Sapper (5A)

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A sapper is not what is normally considered a rogue at all, they are specialists at siege, urban, and dungeon combat. They are masters of creative destruction, opening new avenues of attack by opening doors, bypassing traps, and breaching walls.

Archetype Features

Bonus Proficiencies

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with the heavy crossbow, greataxe, maul, war pick, and with medium armor and shields. You also know how to brace tunnels and mines to avoid collapse.

Demolition

At 3rd level you gain the ability to demolish things.

• You can use sneak attack with any melee weapon, not only finesse weapons.
• Add your sneak attack damage to any melee attack against any unattended object.
• When making a Strength check to open, move, or destroy an object or construction, such as a door or wall, roll your sneak attack dice and add that to the result.
• You can use a weapon to disarm a trap or open a lock using Strength (thief's tools). On a success, the trap or lock is irreparably destroyed. If you fail this check against a trap, it triggers.
• When you work on tunneling, digging or demolition, you are more effective than other workers. Roll your sneak attack dice, you can do the work of a number of people equal to the result. At 3rd level you are digging a pit that would normally take a man hour to dig. Rolling 5 on your 2d6 of sneak attack damage, you can dig the hole five times as fast, finishing in 12 minutes.

Demolish Magic

At 9th level you can destroy unattended locks, objects, and barriers created or altered by magic, even ones immune to the type of damage you do. If the object lacks an AC, it has an AC of 12 + spell level against this attack. Make an attack and roll for damage, including sneak attack damage. If the damage exceeds 5 times the level of the spell, you dispel the magic. Against magical effects that are not spells, the GM assigns a spell level based on a similar spell effect or on half the challenge rating of the object. If the magicked object has its own hit points, this attack also inflicts damage on the object.

Control Construct

At 13th level, when you inflict damage on a construct creature, the construct must make an Intelligence saving throw (DC 10 + your Intelligence modifier + your proficiency bonus) or come under your control. It will forget its earlier instructions and instead take instructions from you. The construct becomes friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. In combat, the construct has its own initiative count. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. If you are incapacitated, the construct will just Dodge. The construct can make another saving throw at the end of each of its turns when when it does anything but the Dodge action, a success ends the effect.

Pinpoint Weakness

At 17th level you can pinpoint the weakest point in any construct creature, construction, or unattended object. Any hit on such an object is a critical hit. On what would normally be a miss, you score a normal (non-critical) hit. You have advantage on any Strength check to grab, shove, force, move, or destroy any construct creature, construction, or unattended object. A successful grab or shove on a construct creature counts as damaging that creature and can activate the Control Construct ability.

Designer's Notes

A Strength based rogue with a theme - demolition. The archetypal Sapper would be a dwarf, but others can apply as well. A Strength rogue can use heavier weapons and thus do a bit more damage, as well as using medium armor for survivability. The price is of course that Dex-skills such as Stealth suffers. Demolition gives a way to do away with those Walls of Force and other stuff wizards are so haughty about, doing away with a major issue martial character have. The other abilities aren't very remarkable and pretty situational.

See Also

• Sapper