D&D General [+] Assassin Chat

[payn]

The original Assassins where the came came from are close to this.

Professional assassin for hire is mostly a myth. Real ones mostly tied to a group eg mob or some sort of religious or military/government group eg original Assassins and real ninja.

Yeah looks like I won't be able to participate in this thread then. Have a good one.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So, imma start here and tread very very carefully because + thread, but is this stated anywhere in 5E or any D&D material?

I don't understand the purpose of the question.

Are you going to posit for some reason that the answer has some importance to the topic of the thread? Did my OP give the impression that I was pulling from DnD lore? I tried to make it clear that I was talking about my vision of the Assassin.

The dnd assassin, other than in 4e, has been mostly thematically garbage, IMO. The 3.5 prestige class is hilariously bad.

The original Assassins where the bane came from are close to this.

Professional assassin for hire is mostly a myth. Real ones mostly tied to a group eg mob or some sort of religious or military/government group eg original Assassins and real ninja.

Yep, and before the modern age, most known examples had a lot of mysticism/occult ritual/theological stuff.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Could the conclave of the coalt to be anything like the prestige class "Slayer of Domiel" from "the Book of the Exalted Deeds"?

I never owned that book, so...maybe?

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah looks like I won't be able to participate in this thread then. Have a good one.

Clarification?

I get where doctorbadwolf is coming from. They want a more realistic assassin.

The D&D one is broadly speaking ultimately based off the 1E one which is kind of based on these guys.

Order of Assassins - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

It's where the name originates from.

D&D Assassins are more an American pastiche or comical eg Bhaalists.

I think that's why it's a + thread to prevent people saying their idea is badwrongfun.

5E assassin also isn't that good as an assassin or a rogue. It would be very hard to do a 5E Assassins Creed type game. 1E maybe.

Lacking more information from doctorbadwolf hard to say. Also some of it does cross over to banned topics.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe you could steal some ideas from the slayer class of Pathfinder.

Some times I imagine assasin/slayer as a mixture of stealth(rogue, ranger) and martial adepts(crusader, swordsage, warblade).

And now the videogame saga "Assasin's Creed" is a too strong influence.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Clarification?

I get where doctorbadwolf is coming from. They want a more realistic assassin.

And the realistic assassin gives them the ability to be heroic, which the 3.5 always evil murderer for hire really doesn’t.

The D&D one is broadly speaking ultimately based off the 1E one which is kind of based on these guys.

Order of Assassins - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

It's where the name originates from.

D&D Assassins are more an American pastiche or comical eg Bhaalists.

I think that's why it's a + thread to prevent people saying their idea is badwrongfun.

Exactly. People always want to argue that the concept has to be a certain way based on some book

5E assassin also isn't that good as an assassin or a rogue. It would be very hard to do a 5E Assassins Creed type game. 1E maybe.

Lacking more information from doctorbadwolf hard to say. Also some of it does cross over to banned topics.

Maybe you could steal some ideas from the slayer class of Pathfinder.

I’ll check it out

Some times I imagine assasin/slayer as a mixture of stealth(rogue, ranger) and martial adepts(crusader, swordsage, warblade).

And now the videogame saga "Assasin's Creed" is a too strong influence.

As long as you stick to the first 3 Assassins, I think AssCreed is a great inspiration for a mostly mundane but a little more than natural assassin.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I really wanted to post the class as it is so far, but I’m way too much in the midst of editing it, and there are places where it reads terribly as a result.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Eh why not just do it lol

Read with the understanding that it isn’t finished.

Things I Might Change Still

• Might return to them having unarmored defense (Int)
• Might reduce number of marks or remove the ten minute ritual to regain them, and instead you can regain one when you crit on an attack, or something. Maybe if you get a kill with an attack where you invoke the mark and XYZ you don’t spend that Mark?
  • Basically just something that rewards assassination tactics
• Might move things around to increase your ability to observe and prepare in the base class. Peryton has area familiarity, but the base class could gain a more street level mental map and understanding of local power structures and such?
• Might come up with several more Shadow Moves, and make them like Invocations
• More weirdness
• Reduce the number of bullet points of various features at low level.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I really want to layer on more rewards for stalking a target and preparing for the kill as you gain levels.

Like I have/am building an ability to Observe a target after studying them in order to put a Mark(Shroud) on them even at a great distance and get better benefits against them, and some subclasses have more like the Peryton Conclave gets the ability to observe an area from a high place and mentally map it, making it easier for them to traverse at speed and under stealth, but idk

…there was an ability at one point to study the target and gain expanded crit range against them for 24 hours, tied into the Observe thing above, that could come back.

So you could

• study/observe the target, gaining easier Marking and a 19-20 crit range
• Mark them, getting advantage on some skill checks and the ability to put a bunch of damage out all at once
• Hide from them, use a disguise, or use your hidden weapon, gaining advantage to attacks
• use some subclass thing or other
• maybe poison a weapon if ya nasty
• if you get low init you can force a creature to swap place with you (allies can choose to fail the save and just allow it)
• use a shadow move after you strike to hide, or strike again as a bonus action, or various other things like gaining movement benefits or increased defense, or

Possible additions:

• level 5ish ability to make a target that you hit but don’t drop more vulnerable to your next attack?
• something with the Mark? Like the ability to heighten it as a bonus action to do more reliable damage (reroll 1s and 2s until no dice show those numbers) or further increase crit range or something on the next successful attack?