[Nightmares] Rogue - Nightmare (Patreon)

It's been a while since I designed a rogue! True to its theme (and similar to the Dreadcaller Fighter from the Jungle compendium), this rogue relies on fear and illusions for combat and social encounters.

Progression Overview: The typical rogue progression opens up with some offensive abilities or skill features at 3rd level. For Thief, this is additional Cunning Actions, and for Swashbuckler, this is a new way to use Sneak Attack. The 9th and 13th levels are sort of a mixed bag: usually utility or skills, though more recent archetypes have leaned into more offense. The final 17th level feature is a strong capstone, usually offensive in capability and totally unique to that rogue.

Let's take a look at the Nightmare Rogue:

3rd Level - the Nightmare gains lovely utility cantrip to boost its roguish capabilities, plus a limited chance to frighten your enemies. To combo into this, the Nightmare gains a new way to use Sneak Attack, which now works against frightened enemies. A bonus ribbon ability for advantage against being put to sleep comes in handy (though not for elves).

9th Level - Given many monsters are immune to fear, it's important to allow fear-based subclasses to bypass this immunity.  Aside from this, the Nightmare gains  a nice utility option, no more powerful than say, a Thief's or a Mastermind's.

13th Level - The Nightmare gains a once-per-day use of dream, which is half utility (free commune/messaging per day), and half extra frighten option for additional fear.

17th Level - This capstone gives the Nightmare an extra way to frighten creatures, as well as a survival option for death.