Rogue Subclasses In DND 5E Ranked

Summary

  • Rogue subclasses in D&D offer unique abilities like interrogation, stealth tactics, and combat prowess.
  • Each subclass serves different party roles such as damage dealing, utility, and support.
  • Consider factors like playstyle, campaign setting, and preferred skills when choosing the best rogue subclass.

Formerly known as the thief, the rogue of the Dungeons & Dragons universe is part of the game’s earliest foundations. Every roleplaying game, including the big ones that everyone plays online, has some variation of this favorite class. It’s highly customizable, fits into virtually any backstory you could create for one, and you can fill any role in the party.

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Rogues are perfect for Dungeons & Dragons players who want to play a martial character with a little more subtlety than your average lumbering fighter. However, not all rogues are created equally. Players can choose between nine main archetypes with varying abilities and traits. We’ve made it a bit easier for you to choose which rogue subclass is better for you by ranking them.

Updated on January 13, 2025 by Jack Filsinger: With the release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook, some rules have changed for rogues in DND. In this ranked list, we’ve updated some rules for a few different rogue subclasses in Fifth Edition, as well as added the most recent artwork from the new handbook for reference.

9

The Mastermind Archetype

Dungeons & Dragons image showing a rogue smashing through a window.
Rogue Art by Aurore Folny

Source

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Main Benefits

Master of Tactics, you can use the Help action as a bonus action.

Ideal Skills or Feats

Dungeon Delving

Party Role

Defense, Damage

The mastermind archetype starts out by giving you a bunch of abilities that can also be gained by a combination of backgrounds and feats, making it less popular than others. You get the ability to use the Help action as a bonus action, which isn’t bad but is pretty low on the list of useful things rogues can also do with a bonus action.

Paired with Dungeon Delver, it can also be useful in a campaign that focuses on dungeon crawls. However, plenty of rogue subclasses are good at things like infiltration and disguise while also being useful at anything else.

8

The Inquisitive Rogue

Dungeons & Dragons image showing a rogue.
Art by Daniel Castiblanco

Source

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Main Benefits

Grants bonuses to Insight, Perception, and Investigation skills.

Ideal Skills or Feats

Insight, Perception

Party Role

Investigation and Perception

The inquisitive archetype lets you see things incredibly well. It gives you many bonuses to Insight, Perception, and Investigation skills, and allows you to sense the magic that is designed to fool your senses. The only other ability you have is the ability to get free sneak attacks against a creature for a minute if your Insight roll beats their Deception roll.

This is pretty good, but it doesn’t make a whole subclass on its own. Perception, Insight, and some of this subclass’s skills and abilities are all Wisdom-based, so this class doesn’t mesh well with the standard rogue stats of Dexterity, Charisma, and Intelligence.

7

The Thief Archetype

A thief escaping through a window during a heist in Dungeons & Dragons.
Thief by Jodie Muir

Source

2024 D&D Player’s Handbook

Main Benefits

Fast Hands – Make a Dexterity check to pick a lock or disarm a trap with Thieves’ Tools

Ideal Skills or Feats

Alert, Observant

Party Role

Stealing everything

This is the subclass for players who want to play a real rogue, with all the thievery, pickpocketing, lockpicking, and backstabbing possible. It might not be the best in terms of sheer damage output, but it’s still a fun archetype to inhabit.

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That said, while the thief is a versatile and fun rogue subclass to play, it can be a little underwhelming in combat. Sure, you’ve got great abilities like Use Magic Devices, which allows you to attune to multiple items at once. But, there’s not much in the way of increasing your damage. However, at level nine, your Supreme Sneak ability allows you to maintain the invisible condition during a hide action if you end your turn behind three-quarters cover or total cover, giving you extra chances to use Sneak Attack.

6

The Scout Archetype

A thief holding a treasure chest and sack of gold runs from a red dragon in Dungeons & Dragons.
A Thief by Billy Christian

Source

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Main Benefits

Survivalist, you have two new skills and Expertise in both of them, giving you Expertise in a total of four things.

Ideal Skills or Feats

Alert

Party Role

Utility, Ranged Damage

This is one of the better options for a no-frills ranged damage rogue. The bonus you get on Initiative is actually useful since you give a full round of advantage against the first creature you hit to your entire party. You can also use your reaction to stay away from enemies that rush you, leaving you free to rain damage from afar.

The extra proficiencies in Nature and Survival are most useful in a wilderness-heavy campaign, but extra proficiencies are good for any rogue. This subclass makes for a good choice for any adventure and a great choice for an adventure full of outlanders and rangers.

5

The Phantom Rogue

A dark, shadowy rogue perched on a rooftop in Dungeons & Dragons.
Rogue by Bryan Sola

Source

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

Main Benefits

Soul Trinkets; the phantom gathers trinkets when creatures die nearby, then spends those trinkets for extra damage or to ask dead creatures questions.

Ideal Skills or Feats

Magic Initiate, Shadow Touched

Party Role

Damage

The phantom talks to dead people. This isn’t scary or anything–they actually provide you with skill and tool proficiencies every short or long rest. Later, you gain some ghostly features by floating through objects and being harder to hit.

But what really sets this rogue subclass apart is being able to use half a Sneak Attack on a second creature after successfully Sneak Attacking a first. This vastly increases your damage per round, provided you can keep Sneak Attacking. Tokens of the Departed is also a great way to extract information from the recently departed, although the soul you interrogate might not be truthful if you’re the one who inflicted the departure.

4

The Assassin Archetype

An assassin rogue perched, ready to attack with knife in hand in Dungeons & Dragons.
The Assassin by Ignatius Budi

Source

2024 D&D Player’s Handbook

Main Benefits

Extra damage, access to poison

Ideal Skills or Feats

Actor, Observant, Alert

Party Role

Damage, Infiltration

The assassin remains one of the top picks for rogues. Assassinate ensures you’ve likely got the drop on at least one enemy per combat given your advantage on initiative roles, providing a reliable Sneak Attack source. If the dice are on your side, you can single-handedly eliminate a target before it can raise an alarm.

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The rest of the assassin features enhance your ability to infiltrate strongholds and add poison to your Cunning Strikes. At level 13, for example, you can envenom your weapons when using the poison option of your Cunning Strike ability. In this way, your enemy will take 2d6 poison damage whenever they fail their saving throw. This gives the assassin archetype lots of options to flavor their combat and do extra damage when they otherwise wouldn’t.

3

The Soulknife Rogue

A soulknife rogue with glowing blue eyes and a knife in hand in Dungeons & Dragons.
Soulknife Rogue by Yuhong Ding

Source

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

Main Benefits

Use a pool of psionic Energy dice to wield psionic Powers.

Ideal Skills or Feats

Martial Adept, Eleven Accuracy

Party Role

Damage, Utility

Every class has a psionic option these days, and for rogues, it’s the soulknife. What makes this subclass unique is the use of soulknife energy dice that are used to fuel a number of abilities. These dice increase in size and number as you level up, beginning with four d6’s at level three. At early levels, you can use these dice to add to your ability checks and establish telepathic connections with your allies.

Psychic Blades (and later the Soul Blades feature) provide reliable damage up close and at range, while your soulknife energy dice make you excellent at most skills–at least until your dice run out. Later, you can make yourself invisible and stun targets, making them helpless for repeated Sneak Attacks.

2

The Swashbuckler Rogue

A spelljammer crew pose together at the helm of their ship.
Spelljammer by Daniel Castiblanco

Source

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Main Benefits

Fancy Footwork, the ability that allows you to attack your opponent but not land any hits.

Ideal Skills or Feats

Defensive Duelist, Heavily Armored

Party Role

Damage

There is no more reliable rogue subclass for Sneak Attacks than the swashbuckler. Rakish Audacity ensures your Sneak Attack so long as you’re not surrounded–something most rogues already find pretty easy to achieve thanks to being able to disengage as a bonus action. But you don’t even need to use your Cunning Action to stay out of trouble.

Fancy Footwork ensures your ability to reposition without taking opportunity attacks, and Elegant Maneuver keeps you from being grappled by foes trying to tie you down. The swashbuckler’s Panache ability also makes it an excellent face for the party by charming people with a high Persuasion score. If that doesn’t work, you can just be the center of attention in combat.

1

The Arcane Trickster

An arcane trickster rogue casting a spell to steal something from a stall in Dungeons & Dragons.
Arcane Trickster Subclass by Nathaniel Himawan

Source

2024 D&D Player’s Handbook

Main Benefits

Spellcasting

Ideal Skills or Feats

Spell Sniper

Party Role

Damage, Spell-based trickery

This archetype turns rogues into a “half-caster” class. Basically, it allows you to use a few spells in addition to your normal rogue abilities. You can also get a few other abilities, such as an invisible Mage Hand, which lets you pickpocket from across a room. You can also cast Mage Hand as a bonus action when you use this feature and have the hand make Dexterity checks for you.

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A lot of variety in this class.

Illusion spells and Find Familiar (which can be exploited to allow you to sneak attack every turn) can greatly increase your damage and utility. Abilities like Magical Ambush, which can give enemies disadvantage on saving throws made against your spells, are also fantastic. Additionally, your capstone ability Spell Thief at level 17, allows you to steal information about spells cast at you by enemy combatants and potentially even cast the spell yourself!

dungeons-and-dragons-series-game-tabletop-franchise

Dungeons and Dragons

Original Release Date

1974

Designer

E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson

Player Count

2+

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