Assassin 101 [Archive] - Wizards Community

Assassin 101 [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
UMiskatonic
05-27-05, 10:34 AM I saw a post about the versatility of the assassin PrC (thanks, Kingside Bishop) and I got to thinking. How good is it? It's fairly easy to get into, and since you are a spontaneous arcane caster with a sneak attack progression, it can go a wide variety of places. I thought I would try and find them. I'm going to stick fairly close to core, so this is as useful to as many people as possible.

Requirements: any evil, disguise 4, move 8, hide 8, kill somebody. You really only need a class with move and hide, you can cross-class disguise.

Simple Routes in:

Rogue 5 (4 stars) is probably the most obvious one. Loads of skill points and 3d6 sneak atatck. Good for a sneaky rogue, but only has one good save (Reflex) and lowish bab (+3 at 6th level)

Ranger 5 (4 stars) Full Bab, two good saves, and both favored enemy and track, which seem good choices for a ranger to have. Consider ranger 6 for the second combat style.

Bard 5 (4 stars) Interesting. NO ONE would expect this. More spellcasting, and two good saves at the expense of sneak attack damage. This would provide the best cover identity in my opinion, and has some interesting benefits. Speak language and Knowledge as a class skill, access to assassin ready spells like disguise self, invisibility and sculpt sound. UMD could help you impersonate a caster, and the amazing modify memory is on your spell list. On the down side, you re-start your casting progression w/assassin, and bard 5 seems like a waste.

Cleric w/Trickery Domain 5 (1 star) Close, but without Move Silently you'll need to be 16th level first.

Monk 5 (4 stars) This isn't what a lot of people think of, but could be quite good. Three good saves, useful feats will help, and like the bard, no one will expect the monk to secretly be an assassin. Stunning fist/sneak attack/death attack synergy could be brutal, especially with the right feats. Unfortunately, MAD is a big problem, especially since assassin spells run off of intelligence, the usual dump stat of monks. I'd lower strength a bit, and get INT to 14.

More complicated routes in:

Clearly, two levels of a class with move and hide will get you in. So multiclassing into assassin seems like a good idea. I'd suggest the first level be rogue. Skill points are nice, and you are half-way to your prereqs at first level, but more importantly, you need trapfinding. Search and Disable are both assassin skills, but without trapfinding, they may not do you any good.

Spellcasting is useful, but assassins already get spells and UMD. Adding a few low-level spells from another class really seems like a poor idea, because it will come at the expense of skills and fighting ability, which a assassin desperately needs. Assassins benefit the most from Int and Dex, so spreading them too thin gives them MAD problems as well.

Rogue 3/Ranger 2 (5 stars) +4 bab, good skills, F3 R5 W1, track, +2d6 SA, and a combat style. Either one is good for an assassin, but I think TWF is better.

Rogue 3/Fighter 2 (5 stars) +4 bab, good skills, F3 R3 W1, Very similar to ranger, but you pick the two feats. Short on skill points, but grants all weapons and armor, which might be useful for disguise purposes.

Rogue3/Swashbuckler3 (5 stars) +5 Bab, F4 R4 W2, 2D6 SA + INT. This is a very nice intro, and saves on MAD, letting you focus on Dex and Int. It's a level late into Assassin, but worth it.

Rogue 3/Monk 2 (4 stars) +3 bab, good skills, F3 R6 W4, monk feats, +2d6 SA
Good, but Bab suffers a bit, to increase your defenses. evasion x2 is not improved evasion.

Rogue 3/Warlock 2 (by Andreas0815)
Interesting. +3 Bab, but a good will save, unlimited ranged touch attacks, and two invocations, which are quite good.
UMiskatonic
05-27-05, 12:14 PM And where from here...

I'll just post some PrC's that look good here, and suggest one possible build. While these probably could be improved, the idea of this thread is to generate ideas. Not all builds go exactly to 20, fill in gaps as you see fit.

Acolyte of the Skin Not crushingly powerful, but really creepy. Probably less useful than adding rogue/assassin levels to an monster. Outsider subtype will improve your alter self options, so take that spell.
Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin5/Acolyte of the Skin10

Arcane Archer Assassin qualifies for this. You have the freedom to make this choice, but I think it's a bad one.

Arcane Trickster Interestingly, Assassin is almost all you need for arcane trickster, with the exception of mage hand and K(arcana) 4. Third one needs mage hand somehow, take the feat.
Bard2/Rogue3/Assassin5/AT10
Bard2/Rogue3/Assassin10/AT5
Rogue3/Warlock2/Assassin5/AT10 (Andreas0812)

Black Flame Zealot Now here's a reason to be a trickery cleric. CL 10 and 5d6 SA. Prereqs are really nice match with assassin. There's three levels left for that personal touch, I recommend rogue 2 for evasion, or more cleric levels.
rogue1/cleric5/assassin1/blackflame10

Bladesinger Okay, but allows good INT synergy. Dex less important for this one, more of a 2nd edition elven fighter-mage.
Rogue1/Ftr2/Swash3/Assassin6/Bladesinger8

Blood Magus Interesting. Potions hidden in skin and blood is a great way to avoid detection. Stanch and durable casting are great bad-guy abilities, and you get a fort save. Skills and BAB will suffer a bit, but this guy would be mean and creepy, no doubt. Final build depends on how much you want bloodwalk.
Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin1-5/BloodMagus4/Assassin6-10
Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin1-5/BloodMagus10

Daggerspell Mage Far more elegant with an assassin build-playable 1-20
Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin5/Daggerspell10

Dark Hunter Nice hiding and dark vision, and I would let the death attack abilities stack.
Ranger6/DarkHunter5/Assassin9

Dervish This could work, a dervish who can cast greater invisibility is sorta scary though...Bab +17, +6d6SA, F8 R18 W8
Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin1-3/Dervish 1-4/Assassin4-8/Dervish5-7

Dragon Disciple Don't laugh. Assassins are spontaneous arcane casters, and dragon disciple offers good HD, the saves they don't have, and bonus assassin spells. I'd take three levels just to get the breath weapon and the feel of certain video game ninjas. (Finish Him!)
Rogue 3/Ranger 2/Assassin 10/DragonDisciple 5

Eldritch Fist Doesn't work well. While you could do it, there are far better ways to be an eldritch fist.

Eldritch Knight A beat-down assassin might do well here. Will save and skills will suffer, but Bab and fort are strong.
Rogue3/Ranger6/Assassin 5/EK5

Exemplar Nice for cranking up skills, and provides a much-needed will save
Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin8/Exemplar 7

Fatespinner Hilarious. Seal Fate+Death attack is a great finishing move, even if Bab is a bit lowish. Having a Will save offsets it a bit.
Ranger6/Assassin8/Fatespinner5

Invisible Blade This one's easy. Add ingredients and stir
Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin10/InvisibleBlade5

Master Thrower I like this a lot. Yeah, Yeah, fighter three is a dead level, but the fort save is good, and thrower builds benefit from loads of feats.
Rogue3/Ftr4/Assassin8/MasterThrower5
Rogue1/Ranger2/Ftr4/Assassin8/MasterThrower5

Mindbender Great for a spy-type assassin. PC's would probably never directly see this guy. "We travelled all the way here, and the guy's dead?"
Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin5/Mindbender10
Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin10/Mindbender5

Occult Slayer You might convince a DM to let you play a non-evil assassin if you combined it with a hatred of spellcasters. Benefits like non-detection cloak are quite good. Of course, you are a spellcaster yourself, best to maybe overlook that.
Rogue3/Ftr2/Assassin1-5/OccultSlayer5/Assassin 6-10

Shadowdancer Maybe good for a level or two, if you are not going to get to assassin 8 for some reason, or you really need evasion or darkvision. Otherwise avoid, it hurts BAB, and increases the save you are already good in. Assassins have good hide skills and can be invisible. That's enough.

Spellsword You can already cast in light armor, but two levels might help anyway if you ever are in disguise. Besides, where else are you going to get +2 Bab, a caster level, +3 to Fort and Will, and a feat?

Sublime Chord So many possibilities... 9th level spells, +11 Bab, 6d6 SA, and a pile of skill points. You'll have to cross-class Knowledge(arcana), but that's not too bad. A level of Exemplar can help a lot with the skill requirements.
bard1/rogue5/assassin5/sublimechord10

Of course, there are a few more, but this should be a good start.

Cheers,
UMiskatonic
Andreas0815
05-27-05, 12:31 PM How about a rogue 3/Warlock 2/Assassin 5/Arcane Trickster 10 ?

You have to get Mage Hand via feat, but i think its really worth it. Every silent killer should love the usefull invocations a warlock casterlevel of 12 gives you...

And the theme of this build is really apealing to me.
Malancthon
05-27-05, 01:26 PM I'm very fond of the Ranger/Assassin build. I'd go with Ranger 12/Assassin 8 to get the most out of BAB (18) and the complete TWF tree. Add in True Strike and Power Attack.

There's a feat in Complete Adventurer that allows you to burn a spell to inflict extra damage to Constructs (if an arcane spell) or Undead (if a divine spell). Since Rangers have divine spells, assassins have arcane spells, that's perfect versatability. He can kill anything living with death attack, undead with divine spells, and constructs with arcane spells.

I was going to play this character for City of the Drow, but I never did. :weep:
Michael Tree
05-27-05, 11:48 PM Monk 2 / Swashbuckler 3 /Assassin X with the Kung Fu Genius feat from Dragon is the best synergy for Int, and gives a bunch of nice bonus feats in addition. Its main downpoint is that they don't get a lot of skill points, although they compensate for that with a high Int.

A Changeling Rogue 3 (1st & 3rd subsitution levels) / Swashbuckler 3 is also a nice lead in, since it gives massive skill points, great social skill bonuses, and a full BAB of +3. (The 3rd level substituion level gives a BAB of +3. It may be a misprint, but until it's erratted, have fun. :P)
ninjarabbit
05-28-05, 10:56 AM This one has MAD but worth thinking about if you can pull it off.

rogue3/hexblade4/blackguard5/assassin3/x5

This gets you evasion + mettle + arcane resistance + dark blessing to better deal with spellcasters, you also have 5d6 SA as well as both a familar and a fiendish servant to help you. You also get minor spellcasting from 3 different classes, so at the very least you have some good wand options. You have 5 levels to play with and should be able to hit 16 BAB as long as you aren't too careless.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
UMiskatonic 05-27-05, 10:34 AM	I saw a post about the versatility of the assassin PrC (thanks, Kingside Bishop) and I got to thinking. How good is it? It's fairly easy to get into, and since you are a spontaneous arcane caster with a sneak attack progression, it can go a wide variety of places. I thought I would try and find them. I'm going to stick fairly close to core, so this is as useful to as many people as possible. Requirements: any evil, disguise 4, move 8, hide 8, kill somebody. You really only need a class with move and hide, you can cross-class disguise. Simple Routes in: Rogue 5 (4 stars) is probably the most obvious one. Loads of skill points and 3d6 sneak atatck. Good for a sneaky rogue, but only has one good save (Reflex) and lowish bab (+3 at 6th level) Ranger 5 (4 stars) Full Bab, two good saves, and both favored enemy and track, which seem good choices for a ranger to have. Consider ranger 6 for the second combat style. Bard 5 (4 stars) Interesting. NO ONE would expect this. More spellcasting, and two good saves at the expense of sneak attack damage. This would provide the best cover identity in my opinion, and has some interesting benefits. Speak language and Knowledge as a class skill, access to assassin ready spells like disguise self, invisibility and sculpt sound. UMD could help you impersonate a caster, and the amazing modify memory is on your spell list. On the down side, you re-start your casting progression w/assassin, and bard 5 seems like a waste. Cleric w/Trickery Domain 5 (1 star) Close, but without Move Silently you'll need to be 16th level first. Monk 5 (4 stars) This isn't what a lot of people think of, but could be quite good. Three good saves, useful feats will help, and like the bard, no one will expect the monk to secretly be an assassin. Stunning fist/sneak attack/death attack synergy could be brutal, especially with the right feats. Unfortunately, MAD is a big problem, especially since assassin spells run off of intelligence, the usual dump stat of monks. I'd lower strength a bit, and get INT to 14. More complicated routes in: Clearly, two levels of a class with move and hide will get you in. So multiclassing into assassin seems like a good idea. I'd suggest the first level be rogue. Skill points are nice, and you are half-way to your prereqs at first level, but more importantly, you need trapfinding. Search and Disable are both assassin skills, but without trapfinding, they may not do you any good. Spellcasting is useful, but assassins already get spells and UMD. Adding a few low-level spells from another class really seems like a poor idea, because it will come at the expense of skills and fighting ability, which a assassin desperately needs. Assassins benefit the most from Int and Dex, so spreading them too thin gives them MAD problems as well. Rogue 3/Ranger 2 (5 stars) +4 bab, good skills, F3 R5 W1, track, +2d6 SA, and a combat style. Either one is good for an assassin, but I think TWF is better. Rogue 3/Fighter 2 (5 stars) +4 bab, good skills, F3 R3 W1, Very similar to ranger, but you pick the two feats. Short on skill points, but grants all weapons and armor, which might be useful for disguise purposes. Rogue3/Swashbuckler3 (5 stars) +5 Bab, F4 R4 W2, 2D6 SA + INT. This is a very nice intro, and saves on MAD, letting you focus on Dex and Int. It's a level late into Assassin, but worth it. Rogue 3/Monk 2 (4 stars) +3 bab, good skills, F3 R6 W4, monk feats, +2d6 SA Good, but Bab suffers a bit, to increase your defenses. evasion x2 is not improved evasion. Rogue 3/Warlock 2 (by Andreas0815) Interesting. +3 Bab, but a good will save, unlimited ranged touch attacks, and two invocations, which are quite good.
UMiskatonic 05-27-05, 12:14 PM	And where from here... I'll just post some PrC's that look good here, and suggest one possible build. While these probably could be improved, the idea of this thread is to generate ideas. Not all builds go exactly to 20, fill in gaps as you see fit. Acolyte of the Skin Not crushingly powerful, but really creepy. Probably less useful than adding rogue/assassin levels to an monster. Outsider subtype will improve your alter self options, so take that spell. Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin5/Acolyte of the Skin10 Arcane Archer Assassin qualifies for this. You have the freedom to make this choice, but I think it's a bad one. Arcane Trickster Interestingly, Assassin is almost all you need for arcane trickster, with the exception of mage hand and K(arcana) 4. Third one needs mage hand somehow, take the feat. Bard2/Rogue3/Assassin5/AT10 Bard2/Rogue3/Assassin10/AT5 Rogue3/Warlock2/Assassin5/AT10 (Andreas0812) Black Flame Zealot Now here's a reason to be a trickery cleric. CL 10 and 5d6 SA. Prereqs are really nice match with assassin. There's three levels left for that personal touch, I recommend rogue 2 for evasion, or more cleric levels. rogue1/cleric5/assassin1/blackflame10 Bladesinger Okay, but allows good INT synergy. Dex less important for this one, more of a 2nd edition elven fighter-mage. Rogue1/Ftr2/Swash3/Assassin6/Bladesinger8 Blood Magus Interesting. Potions hidden in skin and blood is a great way to avoid detection. Stanch and durable casting are great bad-guy abilities, and you get a fort save. Skills and BAB will suffer a bit, but this guy would be mean and creepy, no doubt. Final build depends on how much you want bloodwalk. Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin1-5/BloodMagus4/Assassin6-10 Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin1-5/BloodMagus10 Daggerspell Mage Far more elegant with an assassin build-playable 1-20 Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin5/Daggerspell10 Dark Hunter Nice hiding and dark vision, and I would let the death attack abilities stack. Ranger6/DarkHunter5/Assassin9 Dervish This could work, a dervish who can cast greater invisibility is sorta scary though...Bab +17, +6d6SA, F8 R18 W8 Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin1-3/Dervish 1-4/Assassin4-8/Dervish5-7 Dragon Disciple Don't laugh. Assassins are spontaneous arcane casters, and dragon disciple offers good HD, the saves they don't have, and bonus assassin spells. I'd take three levels just to get the breath weapon and the feel of certain video game ninjas. (Finish Him!) Rogue 3/Ranger 2/Assassin 10/DragonDisciple 5 Eldritch Fist Doesn't work well. While you could do it, there are far better ways to be an eldritch fist. Eldritch Knight A beat-down assassin might do well here. Will save and skills will suffer, but Bab and fort are strong. Rogue3/Ranger6/Assassin 5/EK5 Exemplar Nice for cranking up skills, and provides a much-needed will save Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin8/Exemplar 7 Fatespinner Hilarious. Seal Fate+Death attack is a great finishing move, even if Bab is a bit lowish. Having a Will save offsets it a bit. Ranger6/Assassin8/Fatespinner5 Invisible Blade This one's easy. Add ingredients and stir Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin10/InvisibleBlade5 Master Thrower I like this a lot. Yeah, Yeah, fighter three is a dead level, but the fort save is good, and thrower builds benefit from loads of feats. Rogue3/Ftr4/Assassin8/MasterThrower5 Rogue1/Ranger2/Ftr4/Assassin8/MasterThrower5 Mindbender Great for a spy-type assassin. PC's would probably never directly see this guy. "We travelled all the way here, and the guy's dead?" Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin5/Mindbender10 Rogue3/Ranger2/Assassin10/Mindbender5 Occult Slayer You might convince a DM to let you play a non-evil assassin if you combined it with a hatred of spellcasters. Benefits like non-detection cloak are quite good. Of course, you are a spellcaster yourself, best to maybe overlook that. Rogue3/Ftr2/Assassin1-5/OccultSlayer5/Assassin 6-10 Shadowdancer Maybe good for a level or two, if you are not going to get to assassin 8 for some reason, or you really need evasion or darkvision. Otherwise avoid, it hurts BAB, and increases the save you are already good in. Assassins have good hide skills and can be invisible. That's enough. Spellsword You can already cast in light armor, but two levels might help anyway if you ever are in disguise. Besides, where else are you going to get +2 Bab, a caster level, +3 to Fort and Will, and a feat? Sublime Chord So many possibilities... 9th level spells, +11 Bab, 6d6 SA, and a pile of skill points. You'll have to cross-class Knowledge(arcana), but that's not too bad. A level of Exemplar can help a lot with the skill requirements. bard1/rogue5/assassin5/sublimechord10 Of course, there are a few more, but this should be a good start. Cheers, UMiskatonic
Andreas0815 05-27-05, 12:31 PM	How about a rogue 3/Warlock 2/Assassin 5/Arcane Trickster 10 ? You have to get Mage Hand via feat, but i think its really worth it. Every silent killer should love the usefull invocations a warlock casterlevel of 12 gives you... And the theme of this build is really apealing to me.
Malancthon 05-27-05, 01:26 PM	I'm very fond of the Ranger/Assassin build. I'd go with Ranger 12/Assassin 8 to get the most out of BAB (18) and the complete TWF tree. Add in True Strike and Power Attack. There's a feat in Complete Adventurer that allows you to burn a spell to inflict extra damage to Constructs (if an arcane spell) or Undead (if a divine spell). Since Rangers have divine spells, assassins have arcane spells, that's perfect versatability. He can kill anything living with death attack, undead with divine spells, and constructs with arcane spells. I was going to play this character for City of the Drow, but I never did. :weep:
Michael Tree 05-27-05, 11:48 PM	Monk 2 / Swashbuckler 3 /Assassin X with the Kung Fu Genius feat from Dragon is the best synergy for Int, and gives a bunch of nice bonus feats in addition. Its main downpoint is that they don't get a lot of skill points, although they compensate for that with a high Int. A Changeling Rogue 3 (1st & 3rd subsitution levels) / Swashbuckler 3 is also a nice lead in, since it gives massive skill points, great social skill bonuses, and a full BAB of +3. (The 3rd level substituion level gives a BAB of +3. It may be a misprint, but until it's erratted, have fun. :P)
ninjarabbit 05-28-05, 10:56 AM	This one has MAD but worth thinking about if you can pull it off. rogue3/hexblade4/blackguard5/assassin3/x5 This gets you evasion + mettle + arcane resistance + dark blessing to better deal with spellcasters, you also have 5d6 SA as well as both a familar and a fiendish servant to help you. You also get minor spellcasting from 3 different classes, so at the very least you have some good wand options. You have 5 levels to play with and should be able to hit 16 BAB as long as you aren't too careless.