I think also. Everyone in the party has to succeed in stealth otherwise the enemy wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a tough ask. A lot will depend on encounter set up.The major problem with Assassinate, the surprise part of it, especially, is that it carried over from earlier playtest versions of 5e where there actually was such a thing as a surprise round. So now, in actual 5e, you're stuck with an Assassin who has to succeed at stealth AND the attack roll AND the initiative roll on your target to get the auto-crit. And even if you expertise Stealth and have the advantage on the attack roll you'd expect in that situation, it's quite possible the initiative roll will screw you. Unfortunately, the Assassin was given no native initiative boost to compensate for this. Alert helps a ton, but that means your Assassin is effectively feat-taxed. I feel it should've AT LEAST been given its proficiency bonus to initiative (which would play very nicely at Lv. 11 with Reliable Talent).
I also feel like Disguse and Poisoner's Kit proficiencies should've also granted Expertise for free in those, as well. Follow the Scout's model there.
The Lv. 9 and 13 features ... while I actually like those features, and understand their purpose, they are also very clearly what we consider to be ribbon features at this point in 5e's life cycle. They would definitely benefit from having a more combat-applicable feature added on top of those at both of those levels. Maybe something related to poisons. Like at Lv. 9 being able to quick-craft any poison you are familiar with from the DMG list at the end of any long rest, and that poison lasts until your next long rest.
There wasn’t a surprise round in the playtest. Being surprised gave you -10 to Initiative.The major problem with Assassinate, the surprise part of it, especially, is that it carried over from earlier playtest versions of 5e where there actually was such a thing as a surprise round.
I want to say there was in some early versions of it, but it got changed to -10 to initiative later on?There wasn’t a surprise round in the playtest. Being surprised gave you -10 to Initiative.
I think also. Everyone in the party has to succeed in stealth otherwise the enemy wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a tough ask. A lot will depend on encounter set up.
RAW half have to succeed for the party to suceedI think also. Everyone in the party has to succeed in stealth otherwise the enemy wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a tough ask. A lot will depend on encounter set up.
they are little bit weaker than they should be.
we housedruled surprise so that Assassin gets crit on a surprised target even if they lost on initiative and have advantage on all attacks in 2nd round if they have higher initiative then surprised target. So Alert feat still have big impact for subclass.
The problem with it, even when you do set it up, is simple math:Is there a need for that though? A special abilitiy that grants advantage AND auto-crits is insanely powerful.
Limiting it to only surprised creatures, that have yet to take a turn, is a reasonable limiter on it.
All it requires is set up, and a decent initiative roll.