Strike from the shadows and disappear with the Nightwalker!
The rogue is an interesting class to play in Daggerheart. Where some classes invite you to stand in the open and trade blows, the rogue rewards patience and knowing when to strike. This build leans into that idea, a shadow stepping assassin who slides between darkness, stays Cloaked, and dishes out Sneak Attack damage while the enemy struggles to pin them down.
Concept: High-stress shadow assassin
The goal for this build is to maximise the rogue’s mobility and damage output by abusing the Shadow Stepper ability (part of the Nightwalker subclass) as often as possible.
This is not a build for the faint-hearted – you will be burning through Stress at a significant rate – so a large chunk of the build is dedicated to generating and mitigating that Stress. So it’s risky, but the rewards are well worth it.
Hope feature – Rogue’s Dodge
Spend three Hope to gain a +2 bonus to your Evasion until the next time an attack succeeds against you. The beauty of this is that you can activate it at the start of an encounter and simply have it online until that first hit succeeds in hitting you. At tier one you’re sitting at 14 Evasion base, which jumps to 16 with this active, improving your chances of dodging by about 10%. Enemies are going to have a tough time landing anything on you.
Class features
The rogue’s class feature is ‘Cloaked’, an improved version of the hidden condition. While Cloaked, adversaries have disadvantage on rolls to perceive you. Crucially, you remain Cloaked if you are stationary when an adversary moves into a position where they would normally see you – it only drops when you move into line of sight or make an attack. The key is to find another way to be hidden once you have made an attack that reveals you to the enemy, to establish the Cloaked condition again.
Sneak Attack rewards you for using that positioning well. When you attack while Cloaked, or while within melee range of an ally, you deal bonus damage equal to 1d6 per tier. At tier one that’s an extra d6 on top of your weapon damage, scaling to 2d6 at tier two and 3d6 at tier three.
Subclass – Nightwalker
The Nightwalker’s foundation feature is Shadow Stepper. When you move into an area of darkness or a shadow cast by a creature or object, you can mark a Stress to vanish and reappear inside any other shadow within far range. When you reappear, you are Cloaked.
This is the engine that drives the entire build. Shadow Stepper means you can trigger Sneak Attack almost every turn as long as you have Stress to spend, while staying tough to pin down. The downside is obvious – you will burn through Stress fast. Everything else in the build exists to make sure you have enough of it to keep the engine running.
Ancestry – Mixed (Firbolg and Human)
The ancestry choices here are entirely Stress-focused, opting for a mixed ancestry to grab two stress relief features.
The Human side half grants High Stamina, giving you an additional Stress slot at character creation. More Stress slots means more Shadow Steps, which means more consistent Sneak Attack triggers.
The Firbolg side brings the feature Unshakable: when you would mark a Stress, roll a d6. On a result of 6, don’t mark it. This might sound like a small benefit, but given how often you will be marking Stress with this build, you will be rolling that d6 quite a lot, and thus have plenty of changes to possibly shrug it off.
Community: Underborn
The Underborn community reflects a character raised in a subterranean society, and its feature Low-Light Living is a good fit for this build. When you are in an area with low light or heavy shadow (bear in mind you will spend a lot of time in shadow due the Shadow Stepper ability) you have advantage on rolls to hide, investigate, and perceive details. We are almost always using it for hiding, but this is the key to the build, so making it more likely to succeed is very important.
Attributes
| Stat | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | -1 | Not a concern for this build |
| Presence | +1 | Needed to get some mileage out of Uncanny Disguise |
| Instinct | 0 | Neutral for now |
| Knowledge | +1 | Useful for investigation and out of combat checks |
| Agility | 0 | Neutral – mobility comes from Shadow Stepper, not raw agility |
| Finesse | +2 | Core stat for attacks and your Spellcast trait |
This puts you at 6 Health, 6 Stress (7 with High Stamina), and 14 Evasion – 16 with Rogue’s Dodge active.
Domain Cards
Pick and Pull
You have advantage on action rolls to pick nonmagical locks, disarm nonmagical traps, or steal items from a target – whether that is through stealth or by force. If you are playing an assassin who needs to get into places they are not supposed to be, this card is very important. It handles the infiltration side of things so your other card slot can focus elsewhere. It’s not key to our combat abilities, but it will help you doing other things Rogue’s are leaned on for.
Uncanny disguise
When you have a few minutes to prepare, mark a Stress to take on the appearance of any humanoid you can picture clearly. While disguised, you have advantage on Presence rolls to avoid scrutiny. Place a number of tokens equal to your Finesse on the card, each action you take while disguised spends a token, and when the last one is spent, the disguise drops.
With a +2 in Finesse you have a reasonable window to act in before the facade falls. This card gets you through the door. Shadow Stepper will help handle whatever trouble you find inside.
Equipment
Dagger and shortsword – You are not relying on domain cards for damage, so your weapons need to carry the load. At tier one this combo averages around 12 damage per hit, with a maximum of 19 and up to 31 on a critical. With Sneak Attack on top, this is very strong at Tier One.
Leather armor – no specific advantages beyond solid damage thresholds, but it is the right choice for a build that relies on not being hit in the first place.
How it all comes together
This build plays how it looks on paper: get into a shadow, disappear, reappear behind your target, and make a big attack. Shadow Stepper keeps you Cloaked, Cloaked triggers Sneak Attack, and Sneak Attack makes every strike count. Rogue’s Dodge keeps your Evasion high enough that on the occasions enemies do know where you are, they still struggle to land anything.
The Stress economy is the thing to watch. You will be spending it constantly, and the build attempts to mitigate that through High Stamina and Unshakable. Manage it carefully, and this character will be one really effective at a low tier table.
Key Strengths
- Extremely high and consistent Sneak Attack uptime thanks to Shadow Stepper
- Strong Evasion with Rogue’s Dodge active
- Stress mitigation factored into the ancestry choices
Things to Watch Out For
- Stress burns fast – poor management will leave you grounded and visible, your character is not that durable.
- Relies heavily on the presence of shadows – open, well-lit environments will limit your options significantly. While you can use the shadows of a person to hide, be mindful of the GM’s discretion, in a well-lit or the wrong time of day they could rule a person’s shadow too small to allow you to trigger Shadow Stepper.
