Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Making arcane trickster Astarion work

I've always picked a thief subclass for Astarion, but in my current playthrough I wanted to try an arcane trickster route, but I can't justify the pick and could use an advice and a little bit of brainstorming.

Attention - I am not looking for a response that it in any way sucks or it can't be done. Rather I am looking for a tip or an idea how we can do it. Make it a competitor (or at least come as close as we can) to a thief Astarion route.

I started my thinking with an idea that in BG3 a core feature of a good rogue build is a sneak attack, which packs a punch. An arcane trickster has an access to this feature, so there is hope. So there are two possible prerequisites for a sneak attack - an advantage or an ally near the target. The first one definitely favors a thief route, because the easiest advantage is sneak, which can be done via bonus action. The second though, somewhat favours the arcane trickster, because an invisible mage hand counts as an enabler for a sneak attack. Something to think about and optimize around here.

Another thing is Astarion's intelligence (it is 13). And even more than that - the significance of an intelligence attribute for arcane trickster in EA, in general. I find it rather low, because:
- low spell slot count
- only lvl 1 spells
- no way to replenish spell slots
- cantrips are weak on lower levels
And, the most importantly:
- any spell you cast competes with a far superior sneak attack

That leads to a conclusion of sorts, that an arcane trickster:
- has a superior class action, so it's action point is always reserved
- should probably opt towards permabuffs (false life/mage armor), utility spells (protection from evil/good, grease, fog cloud?), summons (find familiar) or complimentary spells that use bonus action (featherfall may be, but it is questionable because it's low impact and if you melee you need your dash to cover distance)

Those are my first thoughts, but there are some other things to figure out: equipment, weapons, party comp and so on. Any help is appreciated.