Magicians are masters of illusion. They skillfully guide your attention toward games and facades to distract you from what they do in the shadows. Of course, none of it is real magic, but the more you think you see, the easier it will be to fool you. Or in other words, the closer you look, the less you see.
Subclass Features
As a Magician, you gain the following features.
| Magician Routine | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rogue Level |
Cantrips Known |
Tricks Known |
1st level Routine Slots |
2nd level Routine Slots |
| 3rd | 3 | 3 | 2 | - |
| 4th | 3 | 4 | 3 | - |
| 5th | 3 | 4 | 3 | - |
| 6th | 3 | 4 | 3 | - |
| 7th | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| 8th | 3 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| 9th | 3 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| 10th | 4 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
1 Exploits
Add the following four exploits to your list of exploit options: Beguile, Switcheroo, Deposit, Disappear.
Misdirect
When you make an ability check and use Deception or Performance, you can roll 1d6 and add it to the result. You can wait until after you roll your check before deciding to use this exploit, but you must decide before the GM says whether your check succeeds or fails.
Greater Misdirect: Starting at 5th level, you may roll 1d8 and add it to the roll.
Superior Misdirect: Starting at 9th level, you may roll 1d10 and add it to the roll.
Switch
When you deal your sneak attack damage to a Large or smaller creature, you can attempt to switch places with the target creature if the target is within 15 feet of you. The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails, you and the creature switch places.
When you switch places with a large or larger creature, it can be moved anywhere so long as square touches your old position
Greater Switch: Starting at 5th level, you can target huge creatures with this exploit.
Superior Switch: Starting at 9th level, you can target gargantuan creatures with this exploit.
Load
When you hit an adjacent Large or smaller creature with a melee weapon attack and you have a small item in one hand, you can attempt to plant it on that creature. The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails, deposit that item into that creature's empty hand or inventory.
You must be able to hold your deposited item comfortably with one hand. If you had advantage on your attack roll, you can choose to trigger one additional effect.
Don: If the item can be worn (eg: Gloves, Watches, Manacles), the target must wear the item.
Inconspicuous: The creature is not immediately aware that it has been planted on them.
Greater Load: Starting at 5th level, you can use this exploit against Huge creatures.
Superior Load: Starting at 9th level, you can use this exploit against Gargantuan creatures.
Ditch
When a Larger or smaller creature makes a weapon attack against you, you can spend your reaction to attempt teleport 10 feet away from your current location after the creature makes the attack roll. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature loses sight of you and you teleport.
If the destination you chose to teleport to is behind cover, you can attempt to teleport before the creature makes the attack roll.
At your discretion, this exploit can leave behind a small sensory effect like birds flying away or cards scattering before being burned up like flash-paper at your previous location.
Greater Ditch: Starting at 5th level, you can teleport 20 feet away.
Superior Ditch: Starting at 9th level, you can teleport 30 feet away.
1Fancy Footwork
You know how to land a strike and then slip away without reprisal. During your turn, if you make a melee attack against a creature, that creature can't make opportunity attacks against you for the rest of your turn.
1The Long Game
You gain proficiency with the disguise kit, the forgery kit, and one gaming set of your choice. Add the gaming set to your starting equipment.
You also gain the ability to use dice and Dragonchess pieces as sling bullets, and cards as daggers, adding your proficiency bonus to the attack roll if you otherwise wouldn't.
3Magic Routine
You gain a routine of Magic Tricks to perform that are no more than simple wit, deception, and sleight of hand, but the way you sell the tricks, it looks like magic. Perhaps you let your gm and fellow party members in on your secrets of how you did it. Perhaps you leave them guessing.
Cantrips
You learn three cantrips of your choice from the Magician Tricks list at the bottom of this subclass. You learn another Magician cantrip of your choice at 10th level.
Routine Slots
The Magican Facade table shows how many routine slots you have to perform your tricks of 1st level and higher. To perform one of these tricks, you must expend a slot of the trick's level or higher. You regain all expended routine slots when you finish a long rest.
For example, if you know the 1st-level trick Charm Person and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level routine slot available, you can perform Charm Person using either slot.
Tricks Known of 1st Level and Higher
You know three 1st-level Magician Tricks of your choice.
The Tricks Known column of the Magic Tricks table shows when you learn more tricks of 1st level or higher. Each of these tricks must be of a level for which you have routine slots. For instance, when you reach 7th level in this class, you can learn one new trick of 1st or 2nd level.
Whenever you finish a long rest or gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the tricks you know with another trick of your choice from the Magician Tricks list. The new tricks must be of a level for which you have routine slots.
Presentation Ability
Intelligence is your presentation ability for your tricks, since you learn your tricks through routine research and practice. You use your Intelligence whenever a trick refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a trick you perform and when making an attack roll with one.
Trick save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Trick attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier
Hocus Focus
You can use a set of playing cards, dice, or dragon chess as a spellcasting focus for your Magician Tricks.
3Face Reading
If you spend at least 1 minute observing or interacting with one creature outside combat, you can learn certain information about its capabilities compared to your own or those of one of your allies. The DM tells you if the creature is your equal, superior, or inferior in regard to two of the following characteristics of your choice:
- Constitution score
- Intelligence score
- Wisdom score
- Charisma score
- Class levels (if any)
- A vague description of an ability the creature hasn't used yet (If any)
At the DM's option, you might also learn a piece of the creature's history or one of its personality traits, if it has any.
You can choose to appraise an additional piece of information by allowing the creature to learn something about you. Appraising additional information will let the target know they've been watched once the minute ends.
7The Closer You Look
When you hit a creature with a trick (Including cantrips), You can spend a 1 focus to Entrance one of the targets until the start of your next turn. An Entranced creature must spend 2 feet of movement for each foot it moves away from whatever Entranced it so long as it is within 60 feet of you. When an Entranced creature takes damage, your Sneak Attack damage is added to the damage roll, and the Entranced Condition is removed.
9Grand Spectacle
You have an eye for the flashiest items in the room and know how to use them to create a massive Spectacle. As an item interaction, you can String an object to place an "invisible" string on it. You can have up to 7 Stringed objects at a time so long as they remain within 60 feet of you. As an action, you can pull up to three Stringed objects to make them extremely distracting for up to 5 minutes. Creatures you choose within 20 feet of one of these objects must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Exploit Save DC or be Blinded and Entranced by the nearest object being used by your Spectacle until they take damage or your spectacle ends. During your spectacle, you can move any of these objects to another location within 60 feet of you, forcing new creatures to make the save. You can also Sever one of the Stringed objects to removed its Stringed condition and add another Stringed object to your Spectacle. The Spectacle ends when you choose to stop maneuvering the objects or until your concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell).
You can use this ability once per long rest.
Magic Tricks
| Magic Tricks | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cantrip | 1st level | 2nd level |
| Acid Splash Control Flames Create Bonfire(XGE) Dancing Lights(XGE) Fire Bolt Friends Frostbite(XGE) Gust(XGE) Infestation(XGE) Light Lightning Lure(TCE) Mage Hand Mending Message Minor Illusion Mold Earth(XGE) Poison Spray Prestidigitation Shape Water(XGE) Shocking Grasp Sword Burst(TCE) Thunderclap(XGE) |
Absorb Elements(XGE) Alarm Catapult(XGE) Cause Fear(XGE) Charm Person Color spray Detect Magic Disguise Self Distort Value(AI) Earth Tremor(XGE) Expiditious Retreat False Life Feather Fall *Find Familiar Fog Cloud Frost Fingers(IDRotF) Grease Ice Knife(XGE) Illusory Script Jump Longstrider Mage Armor Magic Missile Shield Silent Image Sleep Snare(XGE) Tasha's Hideous Laughter Tenser's Floating Disc Unseen Servant Witch Bolt |
Arcane Lock Blindness/Deafness Cloud of Daggers Continual Flame Crown of Madness Darkness Detect Thoughts Dragon's Breath(XGE) Dust Devil(XGE) Earthbind(XGE) Gift of Gab(AI) Gust of Wind Invisibility Jim's Glowing Coin(AI) Knock Levitate Magic Mouth Maximillion's Earthen Grasp(XGE) Mirror Image Misty Step Nystul's Magic Aura Phantasmal Force Pyrotechnics(XGE) Ray of Enfeeblement Rope Trick Shatter Skywrite(XGE) Snilloc's Snowball Swarm(XGE) Spider Climb Suggestion Warding Wind(XGE) Web |
- Find Familiar still consumes its spell components but they do not need to be burned and a brass brazier does not need to be involved.
Variant Dials
Flavoring Magic Tricks Feel free to flavor magic tricks in a way that makes sense to your character, the narrative, and the world. The magician was designed to be a spellcaster that doesn't technically cast spells but instead uses deception and optical illusions in a "smoke and mirrors" manner to create effects, but if your world is more high-fantasy, you may opt to flavor your rogue to use arcane magic. Sometimes you may opt to discuss with your gm a mechanical alteration to a spell to fit with the narrative flavor of how you did the trick. At the same time, don't feel bound to have to explain every trick. Not knowing how the trick was done can add to the appeal.
It's not really magic Your gm may opt to make the damage or the effects of your tricks non-magical for the sake of overcoming resistances. If this is the case, you can now affect creatures like elves or Yuan-Ti who have some form of magic resistance with the full power of your tricks, so it's not all bad.
