Duelist
As the ogre charged towards him, Azad watched carefully, blades at the ready, measuring every step, waiting for the exact right moment to strike…
Azad, Duelist Rogue
The roguish duelist is a lightly armored combatant who favors quick, precise attacks with a light weapon in each hand. The duelist is murderously effective when fighting one-on-one. The quick, resourceful, and precise duelist may look like an artist, but more often he or she is just another killer for hire—but one with a dashing and lethal sense of style.
Building a Duelist rogue
Duelists rogues are deadly melee combatants, as their unique ‘prowess’ techniques allow them to take many enemies head-on that other rogues might prefer to sneak up on. Keep the following traits and abilities in mind when building your character:
Prowess - You can learn special fighting techniques that are fueled by a special resource called ‘prowess'. You begin with three techniques, and can learn more at higher levels.
Dancing Blade - You can wield a rapier as a light weapon, as long as you are not carrying anything heavier than a light weapon in your other hand.
Strike First, Strike Last - You gain advantage on initiative checks, and can even spend a prowess point to act when you are surprised in combat.
Virtuoso - You gain proficiency or expertise in two additional skills, such as Acrobatics, Deception, and Sleight of Hand.
Deep Reserve - You regain two prowess points if you roll initiative and have no prowess remaining.
Thanks to being able to pick three techniques from the 11 available to choose from, there are over 150 unique combinations to build out your Duelist starting at 3rd level. The prowess techniques range from those that deal additional damage, such as deep slice; those that impose additional conditions such as clinch or pommel punch; or those that are more defensive in nature such as wall of flashing steel or witty repartee. Their ability to wield a rapier as a light weapon means that they can use it with two-weapon fighting, rather than being limited to shortswords, scimitars, or handaxes, which deal slightly less damage.
Strike first, Strike Last means that you will often act first in battle, able to quickly focus down the most vulnerable target while the rest of your party gets into position. And Virtuoso is a great way to improve on your non-combat skills, for when your blades are better off in their sheathes.
There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to picking your race, especially if your gamemaster allows the optional rules variant to customize racial ability modifiers. However, some races may possess certain racial features that grant them an additional edge when it comes to particular classes.
Halflings and elves are both classic choices to play as a rogue, given their innate bonuses to dexterity. For halflings, you also benefit from their lucky trait, allowing you to reroll on any attack rolls, ability checks, or saving throws where you roll a 1. As for elves, darkvision is always useful to have if you ever want to scout ahead for the party, and their trance trait means that you can spend less time resting and more time keeping an eye out for potential threats. And if you take the high elf subrace, you’ll gain proficiency in the longbow, which you can put to deadly use from afar when you aren’t able to close with your enemies.
Roleplaying Tips
When it comes to roleplaying as a Duelist rogue, a great place to start is asking what led you to pursue this particular archetype? While other rogues might be more comfortable lurking in the shadows and striking from behind, you’ve trained to take enemies head-on, wielding your blades with panache. Perhaps your confidence and flair in combat is also reflected in your roleplaying, acting as the charismatic, rakish face of the party. Another possibility is that the martial training you’ve undergone might have led to your personality being more calm and reserved, acting as the careful observer of the party, always suspicious of possible threats.
Your roleplaying may also be informed by the background that you choose. Burglar is a safe choice for any rogue, especially if you want your character to come from a criminal background. Infantry might be more appropriate if you want to lean into the martial aspect of your duelist training. Both of these backgrounds would likely lead to a very different way to how you approach roleplaying, and there is nothing stopping you from breaking with typical tropes associated with this class. Whatever path you choose to follow, be sure to ask yourself why it is you’ve sought out the company of an adventuring party, and use that to guide your roleplaying in the future.
How to Access this Content
This subclass was created by our partners at Kobold Press, and it is one of the many available to subscribers, along with others like the Way of the Dragon Spirit or the Elementalist, as well as races such as the Shade or Spindrift Dwarf. Learn about these and others by checking out the rest of our Character Choices series.
Build your own Duelist Rogue and tell us about it in the comments below or on any of our social channels. Join us on Discord, Reddit or Facebook to meet other members of the community and take your game to the next level, or follow us on Twitter @shardtabletop for regular updates.
