Greetings future adventures! Whether you crave the thrill of a late night robbery, the rush of assassinating a evil ruler, or even the mild anxiety of cheating during a round of cards the rogue should be your go-to class. Rogues in 5e are the sneaky stabby damage dealers we all know and love and will almost always be a great choice when trying to round out your party. Excelling as a party face in town and a high damage assassin in fights here are our top 5 best DnD 5e rogue race ideas to make sure you are the best adventurer you can be.
When looking at races for rogues, you are looking for two things. You need a race with a +2 dexterity bonus or a race that amplifies rogues damage or utility. Darkvision is great for vision in any dark place as well. You are also looking for better weapons, spellcasting, and flight. Rogues have a lot of wiggle-room so please don’t feel like you have to use the suggestions below to enjoy the class.
Lightfoot Halfling
Halfling is a standard rogue pick due to their +2 dexterity, Halfling nimbleness, and of course the lucky trait. This sets our short friends up to be the perfect pick for your standard stabby sneaky type rogue. However, we also suggest opting for Lightfoot as your sub-race. This gives you access to ’Naturally Stealthy’ letting you use your big burly paladin or barbarian as a place to hide which in turn can lead to more sneak attacks or alternate battle shenanigans (also an easy way to sneak yourself into somewhere you shouldn’t be).
Kenku
The Kenku is your best bet for being a highly skilled jack-of-all-trades type rogue. Picking the Kenku doesn’t necessarily give you a huge boon in combat, but it does give you access to some very good ways to get yourself out of trouble (or into trouble). Kenku gives us that ever so important +2 dex as well as Expert Forgery.
With this, you can duplicate any other creatures handwriting or craftwork. You also get access to Kenku Training which gives you proficiency in your choice of roguish skill.
High Elf
Elves are an easy choice for this list as are Half-Elves. However, the High Elf excels at melee rogue as it gets access to a wizard cantrip of your choice, and what better choice than Booming Blade?
This spell can be crazy early and exists solely to add an additional d8 to your already heavy hitting sneak attacks. The cantrip also scales so it finds itself being useful even into the later levels, and at the fifth level it will add an additional 1d8 to your attack on top of the damage dealt when the enemy moves. This will scale up to 17th level where the damage total will be a whopping 7d8.
Kobold (Updated)
The Kobold was always a solid choice for rogue with their pack tactics and ability increases. Recently in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, Kobold has lost that ability and become even more rogue-favored. Using Draconic Cry will give you easy ways to trigger sneak attack and the new Kobold Legacy (draconic sorcery) is a way to grab booming blade so that you can use your cunning action for hit-and-run attacks in a fight.
Owlin
Nothing is scarier than a rogue that can fly. Owlin are my new favorite pick for a range-focused rogue. As well as giving you darkvision and stealth proficiency, Owlin are the perfect blank slate for you to imprint whatever maniacal plans you have for your poor DM. Keep in mind if you take Steady Aim you will need to land before taking advantage of it or you will fall to the ground.
I hope you enjoyed our insight into what to pick for the rogue class. Remember that these are just suggestions. The best race for your character is always the one that you and your table will have the most fun playing with. With a game like DnD there are infinite possibilities so feel free to suggest some cool ideas for your characters below. Before you go, make sure to check out our picks for the best DnD-like games, as well as how Divinity: Original Sin 2 leans into the art of game-making and DM-ing.
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