Scion Of The Three Rogue: D&D 5e 2024 Optimisation Guide

Brutal rogues that draw upon the powers of the violent, dead three gods.

The “three” refers to the dead three gods of Bane (god of tyranny), Bhaal (god of violence and murder) and Myrkul (god of death). They’re about as unpleasant as they sound.

Those familiar with the Baldur’s Gate games (especially Baldur’s Gate 3) will be most familiar with the trios unholy alliance. Scions of the three embody the dark gifts granted by these evil gods, but you do not have to be an evil character to play one. Some gain these gifts by a curse which has allusions to the Bhaalspawn of the Baldur’s Gate series and gives you a roleplay route into a less violent character with these gifts.

The capabilities of the Scion of the three match their murderous origins. They’re violent brutes that aggressively attack their targets until their target or they themself are dead. More than any other rogue subclass, they have a propensity to throw themselves into danger, but the extra damage output is often worth it.

I’m a big fan of the all the Baldur’s Gate games so not only is this one of the most exciting of the new Forgotten Realms subclasses for me, I also think it’s one of the most flavourful.

The scion of the three rogue is a brand new subclass introduced in Heroes of Faerun, a supplement to D&D 2024 focused on the Forgotten Realms. In this article, I’ll be diving into their capabilities, tactics and how you can create an optimised build.

At a glance

Stealthy class ideal for cunning and sneaky characters
Land high damage hits with sneak attacks
Land even more sneaky attacks with reaction sneak attacks with teleportation
Dish out even more sneak attacks with reaction sneak attacks and teleportation
Channel the powers of the dead three gods with resistances, cantrips and terrifying attacks

5/5 – The Scion of the three is a high risk, high damage subclass that feels like a terrifying brute and an absolute bully to play. You’ll have to balance danger with damage, but ultimately, this is one of the better rogue subclasses for D&D 2024.

Scion of the three features

Bloodthirst (Lv3) – 5/5

This is not just an easy reaction attack, it’s an opportunity for an extra sneak attack (sneak attacks work once per turn not once per round). This isn’t too hard to engineer if the target took melee damage so you’ll want to mainly use this on targets of melee damage.

If you get advantage too (say because the target is prone) then this is even better. It’s a bloodthirsty ability that can be absolutely savage if you use it in conjunction with sneak attack and great for finishing enemies off.

You’ll need to invest a bit in intelligence to get more uses of this. I’d say that’s a very worthwhile investment, but it does mean sacrificing something like charisma or constitution (dexterity remains a priority though).

The one disadvantage of this is that it often works counter to a rogue’s inclination towards hit and run tactics, throwing you back into danger. I do think the damage potential often outweighs the danger you’re throwing yourself into though.

Dread allegiance (Lv3) – 3/5

The only reason to use chill touch is if you’re beyond level 4, only have one attack, can’t access your sneak attack and your intelligence is similar to your dexterity. That’s a lot of ifs that you should be trying to engineer not to happen. Having said that, if you know you’ll face undead, you may want the necrotic resistance anyway.

Blade ward is decent defensively, but you have to give up a chance at a sneak attack to use it, which also isn’t great. The poison resistance is the best resistance though.

Minor illusion is a great spell on a sneaky rogue though, so is definitely the go to cantrips option. Psychic damage is the rarest of the lot though so there’s going to be a bit of shuffling things according to what you think is most useful but I’d suggest either Bhaal for the poison resistance or Bane for minor illusion under most circumstances.

Another reason to get your intelligence decent here too.

Strike fear (Lv9) – 4/5

Consistent advantage on a target is going to be great for your sneak attacks, plus the usual effects of frightened. Great if you want to focus fire on an enemy. It costs no actions and only 1d6 of damage so a really great option. Even if you’re facing an enemy with legendary resistance, this could be a great way to whittle that down (though it may well be immune to frightened anyway).

Aura of malevolence (Lv13) – 3/5

Its not a lot of damage, but it’s bonus damage for no other expenditure. It will always damage your target, but the challenge here is teleporting to or from lots of enemies is exactly where a rogue doesn’t want to be and the damage isn’t big enough to usually be worth engineering this way.

Still, you might catch 2 or 3 enemies in this way and that’s decent still. As with other things for the Scion of the three, higher intelligence will be better here.

Dread incarnate (Lv17) – 5/5

This will affect about a third of your sneak attack dice with an average increase of 1.5 extra damage per die. At this level, that’s an average of 3 dice so 4.5 extra damage per sneak attack. A 4 round encounter with say 1.5 sneak attacks per round (because of bloodthirst) will mean an extra 27 damage per encounter which is decent and removes the chance of low damage sneak attacks.

On top of that, bloodthirst will be happening more often too. All of this means pretty solid extra damage to your rogue with no costs to resources or action economy.

How good is the scion of the three?

The Scion of the three is a high damage, but also fairly high risk rogue. A build dedicated to endurance is probably a good idea. It’s more a violent thug than stealthy thief which is wonderfully thematic and the idea of a relentless, bloodthirsty stalker is genuinely terrifying.

You’ve got a decent need here to build for intelligence which stretches your ability scores a bit further, but that’s not an unusual challenge for roguish subclasses (like arcane tricksters and soulknifes) and not overly problematic. Rogues can afford this too, but you may also want to build for endurance which means investing in constitution and maybe some other things.

And that’s part of the challenge of the Scion of the three; when are you cautious and when do you launch yourself into brutal the fray.

Thematically, I love the Scion of the three and if you’re looking for a high damage rogue that has more chances to land sneak attack damage, then this is the subclass you want. If you prefer more cautious tactics, I’d try a different subclass.

I think it’s one of the better rogue subclasses, even if managing safety is a slight challenge.

5/5

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Building a Scion of the three

The scion of the three relies on similar attributes to most rogue subclasses. They do need to invest a bit in intelligence and they have a greater need for resilience, but many of their tactics remain the same.

Below I’ve put together how you can build an optimal Scion of the three.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Dexterity: Important for AC, attacks, initiative and stealth skills. 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. This is especially the case with the Scion of the three with bloodthirst launching you into the midst of the fray.
Intelligence: Many of your Scion of the three features rely on a decent intelligence, especially your number of uses of bloodthirst.

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.
Charisma: This can be a good option for a rogue, but you need to invest in intelligence, so won’t have space for this.

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

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, especially with your high intelligence.
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 Scion of the three:

Safety first: Rogues are not as tough as other martials so anything that can help keep you safe is a good option. Resilience features can be useful too, especially as bloodthirsty will often take you into danger.
Innate spellcasting: You can’t repeat cast spells but you should have a decent intelligence making spellcasting an option.

Recommended options

Aasimar (2024): Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage increases your hardiness. For celestial revelation, all the options are useful, especially as you might be one of the few rogues diving into the middle of enemies, but flight will always be a good option for some safety. Use this to launch projectiles 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.
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 actually work really well for a rogue as they don’t require spell slots. Minor illusion is a cantrip that’s great for distractions and you can ignore bane and focus on poison resistance. 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 or intelligence.

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.
Cult if the dragon initiate (HoF) – Interesting interaction with strike fear for heroic inspiration when you cause the frightened condition. I’d actually ignore Dragon’s terror as the action cost is quite high.
Lucky – More ways to be reliable at important rolls is universally beneficial. Especially for when you need to land that all important sneak attack.
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 skills proficiencies is going to help there. Especially if you don’t have another intelligence class in the party for knowledge 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.
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.