Roguish Archetype
Comments from the Finger: Found the seed of this gem on my todo list. I do love writing weird rogues.
Thought Thief
Safecrackers can smash padlocks and cave in metal walls, and cat-burglars can make off with jewels by moonlight, without so much as sounding an alarm. But as many a thieves’ guild has learned: knowledge is power, and no ordinary thief can steal that directly. Sure, they can plunder papers and scrolls, but many secrets are never written down, locked away within the walls of the mind. A new type of thief is needed for that type of job.
The archetypal thought thief trains in psychic arts, skills borrowed from mystics and psionic monks, to become deadly psychic assassins, to plumb the minds of others, and, indeed, to steal thoughts. They are an odd bunch, equipping themselves with crystal trinkets, in addition to daggers and thieves’ tools. But for the right job, there is no substitute to a skilled thought thief.
Psychic Arts
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you have begun to learn the delicate art of psychic warfare.
Saving Throws. Some of your psychic abilities allow saving throws to resist their effects or allow you to cast spells which require saving throws. The saving throw save DC is calculated as follows:
Psychic Attack
At 3rd level, your strikes warp the thoughts and damage the psyches of others. You can choose for your Sneak Attack to deal psychic damage, rather than its normal damage type.
Steal Proficiency
At 3rd level, you have begun to learn the fine art of stealing thoughts from others, beginning with long-held talents and skills. As an action on your turn, you can touch a creature, which must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, for up to 24 hours, or until you use this ability again, the creature loses proficiency with one skill of your choice and you gain proficiency in this skill, if you didn’t already have it.
A willing creature can choose to fail its saving throw.
When you hit a creature within your reach with a Sneak Attack, you can use this ability without taking an action. The target has disadvantage on this saving throw.
Mental Defenses
By 9th level, through repeatedly probing other people’s minds, you have learned to fortify your own psychic defenses. You have resistance to psychic damage, and advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.
Mind Reader
At 13th level, you’re adept at reading thoughts. You can cast the spell detect thoughts without using a spell slot or spell components. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier and regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Starting at 17th level, you can cast the spell modify memory once without using a spell slot or spell components. Once you cast this spell in this way, you must finish a long rest before using it again.
Steal Thoughts
Beginning at 17th level, you can directly rip the thoughts from a creature’s mind. As an action on your turn, you can touch a creature, which must make a Wisdom saving throw. When you hit a creature within your reach with a Sneak Attack, you can use this ability without taking an action. The target takes half damage from the Sneak Attack and has disadvantage on this saving throw.
On a failed save, the creature is incapacitated until the end of its next turn as its mind reels and you immediately learn one piece of information of your choice from the target’s memories. For example, you can learn where the target buried a cache of treasure or what the target’s true identity is. The target them immediately forgets this information. You cannot cause a target to forget something extremely important or fundamental to its personality in this way. If the target does not have the information that you seek, the target is still incapacitated, but this effect fails.
Changelog: 5/26/17: Psychic Arts, Mind Reader: Switched to be Int-based
Steal Proficiency: Reworded to trigger when a target is hit with Sneak Attack
Steal Thoughts: Reworded to also trigger on a touch as well as on a Sneak Attack hit.
