Cold rain hammers down the high valley, turning the village pathways into rivers of mud. People stare wide-eyed from their doorways. They know why you’re here. The heretics swept this way, and now the Emperor has sent you, his Inquisitive, to separate the wolves from the sheep…
What’s An Inquisitive?
The 5e Inquisitive is an intellectual subclass. Their mind is their key asset. Intellectual characters in DnD are typically associated with spellcasting. We can even extend this statement to fantasy fiction/gaming, and it still rings true. This makes sense. Magic is usually an esoteric knowledge that requires skill and years of training to master. But the Inquisitive Rogue attempts to create a subclass that uses their superior mind to triumph, often without any magical ability. This subclass is essentially a perceptive DnD detective. And in the right hands, it can be a success.
Sherlock Gnomes
We’ve heard the Inquisitive Rogue referred to as a DnD Sherlock Holmes. This doesn’t tell the whole story. But it’s not far off. There’s no class better at seeing hidden detail, telling the truth from lies, and propelling the narrative forward by unraveling secrets and mysteries. These abilities also pay off in terms of world-building and roleplay, especially if your DM encourages these elements of play. The Inquisitive’s abilities and lore give DMs a wealth of ways to present new clues and hints. If the idea of playing a detective in a high fantasy universe appeals, the Inquisitive may be a perfect fit.
An Eye For Enemy Weakness
That said, after noticing details, clues, and extra information, some players may find the Inquisitive underwhelming. It needs a savvy roleplay-focused player and a DM with lots of imagination to shine. Its combat abilities (outside of the base Rogue stuff) are decent, focusing on smart counter-fighting and predicting an opponent’s movements. An Inquisitive can spot weaknesses in enemy defenses at higher levels and exploit them for extra damage. Not as devastating as some other Rogue subclass abilities. But decent high-level damage nonetheless.
How to Use This Guide
Everything in this guide has an emoji, ranking how useful a given ability or feature is to playing Rogue effectively.
✅ — An absolutely crucial feature. Often forms the backbone of a class’ look and feel. Will provide some bonus that can’t be found through other means.
🆗 — A solid feature that does its job well. Not game-breaking, and certainly replaceable, but a strong choice that shores up some weakness.
⚠️ — A debatable choice. Could work for a specific build, but otherwise is either a wasted opportunity or is just weaker than other alternatives.
⛔ — Outright bad and detrimental. This weighs down the class and just takes up space on the character sheet. A weakness you will have to accommodate for.
These rankings are meant to help you create an optimized class build, but remember DnD isn’t a game where you need to win to have fun. Weaker but flavorful builds also have their place and can make for fulfilling characters.
Inquisitive Class Progress
From level 3, your Inquisitive begins to notice details, clues, and material evidence that other characters miss. This can be a great tool for DMs as well as the party. The ability to know when a creature is lying can be useful in specific situations, but may go unused for long periods. Most Rogue subclasses use some mechanic that allows them to land extra Sneak Attacks, and the Inquisitive is no different. Their ability to notice and exploit weaknesses in enemy fighting style helps with this ability and is responsible for a damage boost at high-level play.
1st Level (Rogue)
✅ Sleight of Hand
This is your ability to pocket something, palm a key, plant an object on a creature, or otherwise use sleight of hand to achieve your aims. Your DM can call for a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check when you attempt this kind of trickery.
✅ Expertise
This allows you to either double your proficiency in two already known skills or do the same for one skill and your proficiency with your thieves’ tools. This helps give your Rogue some versatility early on.
✅ Sneak Attack
The default offensive action for your Rogue, Sneak Attack gives you an extra d6 damage when you have advantage on the roll. Even better, if a member of your party (or another hostile) is within 5 feet of your target, you don’t need advantage. You can target a creature the tank/fighter in your party is engaged with and kill them quickly.
🆗 Thieves’ Cant
This secret language is basic in scope, but has a written and spoken component. Only other thieves and rogues can understand this way of speaking, and they typically use it to talk business, point out danger, or direct allies to the nearest safe house. It takes longer for you to express yourself in Thieves’ Cant than it does in common.
2nd Level (Rogue)
✅ Cunning Action
Cunning action gives you three options to use as a bonus action during your turn in combat. It represents your Rogue’s uncanny speed.
- Dash: You can cover twice as much ground as usual
- Disengage: You retreat from melee combat without provoking an opportunity attack
- Hide: You disappear from view, gaining a Sneak Attack opportunity if successful
3rd Level (Inquisitive)
🆗 Ear For Deceit
On a Wisdom check to tell if a creature is lying, anything rolled 7 or lower is automatically converted to an 8. This fits the character archetype and is great when it comes up. Savagely cutting through lies in social encounters with this ability can be fun and have a huge impact on your adventure.
✅ Eye For Detail
Your Inquisitive can now make a Wisdom (Perception) check as a bonus action. This can be useful if under fire from hidden enemies, allowing you to spot them and fire back in the same round. It also allows you to notice and interpret vital clues on your turn, even whilst in combat.
Insightful Fighting
As a bonus action, the Inquisitive can study and interpret their enemy’s fighting style, exploiting it for extra damage on a successful Wisdom (Insight) check. Passing this ability check means you can deal Sneak Attack even when the enemy can see you.
5th Level (Rogue)
✅ Uncanny Dodge
You are faster than the opposition. You can now react to an incoming attack (that you can see) and half the damage.
7th Level (Rogue)
🆗 Evasion
When targeted by an area of effect attack, you can make a saving throw. On passing this check, you take no damage. On a fail, the damage is halved. Stacks with Uncanny Dodge.
9th Level (Inquisitive)
🆗 Steady Eye
Moving at half speed gives you advantage on Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation) checks. This represents your heightened senses and awareness. An Inquisitive usually knows what to look out for. Exploration and reconnaissance benefit from this ability.
11th Level (Rogue)
✅ Reliable Talent
By level 11, Rogues have some skills on lock. When you roll 9 or under on a check you are proficient in, it’s automatically converted to a 10. This helps you in your disarming of traps and picking of locks.
13th Level (Inquisitive)
🆗 Unerring Eye
Illusion magic, shapeshifters, and magical means of deception can no longer fool you completely. Your insight is limited to knowing that something within 30ft is trying to deceive you. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier.
After using this feature to detect the presence of something, you can use Eye for Detail as a bonus action to pinpoint and potentially identify its source.
14th Level (Rogue)
🆗 Blindsense
When you are in the presence of illusion magic or invisible creatures, you are aware someone is trying to deceive you. You must be able to hear for this to work.
15th Level (Rogue)
🆗 Slippery Mind
Years of campaigning have given you insight into how the world works. You gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws.
17th Level
✅ Eye For Weakness
This represents your ability to exploit a weakness in enemies and is essentially a power-up for Insightful Fighting. Any creature affected by that ability takes an extra d6 damage if you land a Sneak Attack on them. Not a huge amount of extra damage, but useful.
Level 18 (Rogue)
✅ Elusive
You can no longer suffer disadvantage on attack rolls against you.. This doesn’t apply if you are incapacitated.
Level 20 (Rogue)
✅ Stroke of Luck
This once-per-long rest ability allows you to turn a miss into a hit in combat or a failed ability check into a 20 outside of combat. It’s a useful trick to have up your sleeve at high-level play.
An Optimal Inquisitive Build
Dexterity is the most important ability score for all Rogues, and the Inquisitive is no different. Despite their advanced intellect, this subclass still depends primarily on speed and agility, especially in combat. When it comes to abilities of the mind, the Inquisitive’s Wisdom (Perception, Insight) is usually more important than their Intelligence (Investigation). Ultimately, perception is your strong suit as an Inquisitive. Noticing hidden details and clues is governed by Wisdom, so you need some points in this ability to function optimally.
Ability Scores
⛔ Strength
Your Inquisitive is not the brawn in the party. This is a dump stat.
✅ Dexterity
This is your key ability score as a rogue and remains important for an Inquisitive.
🆗 Constitution
Important for every class. Most people will play a ranged Inquisitive, but you’ll need a higher constitution if you go melee.
🆗 Intelligence
This ability score can help with an Inquisitive’s investigation skills and knowledge checks.
✅ Wisdom
Wisdom is useful for all rogues during exploration and determines the Inquisitive’s key non-combat ability – perception. Having a decent Wisdom score can mean the difference between seeing that vital clue and passing it by.
⚠️ Charisma
The Inquisitive is a fairly social character, so we’d be wrong to say Charisma is a dump stat. That said, unless your Inquisitive is the face of the party, you’d be better off spending your points elsewhere.
🥷 Not convinced? You could play a Rogue Swashbuckler instead
Best Races For An Inquisitive Rogue
Rogues of all archetypes need Dexterity. Speed, agility, and finesse are the name of the game, and all other considerations are secondary. It makes sense then that smaller, lighter, nimbler races generally make for better Rogues – no matter the subclass. In picking the best races for our Inquisitive, we’re looking for bonuses to Dexterity to boost combat abilities and Wisdom to help with our detective work. Darkvision is also a useful racial bonus for the party’s stealthy character (but not necessarily a deal-breaker either).
🆗 Hill Dwarf
A bonus to constitution and a free hitpoint at every level are great defensive features. But they’re not particularly Inquisitive-specific. The +2 to Wisdom and darkvision, however, are a lot more useful.
✅ High Elf
The +2 to Dexterity is an excellent start, and the bonus to Intelligence is useful for nature skills. A single cantrip from the Wizard’s list might also have some potential.
✅ Wood Elf
Wood elves are a good fit for most Rogue archetypes. They certainly work for an Inquisitive, giving the player extra Dexterity, Wisdom, speed, and an increase in stealth. Probably the best racial pick for a mechanically optimal Inquisitive.
✅ Lightfoot Halfling
Lightfoot Halfling’s ability to hide behind larger members of the party works for any rogue build. The Dexterity bonus here is welcome, but the Charisma is not as useful.
🆗 Stout Halfling
This also works for an Inquisitive because of the bonuses to Dexterity, Constitution, and resistance to poison. Not as good as Lightfoot, but not a terrible pick.
🆗 Variant Human
Humans make a decent canvas for most builds. +1 bonuses to two abilities of your choice (best spent on Dexterity and Wisdom). A feat at level 1 is also a nice touch. The only drawback is the lack of darkvision.
✅ Forest Gnome
The +1 to Dexterity and +2 to Intelligence are both useful, and Gnome Cunning gives you advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws – perfect for an Inquisitive.
Best Feats For An Inquisitive Rogue
🆗 Magic Initiate (Find Familiar)
Having an animal companion can help the Inquisitive with reconnaissance. You can see through your familiar’s eyes at need, helping you gather intel.
✅ Observant
This feat seems tailor-made for the Inquisitive. You can increase either Intelligence or Wisdom (to a maximum of 20), gain a +5 bonus to passive Wisdom (Perception) and Intelligence (Investigation), and can read a creature’s lips if you know their language. All really good stuff.
✅ Keen Mind
The big one here is the ability to perfectly recall anything you’ve seen or heard in the last month – excellent for reviewing evidence. A +1 increase to Intelligence is also useful.
🆗 Ritual Caster
Choose from bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard. You gain a ritual spellbook containing two first-level spells from your class of choice (spells must have the ritual tag). Your Inquisitive will likely have a high Wisdom score, making druid or cleric a good choice (they use Wisdom as their modifier). If you’ve made an Intelligence build, learning spells from the wizard’s list might make more sense.
✅ Sharpshooter
A must-have feat for just about any ranged build, Sharpshooter means attacking at long range no longer imposes disadvantage. Your ranged attacks also ignore half and three-quarters cover, and you can choose to suffer a -5 on your attack roll to gain +10 damage should it land.
✅ Skulker
This all-around stealth boost works for just about any Rogue build. You can try to hide when only lightly obscured by cover, don’t reveal your hidden position on a missed attack, and dim light no longer imposes disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks.
Multiclassing An Inquisitive
Multiclassing could be a fun option for an Inquisitive. The subclass is already multi-ability-score dependent, and taking some levels from another archetype is mechanically useful and fun to roleplay. This isn’t necessarily recommended for new players or those looking for a fairly straightforward experience, but multiclassing allows players to get really creative with how they build their character.
Battlemaster
If you find your Inquisitive underpowered in combat, consider dipping into Fighter Battlemaster for a couple of levels. Debuffing enemies and helping your allies with abilities from the Battlemaster subclass will make combat easier for the whole party.
Knowledge Cleric
A dip into this subclass could be useful. Spells like Identify and Detect Magic work for your Inquisitive, and Channel Divinity gives you proficiency in any tool or skill for 10 minutes.
Kensai Monk
The synergy is fairly obvious here. Both these archetypes depend in varying degrees on Wisdom, meaning you can hope to use both skillsets successfully. Increased ranged abilities from the Kensai Monk subclass could also benefit your Inquisitive Rogue.
Fantasy Detective – Roleplayer’s Delight
It’s too easy to dismiss classes by ranking their damage output and stats on an accountant’s spreadsheet. Some characters, like the Inquisitive, have more to offer than a series of MMO-style hotkey abilities. Played right, this subclass can be a roleplayer’s dream, encouraging your DM to integrate their narrative with your ability and background. Other than the Rogue Mastermind, this might be one of the most roleplay-focused Rogue archetypes available. And it isn’t half-bad in combat either. Worth a look.
