Post/Author/DateTime	Post
silmarien 04-06-05, 10:43 AM	Is it possible to have good assassins? The example considered is assassin after an encounter with a hat of opposite alignment. It doesn't say anywhere that they suffer any penalties for this, but it would be a little strange... Thanks in advance
Sinon 04-06-05, 10:49 AM	There are no rules on ex-assassins. Mechanically, I would say they get to keep their class abilities, but would be unable to continue to advance in the prestige class. Ethically, some of the assassin's class skills are going to be impossible for him to use, death attack and poison use. This is not like a regular character where the DM can just tell him that he is playing alignment incorrectly and pencil the appropriate one in on the character sheet. He has been magically cursed to act good. That means that he has to be played so that his former abilities are actually repugnant to him.
silmarien 04-06-05, 10:57 AM	Okay, but consider a similar case. We have an assassin that has seen the error of his mercenary ways and now works for good causes. His alignment shifts to neutral (perhaps lawful) and we have secret agent style character. Can he use poison and death attacks in the line of his work? Probably. He's just going to suffer the standard penalties for changing alignment again if he slips up and commits a few more evil acts. It's also not so clear in this case whether he really couldn't carry on in the assassin prestige class.
Sinon 04-06-05, 11:44 AM	You are mentioning lawful and neutral. I was focused on good. The prerequisites for the class include the alignment restriction: Any Evil. I thought that he could keep his class abilities because there is no rule saying he cannot, but, I can't see how he would be permitted to advance in a class for which he is he no longer qualified. Lawful and Neutral are not going to have an effect on the ability to be an assassin at all. Probably. He's just going to suffer the standard penalties for changing alignment again if he slips up and commits a few more evil acts. This is hard. Magical alignment change is a curse; you have to play it like any other curse. It is out of player control. Like, if you were cursed to hate another race, you couldn't just gradually get over it; you would have to be cured. Same with the alignment change curse. As a good character, he would not use evil means. It would be against his nature and in opposition to the curse he is under. An assassin that "sees the light" is probably going to do everything he can to avoid using evil means as well. Think of the real-world examples of new converts to a religion; they are almost always the most zealous and the most orthodox.
Osiris Memnoch 04-06-05, 12:31 PM	We had a thread like this a little while ago. After much biting, screaming, and name calling, we eventually found that an assasin (as in someone who is good at killing blah blah) can be any alignment. HOWEVER, the DnD Assasin PrC MUST be evil because of the requirment that says: "Must kill someone for no other reason than to become an assasin." A lot of people said things like "well what if you go and kill an evil wizard or something..." That would work fine except if you kill the evil wizard, then you are killing him because you know he's done bad and you want to get rid of him for that reason (or so you won't feel guilty). The requirment says "FOR NO OTHER REASON." This means there can be no alterior motives involved in that death which makes it an evil act. As for Death Attack and Poison Use, those could theoretically be used by anyone. It's much much much easier for those to be Chaotic Evil acts, but there's nothing stopping them from being Lawful Good depending on the situation. Remember, when it comes to alignment in DnD, it's rairly the action that makes you evil, it's the motive behind the action. I'm getting off track here. Anyway, as silly as you may think, DnD Assasins must be evil. If you want a good assasin, it's possible, all you'd have to do is wave the "must kill someone" requirment. That's what I do.