From the shadows, the opportunistic Rogue is more than capable of taking down any enemy in Dungeons & Dragons 5E. With a knife through the ribs, even the tallest of titans are capable of crumbling. So, as they sneak their way around the battlefield and dungeons alike, no wonder Rogues gain incredible power. Feats are representative of that power, and Rogues can get up to 5 over the course of their career. What are some feats to look for? Check out our Rogue Feats 5E guide to find out!
Table of Contents
Top 10 Rogue Feats 5E
Before you get some feats, we highly recommend getting your rogue to 20 Dexterity. Dexterity improves your attack and damage rolls, as well as your chance to pick locks, stealth, and perform Acrobatics. You’ll want as good of a chance at dominating in those fields as possible!
In addition, please do not take this list as gospel. Rogues have a ton of interesting builds and synergies. These feats are to inspire Rogues to choose their feats carefully, and what a Rogue should consider as they get to level 4, 8, 12, and so on.
15. Skill Master
As a rogue, skills are kind of your thing already. You get lots of skills, and you get expertise in a few of them. One of the best uses of a feat is to enhance the things you already excel at. This feat gives you an extensive list of proficiencies and an attribute point to boot.
14. Ritual Caster
Ritual caster is a niche feat option that isn’t the best choice for every rogue. However, Arcane Tricksters could make use of the ritual caster feat. If your party lacks a large number of casters, this feat gives your rogue tremendous utility that your party could desperately need. If you have a wizard in the party or play a different rogue archetype, this feat is probably not for you.
13. Poisoner
This is a fun and thematic option for most rogues. Poison is prohibitively expensive in most campaigns, making it too costly to regularly use. This feat not only gives you access to inexpensive poison, but it also gives you a boost when using it. This feat still takes a supply of gold to use, and poison isn’t useful against a decent number of monsters. However, this is a great feat under the right circumstances.
12. Skulker
Skulker is an excellent fit for any rogue. You can more easily hide from your enemies, and missing a ranged attack will not reveal your position. This feat is perfect for a ranged rogue build and greatly increases your opportunities to land a Sneak Attack.
11. Mobile
Mobile is not necessarily the best feat for Rogues. However, it gives the Melee Rogue some good tools. 10 feet of movement speed is nothing to sneeze at, and allows the Rogue to reposition very quickly. That includes getting across Difficult Terrain easily; the Dash Action is a Bonus Action for rogues, after all! Finally, the ability to use attacks to turn off opportunity attacks will always be really good! Even if you disengage as a bonus action, it’s still nice to have the option to instead swing and save your bonus action for later. Great melee option!
10. Slasher / Piercer
Your weapon of choice will decide which of these feats work better. +1 Dexterity is stellar for you, but the other benefits are somewhat minor. Slasher has some fun anti-mobility perks so you can lock down an opponent. Piercer boosts your damage just a touch. Neither of these feats are bad, just not very impressive; rarely are they going to be worth more than +2 Dexterity! Consider getting these later, when you know what kind of weapon you’ll carry with you to the end.
9. Toughness
Melee Rogues are inherently squishy. They have low Hit Dice and they often can’t invest into Constitution as much. While Uncanny Dodge does a ton to help, it’s not always enough. Toughness gives your rogue an effective +4 to its Constitution, which can be an absolute life-saver. 40 health at level 20 can easily tank a hit, or reduce damage enough to save the Rogue’s life. If you’ve been getting knocked down a lot, use Toughness to stay alive.
8. Fey Touched
Fey Touched is a really good feat, but the Rogue doesn’t benefit all that much. If your Rogue is an Arcane Trickster or another that uses Mental stats, this gets better! That’s because the Fey Touched feat increases Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by +1. If that wasn’t enough, once per day, you get to teleport 30 feet as a Bonus Action, and you learn that spell if you have spellcasting. You also can learn another spell; Bless, Charm Person, Dissonant Whispers, Hex, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter… There are so many choices!
7. Shadow Touched
Like Fey Touched, Shadow Touched works best when you need the mental stat. So, Arcane Trickster Mastermind, or Soulknife might be good choices. Then, you get that +1 to a mental stat, the ability to inherently cast Invisibility (a Rogue’s best friend), and another sneaky spell! That can be something like an Illusion or even a Necromancy spell like Ray of Sickness. That’s not too much, but Invisibility is so good for a Rogue that you might want to consider this feat just for that!
6. Fighting Initiate
Fighting Initiate is an extraordinarily expensive feat. You don’t get any stats, and all you get is one Fighting Style. Perhaps the best thing you can get out of this is a +2 to Ranged Attack Rolls. And that’s… insanely good. It’s hard to get Accuracy buffs in 5E! If that wasn’t good enough, you can still get Two-Weapon Fighting to get your Dexterity for your off-hand attack. It’s fun, but not necessarily great unless you want the +2 to Ranged Attacks.
5. Sharpshooter
It’s hard to get a huge amount of damage in D&D 5E. You normally just have to deal with your class features, and for the Rogue, that’s usually enough. But, let’s say you have Advantage on your ranged attack roll, and want to bring an enemy down with one clean shot. Sharpshooter is your ticket. Not only do you get insane bonuses for ignoring cover and range increments; you also get +10 to damage (at a -5 to the attack roll) that you can choose to use! That’s like adding 3 Sneak Attack dice to your total. And the Rogue is always looking for Advantage! Seriously, try this out if you’re looking for one-shots!
4. Crossbow Expert
The Rogue’s Bonus Action is usually used defensively for Cunning Action. When you want to use it offensively, it can be hard to find a Bonus Action that works. Crossbow Expert gives you a really good one. Not only can you rapid-fire crossbows now, but you have a high-damage and safe Bonus Action that you can let out whenever you’d like. That bonus action does full damage, so you don’t even need the Two-Weapon Fighting style. That’s not bad at all! Try this out if you want a second chance to hit that important Sneak Attack.
3. Dungeon Delver
If you are playing a rogue, the odds are good that you do a lot of scouting. Rogues generally have the job of checking for traps, detecting secret passages, and picking locks. This feat helps with that role in many ways. You get advantage on saving throws against traps, resistance to the damage traps deal, and advantage on perception checks for perception checks looking for secret doors. This is a great feat if you fill the traditional scouting role of a rogue.
2. Lucky
Rogues live and die by the d20. Landing that important sneak attack is a d20. Talking your way out of a combat is a d20. Avoiding a Hold Person is a d20. With Lucky, the Rogue gets 3 more chances to reroll for the perfect result. Lucky is normally a whatever feat, but add it with the Rogue’s opportunistic playstyle, and you’ve got a match made in heaven. You’ll still have to worry about a plan going wrong, but at least you have another chance to correct a botched roll. And that’s enough to put Lucky this high on the list.
1. Alert
The chance for a Rogue to go first is important enough that Alert lands at the top of the list. If you have 20 Dexterity, this makes your Initiative Roll a +10. That’s next to guaranteed to get you a good turn in combat, with a great chance to make you go first. Since the Rogue has a chance to deal massive damage, especially with a Critical Hit, you can put an enemy in critical condition. If that wasn’t good enough, you can also avoid getting ambushed, and avoid getting snuck attack by invisible creatures. That’s handy!
Conclusions
So, how did we do? Did we put Lucky and Alert too high? Should we have put Skulker on the list? Tell us about your favorite feats and synergies in your current rogue build down below!
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