Level Up (A5E) A cleric/rogue continued... Is multiclassing even worth it?

[Gnome Rager]

So, I've been continuing to think. I know the answer to this depends on what I'm looking for from rogue but...

Human ingenious focus heritage gift gives a floor of 10 on a d20 roll for thieves tools and the arcana skill. Useful for locks and traps. It also buffs concentration for cleric spells.

Collegiate engineer culture gives expertise die on taking apart mechanisms.

Criminal background gives thieves tools

Labyrinth Priest boosts mobility and armoured stealth

That's quite a nice rogue package. The Covert training feat could be added in for skill tricks if desired. And there's no level split diluting spells known and spell slots.

I lose the interesting multiclass feats from the Multiclass Manual, but does simple beat complex?

 

[Selganor]

If your question is "do I really need to multiclass rogue with cleric" to do "thief stuff" I think you answered your question yourself.

Rogue gets more skill monkey things and more sneak attack with higher levels (plus whatever the archetype is great at) but other than that...

 

[Tessarael]

Agreed. Multi-classing reduces your spellcasting and damage progression. You're generally better off as a single-classed spellcaster, unless you're getting very good synergy.

The motivation for a level dip is to get some key class features that you cannot otherwise get. If it is primarily skills that you care about, a Rogue level dip shouldn't be necessary.

 

[lichmaster]

As you noticed, there are plenty of ways in A5E to get very good with skills without getting levels in Rogue.

As much as I like multi-class characters in general, this is typically motivated by combat more than by exploration/skill reasons. So unless you're "building" towards something that may benefit from other Rogue's class features (sneak attacks, evasion, combat maneuvers etc) or synergy feats (I love those), I think there's no reason to multi-class.