical Device
Use Magical Device feels like it was made with the intention of there being buckets of class-gated magical items laying around that could be used by anyone. In practice, most characters can attune to most items and only really want to be using items aimed at them in the first place. Sure, as a thief you could attune to a Rod of the Pact Keeper, but the item literally doesn’t do anything for you as you’re not casting any warlock spells. Stacked on top of the need for your DM to provide these items to you, you’re more or less required to make a list of items you want to have for your DM to provide through shops or loot. Fun fact: you can already ask your DM to do that, and waive specific requirements. That’s within their power, and requires about as much effort as giving you magic items you want that meet your class and racial prerequisites anyway.
Even Boots of Elvenkind aren’t restricted to elves. You just don’t ever need this ability.
17th Level: Thief’s Reflexes
I normally don’t have good things to say about the martial 17th level features, as they tend to compare poorly to 9th level spells. Not Thief’s Reflexes.
You get two turns during the first round of combat. That is insane. I think it compares well to Time Stop, whereas instead of having the damage restrictions Time Stop requires, you’re limited to just one extra turn.
One extra turn means an extra action, bonus action, and move. This, independent of subclass, is doubling your sneak attack damage in the first round, offering you more opportunities to critically hit, and giving you all of that within the most important round of the fight: the first.
I really wish this was just the core rogue’s top-end feature, but this is certainly a compelling reason to stick with Thief for the full 20 levels.
All Together
To get the most out of thief, you’re going to need gold and wacky items. Without considering the possible equipment options, the thief is substantially hamstrung with its remaining features being fine vanilla roguish features that don’t add a ton to your sheet.
What sets it apart is Fast Hands and Thief’s Reflexes, with possibilities of deploying multiple powerful items at once and two instances of Sneak Attack in a single round of combat. Second-Story Work and Supreme Sneak help you do what a lot of rogues want to do, making this feel pretty general, but with an organized list of objects to buy, you can become so much more than a slightly better thief. If you enjoy digging into the niche and underused items within the game and want to pull out some obscure, low DC items to attempt to shake up your gameplay encounter to encounter, thief will deliver in spades.
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