I'm imagining this flavor the 30 foot help You see that your ally is about to swing their sword and narrowly miss so you quickly throw a dart(as in the dart board game) at the enemy to make them flinch in a certain direction so their head is in the path of the sword
@@TheGeekPantheon another great one is you can manipulate God Rays by reflecting the light of the sun off of your shiny new dagger into the eyes of the targeted creature giving your ally that quick moment of temporary blindness to get a hit in
Exactly my thoughts aswell! Though I’m using it to trick my own party in my upcoming campaign. Going to be trying to play them all from the start to achieve a very syndical goal
Soul of deceit feels a bit like knowing the facial cues that people exhibit when lying, and being able to use those to further deceive, but amped up to the next level, being able to do it at a “thoughts” level. Love the rp potential of it bypassing zone of truth style magic. (Suppose it’s also a bit like confabulation too?) - would love to see an inquisitor rogue deep dive too!
I'm actually planning on playing a Mastermind Rogue in an upcoming campaign in a few weeks, and this video has really got me pumped for the subclass. Thank you for the deep dive!
You are correct, sir - the frustration is real if you find yourself playing a Mastermind and are starved for opportunities to use its features. It certainly does require a receptive DM willing to engage with the subclass, who will feed you interesting threads to pick up - I suggest speaking with your DM about the campaign when considering a Mastermind to discuss the idea and see how it might fit into the campaign. As a DM, I love everything about it. It would be a pleasure to run a Mastermind, because it gives the players so much agency and extra options to engage with your world. It is certainly one of the most collaborative sub-classes in the game - DM's! Embrace the opportunity to use this player as a narrative fish! They will literally hand you the line with the hook already attached to their lip! Great video. Super glad you addressed the importance of the DM to engage with this sub-class to make it fun for the player. P.S. Little mechanical insight I had playing this sub-class that might be worth sharing. The ability to determine an NPC's stats as inferior/superior etc, has some kinks in my experience. If you have, say, high charisma and intellect - as a Mastermind is want to have - finding out someone has an inferior stat to an 18/20 does not play out as useful as the flavor suggests is should - I would DM this feature to give them more information than just "inferior," perhaps even handing out precise numbers... not sure yet on that. After all, a genius Mastermind really should know the difference between an inferior 17 intellect and an inferior 12 intellect.
Don't usually comment on videos, but I just wanted to express my appreciation and admiration for your videos. For the longest time after watching optimisation channels, I kinda stopped considering the flair and flavour of these kind of classes, and your videos have been a blessing. Thank you, I look forward to all the future videos! :)
Even the Battlesmith (artificer) has some interesting pairings, since your steel defender puts disadvantage on your enemy's attacks, so you could wind up going full 'battlefield control' mode if your main class is in artificer, since at level 7 (for artificer) you can also add your intelligence modifier to your companion's saving throws, so between the improved help action, flash of genius, and your steel defender, it would be annoying for your opponent to attack your party while your party gets strengthened.
I’ve played a Human Mastermind Rogue (11) who multiclassed into Archfey Warlock (9). Having Master of Intrigue paired with both the Actor feat and Mask of Many Faces (along with expertise in Deception and the spell, Tongues) is a lot of fun.
Im playing a mastermind rogue and i cant believe that the uncomon ring of mind shielding that my character started with is literally the lvl 17 subclass feature but at lvl 5
Dude thank you for convincing me to play a mastermind! My character concept is "They used to be a high-level adventurer 40 years ago, but a lot of drinking and poor living deleveled them to level 1" I'm the most experienced in the group irl, and the class mechanics here perfectly align with how I want to help these newer players better explore their own uniqueness
I stepped in as DM for my buddy's campaign and one of the players had this, he warned me about him when he gave me his plans for that session. Apparently they had an agreement where the rogue got to people watch every so often and he would ask how many he learns. He said do like 1-3 whenever he asks. I was a bit confused but agreed. When they went out people watch and asked, I had him roll a Perception check and when he asked why, I told him because you're trying to eavesdrop on conversations and pick up a language, that is something that you have to really listen for and as you can't "investigate" a conversation, you could perceive it to pick it up. He was mad but did it anyways, I forgot what he rolled but my buddy started to do that every time they played and he was eventually ok with it.
I’m in a really good group and this is something I’m thinking about for next campaign. A near the end of his life wood elf. I was even going to flavor his mask of the wild hide abilities as he knows just how to move to make his opponents mind ignore his presence
Hey! Got called into a work meeting so I had to jump off the premiere right after it started lol! I haven't taken a close look at them but I'd be open to doing videos on them. I'll need to take a look! Thanks for checking it out.
9:30 Except my goblin mastermind legitimately *would* just be thinking about spoons. He likes little trinket objects. Fancy looking keys, an empty but pretty little box, a monogrammed spoon. He loves that shit.
I really really like the flavor of the mastermind, but I feel that they should've gone farther with the class. It just feels unfinished to me. I am someone who likes to homebrew so how I would change the class is I would add 2 new features: -Strategic Opening At 9th level, you are able to spot windows of opportunity in your opponent’s movements and effectively relay them to your allies. Whenever you use the Help action to aid an ally in attacking a creature, add half your Sneak Attack dice to that attack’s damage roll. -Grand Orchestration Your plans are coming to fruition. Beginning at 17th level, when you use your bonus action to use the Help action, you can use it on up to 2 different targets at a time.
Soul of Deceit makes At 9:51 what you said made me think of Atton Rand from Kotor 2. Kreia says he has a slippery mind. Later you can learn from him how he does this. He essentially is going through Pazzeck combinations in his head at all times. You can learn this from him and increase your will saves by 1.
Wait, there are DMs complaining about *too much* note taking? That may be the single most insane gripe I have ever heard of from a DM! I love my note taking players! I award inspiration to them when they can tell me the name of a character they interacted with 10 sessions ago because it's in their notes! When they look over their notes and suddenly realize this weird inconsistency about their priest friend who got taken over by an intellect devourer 3 sessions ago, I am absolutely giddy! Good note takers make this game sooooo much better to run!
So, this may seem really silly, but here's my plan: Mastermind Rogue/Knowledge Cleric Sage Firbolg. Goal: Learn all of the "Bestial/Exotic" languages of DnD. For Example, this Firbolg would learn: Common, Elvish, Giant, Thieves' Cant, Giant Eagle, Giant Elk, Bullywug, Trogolydyte, Otyugh, etc.
I watched a review that mainly focuses on combat and ranked this poorly. Social Encounters are one of three pillars of the game. I still really like this subclass regardless and Actor feat really cements this subclass niche.
my first rogue is a mastermind (i also run the healer feat) been pretty fun allowing me to play a really mobile support that can put out dmg as well i run a shortbow as my main weapon and stick within range to bonus action help and when someone gets low i can run up to em and heal em up and then help the next atk roll to the guy that just hit em. so honestly try a variant human mastermind with the healer feat it will quickly make people like ya and have fun opportunity's for rollplay and flavor.
I'm going to be playing one soon in a campaign centered around heists and managing a thieve's guild, and honestly I can't wait. I build them as this "femme fatale" but make it genderqueer archetype, so 18 in Charisma, and I also got the actor feat + expertise in deception and acrobatics. So I think I'm pretty much gonna lie and gracefully danse through it all and I can't WAIT.
This sounds like fun and I hope it works out for you! I'm here to craft one of the potential villains of my campaign but if you were one of my players I could see that being a lot of fun. Like so I'm running an npc thats basically if you took a warlock and focused hard on disguise and subterfuge and to work with a mastermind rogue, like your character would have such fun interplay with that. I like it a lot, there's a lot of potential there. Edit: your character I mean lol.
irl i can speak w a generally eastern european accent and sometimes actual eastern european people will ask me where in eastern europe im from. i make sure not to lie in that situation bc what if they start speaking in the language i dont know. instead i just gaslight them and tell them i dont have an accent and am from here (which is true) and they get super confused. would be fun to do in game.
I'm imagining this flavor the 30 foot help
You see that your ally is about to swing their sword and narrowly miss so you quickly throw a dart(as in the dart board game) at the enemy to make them flinch in a certain direction so their head is in the path of the sword
That's great! Love it.
@@TheGeekPantheon another great one is you can manipulate God Rays by reflecting the light of the sun off of your shiny new dagger into the eyes of the targeted creature giving your ally that quick moment of temporary blindness to get a hit in
The mastermind is a great subclass for a mob boss villain having various minions fight for him and reading the party like a book in social situations.
Exactly my thoughts aswell! Though I’m using it to trick my own party in my upcoming campaign. Going to be trying to play them all from the start to achieve a very syndical goal
Soul of deceit feels a bit like knowing the facial cues that people exhibit when lying, and being able to use those to further deceive, but amped up to the next level, being able to do it at a “thoughts” level. Love the rp potential of it bypassing zone of truth style magic. (Suppose it’s also a bit like confabulation too?) - would love to see an inquisitor rogue deep dive too!
Totally! Love this interpretation. I'll add inquisitor to the list.
it's called neuro linguistic programming or NLP
I'm actually planning on playing a Mastermind Rogue in an upcoming campaign in a few weeks, and this video has really got me pumped for the subclass. Thank you for the deep dive!
Glad to hear it! Hope it's fun.
How did it go?
@@snarkygoblin3827 Well, the campaign is still going and I'm still enjoying the subclass, so I'd say pretty well.😊
You are correct, sir - the frustration is real if you find yourself playing a Mastermind and are starved for opportunities to use its features.
It certainly does require a receptive DM willing to engage with the subclass, who will feed you interesting threads to pick up - I suggest speaking with your DM about the campaign when considering a Mastermind to discuss the idea and see how it might fit into the campaign.
As a DM, I love everything about it. It would be a pleasure to run a Mastermind, because it gives the players so much agency and extra options to engage with your world. It is certainly one of the most collaborative sub-classes in the game - DM's! Embrace the opportunity to use this player as a narrative fish! They will literally hand you the line with the hook already attached to their lip!
Great video. Super glad you addressed the importance of the DM to engage with this sub-class to make it fun for the player.
P.S. Little mechanical insight I had playing this sub-class that might be worth sharing. The ability to determine an NPC's stats as inferior/superior etc, has some kinks in my experience. If you have, say, high charisma and intellect - as a Mastermind is want to have - finding out someone has an inferior stat to an 18/20 does not play out as useful as the flavor suggests is should - I would DM this feature to give them more information than just "inferior," perhaps even handing out precise numbers... not sure yet on that. After all, a genius Mastermind really should know the difference between an inferior 17 intellect and an inferior 12 intellect.
Glad you enjoyed the video, and that could be a good tweak if your player is struggling with that ability.
Don't usually comment on videos, but I just wanted to express my appreciation and admiration for your videos. For the longest time after watching optimisation channels, I kinda stopped considering the flair and flavour of these kind of classes, and your videos have been a blessing. Thank you, I look forward to all the future videos! :)
Thanks so much! It is very kind of you to say and I'm glad you enjoy the videos.
I would like to see this subclass work with the Battle Master subclass. I think they would pair nicely.
That would be a cool combo!
Even the Battlesmith (artificer) has some interesting pairings, since your steel defender puts disadvantage on your enemy's attacks, so you could wind up going full 'battlefield control' mode if your main class is in artificer, since at level 7 (for artificer) you can also add your intelligence modifier to your companion's saving throws, so between the improved help action, flash of genius, and your steel defender, it would be annoying for your opponent to attack your party while your party gets strengthened.
I’ve played a Human Mastermind Rogue (11) who multiclassed into Archfey Warlock (9). Having Master of Intrigue paired with both the Actor feat and Mask of Many Faces (along with expertise in Deception and the spell, Tongues) is a lot of fun.
I feel like this class really should be more front loaded then it is.
Im playing a mastermind rogue and i cant believe that the uncomon ring of mind shielding that my character started with is literally the lvl 17 subclass feature but at lvl 5
That's wild! Though be careful your soul doesn't get trapped in that thing :D
Playing a changeling mastermind in an ebberon character right now and it's a blast.
Dude thank you for convincing me to play a mastermind! My character concept is "They used to be a high-level adventurer 40 years ago, but a lot of drinking and poor living deleveled them to level 1"
I'm the most experienced in the group irl, and the class mechanics here perfectly align with how I want to help these newer players better explore their own uniqueness
I stepped in as DM for my buddy's campaign and one of the players had this, he warned me about him when he gave me his plans for that session. Apparently they had an agreement where the rogue got to people watch every so often and he would ask how many he learns. He said do like 1-3 whenever he asks. I was a bit confused but agreed. When they went out people watch and asked, I had him roll a Perception check and when he asked why, I told him because you're trying to eavesdrop on conversations and pick up a language, that is something that you have to really listen for and as you can't "investigate" a conversation, you could perceive it to pick it up. He was mad but did it anyways, I forgot what he rolled but my buddy started to do that every time they played and he was eventually ok with it.
I’m in a really good group and this is something I’m thinking about for next campaign. A near the end of his life wood elf. I was even going to flavor his mask of the wild hide abilities as he knows just how to move to make his opponents mind ignore his presence
Hey was on the premiere but didn't see you there!
Great video though! Have you thought about doing deep dives into the Taldorei subclasses?
Hey! Got called into a work meeting so I had to jump off the premiere right after it started lol! I haven't taken a close look at them but I'd be open to doing videos on them. I'll need to take a look! Thanks for checking it out.
An illusionist/GOO-lock would make a very good companion to a mastermind rogue, as they could feed information directly to the rogue.
That would be a really fun pairing to roleplay
this is good stuff here. Mechanically, I thought it wasn't a very good subclass until watching this. I'd kill to see how you'd build a Mastermind.
Thanks, it seems like it could be a great face of the party character for a party that lies a lot haha
I'm choosing a subclass soon. This is my leading candidate.
Can you do a deep dive of the subclasses from the fizban treasury of dragons book please
Sure! I'll take a look at them.
I just had an idea with necromancers providing the bodies for that 9th level ability!
Haha that'd be perfect!
9:30
Except my goblin mastermind legitimately *would* just be thinking about spoons. He likes little trinket objects.
Fancy looking keys, an empty but pretty little box, a monogrammed spoon. He loves that shit.
I really really like the flavor of the mastermind, but I feel that they should've gone farther with the class. It just feels unfinished to me. I am someone who likes to homebrew so how I would change the class is I would add 2 new features:
-Strategic Opening
At 9th level, you are able to spot windows of opportunity in your opponent’s movements and effectively relay them to your allies. Whenever you use the Help action to aid an ally in attacking a creature, add half your Sneak Attack dice to that attack’s damage roll.
-Grand Orchestration
Your plans are coming to fruition. Beginning at 17th level, when you use your bonus action to use the Help action, you can use it on up to 2 different targets at a time.
8
Soul of Deceit makes
At 9:51 what you said made me think of Atton Rand from Kotor 2. Kreia says he has a slippery mind. Later you can learn from him how he does this. He essentially is going through Pazzeck combinations in his head at all times. You can learn this from him and increase your will saves by 1.
YES! I knew that class feature sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. Thank you!!
Wait, there are DMs complaining about *too much* note taking? That may be the single most insane gripe I have ever heard of from a DM! I love my note taking players! I award inspiration to them when they can tell me the name of a character they interacted with 10 sessions ago because it's in their notes! When they look over their notes and suddenly realize this weird inconsistency about their priest friend who got taken over by an intellect devourer 3 sessions ago, I am absolutely giddy! Good note takers make this game sooooo much better to run!
So, this may seem really silly, but here's my plan: Mastermind Rogue/Knowledge Cleric Sage Firbolg. Goal: Learn all of the "Bestial/Exotic" languages of DnD. For Example, this Firbolg would learn: Common, Elvish, Giant, Thieves' Cant, Giant Eagle, Giant Elk, Bullywug, Trogolydyte, Otyugh, etc.
Imagine a butler as a mastermind using all that a mastermind can do to help his/her employer
I think that's a character introduced in the latest season of Dr. Stone
A cool multi class idea is with warlock to obtain mask of many faces!
I watched a review that mainly focuses on combat and ranked this poorly. Social Encounters are one of three pillars of the game. I still really like this subclass regardless and Actor feat really cements this subclass niche.
Instead of making it more difficult we always say we’re making it more adventurous
my first rogue is a mastermind (i also run the healer feat) been pretty fun allowing me to play a really mobile support that can put out dmg as well i run a shortbow as my main weapon and stick within range to bonus action help and when someone gets low i can run up to em and heal em up and then help the next atk roll to the guy that just hit em. so honestly try a variant human mastermind with the healer feat it will quickly make people like ya and have fun opportunity's for rollplay and flavor.
I'm thinking Changeling, Lvl 3 Mastermind/Warlock for the rest of lvls.
I need this for 3.5.
Bonus actions only apply in combat. You can help someone out of combat, but so can anyone else; it has nothing to do with the Mastermind archetype.
I'm going to be playing one soon in a campaign centered around heists and managing a thieve's guild, and honestly I can't wait. I build them as this "femme fatale" but make it genderqueer archetype, so 18 in Charisma, and I also got the actor feat + expertise in deception and acrobatics. So I think I'm pretty much gonna lie and gracefully danse through it all and I can't WAIT.
This sounds like fun and I hope it works out for you! I'm here to craft one of the potential villains of my campaign but if you were one of my players I could see that being a lot of fun. Like so I'm running an npc thats basically if you took a warlock and focused hard on disguise and subterfuge and to work with a mastermind rogue, like your character would have such fun interplay with that.
I like it a lot, there's a lot of potential there.
Edit: your character I mean lol.
This character concept sounds AWESOME! Love it.
Engagement
I appreciate the appeasement of the algorithm.
irl i can speak w a generally eastern european accent and sometimes actual eastern european people will ask me where in eastern europe im from. i make sure not to lie in that situation bc what if they start speaking in the language i dont know. instead i just gaslight them and tell them i dont have an accent and am from here (which is true) and they get super confused. would be fun to do in game.