Arcane Trickster Rogue: D&D 2024 Optimisation Guide

Combine stealth with spellcasting with this magical rogue subclass, updated for D&D 2024.

What is the arcane trickster?

Some rogues recognise the inherent aid magic can grant in the pursuits of stealth and cunning. Such rogues dedicate themselves to supplementing their sneaky skills with spellcasting acumen. Such rogues are known as arcane tricksters.

There are a lot of obvious ways magic can enhance stealth. Invisibility makes you hard to discover, flight can help you access the previously inaccessible, illusions can distract guards, spells can create disguises and invisible mage hands can be used to manipulate unreachable items.

But you’re not just limited to subterfuge with your spells. Arcane tricksters can now use any spells from the wizard’s spell list meaning, if you want to, you can blast around fireballs and other nasty effects too.

Loki is perhaps the best known arcane trickster. He’s comfortable performing sneak attacks with his blades while using invisibility and illusion to mask his presence. Fred and George Weasley also fit this archetype, though their attacks are primarily magical, foregoing their sneak attacks.

Arcane tricksters originally appeared as a rogue subclass in the 2014 Player’s Handbook and make a return in the 2024 edition. There’s a bunch of interesting changes with the potential to change how you might play these magical scoundrels. My guide will take you through these changes, great tactics to employ and how to make an optimal build.

At a glance

Stealthy class ideal for cunning and sneaky characters
Land high damage hits with sneak attacks
Combine spellcasting and sneaking
Become invisible, distract with illusions or just blast enemies with a fireball

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

Fundamentally, arcane tricksters play the same as they did previously, but there are some decent changes that come into play including:

Your spell list is no longer limited by the school of magic, you can now pick any spell from the wizard’s spell list.
You can change cantrips whenever you level up.
Whenever you use your cunning strike to trip someone, you can use your mage hand to do the same.
Your mage hand can be cast as a bonus action and it can do anything that requires a sleight of hand check (not just disarming traps and unpicking locks). There’s also no contest of skill checks with the success not being tied to being noticed, just by the difficulty of the activity.
Your spell thief ability is now harder to resist as spellcasters must make an intelligence save rather than using the spellcasting ability they used to cast the spell meaning clerics, druids, bards and other non-wizardy Spellcasters are at a disadvantage here.

These changes make a big difference to the arcane trickster giving you loads of spell options to choose from and making you even more deadly when using your magic and attacks.

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Arcane trickster features

Spellcasting – Lv3

How it works

Arcane tricksters can cast spells, taking them from the wizard’s spell list and using intelligence as their spellcasting modifier. You get 3 cantrips to start with (eventually having 4 at lv10) but one of these must be mage hand. You also start with 3 level 1 spells, eventually gaining access to level 4 spells.

Tactics

Spellcasting requires an interesting set of balances for arcane tricksters. In combat, you’ll want to be careful as sneak attack is a hugely effective way to deal damage and for single target spells, it will often remain your most effective option if you can land it (which is pretty easy to engineer).

Save or suck and AoE spells can remain viable options though, especially as AoE spells multiply in effect across multiple enemies.

The obvious thing is to use bonus actions and reactions for spells in combat which can work. Mage hand legerdemain has this baked into it (see your next feature) but the likes of shield, misty step and counter spell are also defensive spells that don’t require foregoing your sneak attack.

True strike could be a good option that still allows you to land your sneak attack while adding some extra damage at higher levels and making your damage type radiant to bypass resistances.

You can also focus on out of combat spells. Things like minor illusion can distract while you sneak around. Disguise self and invisibility can also help with subterfuge.

For more detailed advice on which spells to take, you can take a look at my arcane trickster spell guide.

Mage hand legerdemain – Lv3

How it works

When you cast mage hand, you can do so as a bonus action and make the hand invisible. You can control it as a bonus action and can make sleight of hand checks through it.

Tactics

This is an excellent option outside of combat. Got a lock or item you can’t reach or a trap that might explode on you? Just use your invisible, spectral hand.
You can even use this in combat. Imagine a wizard with a nasty magical wand on his belt. Just stab him with your sneak attack while your mage hand grabs the wand from behind. Or just nick his component pouch.

Magical ambush – Lv9

How it works

When you cast a spell while you have the invisible condition, the target has disadvantage on any saving throws against the spell that turn.

Tactics

The obvious way to cast a spell while invisible is through the invisibility or greater invisibility spells. However, an easier way to accomplish this is through the hide action (which rogues can take as a bonus action). This now grants the invisible condition.
The best spells to cast for this are going to be AoE spells that require a saving throw causing multiple enemies to be at disadvantage simultaneously. The likes of fireball, color spray and hypnotic pattern fit the bill here.

Versatile trickster – Lv13

How it works

When you use the trip option of cunning strike, you can trip a second target within 5ft of your mage hand.

Tactics

It’s worth having your mage hand around early in combat and this ups the benefits of using trip for your cunning strike. Just make sure your mage hand is near some enemies.
If your mage hand is already next to an enemy, you don’t even need to use your bonus action to command it based on the wording in this feature.

Spell thief – Lv17

How it works

If you’re hit by a spell, you can use your reaction to force the spellcaster to take an intelligence saving throw. If they fail, the spell is negated and you have the spell prepared for the next 8hrs, as long as it’s often a level you know. The enemy caster is unable to cast this spell for that duration.

Tactics

The negation of the spell is perhaps the most valuable thing here. You can negate a spell of any level making it like a free use of counter spell with extra bonuses. Don’t be afraid to use this against something really nasty if you need to, even if you won’t get to steal the spell for yourself.
Of course if you do want to use a really good cleric or druid spells you can’t already use, then this can be great for that.
The saving throw requires intelligence which the likes of wizards will be great at. However, clerics, druids, warlocks and other spellcasters likely won’t be. This means this is more likely to be effective against spellcasters that are low in intelligence so worth bearing in mind if fighting multiple spellcasters.

Building an arcane trickster

You’ll need to merge roguish cunning with spellcasting acumen making arcane tricksters almost unique (other than eldritch knights) into their build requirements.

Below I’ve put together how you can build an optimal arcane trickster.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Dexterity: Important for AC, attacks and stealth skills. A must have for any rogue.
Intelligence: The effectiveness of your spellcasting relies on this so you’ll need to get it high. Especially if you want to have a decent DC for saving throw spells.
Constitution: You might be dodging in and out of danger, but you’ll still likely find yourself regularly getting a bruising. Especially if you plan on getting close to your targets.
Charisma: With all the subterfuge, you may find you need to be a dab-hand at deception or persuasion so a decent charisma won’t go amiss. It’s hard to invest in both constitution and charisma though.

Options to avoid

Wisdom: Only useful for skills and saving throws but you’ve got too much else to focus on.
Strength: Pointless on a rogue. You should dump this.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	8
Dexterity	15	15
Constitution	10	13
Intelligence	15	14
Wisdom	8	10
Charisma	14	12

Skills

Recommended options

Acrobatics: Good for any physical activities and works with your dexterity, unlike athletics.
Deception: Very important face skill for a rogue.
Insight: Great face skill and you have the intelligence to back it up.
Intimidation: Decent face skill of you want to lean into charisma.
Investigation: Good option for discovering things.
Perception: Always useful, especially for the guy at the front checking for traps.
Persuasion: Top face skill. Essential if you intend to invest in face skills.
Sleight of Hand: You’ll need this for unpicking locks and disarming trap.
Stealth: Essential for a rogue as you’ll definitely need to sneak around places.

Options to avoid

Athletics: You’re far better of going for acrobatics.

Species/race

There are a few things to consider when choosing a species for an arcane trickster:

Safety first: Rogues are not as tough as other martials so anything that can help keep you stay safe is a good option. Resilience features can be useful too, but they tend to be secondary as you’re better off just avoiding damage altogether.
Innate spellcasting: As a spellcaster, you can repeat cast spells and have the intelligence to back them up.

Recommended options

Aasimar (2024): Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage increases your hardiness. For celestial revelation, all the options are useful but you usually want to avoid being surrounded by enemies, making flight your best option. Use this to fire off shots and spells from the relative safety of the skies. And you can still hide in the air, popping out from behind trees, buildings and other things. It’s also useful outside of combat for accessing awkward places. A bit of healing is a decent emergency option too.
Elf (2024): A skill and some resilience to things like the charmed condition is useful. The main thing here though is the extra spells. All the Elvish subspecies offer good spells for you. A High Elf can get you another cantrip of your choice and the likes of misty step, Drow get darkness and faerie fire while Wood Elves have stealth-enhancing spells like pass without trace. They also move a little faster than other species.
Halflings (2024): Much easier hiding is great for a rogue, allowing you to hide behind your wizard (or other ranged character of medium size) and jump out with sneak attacks. Luck is universally great, but especially good for a class with lots of high risk, high reward rolls like being stealthy, disarming traps, trying to deceive others and attempting to land sneak attacks. Brave gives you a little extra resilience which is always handy.
Gnomes (2024): A Forest Gnome’s minor illusion and speak with animals work great for an arcane trickster. Minor illusion is great for distractions and speak with animals for information gathering. Gnomish cunning is an excellent durability feature against some very common saving throws.
Tiefling (2024): A choice of decent spells to add to your repertoire is good plus a resistance for extra resilience.

Options to avoid

Any race can work well for an arcane trickster so there are no bad options. At worst, you get a bit more durable with something like an Orc which is still decent.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 as the ability score increases previously tied to your race/species are now linked to your background. Remember that you can either choose to increase one of the ability score options from a background by 2 and the other by 1, or you can choose to increase all 3 ability scores by 1.

You also get an origin feat linked to your background too.

Primarily, you want to focus on increasing key ability scores with the associated origin feat being your next priority. As such, I’d suggest the below are your best backgrounds for an arcane trickster:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Artisan	Strength, dexterity, intelligence	Crafter	Investigation, persuasion	One kind of artisan’s tools
Criminal	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Alert	Sleight of hand, stealth	Thieves tools
Merchant	Constitution, intelligence, charisma	Lucky	Animal handling, persuasion	Navigator’s tools
Noble	Strength, intelligence, charisma	Skilled	History, persuasion	One kind of gamin set

There are actually a lot of backgrounds that could work depending on your ability score priorities as constitution and charisma are both viable options to improve on top of the more important dexterity and intelligence. The above should typically be your best options though. Criminal probably has the best balance of ability score improvements, skills and origin feat.

Feats

At 1st level, you can grab an origin feat through your background and from level 4, you can pick up a general feat (or another origin feat if you want) instead of an ability score increase.

General feats are all half feats now as they give an ability score increase and the traits of a feat. But you’ll only get +1 to an ability score rather than the +2 you’d get from increasing your ability score. Make sure you go with a feat with an appropriate ability score increase (dexterity and intelligence are best for an arcane trickster, but constitution and charisma can work too).

Below are some good feats for an arcane trickster:

Origin feats

Alert – You can either ensure you’re almost always one of the first to take a turn, or pass on to someone else. Going first is good for AoE spells or attacking from a hidden position and landing a sneak attack for a high damage (and potentially lethal) early attack.
Lucky – More ways to be reliable at important rolls is universally beneficial. Especially for when you miss a sneak attack.
Musician – A universally great feat for dishing out heroic inspiration. Great for altruistic rogues.
Magic initiate – Great if you want some spells from another spell list.

General feats

Actor – Great if you want to use something like disguise self a lot to impersonate others and tackle some subterfuge. You’ll need some high charisma and face skill proficiencies to pull this off though.
Defensive duelist – Great for melee arcane tricksters to add some easy AC with their reaction (and you should always be wielding finesse weapons in melee combat).
Fey-touched – Extra spells including misty step which is excellent for getting out of danger or accessing difficult to reach places.
Inspiring leader – Great for charisma-heavy arcane tricksters to grant temporary hit points to the party.
Mage slayer – Best against mages, but having what is practically legendary resistance is also great.
Piercer – Extra damage on criticals and more reliable damage on standard attacks. Go for a short sword/dagger combo and a light crossbow to use this for all your weapon attacks.
Shadow-touched – Invisibility is excellent for a rogue and more spells is always welcome. Plus you can repeat cast them.
Skulker – Become really reliable at hiding. Blindsight is also great in certain situations that you could even exploit in combat through things like the darkness spell.
Speedy – Good for hit and run tactics when you don’t want to use your bonus action on disengaging.

Weapons

You’ll want to go with finesse and ranged weapons that can take advantage of your dexterity for attacks. The specific weapons you choose though, will depend partly on how you want to fight and what weapon mastery properties you want to be using:

A light crossbow is your best ranged option with the highest damage available and long range attacks.
As landing sneak attacks is so important to your damage output, getting a second attack is quite important to ensure you’re not reliant on a single attack. Because you’ll need your bonus action for other things than offhand attacks, this means weapons with the nick weapon mastery are more important for you than the weapon’s damage output. This means going for daggers or scimitars.
You can grab a shortsword to pair with a dagger or scimitar for easy advantage with vex and for your second attack. A scimitar does more damage than a dagger so is a better option, unless you want to take the piercer feat, in which case, go for a dagger.

Armor

Your only real option here is studded leather as it’s so cheap that it’s easily available and you can only wear light armor. No other type of light armor is better than studded leather.