Phantom Rogue: D&D 2024 (5.5e) Optimisation Guide

Ghostly rogues that tread the path between life and death.

Phantoms are rogues that are especially close to death. Not only do they exact it on others, but they also draw on its powers. This grants them necrotic powers and soul trinkets that can manifest a ghostly aura.

As a result, they can be highly valued by thieves guilds and other organisations for their ability to kill, but also gather information and sneak almost unnoticed into the most fortified locations.

If you play a phantom rogue, you should expect a rogue that does many roguish things even better. They hit harder, sneak better and gather information more. They do this with a ghostly flair, but ultimately, you’re specialising even further as a rogue.

The phantom was originally published for D&D 2014 in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything and has been updated for D&D 2024 in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. In this article, I’ve analysed this updated rogue subclass with advice, tactics and optimisations.

At a glance

Stealthy class ideal for cunning and sneaky characters
Land high damage hits with sneak attacks
Deal even more damage with sneak attacks
Gather information from the dead
Sneak around with ghostly discretion

4/5 – The phantom manages to be a rogue that does roguish things even better. Better sneak attack, better stealth and better information gathering. It does all of this with a spooky, ghostly vibe. While it performs strongly at later levels, it’s only decent at lower levels.

What’s changed?

The phantom was originally released in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. It was a good subclass then and remains one now with very little changing other than a few tweaks which include:

Whispers of the dead: Unchanged.
Wails from the grave: The number of uses is now based on your dexterity modifier rather than your proficiency bonus. This likely means more uses at lower levels but a slightly lower ceiling. For most players, this will be a buff.
Tokens of the departed: Now start with 2 soul trinkets and trinkets are no longer based on proficiency bonus but a slightly lower number that increases with levels. Instead of consuming a trinket to ask a spirit a question, you can use 1 to cast augury.
Voice of death: Brand new feature that lets you cast speak with dead once per rest.
Ghost walk: No longer need a bonus action to end this feature.
Death’s friend: Now gain a soul trinket when you roll initiative if you don’t already have one rather than when you finish a long rest.

Phantom features

Halfling rogue — Rogue: Wizards of the Coast

Wails from the grave (Lv3) – 3/5

Free half sneak attack damage to another target without rolling to hit is pretty good. It deals necrotic damage too so you’ve got an alternate damage type here and there’s no dodging this damage through high AC or even resisting it with legendary resistance. It just happens.

The only drawback at this stage is usability and damage. You’re probably looking at 3-5 uses per long rest which is decent, but not loads. The damage output does start low (1d6) but also increases steadily. When you start getting soul trinkets at level 9, your uses of this should increase a lot, but until then, you’ll need to be a little more sparing.

You may want to target really resilient enemies with this damage as you’ll have no problems hitting them.

I do think it’s a little odd that uses are tied to dexterity rather than a mental stat like intelligence, but I guess dexterity is easier to build for in a rogue.

Whispers of the dead (Lv3) – 2/5

While this is a ribbon feature, it is a strong version of a ribbon feature as it grants a proficiency that can be changed every rest allowing you to adapt to the current needs of the group. I wouldn’t use this for something you’ll always need like perception, stealth or sleight of hand as you’ll want to be able to swap it around. But you could take proficiency in a tool to help with crafting, grab intimidation for social situations or a knowledge skill when you’re investigating books found in ancient ruins.

Tokens of the departed (Lv9) – 5/5

This essentially represents 2 extra uses of wails from the grave which increases a little with your levels. On its own, that’s pretty great, but you can also recover soul trinkets to use this way when near a creature that dies meaning you can use wails of the dead potentially many more times. In fact, at this point, wails of the dead becomes a really good feature because of the increased damage output and number of uses.

This does necessitate not being too far away from enemies (preferably behind some enemy martials) and might encourage you to target lower HP enemies to keep replenishing your soul tokens.

There is more though because if you have at least one soul trinkets on you, you have advantage on death and constitution saving throws, making you more resilient. You can also use a soul trinkets to cast augury too which can be a decent divination spell.

Voice of death (Lv9) – 3/5

Speak with dead is a good spell and can be very useful. Casting it for free once per rest is nice too. I’m surprised that dexterity is your spellcasting ability for this (not that it makes any difference to the casting of the spell), but you’d have thought intelligence would have made more sense.

Ghost walk (Lv13) – 5/5

Flight and incorporeal movement are great for sneaking around, even if the flight is very slow. You can easily walk through walls and scale large buildings. It’s also very handy in combat, especially with disadvantage on attack rolls, but you can also do interesting things like attack, then walk through a wall out of line of sight or fly out of melee range.

While it’s only 1 use per long rest, you have 3 soul trinkets so can easily replenish this, especially as soul trinkets themselves can easily be replenished.

Death’s friend (Lv17) – 4/5

Always have a soul trinket when you start combat is sometimes useful. The big thing here is wails from the grave is basically doing double damage now as it affects the original target of your sneak attack as well as the secondary target of wails from the grave.

How good is the phantom?

The phantom is decent at lower levels with some OK increases to damage and some decent utility. However, it becomes very good from level 9 with uses of wails from the grave increasing exponentially as well as the utility you have.

Phantoms tend to specialise further in roguish things (which is no bad thing) rather than gaining new capabilities. Sneak attacks deal more damage, they can sneak around even better from level 13 and they have some handy information gathering tools and skill/tool proficiencies.

That’s not to say that they’re boring. There’s a really great vibe here of a rogue that’s incredibly close to death and the departed.

In rating them, I have to consider tier 1 and 2 more heavily than 3 and 4. Phantoms are decent at lower levels and really good at higher levels which makes them a solid class overall, if a little uneven.

4/5

Related articles

Building a phantom rogue

The phantom relies on similar attributes to most rogue subclasses. You want them dextrous and skillful. There is a case for investing in charisma and face skills on a phantom due to their information gathering tendencies, but this isn’t essential.

Below I’ve put together how you can build an optimal phantom rogue.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Dexterity: Important for AC, attacks, initiative and stealth skills. It will also give you more uses of wails from the grave. A must have for any rogue.
Constitution: You might be dodging in and out of danger, but you’ll still likely find yourself regularly getting a bruising. The more constitution you have, the more resilient you’ll be.
Charisma: An optional one for a phantom rogue, but if you’re looking to gather information, this makes a decent tertiary ability score, especially as you have the space to invest in a 3rd ability score.
Intelligence: The other option is to go for some intelligence to aid with things like investigation or even knowledge skills you might occasionally take through whispers of the dead.

Options to avoid

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

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

Skills

Recommended options

Acrobatics: Good for any physical activities and works with your dexterity, unlike athletics.
Deception: Decent face skills if you end up somewhere you shouldn’t.
Intimidation: Decent face skill, especially for a cold-blooded killer.
Investigation: Good option for discovering things, rogues are likely to attempt this a fair bit.
Perception: Always useful, especially for the guy at the front checking for traps.
Persuasion: Top face skill, especially if you need to talk your way into somewhere.
Sleight of Hand: You’ll need this for unpicking locks and disarming traps.
Stealth: Essential for a rogue as you’ll definitely need to sneak around places.

Species/race

There are a few things to consider when choosing a species for a phantom rogue:

Safety first: Rogues are not as tough as other martials so anything that can help keep you safe is a good option.
Resilience: Resilience features can be useful too, especially as you’ll want to lurk somewhere near enemies so you can use wails from the grave and recharge your soul trinkets.
Skill master: Rogues benefit a lot from being highly skillful, especially if you need to play the party face. Some extra skills can be useful here.

Recommended options

Changeling (2024): If you want to use a different kind of subterfuge, impersonations and shapechanging can work great on a rogue, especially with those improved face skills.
Elf (2024): While the spellcasting can be handy from any Elvish subrace, the Wood Elf is excellent when it comes to stealth and moving quickly which suits a rogue nicely.
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.
Human (2024): An extra origin feat and skill proficiency is great for more versatility. Regular heroic inspiration can be useful for those important rolls you make like using stealth and sneak attack.
Gnomes (2024): A Forest Gnome’s minor illusion and speak with animals actually work really well for a rogue as they don’t require spell slots. Minor illusion is a cantrip that’s great for distractions. Speak with animals can be cast as a ritual for information gathering. Gnomish cunning is an excellent durability feature against some very common saving throws.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 with ability score increases, origin feats and skills all now linked to your background.

Dexterity should be your priority and then constitution. Charisma and intelligence can be options too for a phantom.

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Criminal	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Alert	Sleight of hand, stealth	Thieves tools
Charlatan	Dexterity, constitution, charisma	Skilled	Deception, sleight of hand	Forgery kit
Dragon cultist	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Cult of the dragon initiate	Deception, stealth	Calligrapher’s supplies
Guide	Dexterity, constitution, wisdom	Magic initiate (druid)	stealth, survival	Cartographer’s tools
Harper	Dexterity, intelligence, charisma	Harper agent	Performance, sleight of hand	Disguise kit
Mulhorandi tomb raider	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Lucky	Investigation, religion	Mason’s tools
Scribe	Dexterity, intelligence, wisdom	Skilled	Investigation, perception	Calligrapher’s tools
Shadowmasters exile	Dexterity, intelligence, charisma	Savage attacker	Acrobatics, stealth	Thieves’ tools

Criminal or Mulhorandi tomb raider are perhaps your best options here with the best ability scores and origin feat combinations with some good skill proficiency options too.

Feats

I’d suggest the following feats for a Scion of the three rogue:

Origin feats

Alert – Deal damage early in combat. If you’re lucky, you can take someone out of the picture before they can take a turn.
Lucky – More ways to be reliable at important rolls is universally beneficial. Especially for when you need to land that all important sneak attack.
Magic initiate – If you want a bit of spellcasting with things like minor illusion or detect magic to work alongside your stealth, this can be a decent way to do that.
Musician – A universally great feat for dishing out heroic inspiration. Great for altruistic rogues. Plus you can ensure you have some heroic inspiration available too.
Skilled – You’re likely to be your party’s skills master, so more skill proficiencies is going to help there. Especially if you don’t have another charisma class for face skills.
Tough – If you want a bit more durability, this is the way to go.

General feats

Dual wielder – An option if you want to forego cunning actions for the extra attack when dual wielding instead. You can mix and match and simply using nick is an option instead, but this will give you more chances to land a sneak attack.
Fairy trickster (HoF) – Rogues and monks are the most likely to benefit from the disengage aspect of this. Causing disadvantage on saving throws is universally great.
Piercer – Better damage for most of the best rogue weapons. Especially when you land a critical.
Purple dragon commandant (HoF) – A great way to get advantage for your sneak attacks. Not that you should aim to be bloodied, but you’ll be more dangerous at that point.
Putrefy – Since you should be causing necrotic damage a fair bit, you can also cause the poisoned condition once per rest each time without a saving throw.
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 (if you work with an ally).
Shadow touched – Invisibility is a great spell for a rogue and another spell with your decent intelligence is a solid option.
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 highest damage 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 may 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.
If you want 2 attacks at range, you can also grab 2 daggers and use their thrown property.

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 anyway. No other type of light armor is better than studded leather.