Making - Doom (Dota 2) 5E

"YOU ARE DOOMED!" - Doom

One of my favorite things about Dota 2 are all the unique heroes, there are over 110, and the creative different abilities for each one. I find myself trying to mechanically make many of these heroes work in 5e DnD. So today we are talking about Doom a fallen celestial, tortured for his arrogance and disobedience and cast out of the heavens. You can read about his story and his abilities here.

Race - Fallen Aasimar

So it was a bit of a debate between this or a tiefling. I think tiefling might have a bit more mechanical benefit to the build we are going for but I went for story here. I really like the necrotic shourd representing Doom's charred wings. An if your DM is letting you play an evil character I'm sure you can talk with them about flavoring your look to suit.

Here is the stat distribution:

Str: 15  Dex:10  Con: 13  Int: 8  Wis: 12  Cha: 16

we then add our +1 to STR and +2 to CHA bringing it to:

Str: 16  Dex:10  Con: 13 Int: 8  Wis: 12  Cha: 16

This will set us up well for our class but next lets talk background.

Background - Acolyte

I thought briefly about going Far Traveler, but I thought Acolyte fit better. Being apart of this order of celestials and then cast out. It makes sense he has knowledge of this order he now wants to tear down.
This gives us proficiency in Insight and Religion even though your not great at them I think it makes sense. For the additional languages I went with Infernal and Primordial to represent the nature of Doom's powers now.

Class - Paladin - Oathbreaker

I like the themes here, and fits the fallen being. The Oathbreaker Spells will cover our skills, and help round out the flavor for making Doom. So lets get started.

Level 1 -

HP - 11
Armor - All
Weapons - All
Tools - None 
Saving Throws - Wisdom & Charisma

Skills - Athletics & Intimidation

 Here I wanted to play to our strengths so we have to good skills. So Athletics to take benefit of our STR score, and Intimidation which depending on the DM you can probably take advantage of with STR an CHA scores.

Equipment Choices - 
Greatsword
Halberd
Javelins - 5
Explorers Pack
Chain Mail
Holy Symbol

Divine Sense
Lay on Hands

Level 2 -

Fighting Style - Great Weapon Fighting - Being able to re-roll the 1's and 2's will help raise your average damage.

Spellcasting - On top of using your slots for Smites, the Searing Smite spell is going to represent Doom's Infernal Blade skill.

Divine Smite - If you can talk to your DM, and see if they would let you rework your smite to fire or necrotic damage. Otherwise you can flavor as a radiant vengeance, and a remnant of your celestial past.

Level 3 - 

Racial - Necrotic Shroud - These will represent Doom's skeletal burned wings. Also you get a nice necrotic buff, and a chance to frighten.

Oathbreaker - 

Oath Spells - You get two pretty good spells here inflict wounds does a good amount of damage, but Hellish Rebuke gives you an option to damage out of turn which is always great. Hellish Rebuke is also going to represent Doom's Scorched Earth skill. While a spell like Fire Shield would work better I try to keep these builds to level 10, and would lose what makes up the rest of the build going just for Fire Shield.

Channel Divinity - 
   Control Undead - While not raising the dead yourself, this can be representative of the Raise Dead skill you get for devouring the Troll Shaman Neutral Camps.
   Dreadful Aspect - Another option to frighten those around you, probably wont use this to often.

Divine Health - You are immune to disease. No more flu shots for you -_-

Level 4 - 

Ability Score Increase/Feat - +2 to Strength, bumps us up to 18 and +4 bonus.

Level 5 - 

Proficiency Increase - goes up to +3

Extra Attack - Two swings now pretty good.

Spells - Slots increase to 4, and level 2 spells! You also get Crown of Madness, and Darkness as Oathbreaker spells.

Level 6 - 

Okay for level 6...... A NEW CLASS APPROACHES!!!!!!!!!!

Multi-Class - Warlock - Hexblade

Spells: Hexblade
As a Hexblade warlock you get access to the Shield spell and get to have it always prepared along with wrathful smite.

Cantrips: Were going with Eldritch Blast to represent the Satyr Tormentor, Shockwave ability. An Thunderclap for the Hellbear thunderclap.

Spells: We get one a warlock slot now, and 2 spells. Taking Armor of Agathys to represent the Ogre Frostmage's Ice Armor skill, and Hex is just a good spell.

Hex Warrior: For our build this we don't get much use of this. We already have all these proficiencies and using the Great-sword negates the using the charisma but we got good strength so its all good.

Hexblade's Curse:  Just like in Dota 2 we are getting our ULT at level 6! This curse will act as our the Doom skill, and gaining the hit points for killing the target also serve as a light version of the Devour skill.

Level 7 - 

Another warlock slot and a new warlock spell, take whichever spell fits the flavor or usefulness for the campaign you are playing in.

Eldritch Invocations - Cursebringer - works great for our build, since we already aren't making use of Hex Warrior. So being able to take to move our Curse will be useful. Also might be a good alternative to smiting if you find yourself fighting celestial creatures that are resistant to radiant.

Burning Hex - More fire damage to help represent the Infernal Blade skill.

***Another Option - Mask of Many Faces -  depending on the campaign your playing you might need ready access to disguise yourself to go into town without people immediately calling for the town guard.

Level 8 - 

Here we take another level of warlock and our warlock spells are now 2nd level. For the new spell you get to learn, I'd recommend misty step. The utility is great and probably easier than trying to get your DM to give you a  blink dagger.


Pact Boon - Pact of the Blade
I think this is a good option if magic items are few you can take the improved pact blade invocations with this or if you stick with warlock long enough the Lifedrinker invocation. Also it can help you in similar RP situations as and Eldritch Knights when you have to go into places but leave your weapon behind.

Beyond -

With that that about covers it for this build at level 9 I would take the 4th level of warlock for the ability score increase or to pick up Great Weapon Master Feat. Beyond that go with whatever you seem to be enjoying or base it on the flow of the campaign. If you don't need to or get to short rest a lot maybe go for more Paladin. If you find your party short resting quite often might take advantage of it and take more warlock levels. Either way you will be terrifying towns people in no time and getting revenge on the celestials that did this to you in the first place.

Thanks for checking out this build, and if you give it a try I hope you enjoy!

Also I made an update to the Oath of the Dragon Knight Paladin I made you can get the updated version on the post here.

Starting with a Bang

You are in the Morning Glory Inn, a large gathering spot on the edge of Andel for adventurers. We see a particularly odd party, [insert each player describing their character]. A mysterious figure walks in the room, and spots the party. He approaches throws a bag of coins on the table and says "I have need of escort over the mountains. The journey is perilous but there is another bag of coin waiting for you on the other side."

Sizing up the occupants of the table he says "What say you?"

For many people who have played a fantasy RPG before, you may have had a similar experience when starting a campaign. While this is a perfectly fine start it can get old, rehashing the same beginning experience.

Well I would like to challenge everyone to try and start their next campaign with a bang! This may be some of your players first time make it memorable! You may be playing with seasoned gamers, but why not give them a reason to remember why they love playing. Here are a couple examples of what I like to do to kick things off with more than just a pint.

Roll Initiative

These words typically are good at getting your players attention. Why not start your campaign off in the middle of some action! This will get your tactical and combat focused players paying attention from the beginning, and gives your players a quick chance to test drive their new characters.

The flickering light of your make shift fire illuminates part of the derelict temple. This former house of worship is your parties chosen place of rest for the night. Though in disrepair it provides a feeling of safety ... until you hear the cracking. Bones pulling themselves together. Grabbing up their old discarded weapons and armor, brought back from death by the curse that plagues this land. Their hollow eyes turn to look at you gathered around your fire as they approach with cruel intent...

Roll For Initiative!

I did a intro similar to this for a gothic horror themed campaign. Not only do I get to start the campaign with a fight, but get to give some cinematic setting information. This will help give the players a feel of what to expect on this first adventure. After this fight we flashed back to the city they came from, and they found out what their mission was. This derelict temple became a rest stop on their travel, and where we caught back up to "real time".

You can leave it like that as a place on the road to anywhere so it can fit in no matter what first adventure your players choose to go on. Or if you want you could maybe play out the first room of the first dungeon if you have the first adventure in mind already. Maybe the players could get a glimpse of a challenge they will have to deal with there, and when you flash back they could buy items in town like ropes or pitons to help deal with it.

You definitely don't have to use this as a flashback though, you could just continue on the adventure from their letting the players figure out what quest they are on as they go. Maybe the players could even tell you!

Cinematic Open

These are great they give you a chance to introduce your players to elements in world that they may not get to directly interact with until later in the campaign. However make sure that whatever it is affects the players in some way or why bother talking about it. Maybe you could show the event that sets up the central tension of your world.

As Arioc struck the Dusk Emperor with Sunfall, his celestial maul, a thunder crack rang out shattering the fabric of the world. Decimating the bastions of evil the Emperor had built over the past century. An for the first time in just as long a ray of sunshine shone through the clouds. Though the world was still broken, hope that existed once again.

10 years later...

Short and sweet you could explain the battle a bit more, but it gives a little background on the world an what the players can expect. There is a world that was under the thumb of tyranny but now its being rebuilt. How will the players shape that new world! Maybe you could then start in a tavern but the tavern is in one of the Dusk Emperor's old forts. This takes a trope that many players know but uses it to illustrate how the central tension of the world will effect what the players encounter.

Then again maybe something more direct is in order. You can find lots of these on the internet one of my personal favorites....

Its dark, you feel a great weight pressing upon you. You begin to push the debris off of you, it's heavy and awkward but movable. You start to crawl out of this pile when you finally see some light and a pair of still eyes staring at you. Staring from all around you, panicked you push through the rest of the bodies as quickly as you can. Finally you get yourself free to see a few others standing their traumatized from a similar experience. Were you mistakenly tossed in this mass grave, or were you supposed to be there. If so why are you back now, what do you do?

Another cinematic opening that immediately raises a ton of questions for the players. Why them? Why are they there? Where is there? You can see the difference as well. Both events effect the characters. The first in an indirect way in how it affects the whole world, the other in a much more personal way for the players.


I hope reading these will jump start your creativity and get your gears moving on how to start your next campaign with a bang. Also pull from your favorite movies, comics, books,and video games. If there is a beginning that really grabbed you see if it could translate to the kind of story you want to experience with your players.

Homebrew Paladin Archetype: Oath of the Dragon Knight

Edit made 1/24/07: final version 1.0 update

Wizards has been releasing new class options lately in their online Unearthed Arcana releases. This inspired me to do one of my own. What I came up with is the Oath of the Dragon. A paladin who is bound to the service of a dragon or shares some link with them. The spells give the paladin some opportunities for AoE damage, and fun other abilities inspired by dragons! I also like the flavor of it for role play as well. I hope you enjoy this first draft and, keep an eye out here for any updates.

Oath of the Dragon Knight pdf

Roads Versus Railroads

If you have ever played a pre-written adventure sometimes it can feel like you are just walking down a hallway. This can be okay as a lot of times your characters are walking down a dungeon hallway. The decisions you are making in this situation are what doors do you want to open and how to fight the monsters.

However when a tabletop RPG gets boiled down to only this it can feel like you are on a train track just going. You may choose to blow the horn or disconnect the caboose, but there is only one direction you can go. It can feel like you are stuck on a track, and this is where the term rail-roading comes from.

I first started playing a little bit with the 3.5 edition of DnD but never got into a long term campaign until 4th edition. A lot of what I played had that feeling of being on a train track, but I was new to DnD so I was still trying to understand the rules and just enjoying the scenery. However once I started playing with more experienced DMs and seeing games online. I saw the open world type choices that were available to them, and quickly what I had been playing felt like a video game with extra work. This is what inspired me to DM knowing the limitless possibilities of a table top RPG how it can change to the players and the frustration when it remains rigid. You want your players to become DMs, the more the better, but preferably not out of frustration!

To keep players interested for the long haul they need choices or at least the illusion of choice so that the world feels real, this is called verisimilitude. Well how do you do that, DMs are people too and have day jobs and we cant create every aspect of the world so the players can just go wherever. Your absolutely right, but there are a few things you can do here.

Improv it all - have your notes about the world and make it up as you go. Create things as you play and flesh out the things the players seem most interested in between sessions. While this can be awesome, it is understandable if its not something that everyone can do, and sometimes people who are good at it can even get stumped. Some RPGs even encourage collaborative world building and is meant to be made up as you go so maybe a different game could help here. However if the thought of this makes you anxious or doesn't sound like your cup of tea then maybe...

Get a premade campaign - this goes the complete opposite direction of improv. In a premade campaign the world has been laid out for you. All the locations your players can go to, whats there and who is there. All you need to do is react to the actions of your party, and the campaign book serves as a guide to how to do that. The most recent Wizards of the Coast campaigns Curse of Strahd and Storm Kings Thunder do an excellent job of this. Then again maybe you want to do something original this is were building roads come in.

Putting your players behind the wheel - when you drive your car it's rare for most people to drive off the road. Typically we stick to the roads, we go to the grocery store, our jobs, the movies. Yet we choose which roads we want to take: the highway to get there as soon as possible, the back roads to avoid traffic, or maybe the scenic route to take in what is around you. You can take this in mind when you are building sandboxes for your world for the players to drive around in.

NPCs can be good passengers to have in the car as well. They can suggest interesting places to go, or warn of dangers that lay in certain directions. Just make sure you don't have these NPCs take the wheel or constantly steer the party out of danger. Because you are no longer giving the illusion of infinite choices.

Also I want to stress just because your the DM doesn't mean you have to know everything! It is perfectly okay to say hey lets take a 5-10 min snack break while I think about what is going to happen here. You are just as  much a player as the PCs, and remember it's a game for you to enjoy. Don't put unneeded pressure on yourself.

No matter which approach your take just remember to stick to it and do it a lot. Repetition will only make you better at weaving a world for your players to create wonderful stories in.

So will watching people better than you who have been doing it longer! Matt Colville has an excellent video on the subject you should give it a watch.

Making - Hawkeye (Marvel Avengers) 5E

When you do what Mockingbird and I do -- without powers -- you can't rely on super speed or flight as your weapons. Everything around you is there to help you hit the target. ...We are the weapons!  - Clint Barton

Hawkeye the expert archer/marksman and scout for the Avengers. A capable man skilled enough to go into battle with gods, super-soldiers, and mutants! That's who we are going to be making today.

Race - Human Variant

So we are going to be staying away from magic, and try to get a lot of skills and feats for our build to make use of. So to start we are going with the Human Variant race.

Here is the stat distribution

Str: 12  Dex:15  Con: 13  Int: 10  Wis: 13  Cha: 10

we then add our +1's to Dex and Con bringing it up to

Str: 12  Dex:16  Con: 14 Int: 10  Wis: 13  Cha: 10

We ill take Perception as our skill as Hawkeye especially in the MCU is good at scouting things out and noticing small details.

For the Feat we are taking the obvious one here Sharpshooter. This feat not only has wonderful mechanics but also gives the feel that this guy is a master marksman.

Background - Soldier

So soldier you get athletics which is great for a human at peak physical condition, and Intimidation is good for interrogating the bad guys. Hawkeye also is a pilot though there will probably not be too many air vehicles in the game your playing. So vehicles land here will take the place of that, and for the game proficiency I picked cards.

Background Skills: Athletics, Intimidation

Class - Fighter: Battle Master

Okay lets get to the meat of the class here now, we get a few of the class skills available from Soldier. So here I went with Acrobatics, since again Hawkeye is quite agile and in great shape, and survival since he fits that scout role it should help with tracking and things like that.

Class Skills: Acrobatics, Survival

 Equipment most of the choices are pretty self explanatory, but for choice 2 I took a spear because at times Hawkeye fights with his bow like a short pole-arm so it might be good for melee, and he also does the same thing with a combat knife. At some point you might look into upgrading the light crossbow for a Heavy then you can use it for the higher damage and the longbow for longer distance shots.

Equipment
* Leather Armor, Longbow and 20 arrows
* Spear and Dagger
* Light crossbow and 20 bolts
* Explorers Pack 

Fighting Style: Archery

The +2 to attack is just so good here, and lets you have a shot at hitting with a sharpshooter attack at lower levels. 

Second Wind: Always useful to have a self heal don't forget you have it! 


Level 2:  Action Surge - Make it count as always but don't forget it recharges on short rest.


Level 3: Battlemaster: If we already had the meat for our Hawkeye build this would be the potatoes. The superiority die and maneuvers are going to represent your trick shots and special arrows.

My recommendations would be precision attack to help with those sharpshooter shots. For the other I would take pushing attack for position and extra damage, and disarming strike for the extra damage and to get the enemy to drop a weapon. There are many great choices here but I would pick from these 3.

Student of War: I would talk to your DM here, but If he is willing a Alchemist Supplies, or Poisoners Kit could be cool and allow you to craft some special arrows.


Level 4: Here we are going to bump the DEX up by 2, hit more often and harder


Level 5: Extra Attack, you will start putting out good damage a round now keep positioning yourself well as you will start to draw the ire of creatures. So keep your distance when you can.


Level 6: Here in stead of taking the DEX quite yet I think here would be a good spot to take the feat Observant. This bumps our WIS to a +2 , makes your Passive Perception go through the rough should be at a 20! Also being able to read lips has good role play and fictional positioning uses.


Level 7: Not only do you get another superiority, but two more maneuvers. Two i want to point out here is Distracting Strike, and Trip Attack. Both increase your damage, and allow you to set up members of your party for Advantage on their attacks. One more reliable then the other so take into account what your fighting and who is in your party. If your setting up a rogue Distracting Strike is probably plenty, but if you have another melee fighter with a lot of attacks it might be worth going for trying to knock it prone.

Know your Enemy: If you have the time to study your opponent can be good for trying to figure out what maneuvers to use.


Level 8: Here lets take the DEX score the rest of the way and get i up to the +5, again hit a little more often and a little harder.


Level 9: I really like Indomitable, in world full of magic your a guy with a bow or a sword. This is a chance for will and fortitude to overcome magics control or a stronger creatures physical dominance.


Level 10: Hey D10's for Superiority Dice, and you get another! Two more maneuvers as well still a lot of awesome ones to choose from!


Beyond 10th Level - I feel at 4-5th level this build already feels like Hawkeye but I like to do it out to level 10. Beyond that buff stats, and I would at least stick with fighter to level 11 for the next level of Extra Attack. Martial Adept is good for feat options another Superiority die and more maneuvers. If you are thinking about multi-classing Ranger is a good option the hunter abilities can buff your damage and get some spells to let you do neater things with your arrows.

Well I hope you enjoyed this one, which was suggested by the comments! So let me know if there are others you would like to see. Until next time happy gaming!

Failing Forward

Failing forward is a concept I have learned from watching more experienced DMs and from games like Apocalypse World and Dungeon World. Tell me if you have heard the following scenario before running Dungeons and Dragons...

The party encounters a door it is locked..

The Rogue/Thief steps forward and says "I pick the lock"

Lock Pick roll.... its a 4

The Rogue/Thief rolls again... its a 6

This cycle continues until the Rogue or another party member rolls high enough to meet the DC you had set. This same roll until you succeed situation, happens often for newer DMs that run a game that doesn't show you how to handle failure other than saying no or try again.

So before we even get into how this situation could look with failing forward in play. If there is something you want the players to see or to experience, then don't put it behind a skill roll. Because the above situation makes skill rolls feel like filler/time wasters. So the simple solution is to not have it there, however if you actually are wanting to present a challenge try failing forward.

Like the lock door situation there is a number of ways to handle the failed roll narrative and continue the forward momentum of the game. You might say this particular lock is too complex for you at your current skill level, this way the Rogue can longer keep rolling. Instead they need to think of a different way past the door. Breaking the door down, going through a window, searching for a key, etc. The players will then have to deal with consequences of having to take that route but it adds drama to the game.

But maybe you don't have multiple outs for this door there is one way in and its this door. A thing I like to do is the no matter the roll you succeed however if its a low roll just takes you longer. Then you let the players know that they are going to be getting random encounter rolls based on how long the lock picking is taking. Going this route creates tension of something coming around the corner to get the party. Sometimes nothing will happen, sometimes the patrol comes around the corner and sounds the alarm. It helps to encourage verisimilitude in your game, and also prevents the Rogue from being bad at lock picking :D

While this is a simple common example, always be mindful of how "failed" rolls can further the story in interesting complicating ways for your players. Some of your parties best moments might come out of it.

Making - Altair Ibn La'Alahd (Assasins Creed) 5E

"Nothing is true and everything is permitted." - Altair Ibn La'Alahd

Love Assassins Creed? Great me to and it's time to make Altair in 5e. Again this is just my take on it and is for fun so even if you don't like every choice I make here it will hopefully get your gears turning to how you would customize it for you.

Okay so Altair is apart of an order of religious like order of assassins. He utilizes a wrist blade, daggers, swords, and various weapons he grabs on the battlefield. So in this situation I think we are going to go with the on brand answer and take him down the rogue class path.

Race

So bit of a tossup here but any race with a bonus to dexterity would serve fine.I chose to go with the Human Variant for the feat, and to choose where I want the stat bumps to go. So for this build I went with the 27 point buy method. Here is what I came up with.

Str: 12  Dex:15  Con: 13  Int: 10  Wis: 10  Cha: 13

With the two plus ones from human variant I bumped up Dex and Cha. Dex since most of his class abilities are based upon it, and Cha so he can effectively intimidate, deceive, and persuade. This gives final stats looking like this.

Str: 12  Dex:16  Con: 13  Int: 10  Wis: 10  Cha: 14

For the Variant feat I went with Dual Wielder. Typically you will just be making the one attack in a round, but just holding the second weapon with this feat gives you the extra 1 AC which is great for low levels. Also if you choose to use the offhand bonus attack, because your surrounded and decide you want to fight or you maybe missed the first strike and want a chance for sneak attack damage still. This feat will let you have the main hand weapon you want, and then maybe a dagger in the offhand that we can flavor as the wrist blade.

Background

In Assassins Creed Altair is apart of a religious like order of assassins, who cause chaos to try and preserve peoples freedom and choice. So to represent that I went with the Acolyte background. You get proficiency in the Insight and Religion skill. You get to learn two languages I would pick two that make sense for the campaign your playing in so I would ask your DM what they suggest for the area of the world you will be playing in. The vestments and other priestly items you get here can also help you blend in with monks and clerics in the city, an effect Altair employs quite often.

Choice: Acolyte

Class

For Altair we are going Rogue, as for the archetype, surprise surprise Assassin is the choice. I will say I did briefly consider Thief for the use magic device feature, since Altair uses the Apple of Eden. However that feature doesn't come until level 13 and typically I like to do these builds with level 10 in mind, and Assassin gives us more tools and earlier to help achieve what we are trying to make.

Choice: Rogue

Level 1:

Stats:  Str: 12  Dex:16  Con: 13  Int: 10  Wis: 10  Cha: 14

 For skills we get to pick 4 on top of the two we get from our background, and the free one from the human variant race. So we are going to grab the things Altair needs for parkour, being sneaky, getting information out of people, noticing thing etc..

Skills: Rogue:Acrobatics, Deception, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth
           Background: Religion & Insight
           Human Variant: Perception

For the equipment we are grabbing the blades! You don't get a scimitar by default but you can always flavor the look of the sword you are using how you want. You may be thinking why now bow, although it would be useful I don't remember Altair using one that much and makes sense if hes trying to keep a low profile. So maybe a crossbow later might fit but you will be mainly sticking to daggers, and darts you pick up later for ranged attacks. An the explorers pack over the rest as Altair ends up traveling quite a bit but the tools in the burglars pack could be used to good effect as well.

Equipment: Rapier, shortsword, explorers pack, leather armor, 2 daggers, and thieves tools


Expertise: Stealth is the first obvious choice here you need to be able to sneak up on the enemy and the better stealth you have the easier that is. The 2nd choice is a little tougher we want something to get into places your not supposed to and to approach targets from unexpected ways. So Acrobatics will help you get up to rooftops and other levels, and Thieves tools will help you get into doors.

     Choice: Stealth, Acrobatics or Thieves Tools

Sneak Attack: Use it whenever you can
Thieves Cant: Dont forget to use this when trying to gather information

Level 2:

Cunning Action: Remember to be using this to hide as a bonus action, I see so many players use this just for disengaging and dashing.

Level 3:

As we discussed earlier we are taking the Assassin archetype here.

Bonus Proficiencies: proficiency in poisoners kit and disguise kit. Take the opportunity to harvest and make poisons when you can. Also start using those priestly vestments to go undercover. Less obvious mechanical benefits here but with some thought you can get more damage from poisons, and use the disguises to get yourself surprise and advantage.

Assassinate: Make sure to pay attention to this. Take note of any time you can get the surprise drop on the enemy a free critical at the start of a fight is a big deal especially as sneak attack scales and if you can get some good poisons prepared. Also the advantage on the first round is good when you don't have time to prepare or setup.

Level 4:

Ability Score Increase: We are going to bump our Dexterity by 2 here, that will bump our mod up by +1. This +1 increase will affect our attack, dmg, AC, a bunch of skills so good value here.

Level 5:

Uncanny Dodge: This ability is going to be your friend. You will want to hang to that reaction for this, however if there is a chance for your opportunity attack to get sneak attack its probably worth doing that.

Level 6:

 Expertise: You get to pick two more skills here, I would say go for the skills that are coming up alot in your campaign, adapt to the environment your playing in.

Level 7:

Evasion: Remember that your saving for no damage instead of half! You will be probably passing alot of your Dex saves too, so this can be life saving to not forget this.
 

Level 8:

Ability Score Increase: At this point finishing bumping the Dex score up to 20 for the +5 is the safest choice. However a feat like mobile or sentinel could also be useful.

Level 9:

 Infiltration Expertise: A neat concept though the situations in which you will actually get to make use of it will probably not be that often.

Level 10:

Ability Score Increase: Here you get an extra ASI compared to other classes besides fighter. I would say bump a stat up to suit your play style, and same if you want to take a feat. I will list out some neat feat ideas. I personally would take Sentinel here to try and get sneak attack off multiple times a round, but depending on party composition or other factors may not fit for your campaign.

Feats:

Alert: More reliably act before enemies for purposes of your assassinate ability
Defensive Duelist: Useful to be able to raise you AC for one attack but, your reaction probably better spent on uncanny dodge
Lucky: This feat is just always good no matter the class
Mage Slayer: If you find your DM throwing a lot of caster at the party could come in handy.
Martial Adept: Having maneuvers not only gives you mechanical benefit but flavors the build more as a master warrior. Feinting attack, Parry, Disarming Attack, Trip attack all useful
Mobile: Lets you easily get to the target you want to be hitting.

Multiclass:

After level 10 you can just keep going on Rogue, but a cool multi-class option is Fighter. Champion gives you the opportunity to crit more often, and Battle Master gives you a lot more of those useful maneuvers, and eventually the ability to make more attacks a round.

So I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on building a character like Altair and you take and make it your own. Comment and let me know if you have any requests for future "Making" posts.