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hiiamtom
2016-03-18, 12:55 PM
Roguish Archetype: AceNot everyone gets by on skill and guile alone, there is a healthy amount of luck required to be an adventurer. An ace has somehow gotten more than their fare share, and are able to influence their already impressive skills further with a little twist of fate.

Skill Superiority
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn advantages that are fueled by special dice called superiority dice.

Lucky Breaks. You learn three lucky breaks of your choice, which are detailed under "Lucky Breaks" below. Many lucky breaks enhance an ability check in some way. You can use only one lucky break per round. You learn two additional lucky breaks of your choice at 9th, 13th, and 17th level. Each time you learn new lucky breaks, you can also replace one lucky break you know with a different one.
Superiority Dice. You have four superiority dice, which are d6s. A superiority die is expended when you use it. You regain all your expended superiority dice when you finish a short or long rest. You gain another superiority die at 9th level and one more at 17th level.
Using Superiority Dice. You can expend a superiority dice to add it to an ability check.


Swallowed Pride
At 3rd level, whenever you roll a 1 on an ability check you regain 1 superiority die.

Explosive action
At 9th level, whenever you roll the maximum result on a sneak attack or superiority die you can roll another die of the same type and add it to the result. Only one additional die may be added to a single roll. You can add one additional die to the roll at 19th level.

Improved Skill Superiority
At 13th level, you roll two superiority dice whenever you would roll a superiority die. At 17th level, you roll three.

Relentless
Starting at 17th level, when you roll initiative and have no superiority dice remaining, you regain 1 superiority die.

Lucky Breaks
The lucky breaks are presented in alphabetical order.

Beginner’s Luck. When you attempt a check with gaming set or a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check, you can expend one superiority die and add it to the roll. Roll the superiority die again, and subtract it from the opposed check or DC of the subject.
Eidetic Memory. When making an Intelligence check to recall lore you might know, you can expend one superiority die and add it to the roll to treat a roll of 9 or under as rolling a 10.
Endurance. By expending a superiority die, you can ignore half the rolled value of the die levels of exhaustion until you finish a long rest.
Flouette. When you take the attack action to shove a creature, you can expend one superiority die and use a Charisma check and add the superiority die and your proficiency bonus to the roll instead of rolling Strength (Athletics). You may also use this ability to perform a small feat of Dexterity or Strength, such as pulling a tablecloth from a table and leaving the dishes in place.
Honeyed Words. By expending one superiority die, you can deceive or persuade a number of creatures equal to the die roll without making a check as long as the creature has as many hit dice as half your total level or less. If seeking an audience with an influential creature, you can expend one superiority die to find out how.
Incite. By expending one superiority die, you can draw the attention of any creature who can see and hear you in a boorish display for as many minutes as the result rolled on the die. You cannot perform any other action, but any creature attempting any draw the attention of the crowd has disadvantage on their ability checks and any creature trying to avoid the attention of the crowd has advantage on their ability checks. This effect ends immediately if anything harmful happens to a creature watching your display.
Just a Rat. When you fail a Dexterity (Stealth) check, you can expend one superiority die to reroll the Dexterity (Stealth) check with disadvantage add the superiority die to the roll.
Medicate. By expending one superiority die you can drink or administer a potion in tandem with your movement and action.
Monster Whisperer. When you attempt a Wisdom (Handle Animal) check, you can expend one superiority die and add it to the roll to attempt the check on any creature with an Intelligence score of 7 or less contested with a Charisma saving throw. If you succeed on the check, the creature refuses to attack you unless coerced or attacked by you.
Paranoia. You can expend one superiority die to use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action as a reaction. If you are surprised, you can expend a die this way when you roll initiative to no longer be surprised at the start of the encounter.
Parkour. When you move across any obstacle requiring a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, you can do so without a decreasing your speed so long as you end one round worth of movement on stable terrain. You can expend one superiority die to ignore difficult terrain for as many rounds as rolled on the die.
Rodeo Grip. When you take the attack action to attempt a grapple, you can expend one superiority die to add it to the roll and ignore size restrictions for the check. If the subject is larger than you, you gain the grappled condition instead of the subject as you climb onto their back. The subject’s speed is halved, and all checks made by the subject against you have disadvantage while all checks you make against the subject have advantage. If the subject is your size or smaller, you gain the grappled condition and the subject gains the restrained condition.
Sleuth. You may make Intelligence (Investigation) and Wisdom (Perception) checks with either ability check. You can expend one superiority die to make one discovery within 30 feet that would normally require an ability check, such as the location of a secret door, hidden message in a text, how a corpse died, or the weak point of a structure that would allow it to collapse.

zeek0
2016-03-20, 04:02 AM
Hello!

I like the idea of a rogue using superiority dice, like a Battle Master. Cool stuff. And I agree with your mirroring of some Battle Master features, because they apply themselves to a totally different set of 'maneuvers'.

I dislike the term "Flukes", because for me it connotates no agency, and implies that our hero did nothing to make it happen. I might suggest "stroke of luck".

Swallowed Pride - a cool concept. But imagine that you make 10 ability checks a day - you aren't terribly likely to regain a superiority dice. I'd prefer it to be similar to the BM - an ability that has little effect on combat or anything.

I'm going to offer suggestions, and sometimes rewrite the fluke to be clearer / more in line with WotC phrasing.

Beginner's Luck seems to be named oddly - what if my Rogue is an expert at sleight of hand? And basically you get 2 superiority dice on the roll?

Eidetic Memory "When you make an Intelligence check to recall lore you might know, you can expend one superiority die and add it to the roll. If your d20 rolls 9 or lower you may treat it as a 10.

Endurance seems out of concept.

Flouette. I think that Charisma would only affect opposed checks, not on unopposed checks (such as pulling a tablecloth off a table).

Honeyed Words. What if I am trying to convince the dragon to let go the princess? Or the honorable king to let me go from my murder charge? Auto-success is dangerous.

Incicte. Really cool.

Just a Rat. "When you fail a Stealth check, you can expend one superiority die to reroll the check with disadvantage and add the superiority die to the roll."

Medicate. "By expending one superiority die you can drink or administer a potion in tandem with your movement and action."

That's all I'm going to do for now. But a fluke that is usable in combat wouldn't go amiss.

Cheers.

hiiamtom
2016-03-21, 03:08 PM
Updated some things:

I changed the superiority dice to d4s. This was to be in line with appropriate bonuses to skill checks, and it means the improved skill superiorty improves explosive action instead of hurting it.

"Flukes" changed to "Lucky Breaks" temporarily. Flukes is easier to use than lucky break, and rolls a little better. Originally the name was "advantages", but that would be confusing with advantage/disadvantage. I would still like a better name, but this is the best I got at the moment :(

Swallowed pride I like a lot, and as a ribbon it will just be the occasional boon from rolling poorly. It sort of is the point of the slot since it describes the scene pretty well. I could embelish it a little more, but I don't know what other benefit there could be.

Thanks for the wording help, too.

"Beginner's Luck" is a common lie in a hustle, so it works both ways.

Endurance is the best "survival" skill maneuver I could come up with that wasn't just taking the Outlander feature.

The extra line on Flouette is just to replace theatrical uses of Dexterity or Strength skills with Charisma - and possibly adding proficiency when you prevously wouldn't. It's just left up ot DM juridiction to not replace all Strength or Dexterity skill checks with Charisma by spending a superiority die.

Honeyed words was already fixed and I copied the wrong version. Updated.

As for abilities to help combat, you literally stopped just before them. "Monster Whisperer", "Rodeo Grip", and "Parkour" are all useful in combat.

Oramac
2016-03-21, 03:45 PM
Looks good. I, too, like the idea of a Rogue using Superiority Dice. Though I wonder if it's too powerful when combined with Sneak Attack and not requiring a multiclass into Fighter. Probably not, but I'm just throwing it out there.

hiiamtom
2016-03-21, 03:53 PM
It's possible, but then they have many other disadvantages to the multiclass - less powerful sneak attack, less maneuvers, etc.

It would give them more dice to use, but not necessarily the maximum utility of the dice. The strongest abilities in both classes stack naturally with levels. It would be more likely to stack well with the UA scout or cavalier, but even then you are behind in what you can do for the benefit of more superiority die.