Dragon 379: Assassin Heroic Tier

[Rugger]

Dear Mike,

Zarak, Half-orcish Assassin (born Zarak Abraham Thagvarmarsch) would like to thank you for the 'shout-out', as 'you kids' put it these days.

I met him on my honeymoon: he currently works with kids on a Carnival cruise-ship in the Mediterranean. We've stayed Facebook friends ever since.

Apparently Carnival is one of the few places that a midget-half-orc with green skin can find work anymore.

He also says that, "back in HIS day, I had to kill people with nothing more than a knife-shaped hunk of yellow plastic and a funny purple hat, and that was walking uphill both ways in the snow to get to a kill."

I've attached the pic my wife took on our honeymoon. On a side note, the Ogre-King (seen in the pic), died from congestive heart failure last year.

He was kind of a douche anyways.

-Matt

 

[mearls]

Holy crap, that is the most incredible thing I've seen all week. I need to track down that cruise ship and liberate our iconic, half-orc assassin! Freedom!

 

[Rugger]

Yeah, it was odd (and thus my expresssion )

Walking around on a cruise-ship near Italy...popping into the 'kids-zone' arcade and there they were.

Makes me wonder WHERE they came from, and if there's a Warduke out there!?!?

-Matt

 

[Rechan]

I think there's another issue too: Like the monk (who doesn't put out the damage for a striker, as we've seen), the assassin probably plays well in a group where there's another striker. This way the heat isn't on the assassin if there's someone else pumping out the damage and taking heat - an avenger or barbarian.

Although I feel real bad for a leader in such a group. I'm a leader in a group with only one striker (a barbarian) and keeping HIM up is a challenge.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I think there's another issue too: Like the monk (who doesn't put out the damage for a striker, as we've seen), the assassin probably plays well in a group where there's another striker. This way the heat isn't on the assassin if there's someone else pumping out the damage and taking heat - an avenger or barbarian.

Although I feel real bad for a leader in such a group. I'm a leader in a group with only one striker (a barbarian) and keeping HIM up is a challenge.

Hopefully with the Assassin, these problems are ameliorated somewhat by the stealthy nature of the class. Shade Form is basically an escape tactic, and you can Shadow Step next to an ally. Many of the utilities provide some form of defensive status (invisible, hidden, concealed, silent, and so on). I think that the class expects you to be making Stealth checks to be hidden, especially since you're given Stealth as a trained skill. I'd go so far as to say that if the player isn't taking advantage of all of this, they've misread the mechanics of the class.

That said, I think that Toughness and Durable still will be very common feats for Assassins to take.

 

[Spatula]

I am underwhelmed...

I was hopeing (based on trevor saying that there was more then just powers) that we would have every thing for including this class in a heroic teir game...but we don't

without ki focus items it is not fully usable, and I really wanted at least the multi class feat, but really the hybrid too...

While the lack of ki focus items is disappointing, it doesn't make the class unusable. Assassins can use weapons as implements, just like the monk.

 

[Klaus]

Hopefully with the Assassin, these problems are ameliorated somewhat by the stealthy nature of the class. Shade Form is basically an escape tactic, and you can Shadow Step next to an ally. Many of the utilities provide some form of defensive status (invisible, hidden, concealed, silent, and so on). I think that the class expects you to be making Stealth checks to be hidden, especially since you're given Stealth as a trained skill. I'd go so far as to say that if the player isn't taking advantage of all of this, they've misread the mechanics of the class.

That said, I think that Toughness and Durable still will be very common feats for Assassins to take.

Plus the class really goes well with revenants, who have their own bag of "ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive" tricks, like Dark Feast and Unnatural Vitality.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

While the lack of ki focus items is disappointing, it doesn't make the class unusable. Assassins can use weapons as implements, just like the monk.

I musta missed that, what weapons count as implements?




edit:
Also if anyone can get ahold of mearls again, there are threads saying the shrouds are instead of the normal damager over in the wotc board.
and if he can clearafy what can and can't go on the ki focus (I know +1,+2 ect) but can I make it a weapon, or an orb enhancment, or a staff...staff of ruin sounds nice.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

I musta missed that, what weapons count as implements?

Anything you're proficient with.

 

[mearls]

Also if anyone can get ahold of mearls again, there are threads saying the shrouds are instead of the normal damager over in the wotc board.
and if he can clearafy what can and can't go on the ki focus (I know +1,+2 ect) but can I make it a weapon, or an orb enhancment, or a staff...staff of ruin sounds nice.

Shroud damage is in addition to the attack's normal damage.

I believe that we'll have specific ki foci up over the course of the month. As a hack, I'd suggest putting any weapon property that can be applied to any weapon into the ki focus. That's just a temporary hack until the official rules roll out, but it should work fine as a starting point.