D&D 5E [GUIDE] Dealing Death: Handbook of the True Assassin

jgsugden said:

If there is a saving throw, the poison dice are intended to not add. If the poison is automatic with no save, it does add.

As for the cleric of the grave - you're better off having that cleric ally. Causally assuming you can get an action in , stay hidden, and then attack is a lot.

For the assassin concept, I'm looking for ways to deliver that crit over and over by having a surprise and then ending the combat, but attacking again before they can heal. To me, that is a bow long ranged attacker.

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SubDude said:

Not seeing 80d6.

I get 10d6 for the short sword and sneak attack, doubled due to surprise, then doubled again due to the Path to the Grave, but that "only" gets me to 40d6. Am I missing something else?

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Elfcrusher said:

Assassin Capstone doubles it again (sometimes).

EDIT: I keep thinking how fun it would be to actually dump 80d6 on the table. And then, "Hmm...that's below average, I guess I'll use my Savage Attacker feat to re-roll..."

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Andre Situation said:

Why is nobody actually updating this guide? I don't see any gloom stalker levels or stuff like that. How can you avoid to take it into account?

Edit.: it also would be nice to develop a section where you give piece of advice about how to set up assassination/surprise, thing that should be important seen that's the core of this class.

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Fenris-77 said:

The Ranger 3 dip to gain Dread Ambush is almost a must have, as it's the only way you can even partially replace the Fighter's capstone 4th attack. Assuming you are trying to maximize both attacks and dice to crit with. Fighter11/Rogue 5/Ranger 4 can max nova something silly like max 700 damage in round one when using action surge.

Just in case I'm mathing wrong, here's the crunchy bits using a longbow:

You have 3 Attacks +1 from Dread Ambush, plus you have 5 superiority dice and an extra d8 on the Dread Ambush attack (twice with AS) which gives you an additional d8 on 7 of 8 attacks. So assuming surprise and thus crit and using sharpshooter to -5/+10 with Dex 20 (and hunters mark, just for giggles)

2d8 weapon/2d8 Superiority/2d6 Hunter's Mark/6d6 Backstab +15 = max 95, which you do 4 times so max 380

Then you action surge and do it again, and the only difference is you don't get a superiority d8 on the second last attack, so max 371, for a total of 751.

You have the ASIs to get both Sharpshooter and Elven Accuracy, so hitting a lot happens most rounds.

Am I doing something wrong there?

When I do the build without that fourth attack from Dread Ambush I can't find a way to get the nova damage anywhere close to as high.

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SubDude said:

First mistake, you only get Sneak Attack once per turn. That eliminates 42d6 from your Action Surged Nova Strike above. So 751 become 499.

Second "mistake" is you're using max damage instead of average die rolls. All the other builds compute based on average die rolls, so in order to make a comparison you'll need to do likewise. Its also a lot more realistic. If you're rolling two dice, maxing them both is uncommon but possible. The odds against maxing all 48 of those dice you're rolling are astronomical.

Edit to add minor other thing: the superiority dice are d10's at Fighter 11, so with five of those you will add 10 more "max" or 5 more average damage.

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