Best Assassin Build

A character I had a lot of fun with...

No-name Character
Human
Rog5/Ass8

STR 14 + 4 (item) = 18
DEX 12
CON 14
WIS 8
INT 17 + 3 (levels) +4 (item) = 24
CHA 11

Feats:
Arcane Strike (3rd level spells)
Ability Focus
EWP: Bastard Sword
Power Attack (Str 13+)
Raptor School [Tactical]
Weapon Focus: Bastard Sword (EWP)

Significant Items:
Ring of Chameleon Power
Belt of Giant Strength (+4)
Glove of Storing
Headband of Intellect (+4)
Sally (intelligent bastard sword/katana with a number of abilities)

Basic tactics:
Keep Sally in the Glove of Storing. On your turn, use a free action to pull Sally out of the glove, switch grip to two hands, attack, switch grip back to one hand, and re-store the sword. This is mainly done just to be cinematic.
Use HIPS of Invisibility to hide. Spend three rounds observing target, casting True Strike and other buffs, then attack with full 2-for-1 power attack, and a pretty impressing save against a Death Attack. Save DC 27 (10 +8[level] +7[INT] +2[AF]), average 69 damage per attack (1d10+3[weapon] + 22[PA] + 4d4[AS] + 4[STR] + 7d6[SA]). It takes a while to set up, but not many things survive.

Not terribly min-maxed, but decent powered and very fun.

Chun-tzu said:

Actually, they DON'T gain iterative attacks at the Monk's rate. Monk BAB stacks in a funny way with other classes, but the bottom line is that if you multiclass a Monk, you lose out on your unarmed attacks (even multi-classing with Fighter). Check the example in Oriental Adventures.

Click to expand...

an advantage of 3.5 is that this is no longer true with monks. I wonder if 3.5 has more monk/assassins than 3.0, when this post was (validly for 3.0) made.

Try this out

Ranger:1/Fighter:2/Paladin Of Tyrranny:3/Assassin:10/Telflammar Shadowlord:6

Why?
-Ranger gives you the nessesary skillpoints and class skills to become an assassin+boosts your fort and reflex saves+track bonus feat+favourite enemy
-Fighter gives you feats+boosts your fort
-paladin of tyrrany Adds CHA mod on saving throws which is vital for your poor Will saving throw+immunity diseases+aura of despair (-2 saves,concider it as a boost to your death attack or help to your party's spellcasters)

Feats:

dodge,mobility,spring attack,blind fight(TSl prerequisites),
elusive target, craven,telling blow,power attack,improved critical(or a keen weapon)
(telling blow adds sneak attack on critical hits,craven adds +1dmg per char level whenever you deal sneak attack,ellussive target minimises the dmg you take from attacks due to power attack which is vital for shadow discorporation ability of TSl)
Consider combat expertise and improved combat expertise,protection devotion(to boost your defencive abillity)and law devotion to boost your to-hit.
also consider taking the disciple of darkness feat to become a 2 level disciple of dispater, to lower your critical threat range to 12-20(which is really TOO much and i dont adopt it)

this built works either with a two handed sword (18-20 threat range) or with two weapon fighting.i have to admit that it works better with two weapon fighting but due to lack of feats i use a two-handed)

consider taking two levels of Rogue to gain the evasion but then you'll loose the +16 base attack at 20lvl and the 4th attack.Or take them when you go epic.

Assassin Spells

1st: shock and awe, disguise self,ghost sound,distract assailant

2nd:invisibillity,swift invisibillity,darkness,iron silence

3rd and most USEFULL level:
-WRAITH STRIKE(swift,all attacks Vs target's touch AC)
-SADISM(standard,for every 10dmg you inflict you gain +1 to hit,+1 saves,+1skill checks for the following round)
-MASOCHISM(as sadism but damage taken not inflicted)
deeper darkness(you can see clearly through all kinds of darkness as a TSl)
amorphous form(to infiltrate),absorb weapon

4th:freedom of movement,dimension door,greater invisibillity and my favourite,cursed blade(swift,dmg inflicted cannot be healed by any means and creature slained cannot be ressurected,not even with a wish or a miracle spell before a remove curse spell is cast on the body)

Telflammar spells (choose those you like from the list)

HElpfull clothing and gear:

-deathstrike bracers,5.000gp 3/d after activation can deal critical hits and sneak attacks to oozes,plants,elementals,constructs and undead.

-greater truedeath crystal,(weapon augmentation crystal)10.000gp deal critical hits and sneak attack to undead +1d6 dmg+ ignores misschance of incorporeal creatures.

-belt of battle,12.000gp 3charges per day.if you spend one charge you can take another move action,two charges-one standard action,three charges-a full round action(great item for its price)

-concider greater slick,shadow,silent move armor properties all for gp +15escape artist,hide,move silently and dark

-Try to find a ring of wizardryIII,70.000gp(a bit expensive for a ring but doubles all 3rd level vital spells that you can cast)

-whichever you choose,two handed or two weapon fighting try morrow crashing(+3) and wounding(+2) weapon properties,each cause 1 CON dmg on hit
or collision(+2)(+5 dmg) and curse spewing(+3)(-1d4 att,saves, checks,no save,affects each target once,on critical,even if not subjected to the extra dmg of critical hits and sneak att dmg)


Hope i helped you

PS:ALL feats,spells and gear are taken from OFFICIAL D&D 3rd and 3,5 edition Books.

^^^craven also gives a -2 on saves Vs fear effects and spells with the fear discriptor,and you can't have craven if you are immune in fear by any means.

A very good assassin is : ninja 5 assassin HD-5 and i will tell you why.If you combine spells such as wraithstrike or find the gap with ninja's ghost step ability your opponent will have an AC equal to 10 + his deflection modifier. that is almost nothing... I used this strategy and played in combat expertise so my AC was high and did not miss in attack roles

Rogue 4/Swashbuckler 3/Assassin 9/Unseen Seer 1/Avenging Executioner 3.

Daring Outlaw, TWF, ITWF, GTWF, Deadly Precision, Poison Expert, Poison Master, Darkstalker.

Standard tactic is to cast disguise self until close to target, hide in plain sight, cast greater invisibility, poison your blades (use black lotus extract DC 21 and 3d6+3/3d6+3 Con damage because of your feats), cast wraithstrike, and drop 6 13d6 (+Int + Enhancement + Greater Wounding) touch attacks square in the target's back. If the Constitution damage doesn't kill him, and the sneak attack damage doesn't kill him... well, if he panics, you finish him off. If he starts trying to find you, dimension door out and go kill the guy who hired you for this hit. You done got set up.

Anyway, after you're done, you dimension door away, clean yourself up, and drop the invisibility. Go find somewhere private to drop your disguise self.

In a standard party, you have everything you need to fulfill the skillmonkey role and you're a spectacular striker.