Assassin Preview at Gencon

[CelticMutt]

That's what I'm wondering. Divine is done. Plenty done. We only had two divine classes to convert, and we got two new ones to round out the four core. And primal? The barb was kinda shoehorned in there so the druid would have a buddy, and then two other classes were contrived to give them their four core.

Ummm, no. Divine is definitely not done, as the already proposed theories for the Seeker class as a Divine seeker of truth demonstrates. The Barbarian has been Primal themed since at least the beginning of 3e. Maybe even all the way back to 1e. And the Shaman has been around in one form or other since 2e as well. The Warden is the only new one, and it still has enough roots to be far from contrived.

At any rate, the cover is official. PHB3 is going to have more Divine and Primal. The only question is whether there will be one each or two each, depending on whether there will be 6 classes due to space taken by Hybrids, or 8 classes.

 

[drothgery]

That's what I'm wondering. Divine is done. Plenty done. We only had two divine classes to convert, and we got two new ones to round out the four core. And primal? The barb was kinda shoehorned in there so the druid would have a buddy, and then two other classes were contrived to give them their four core.

I think primal's done, but I was never interested in primal. I can think of a few more things to do with divine (or martial), but they're kind of niche.

 

[Byronic]

The preview did state that there were other practitioners of shadow magic. So we could quite possibly be getting a Necromancer sooner rather then later. Maybe within the next half year?

 

[TrainedMunkee]

Theoretically PHB3 should be ramping up to Dark Sun. Psionic classes for DS. I would image they will need more primal classes for DS and possibly another divine.

I was very impressed with the psion and the assassin. I have found both to be very creative. The developers have impressed me more the farther we get into 4e.

 

[drothgery]

The preview did state that there were other practitioners of shadow magic. So we could quite possibly be getting a Necromancer sooner rather then later. Maybe within the next half year?

So far, classes (and races with full PC treatments, for that matter) have only appeared in Player's Handbooks and [campaign setting] Player's Guides. With some D&Di-exclusives planned in the future. It'd be kind of surprising to see WotC break that trend.

 

[CapnZapp]

About the assassin's "waiting game":

The class absolutely needs to do more than +1 damage cumulative per round of waiting.

Now I'm assuming he can act normally in the meanwhile. If he is in any way restricted (from using big encounters or dailies) while in "build-up", then the pay-off needs to be that much bigger.

A striker can generally deal +4 bonus damage per round. For this guy, I certainly hope the extra damage quickly exceeds that for it to be worthwhile delaying.

 

[CapnZapp]

Shorter reply, now that I have looked at the preview.

Handing out a linear 1d6 per shroud is broken, in that it does nothing. Why save up your shrouds? (And the answer might lie in feats we know nothing about. If your powers keyed off how many shrouds you currently have on a target, then that would be an answer)

(That feat allowing you to place two shrouds once per encounter is actually front-loaded, in that there is no prereq like "Target needs a shroud already". This makes even less sense. Why risk the two shrouds you've got by delaying instead off letting them do damage now?)

It would be much better if your first shroud yielded no bonus die, and then you got one extra die per shroud, cumulative.

One shroud: +0d6
Two shrouds: +1d6
Three shrouds: +3d6
Four shrouds: +6d6

This way you would have an actual incentive to risk things by delaying until the fourth round. And you would be able to fire already in the third without losing anything (compared to the other strikers).

 

[Byronic]

Shorter reply, now that I have looked at the preview.

Handing out a linear 1d6 per shroud is broken, in that it does nothing. Why save up your shrouds? (And the answer might lie in feats we know nothing about. If your powers keyed off how many shrouds you currently have on a target, then that would be an answer)

(That feat allowing you to place two shrouds once per encounter is actually front-loaded, in that there is no prereq like "Target needs a shroud already". This makes even less sense. Why risk the two shrouds you've got by delaying instead off letting them do damage now?)

It would be much better if your first shroud yielded no bonus die, and then you got one extra die per shroud, cumulative.

One shroud: +0d6
Two shrouds: +1d6
Three shrouds: +3d6
Four shrouds: +6d6

This way you would have an actual incentive to risk things by delaying until the fourth round. And you would be able to fire already in the third without losing anything (compared to the other strikers).

It all has to do with accuracy, since if you miss you deal 1 less shroud damage iirc. This gives the Assassin 1 advantage over the rogue, he deals damage even if he misses.

 

[MrMyth]

We already have warlocks to handle the pact- with-sinister-forces angle.

Sure, but mainly from a caster perspective.

Given this is a solid blend of the assassin, ninja and shadow dancer concepts - all of which were popular in the past, at least one of which was a base class - there certainly seems room for it for those interested.

Note the 'build up damage' is not this guy's only striker damage boost. So it makes it very viable for him to focus on one enemy, while building up damage on another... and then abruptly dive through the shadows at his new target and unleash a devastating blow. That's both flavorful and useful in combat, and unique from how most other strikers operate.

I mean, ok, it might not be to your taste, but I think its hard to deny that it doesn't already seem a distinct and unique class, and that is with only having seen a small fraction of it.

 

[Vael]

Shorter reply, now that I have looked at the preview.

Handing out a linear 1d6 per shroud is broken, in that it does nothing. Why save up your shrouds? (And the answer might lie in feats we know nothing about. If your powers keyed off how many shrouds you currently have on a target, then that would be an answer)

Simple ... you must use your shrouds prior to your attack, and a miss deals damage equal to a shroud less. The mathematicians have already calculated that every other round is the best for DPR. So simply shroud-and-attack every round, you may not get your bonus damage, if you miss.

I quite like what I've seen of the Assassin so far.