Roguish Archetype: The Shadestep

by Brudduh

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Roguish Archetype: The Shadestep

As a shadestep, the darkness seems to embrace you as much as other rogues might embrace it. Unlike the thieves and assassins that finely hone their skills through years of practice, shadesteps are marked by powerful, dark forces at birth and discover their powers later in life. They tend to make great burglars and spies due to their affinity towards the shadows and their innate ability to easily get out of trouble. As such, shadesteps are often sought after by shadow organizations for their special abilities; that is, if they can catch them.

Creature of Darkness

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain darkvision with a range of 120 feet. Additionally, as an action, you can extinguish any small, non-magical light source that you can see within 60 feet of you, such as a candle, lantern, or small campfire.

Shadestep

Starting at 3rd level, you can disappear in a puff of smoke and reappear in a new location. When you use your Cunning Action to take the Dash or Disengage action, you can choose to instead teleport to an unoccupied point that you can see within the range of your remaining movement speed. When you activate this ability with the Dash action, nearby creatures still get an attack of opportunity against you, but it is made with disadvantage.

Obfuscating Strike

Beginning at 9th level, you can cloud your foe's vision using the darkness you were marked with. When you attack and hit a creature that is surprised, it must make a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + your Constitution modifier + your proficiency bonus). On a failed save, the creature is blinded for 1 minute. The affected creature can make another saving throw at the end of its turn, ending the effect on a success.

Concealing Cloud

At 13th level, your Shadestep ability leaves a larger smoke cloud in your wake. When you use your Shadestep ability, you can choose to leave behind a dense cloud of dark smoke in a 15-foot radius around the point you teleported from. This area is considered heavily obscured and lasts until the start of your next turn. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1), regaining all expended uses after you finish a long rest.

Additionally, after you use your Cunning Action to use this ability, you can make a Dexterity (Stealth) check using the Hide action with advantage.

Shadow Crawler

When you reach 17th level, you gain the ability to cling to the shadows. When you are in dim light or darkness, you can easily scale walls and travel across ceilings, as if by the spider climb spell.

Also, when you fall more than 30 feet, you can use your reaction to teleport up to half your movement speed to an unoccupied point that you can see, potentially lessening or negating any damage you might have taken from the fall.


Credits

    Art: Human/Shifter Rogue by Brandon Chang

Grey Smoke Transparent Background PNG from pngarts.com using the Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC License.

Created by /u/Brudduh using GM Binder.