Stealthy and cunning can be great options for making a D&D hero. And these five subclasses show that anyone can be stealthy.
Cunning, stealthy heroes are a staple of fantasy stories. From the various companions of Conan to exemplary thieves like Locke Lamora. And in D&D, it can be a lot of fun to play a stealthy character.
In fact, there are plenty of options out there for doing that. The designers encourage that style of play across multiple stealthy subclasses.
Warrior of Shadow Monk
Now of course, some options are a little more obvious than others. The Warrior of Shadow Monk is a prime example. The very name suggests stealth. And indeed, so do its various class features.
They can conjure magical shadows to obscure their presence. And they can be supernaturally swift, to the point of teleportation within any kind of dim light or darkness. A Warrior of Shadow can literally step into shadows, and then you might never find them again. It doesn’t hurt that the base Monk design lends itself to Stealth as well.
Trickery Domain Cleric
This one is a little bit more of a rare pick for a stealthy character. But a good one, nonetheless. Trickery Domain Clerics excel at trickery, as you might expect, but that makes them quite good at the surprise sneak.
With their abilities, they can grant advantage on Stealth checks to anyone (themselves included) as a blessing that lasts until it’s on someone else. Meaning they can sneak the whole party around one at a time if they plan carefully enough. And then on top of that, they can cast all the magic sneaking spells, like invisibility and pass without trace.
Gloomstalker Ranger
As you might expect from a subclass that has stalker right in the name, the Gloomstalker is quite adept at stealth. These Rangers are masters of darkness, to the point that they gain deeper Darkvision (if they already have it) and can become invisible to creatures that rely on Darkvision to see them. They can even vanish right out from under an attack, disappearing into shadow.
Thief Rogue
A gimme, but they are also quite good at stealth. Which, yeah, they’re Rogues, so of course they are. But. There’s a whole other world that a Thief in particular can operate on. Mostly because of their Supreme Sneak feature, which allows the Thief in question to make a sneak attack without breaking their hidden/invisibility so long as they end their turn behind at least 3/4 cover.
So they can keep attacking, and an opponent might never be able to find them.
College of the Moon Bard
Finally, the College of the Moon Bard. This is a newer subclass out of the Heroes of the Forgotten Realms book. And they’re another surprising stealth choice. Bards and their expertise are good candidates for a sneaky character. But, like the Trickery Cleric, a College of the Moon Bard is capable of making the whole party stealthy.
This is because of their “Eclipsed Inspiration” feature, which allows a character benefiting from a Moon Bard’s Inspiration to become invisible until the start of the Bard’s next turn. This can go a long way towards helping the party sneak into a place. Combo one of these with a Trickery Cleric, and you’ve got a stealth party even if you don’t.
What are some of your favorite subclasses when making stealth-focused characters?
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Source: Bell of Lost Souls
