Street Rat

While it is not uncommon for a rogue to have the background of being an orphan in the streets, not all had to go through it alone. Street Rats are rogues who cultivated a friendship with a small pest that was just as unwanted by greater society as they were. They trained and loved this companion, caring for it as it took care of them. Many Street Rats train their vermin in performance for busking, and in thieving skills to steal food when the people around them aren’t quite as generous with their coin.

As a Street Rat, you know that though life can be extremely difficult, you’ll never have to go through it alone. After all, if even the lowliest and most despised of creatures have purpose, love, and hope, then so can we all.

Level 3: Pest Performer

You gain proficiency in the Animal Handling and Performance skills if you don’t already have them. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of those proficiencies.

Level 3: Sterling Vermin

You bond with a creature of mighty loyalty and diminutive size: a Sterling Vermin. It is friendly to you and your companions, and it obeys your commands. See this creature’s game statistics in the sterling vermin stat block, which uses your proficiency bonus (PB) in several places. Most sterling vermin are rats, mice, monkeys, cats, or hamsters, but your vermin can be any Tiny beast at your DM’s discretion; its appearance and species have no effect on its game statistics.

In combat, the sterling vermin acts on your turn. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action unless you use a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. If you are incapacitated, the vermin can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge.

As long as your sterling vermin is alive, it regains all of its hit points whenever it finishes a short or long rest. If your sterling vermin has died within the last hour, you can use an action to revive it, provided you are within 5 feet of it. The vermin returns to life after 1 minute with all its hit points restored. You can use this action a number of times equal to half your proficiency bonus, rounded up, and you regain your expended uses when you finish a long rest.

If your sterling vermin has been dead for longer than an hour, you can perform an 8 hour ritual and expend 25 gp worth of food and shiny gifts to call a new vermin, bond with it, and train it. It can take the same form as your previous sterling vermin, or a different form of your choice.

Level 9: Cunning Vermin

You and your sterling vermin become a more adept pair. When you take the bonus action granted by your Cunning action to take the Dodge, Disengage, or Hide action, you can command your vermin to take an action as part of the same

bonus action.

Additionally, when an attacker that your sterling vermin can see hits it with an attack, the vermin can use its reaction to halve the attack’s damage against it.

Level 13: Pet Peeve

While your sterling vermin occupies the same space as another creature, attack rolls against the vermin are made with disadvantage.

Level 17: Adventuring Company

You and your sterling vermin work as a seamless unit to bring down your foes. Once per turn when your sterling vermin hits a creature with a natural weapon attack, it adds your Sneak Attack damage dice to the damage of the attack if it had advantage on the attack roll. It doesn’t need advantage on the attack roll if you were within 5 feet of the target, you aren’t incapacitated, and it didn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.

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