Hi all, I’m not sure if I’m playing Arcane Trickster wrong, or of that subclass just isn’t for me, so I’d love some advice.
I’m level 4 now, and I find myself never using my spells in combat. I love trying to figure out the best ways to gain advantage for my sneak attacks, but since all my spells take a whole action to cast, I never feel like they are worth using for this purpose, when I can try to hide or go to an ally to help them fight in melee. Is there some neat way to use Arcane Trickster in unison with all the sneaking and backstabbing, or do the two objectives not quite work together?
I haven’t done a ton with Arcane Trickster, but I think you’ve got the general idea, at least at lower levels. Shield, Mirror Image, etc will increase your survivability. Invisibility is nice to deliver a sneak attack when you otherwise couldn’t sneak up. In general, the AT’s magic is utility-focused.
At level 9, though, you get Magical Ambush–enemies have disadvantage on saving throws when you’re hidden. That’s huge for spells like Hold Person, which can be hard to land. So you might end up doing more combat magic at later levels.
Ah, good point, I really should keep that mind when I reach level 9, that sounds really fun. Thanks a lot!