Roguish Archetype: Goon
Rogues learn their skills in different ways, but most do so out of necessity. Not you. Goons use their strength to supplement their quickness, beating up the weak and challenging the strong. Along with making your attacks more vicious, you learn to optimize your armor, discover others' secrets, and beat up enemies without resorting to cunning... though you'll still do your fair share of that, too.
Signature Weapon
Starting at 3rd level, you gain a signature weapon. Choose any simple melee weapon without the thrown tag, and give it the versatile (if one-handed) and finesse keywords.
Whenever you make a two-handed Dexterity attack with that weapon and roll damage, add your Strength modifier. Also, when you crit with your signature weapon, stun the target until the end of your next turn.
Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace your signature weapon, using the rules described above.
Strong Arm, Strong Body
At 3rd level, gain proficiency with medium armor, and ignore Stealth disadvantage caused by it. When wearing medium armor, you can use your strength to negate the effects of its bulkiness. You can change the Dexterity cap for AC in medium armor from 2 to the value of your Strength modifier
Practiced Interrogator
Starting at 9th level, if there's dirt on someone, you can find it. Gain advantage on insight and intimidation checks against humanoids after being around them for 1 minute.
In addition, you can spend time and money attempting to figure out if someone has a secret. You can spend 7 days and 500 gold to guarantee finding a secret (if there is one), or you can use the table on the right to take a chance.
Not So Sneaky Attack
At 13th level, once per turn when you hit a creature in melee range but do not apply Sneak Attack, you can knock it prone if it is your size or smaller.
Power Stance
Beginning at 17th level, you can enter power stance as a bonus action. During power stance, you cannot take bonus actions or attack from range. Instead, you can take an additional Attack action every turn, starting the turn you activate it. In addition, your attacks crit on 19-20.
Power stance ends when you end your turn without dealing damage to an enemy. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Blackmail: A Suggested Approach
Resources Spent
First, choose how much time and money you are going to spend, then, after the time has passed, make a single Charisma check + modifiers against the Target DC.
Every time you reattempt to uncover a secret for the same target after making no progress, the DC increases by 5.
Money
| 0g | -10 |
| 25g | -5 |
| 50g | -- |
| 100g | +5 |
| 200g | +10 |
Time
| a few hours | Disadvantage |
| a full day | -- |
| a week | Advantage |
Results
It is possible the target has no secret, a small secret, or a large one, as determined by the DM. If you discover a secret, you can gain a one-time payout as shown in the table below, or you can negotiate for something else.
Target DC and Payout
| DC | Station | Small Payout | Large Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Lower Class | 10 g | 50g |
| 15 | Middle Class | 50g | 100g |
| 20 | Upper Class | 200g | 500g |
Results
| Failure (<5) | You learn if they have a small secret, but don't know what it is. |
| Success | You learn their small secret, if any. You also learn if they have a large secret, but not what it is. |
| Huge Success (>5) | You learn their large secret, if any. If not, you learn whether or not someone of the same station has a small secret, but not what it is. |
Stealth and Blackmail
If you spend too much time prodding around, it's likely that the person you're investigating will eventually notice. And, if they have something to hide, it might not end well for you if you're found out before discovering their secret.
As an optional rule, you can become Stealthy, but at the cost of Disadvantage. You cannot use this feature if you already have disadvantage, and advantage and disadvantage cancel out. While Stealthy, your operation cannot be traced to you.
