Survival: a suitable goal unto itself?

[questbreaker]

EDIT: formerly called "need assassin advice, TPK expected". It has sense polymorphed into an interesting discussion on whether survival alone is a suitable goal for PC's. Read a Few Posts Below:

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ive got an upcoming game in a few days, and im expecting it to be a brutal dungeon crawl that will most likely become a TPK swiftly. i need advice on how to survive so this game will last more than 2 hours. heres the details:

expected level 10
roll stats (havent done it yet)
all 3.5 acceptable, except psionics
specific campaign settings (eberron / FR) are frowned upon (frowned upon means accepted, but generally provokes DM wrath via enemies "rolling" a supernatural amount of "natural 20's")

im looking at making a rogue 5 / assassin 5. this is my first attempt at a character like this, so im looking for advice on how to increase its survivability. i plan to confer my sneak attack damage to the enemy via bow / xbow.

also of particular note is that rogue 5 gives me uncanny dodge, and assassin 5 gives me uncanny dodge (again) as well as improved uncanny dodge. i am looking for a way (via unearthed arcana or complete mage [but im AFB right now]) to trade one of my overlapping uncanny dodges for something else, so i am not wasting a class ability.

any ideas?

 

[questbreaker]

perhaps to eliminate the redundancy of the uncanny dodge, i could do:

rogue 3 / swordsage 2 / assassin 5.

with this, i would lose 1d6 SA and the first uncanny dodge but gain WIS to AC while still being able to wear light armor.

 

[avigor]

Shouldn't the uncanny dodges simply cause the appropriate class levels to stack with each other for the purpose of improved uncanny dodge?

 

[questbreaker]

yes, but it goes like this:

uncanny dodge + uncanny dodge (from another class) = improved uncanny dodge
you cant add any combination of uncanny dodges and/or improved uncanny dodges to get anything better than improved uncanny dodge.

since i get improved uncanny dodge from assassin, i can do without the uncanny dodge from the rogue levels.

 

[frankthedm]

specific campaign settings (eberron / FR) are frowned upon (frowned upon means accepted, but generally provokes DM wrath via enemies "rolling" a supernatural amount of "natural 20's")

Uhm, If it is that noticeable, that IS pretty crass.

Max UMD, buy a staff of fire, maybe Acid Substituted. Lots of stuff are immune to sneak, and most undead won't be packing acid immunity.

I'd suggest something that allows sneak on crit immune creatures, but it sounds like pulling that will bring down crit after crit on you.

 

[blargney the second]

Aside from simply surviving, what role would you like to play in the party? Do you have any secondary goals?

 

[questbreaker]

being a skill monkey would be the secondary goal. and an archer, combat-wise.

 

[milo]

You need to find a way to become immune to crits. Heavy fortification armor on +1 Mithral chain would be 37100 gp. You have 49,000 to spend. That opens up campaign specific options if you want to go that route.
UMD was mentioned earlier, it is a great skill and if this is a one time adventure then it won't hurt you to splurge your gold on wands, staves, scrolls, etc. Potions are another great way to help youself out.
Complete Scoundrel has some luck feats that might be useful for the death attack. Sly fortune lets you reroll a hide, move silently, or tumble check. Unbelievable luck gives a +2 to you lowest save and two luck rerolls extra a day. With those two feats you could reroll 3 times a day on those three skills. If you are going to use a crossbow then Crossbow Sniper is a must it is in PHB II. I wouldn't worry too much about rapid reload. At level 10 for a rogue type it won't give you that much of a boost unless you are going to get rapid shot. Lets you use half dex bonus on damage with crossbow. Sniper's Shot is a 1st level assassin spell cast as a swift action and it let's you sneak attack from any range with your next attack. Find the Gap is a 3rd level spell for assassin's and it lets you make a touch attack for your first attack each round. Iron Silence(2nd lvl) negates the Hide and move silently penalties on one suit of armor for 1 hour/lvl. All of those are in the spell compendium, don't know the original source.
I would purchase a wand of shield for 750 gp. It will help boost your ac if someone happens to close in on you. It will be a dc 20 umd check. Should be easy at level 10. 13 ranks plus any modifers. A +2 charisma mod negates any chance of massive failure.

Another option to get rid of the uncanny dodge redunduncy would be a couple of levels of fighter. Two feats is always nice and opens up some new doors. As is you only have 4 feats unless you go human. Human Rogue 3/Fighter 2/Assassin 5 would give you a couple more hp and you would be sitting on 7 feats. I do like the swordsage though.
You could also forego the rogue altogether and meet the prereqs with straight swordsage. The Assassin's stance gives you 2d6 sneak attack. Only problem with that is that most of the swordsage ablilities involve a melee attack.

 

[blargney the second]

If you want to be a survivable archer skill monkey, Scout/Ranger is a pretty solid way to go. For one thing you can use skirmish every round, unlike SA on just the surprise/first one. For two you can skirmish things normally immune to crits with the Swift Hunter feat.

Bards and Druids can both make surprisingly good archers as well.

 

[milo]

Wizard/Ranger into Arcane Archer. The high int score for wizard is good for skills and arcane archer still gets 4/level. Not the best for skills but good for the main goal of archery.