Hi all, I’m not sure if I’m playing Arcane Trickster wrong, or of that subclass just isn’t for me, so I’d love some advice.
I’m level 4 now, and I find myself never using my spells in combat. I love trying to figure out the best ways to gain advantage for my sneak attacks, but since all my spells take a whole action to cast, I never feel like they are worth using for this purpose, when I can try to hide or go to an ally to help them fight in melee. Is there some neat way to use Arcane Trickster in unison with all the sneaking and backstabbing, or do the two objectives not quite work together?
Maybe it would be better not to use combat spells at all? This is a balance of the regular features of a Rogue vs what is actually useful to them. The rogue deals a fair bit of damage in melee combat. No reason to need the shocking grasp cantrip.
Having the dash, disengage, or hide bonus action is great so long as you have for instance a spell that might augment one of those. For instance a spell like Fog Cloud or minor illusion to create an effect that would give you something to hide behind.
You're not high enough level yet to do this with other spells that are higher level on the spell list, but I think this is a matter of thinking about which spells work in conjunction with being a rogue.
Rogues are a bit squishy so using something for extra HP or a spell for protection might be in order (mage armor?). Find familiar might work just to do extra buffs/damage, and give you flanking.
You don't tell us what your race or background is so we can't tell if you have anything extra going for you, but I think you could have fun with this possibly if you change your intent from dealing damage with spells in combat to using spells to augment your class features in combat. Or those of the rest of your party.
Thank you, that sounds like some very good advice! I'll have to take a closer look at the spell list, I think it's just like you say and that I've been focusing too much on the combat spells. I'm a Tiefling with Urchin background in case that gives any more context :)
I don't know if you're familiar with rpgbot but I generally recommend at least taking a look at it. It's got some really good advice and the creator is super nice (I've talked to them on reddit). https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/characters/classes/rogue/
Your race gives you dark vision and some fire resistance so a spell like dark vision isn't useful to your PC personally but might be useful to your party members if they don't have dark vision. Also, shield may be useful to you because it's a reaction not an action. Things like this might actually up your versatility in and out of combat.
I know I know you're not like… Playing D&D tabletop but still might be useful to have a look.
Thanks, I've only looked briefly so far but it does seem like an interesting read!
You're welcome! Glad I could help.