13th Age 2E Pregenerated Character Builds: Thief Acrobat Rogue

By Jay Godden

In this series, I’m presenting two different pregenerated builds for every 13^th Age Heroes’ Handbook character class, at all levels. My goal is to present complete mechanical builds using only standard elements and rules from the Heroes’ Handbook, ready for you to apply your own backgrounds, icon relationships, and One Unique Thing.

In this pair of articles, we look at two potential builds for the Rogue.

The 13th Age Rogue is a highly mobile martial damage dealer. They excel at getting into and out of engagements with whoever they please and dealing high amounts of damage in melee (or occasionally at range with thrown daggers). Compared to other damage focussed skirmishers like the Ranger, the Rogue has cheaper access to powers that increase their mobility and their defences, without sacrificing their core damage features, Rush and Sneak Attack.

Your first choice when building a Rogue is picking between Rush (as this build does), which is new for second edition and deals extra damage to enemies you move to engage, and Sneak Attack which is largely unchanged from first edition, dealing extra damage against enemies you are flanking. Depending on your style, your other talent and power choices can help you to reliably trigger this extra damage on as many turns as possible.

Another big change from first edition is the replacement of Momentum with Bravado. Crucially this resource is not lost when you are hit, and you can hold onto more than one point of it, making it much easier to spend it on your powers, gambits, and stunts. Some first edition talents have also been converted into feats for easier access to more types of rogue.

THIEF ACROBAT ROGUE

Download the Thief Acrobat Rogue character sheets here. These sheets make use of the class-specific character sheets designed for second edition by Miguel Friginal.

The Thief Acrobat is a Rush Rogue, converting their extremely high mobility into damage against unsuspecting enemies that you move to engage. Rush Rogues are reasonably complicated to play. To get the most out of them, you need to plan your targets ahead of time, coordinate with your party, decide when it’s better to make a basic attack to finish off an enemy instead of rushing, and manage your positioning by using your powers and spending Bravado. Your Acrobat will probably use a quarterstaff in melee to help them with stunts.

As usual magic item choices are left out of the character sheets, check with your GM to see if they will be granting you any. Thief Acrobats make amazing use of magical boots to help them disengage successfully more often and trigger Rush damage easily, and magical gloves could help with your attempts at actual thievery.

Talents

Murderous

Increasing your crit chance against staggered enemies is an extra way for you to increase damage on top of Rush, and with your increased mobility you can get to such enemies easily.

Shift, Wriggle, & Roll

This defensive talent makes you harder to hit in melee, keeping you free to bounce around the battlefield without too much concern about your own safety.

Tumble

Since your extra damage relies on you being able to move to engage enemies, being able to break from engagement reliably is essential. This talent improves your chances of successful disengage checks, and therefore your chances to trigger Rush.

Kin Power

Tiefling’s Deadly Trickster gives you a different effect depending on your initiative roll. A +2 bonus to your first attack roll is great because it’s particularly easy to trigger Rush in the first round, and getting a Trick Die to give to allies or enemies is great roguish fun.

Attributes

Dexterity and Constitution drive your attacks, armour class, and hit points. A little Strength is useful for Deadly Thrust from 2nd level: Str 14 (+2) Dex 19 (+4) Con 17 (+3) Wis 12 (+1) Int 13 (+1) Cha 10 (+0).

1^st level

Attributes: Str 14 (+2) Dex 19 (+4) Con 17 (+3) Wis 12 (+1) Int 13 (+1) Cha 10 (+0).

Kin Power: Deadly Trickster

Talents: Murderous, Shift, Wriggle, & Roll, Tumble

Powers: Evasive Strike, Roll With It, Tumbling Strike

Feat: A: Rush

2^nd level

New power (Deadly Thrust), new feat (A: Reach Tricks).

3^rd level

New feat (A: Murderous).

4^th level

+1 to three attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution), new power (Suppressing Strike), new feat (A: Tumble).

5^th level

New feat (C: Rush).

6^th level

New power (So Cool), new feat (C: Shift, Wriggle, & Roll).

7^th level

+1 to four attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom), new feat (C: Deadly Thrust).

8^th level

New power (Flick of the Wrist), new feat (E: Rush).

9^th level

New feat (E: Murderous).

10^th level

+1 to five attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence), new power (Death’s Twin), new feat (E: Death’s Twin).

Zenith feat

New feat (Z: Zenith Adventurer, E: Shift, Wriggle, & Roll, A: Swashbuckle).