The Assassin. Core Class or Prestige Class? Spell-Casting or Non-Spellcasting?

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Other: What Assassin?

Poison Use should be a feat, and Death Attack is redundant with Sneak Attack. If they need spells, a couple levels of Bard or Wizard should work-- the Assassin spells could be added to the Bard list with little trouble.

Otherwise, the best Assassin, like the best Ninja, is on page 49 of the Player's Handbook.

That said, I do allow people to take the Assassin PrC, for now.

 

[dargoth3]

Definately a Non Casting Class

If the Warmage (A wizard who focuses on "War spells') is a class then Assasin should be a class in its own right to.

Different Assasin guilds should be PrCs

 

[Numion]

1st level assassin always seemed like a strange idea "Ok, holla at me if you need a 1st level commoner or a housecat whacked .. or on second thought forget that housecat, thems nasty"

Anyway, my image for assassin comes from WFRP, so I'd say it should be a prestige class and non-spellcasting.

 

[Sejs]

No, but it is necessary for a particular kind of professional - namely, a member of a generic fantasy Assassins' Guild, steeped in dark arts, etc.

This is not to say that you couldn't have similar prestige classes without the spellcasting abilities fulfilling largely the same role, but they'd be of a slightly different stripe.

And I wonder if Sejs came up with the little "a", big "A" thing on his own. I've been using it in various discussions for years now (usually in conjunction with little "b", big "B" barbarians). Great minds? Convergent evolution? You decide.

*nod* Exactly. It's not a matter of only professionals being spellcasting death attackin' poison using PrC members, it's like what was said - it's a matter of members of a particular society being like that. Case in point, one of the most feared little 'a' assassins in my homebrew is a man with a mishmash of levels in monk, ranger (well, urban ranger when I updated him), and rogue, and he's utterly professional. But he isn't a member of the Assassins' Guild, so no PrC.

Btw, thank you for the compliments, Patryn, and to answer your question - think alike. *nod*

 

[Li Shenron]

I am quite content as it is in the DMG. Of course the point is that any character can be an assassin in its own way (a straight Rogue is already an assassin enough). The DMG Assassin is very well done, but the DM can choose to make it restricted to one only guild, while other guilds may have different PrCls with different features.

 

[the Jester]

Core/Non.

Cuz sometimes I hearken back.

 

[Dakkareth]

Different organizations of assassins have different traditions and abilities. Some use magic, some don't, other might have other specialities. Instead of having a catch-all Assassin Prc, I'd have 'Initiate of the Crimson Flow', 'Royal Pacifier', etc as their own prestige classes.

 

[X-Marks!]

Why not...

Well, sincerely, I'd like one of each, please. (Don't care about what you call 'em.)

They each have their place, and their player.

 

[lukelightning]

I can't understate how much I despise the spellcasting part of the Assassin class. It makes no sense, other than "giving them spells would make them more effective" which is an incredibly weak arguement. I could say "commoners should get spellcasting abilities because it would make them be better commoners....Dwarven Defenders should get spellcasting abilities too..."

If there is a secret society of special magical assassins...make a new PrC for that. A "generic" assassin should be a rogue-type with some special killing/disguise/poison abilities.

I also think they should not get the "hide in plain sight" ability, which is the trademark ability of the Shadowdancer.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Core, spellcasting (when a bard, wizard, and so on becomes a contract killer)
Core, non-spellcasting (when a rogue, fighter, and so on becomes a contract killer)
Prestige, spellcasting (when one of the above becomes an Assassin with the capital A, meaning the Prestigeclass, or when one of the above gets any other PrC and has spellcasting in one of his classes, or when someone with a PrC and some spellcasting ability becomes a contract killer)
Prestige, non-spellcasting (when one of the rogues, fighters, and so on who is a contract killer takes a non-spellcasting PrC, or when someone with a PrC but without spellcasting becomes a contract killer).