Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Three hundred million ways to fix the Arcane Trickster

Ok, so, a bit of an exaggeration, but it's quite baffling/disappointing that we're getting patches to er 'fix' kissing scenes and idle animations, but nothing to fix critically broken classes that people might want to play and be able to keep up with other players/classes when they do?

It's also not like Larian didn't look at things that wouldn't translate well from the PHB and homebrew their own rules (looking at you GOOlock and your cool new 'fear on crits' ability) so I have to address the apathy towards the broken Arcane Trickster and it's equally broken mage hand by suggesting that they ditch the dumb hand shenanigans (which again, don't even work) and give them something new that actually feels like 'Magic Rogue' at least as well as the hanful of other non-Rogue classes out there that already do it better...

So, here are my ideas for their new level 3 power:


1. The AT gets a form of Counterspell called 'Steal Spell' per short rest. It works like a weaker (at first) counterspell, except you regain a spell slot whenever it succeeds.

2. An ability like the Paladin's 'Divine Smite' that works for Sneak Attacks. The AT spends a spell slot to add D6 force damage to their sneak attacks, and this can be upscaled just like divine smite. I shouldn't have to dip two levels into an RP-incongruous class like Paladin to feel like I'm getting hard-hitting, magical sneak attacls.

3. Magical Ambush is toggleable. You get it at level 3, and like Metamagic, you can choose whether being hidden allows you to impose a disadvantage OR cast with a bonus action or something else. At level 9 you take the option you didn't take at level 3. Change it so that it only works on Illusion and Enchantment spells though. It's still not as good as metamagic because you have to be hidden for it to work (which costs Rogues either an action of bonus action already)

4. Why not give them a spell-version of exactly what the Durge cloak does, but make it cost a spell slot? Getting the cloak is stupidly easy for the Durge as it is, so it doesn't seem so OP that the Arcane Trickster gets a version with a cost - maybe when they crit they can use a reaction to vanish for two turns?

5. If a Mage Hand must be part of this class, why not have it not as a summon but as a series of magical actions that can be performed per short rest? A mage hand 'shove' that can be done at a distance, a little animation can play where the spectral hand appears and shoves the target before disappeaing. It could trip enemies, or disarm them, or distract them, or something.

6. The Arcane Trickster is made a half caster. Why they aren't already is a bit beyond me when the Bard is a FULL caster, but that one I can lay at the feet of 5e.

7. Instead of rounding down, the 1/3 casters round their effective spell level UP. This one would help the almost-as-underwhelming Eldritch Knight, too.

I came up with some of these on the spot, so I remain baffled, and honestly these thoughts make me wish I had the time to learn how to mod.

Or that Larian didn't hate Rogues.

I don't think that Arcane Trickster is that bad, at least relative to Rogue in general (Which suffers overall when played as a pure class)

The only thing I'd wish for is for Magical Ambush to be received earlier (It's not PHB friendly, but Larian did make Dragon Sorcerers get their flight at level 11 instead of 14 for example) so you can get it alongside a decent Wiz multiclass.

With of course, global Rogue change for Sneak Attack to be once per standard action instead of once per turn (Allowing them to benefit from Haste in a way comparable to literally every other Martial that can get their multiple attacks from the extra standard action)

Outside of those things, the subclass is fine. You have 2 different ways to play it;

- You can be just a standard Rogue but with a few extra things like Shield, Fog Cloud, Darkness to provide utility and defence.

- You can play a Gish build where you utilize all the neat items that provide bonuses for using spells and melee (Where you can activate many of them with a cantrip and then use a sneak attack with an off-hand weapon to deal your damage) alongside scrolls and whatever your Wizard multiclass enables.

I like OP suggestions 4 and 5. In fact I think 5 is one of the best fix ideas I’ve seen for mage hand. Maybe something for the DE.

Thanks - yeah, I hope so, although I'm not sure if they're even doing a DE now, given their recent announcement?

I just generally think the Rogue could do with some rebalancing, given that it's one of the few classes that isn't at least passably good if you go single class all the way to level 12.