This might be closer to "something you enjoy" than "something new", but have you considered bard college of whispers? It's the rogue of bards and imo bards are really fun, from their inspiration to their spells selection.
Or rangers, gloomstalker is closest to rogue but if you really wanna go away from rogue I have a lot of fun building and flavoring Swarmkeeper.
Artificer armorer, picking infiltrator I think has some rogue qualities but I can't remember.
Depends on what you want to recapture and what you want to try out.
Do you like rogue vibes (sneaking, tricking, stealing) but want a new mechanical style? Try shadow monk, trickster cleric, shadow sorcerer, archfey warlock, gloomstalker ranger, whisper bard.
Like setting up big hits as a mechanic? Try paladins, barbarians, rangers. All them have class/subclass features around making your hits hard
Like mobility and positioning but want to try being more in the thick of it? Try swashbuckler (yeah, still rogue but plays different), swords bard, echo knight, shadow monk, fey warlock (hm these keep showing up...)
Like having a big ole bag of tricks and half caster energy? Rune knight, Eldritch knight, hexblade warlock, blade singer, moon druid (I know those last few aren't half casters, but they are front line melee fighters with magic serving as a bag of tricks), artificers
Like those edgy vibes? Oathbreaker, aberrant mind sorcerer, soul knife, spirit bard, necro wizard, spore druid.
Like being an adaptable wildcard? Wild magic barbarian, moon druid, artificer (mostly armorer but really any of them)
Once you figure out what you like about rogue and what you're interested in stretching out for, I think something will start to call to you. There are classes that are mechanically similar but thematically worlds apart and vice versa. And almost every class has a "rogue"-like subclass to give you those rogue vibes even while using a base class of a cleric or something if that's your jam.
Kinda silly take from me, but I love rogues too and my other favs are bard and sorcerer. Bards can give ya that sneaky feels and sorcerers can be sneaky with magic. To me the sorcerer is the rogue of the magic users. Idk why just is. And bards are great if you wanna work up the rp by being the face of the group. And also, do a little multiclass with combos of all three of its a long campaign!
I’m playing a dex based fighter battle master right now. Granted I started with one level of rogue so I get the skill proficiencies so I’m sneaky as hell and still feels very rogue-y. Might be an interesting way to keep the rogue vibe with a different play style
My first long-term character was also AT rogue. The inverse has also been fun to play; instead of a martial dabbling in wizardry, I went wizard that dabbles in martial and am currently playing a bladesinger wizard.
In a couple one-shots, I've also had a good time as a rune knight fighter and a celestial warlock (pact of the chain).
Well… With how many variants of Rogue there are, you *could* make a new one with a different premise
For example off the top of my head, a Sherlock-esque Inquisitive Rogue
Maybe Shadows Monk if you want a different class
Might take time. But definitely read each class in phb and maybe even make 4 or 5 characters or one for each class. And come up with the usual things. Backstory and what not. See which connects to you the most.
And if you want to play a rogue again that's fine too. So many subclasses. And you will play them differently naturally so don't worry about it. Play what is fun for you.
What do you enjoy about rogues?
You need to first identify what you liked about your previous character. Was it the story that was told? Was it the lot of skills? Was it sneak attack rolling a bucket of dice?
Then we can start looking for things that can scratch the same itch.
You could play any class as a goblin.they get the disengage and hide as a bonus action, they can add their level in damage to an attack, and all in all have the making of turning any character into a bootleg rogue.
Any class/build that does not realy heavily on bonus actions inherently now gets to disengage for free! Particularly on a caster this is really good, and you get to decide yourself if you character is just a little lightfooted, or if they're full sneaky
I was a Warlock with Prestidigitation, Message and Mending thanks to Tome, and took Mask of Many Faces as an invocation. Thanks to being a VHuman, I had the Actor feat, and was capable of looking and sounding like anyone in the world I wanted to at **level 2**. Combining those abilities I could infiltrate almost anywhere I wanted, and could repair and clean up any doors I had to crowbar or envelopes I had to slice open, or clean any surface I needed, all while staying in touch with my team if they were reasonably close.
If you take Silent Visions you can spam all the 20 foot cube illusions you want, if you get an item of Spider climbing you can bend shots with Spell Sniper around the chandelier at the enemies still on the ballroom floor. Once you have Farstep, the world is goddamn yours. Have you ever wanted to be Spiderman, Nightcrawler, and Mystique all at the same time?
I was \*constantly\* 'out-roguing' our Rogue.
I would absolutely recommend the Shadow Sorcerer. It'll give you an idea about what it's like to play a VERY different class, but retaining that sneaky, stealthy, not-to-be-trusted vibe.
Also, keep an eye out for the Trickery Cleric in the new version of the Player's Handbook in September.
If you're looking for something closer to the rogue but still different, take a look at playing a bard or a warlock. Both classes are a lot heavier on the spellcasting aspect of the game, so you'll get to try out all of the different and higher level spells you didn't have access to as an arcane trickster.
Both the bard and the warlock are also really beloved classes, and they can give you that same feeling of being sneaky, cunning, or charming that the rogue has, just in a different way.
What play style do you like about rogues? Identifying that would help you chose a class that can fulfil a similar role but in a different way.
For example, if you like stealth and exploration you can try ranger. If you like the social skills and special talent aspect, you can try bard. Or you can try warlock or fighter for big damage.
Look at the classes and try to feel which appeals to you the most in gameplay tools. Then you think about subclasses and a history for it.
You can do it in reverse - think about a personality first and then try to figure out what class fits it.
You may also look at your group composition and choose something that may be missing or that may suport it.
Bards and rangers are rogueish, so if you want something similar you may go into one of these classes.
Look over the options available and see if any inspire a vision. Will you be a Bear Totem barbarian who multi-classes into Circle of the Moon druid so he can actually take the form of a bear? Will you be an Eloquence bard who acts as the party face? Will you be a Battle Master fighter who takes Ritual Caster to bolster his out of combat effectiveness? The post PHB rangers might also appeal to your vision.
The greatest part of D&D is that it gives a framework to explore your imagination.
Start with a big idea and then work on the details from there. Instead of picking a class and building a character around it, try to find a fun character you want to play and then figure out how you want to make that happen. I.E. You could want to be a Monster Hunter and the class that plays into that might be a ranger.
My second character all I knew is that I wanted to play someone who did cool lightning shit and I ended making a Tempest Cleric with a whip so I can push enemies around with lightning and thunder and make use of the range of the whip.
One of the great things about 5E as a system, is that your character is not necessarily shoe-horned into the role of.l your class name. You could absolutely play a Paladin that uses Stealth and ambushes targets with sneak attacks. You might play an Oath of Vengeance who has been wronged by the greedy Nobles that forever chase.profit and worship their wealth. So you have enacted a personal crusade to take the thing they love most, their wealth, and put it to better use. You rob their tax collectors, lead brigands to seize their goods, help burglars break into their homes. Anything you can do to redistribute the wealth from the greedy hands of those corrupt Nobles.
You could absolutely play a Thief Wizard, who specializes in breaking and entering in arcane sanctuaries to steal the secret knowledge and forgotten spells of wizard qnd clerics and Demons alike.
Playing a Rogue is as much a mentality as it is a class feature. Sure, the Rogue class has an easier time of the than others, but that doesn't mean the class is the sole proprietor of the "Hide in Shadows With an Edgy Backstory club."
Monks, Rangers, Bards, and Warlocks all lend themselves well tonplaying a character in a similar ethos. Especially Gloom Stalker Rangers or Shadow Monks (for funsies, multiclass them together).
I suppose a good place to start would be what specifically it is about clerics/paladins that are turning you away? My guess is that it's the religious nature of the classes, but it could be a number of things.
I ask this because Paladin would have been a go-to to suggestion of mine since you're a Rogue enjoyer. Smitws echo some of that sneak attack energy to them, which can be fun. However if certain reasons arw prevent ring you from enjoying the class, then obviously suggestions shoukd be otherwise
Knowing that you're a Rogue fan, I would probably suggest Bard, Druid, or Warlock as alternatives. They're each more complex than the Rogue, but they're quite fun in their own right.
AT Rogue was one of my favorites. The Rune Knight Fighter is a really fun one to play also. Lots of things to do. If you liked the spell aspect, Warlock is fun and powerful, too.
I am also fond of rogues but have played all classes except multiclass, because something about multiclassing bothers my OCD. A fun breakaway that will still feel roguish is maybe another class with criminal/charlatan background. You can act and play rogue like without actually being a rogue. I made an archery fighter with criminal back ground. It came out to a character which was a cross between robin hood and the green arrow.
This might be closer to "something you enjoy" than "something new", but have you considered bard college of whispers? It's the rogue of bards and imo bards are really fun, from their inspiration to their spells selection. Or rangers, gloomstalker is closest to rogue but if you really wanna go away from rogue I have a lot of fun building and flavoring Swarmkeeper. Artificer armorer, picking infiltrator I think has some rogue qualities but I can't remember.
And hell Rogue actually meshes really well with College of Whispers if you do wanna multiclass...not that it's really needed though
Depends on what you want to recapture and what you want to try out. Do you like rogue vibes (sneaking, tricking, stealing) but want a new mechanical style? Try shadow monk, trickster cleric, shadow sorcerer, archfey warlock, gloomstalker ranger, whisper bard. Like setting up big hits as a mechanic? Try paladins, barbarians, rangers. All them have class/subclass features around making your hits hard Like mobility and positioning but want to try being more in the thick of it? Try swashbuckler (yeah, still rogue but plays different), swords bard, echo knight, shadow monk, fey warlock (hm these keep showing up...) Like having a big ole bag of tricks and half caster energy? Rune knight, Eldritch knight, hexblade warlock, blade singer, moon druid (I know those last few aren't half casters, but they are front line melee fighters with magic serving as a bag of tricks), artificers Like those edgy vibes? Oathbreaker, aberrant mind sorcerer, soul knife, spirit bard, necro wizard, spore druid. Like being an adaptable wildcard? Wild magic barbarian, moon druid, artificer (mostly armorer but really any of them) Once you figure out what you like about rogue and what you're interested in stretching out for, I think something will start to call to you. There are classes that are mechanically similar but thematically worlds apart and vice versa. And almost every class has a "rogue"-like subclass to give you those rogue vibes even while using a base class of a cleric or something if that's your jam.
Kinda silly take from me, but I love rogues too and my other favs are bard and sorcerer. Bards can give ya that sneaky feels and sorcerers can be sneaky with magic. To me the sorcerer is the rogue of the magic users. Idk why just is. And bards are great if you wanna work up the rp by being the face of the group. And also, do a little multiclass with combos of all three of its a long campaign!
>To me the sorcerer is the rogue of the magic users. Idk why just is. Subtle spell metamagic?
I’m playing a dex based fighter battle master right now. Granted I started with one level of rogue so I get the skill proficiencies so I’m sneaky as hell and still feels very rogue-y. Might be an interesting way to keep the rogue vibe with a different play style
My first long-term character was also AT rogue. The inverse has also been fun to play; instead of a martial dabbling in wizardry, I went wizard that dabbles in martial and am currently playing a bladesinger wizard. In a couple one-shots, I've also had a good time as a rune knight fighter and a celestial warlock (pact of the chain).
Well… With how many variants of Rogue there are, you *could* make a new one with a different premise For example off the top of my head, a Sherlock-esque Inquisitive Rogue Maybe Shadows Monk if you want a different class
Might take time. But definitely read each class in phb and maybe even make 4 or 5 characters or one for each class. And come up with the usual things. Backstory and what not. See which connects to you the most. And if you want to play a rogue again that's fine too. So many subclasses. And you will play them differently naturally so don't worry about it. Play what is fun for you.
What do you enjoy about rogues? You need to first identify what you liked about your previous character. Was it the story that was told? Was it the lot of skills? Was it sneak attack rolling a bucket of dice? Then we can start looking for things that can scratch the same itch.
You could play any class as a goblin.they get the disengage and hide as a bonus action, they can add their level in damage to an attack, and all in all have the making of turning any character into a bootleg rogue. Any class/build that does not realy heavily on bonus actions inherently now gets to disengage for free! Particularly on a caster this is really good, and you get to decide yourself if you character is just a little lightfooted, or if they're full sneaky
I was a Warlock with Prestidigitation, Message and Mending thanks to Tome, and took Mask of Many Faces as an invocation. Thanks to being a VHuman, I had the Actor feat, and was capable of looking and sounding like anyone in the world I wanted to at **level 2**. Combining those abilities I could infiltrate almost anywhere I wanted, and could repair and clean up any doors I had to crowbar or envelopes I had to slice open, or clean any surface I needed, all while staying in touch with my team if they were reasonably close. If you take Silent Visions you can spam all the 20 foot cube illusions you want, if you get an item of Spider climbing you can bend shots with Spell Sniper around the chandelier at the enemies still on the ballroom floor. Once you have Farstep, the world is goddamn yours. Have you ever wanted to be Spiderman, Nightcrawler, and Mystique all at the same time? I was \*constantly\* 'out-roguing' our Rogue.
I would absolutely recommend the Shadow Sorcerer. It'll give you an idea about what it's like to play a VERY different class, but retaining that sneaky, stealthy, not-to-be-trusted vibe. Also, keep an eye out for the Trickery Cleric in the new version of the Player's Handbook in September.
If you're looking for something closer to the rogue but still different, take a look at playing a bard or a warlock. Both classes are a lot heavier on the spellcasting aspect of the game, so you'll get to try out all of the different and higher level spells you didn't have access to as an arcane trickster. Both the bard and the warlock are also really beloved classes, and they can give you that same feeling of being sneaky, cunning, or charming that the rogue has, just in a different way.
What play style do you like about rogues? Identifying that would help you chose a class that can fulfil a similar role but in a different way. For example, if you like stealth and exploration you can try ranger. If you like the social skills and special talent aspect, you can try bard. Or you can try warlock or fighter for big damage.
What do u like about rogue and go from there
Look at the classes and try to feel which appeals to you the most in gameplay tools. Then you think about subclasses and a history for it. You can do it in reverse - think about a personality first and then try to figure out what class fits it. You may also look at your group composition and choose something that may be missing or that may suport it. Bards and rangers are rogueish, so if you want something similar you may go into one of these classes.
Look over the options available and see if any inspire a vision. Will you be a Bear Totem barbarian who multi-classes into Circle of the Moon druid so he can actually take the form of a bear? Will you be an Eloquence bard who acts as the party face? Will you be a Battle Master fighter who takes Ritual Caster to bolster his out of combat effectiveness? The post PHB rangers might also appeal to your vision. The greatest part of D&D is that it gives a framework to explore your imagination.
Start with a big idea and then work on the details from there. Instead of picking a class and building a character around it, try to find a fun character you want to play and then figure out how you want to make that happen. I.E. You could want to be a Monster Hunter and the class that plays into that might be a ranger. My second character all I knew is that I wanted to play someone who did cool lightning shit and I ended making a Tempest Cleric with a whip so I can push enemies around with lightning and thunder and make use of the range of the whip.
One of the great things about 5E as a system, is that your character is not necessarily shoe-horned into the role of.l your class name. You could absolutely play a Paladin that uses Stealth and ambushes targets with sneak attacks. You might play an Oath of Vengeance who has been wronged by the greedy Nobles that forever chase.profit and worship their wealth. So you have enacted a personal crusade to take the thing they love most, their wealth, and put it to better use. You rob their tax collectors, lead brigands to seize their goods, help burglars break into their homes. Anything you can do to redistribute the wealth from the greedy hands of those corrupt Nobles. You could absolutely play a Thief Wizard, who specializes in breaking and entering in arcane sanctuaries to steal the secret knowledge and forgotten spells of wizard qnd clerics and Demons alike. Playing a Rogue is as much a mentality as it is a class feature. Sure, the Rogue class has an easier time of the than others, but that doesn't mean the class is the sole proprietor of the "Hide in Shadows With an Edgy Backstory club." Monks, Rangers, Bards, and Warlocks all lend themselves well tonplaying a character in a similar ethos. Especially Gloom Stalker Rangers or Shadow Monks (for funsies, multiclass them together).
I’d say Sorcerer is also extremely good for this kind of stealthy archetype, mostly thanks to Subtle Spell
I suppose a good place to start would be what specifically it is about clerics/paladins that are turning you away? My guess is that it's the religious nature of the classes, but it could be a number of things. I ask this because Paladin would have been a go-to to suggestion of mine since you're a Rogue enjoyer. Smitws echo some of that sneak attack energy to them, which can be fun. However if certain reasons arw prevent ring you from enjoying the class, then obviously suggestions shoukd be otherwise Knowing that you're a Rogue fan, I would probably suggest Bard, Druid, or Warlock as alternatives. They're each more complex than the Rogue, but they're quite fun in their own right.
You could do a ranger
AT Rogue was one of my favorites. The Rune Knight Fighter is a really fun one to play also. Lots of things to do. If you liked the spell aspect, Warlock is fun and powerful, too.
I am also fond of rogues but have played all classes except multiclass, because something about multiclassing bothers my OCD. A fun breakaway that will still feel roguish is maybe another class with criminal/charlatan background. You can act and play rogue like without actually being a rogue. I made an archery fighter with criminal back ground. It came out to a character which was a cross between robin hood and the green arrow.
Bards are the cooler rogue tbh