D&D 5E Split the Assassin from the Rogue back into its own class

[CleverNickName]

Undead might be immune to poison but living people usually aren't; thus the way to make poison more useful is to not run as many undead-themed adventures.

Eh, that's not insurmountable with a flexible DM.
Perhaps there are poisons that use alchemical silver, anointing oils, sacramental wine and wafers, and/or holy water as their base ingredients.

 

[Lanefan]

It's also "must be evil alignment". Gygax explained in an interview that he was working on the assumption that there would be no evil PCs, and therefore the intention was to limit to NPCs.

Gygax's assumption was wrong, as were many he made about how the game would be played once released into the wild.

Further, a strong case can be made for Neutral Assassins (James Bond, anyone?).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Gygax's assumption was wrong, as were many he made about how the game would be played once released into the wild.

He was aware of that at the time he gave the interview.

Further, a strong case can be made for Neutral Assassins (James Bond, anyone?).

James Bond is a dex fighter. You don't need to be an assassin to kill people, all PCs can do that.

 

[Lanefan]

Eh, that's not insurmountable with a flexible DM.
Perhaps there are poisons that use alchemical silver, anointing oils, sacramental wine and wafers, and/or holy water as their base ingredients.

<<smacks head>>

Why, in all the many years I've been doing this, did I never think of using holy or unholy water as a form of poison?

That's brilliant!!!

 

[Lanefan]

He was aware of that at the time he gave the interview.

James Bond is a dex fighter. You don't need to be an assassin to kill people, all PCs can do that.

As written these days Bond's got more and more Fighter to him, but he's always been an Assassin underneath it all; as are all the double-0s.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

As written these days Bond's got more and more Fighter to him, but he's always been an Assassin underneath it all; as are all the double-0s.

Their job is to kill people, but all the double-0s have different skillsets, i.e. classes.

 

[Lanefan]

Their job is to kill people, but all the double-0s have different skillsets, i.e. classes.

Isn't the bolded almost the very definition of an assassin?

 

[Minigiant]

One feature


Like a rogue

I'm really not seeing an argument for why an assassin isn't a rogue.

Well I didn't design the whole class.

But I see the Assassin as an Exio/Black widow/Batman/JamesBond type.

Tougher and Swifter than the Rogue.
Harder Striking and Sneakier than a Fighter.

The Assassin can Tank the Orcs for the Fighter if he is low and needs to be healed by the Cleric. And it's more that OHKO called shot on one of them than him being a mass of meat under steel.

 

[Minigiant]

As written these days Bond's got more and more Fighter to him, but he's always been an Assassin underneath it all; as are all the double-0s.

Exactly. Double 0s are Warriors with a Sneak Attacks. The Assassin that Fighter/Rogue in one class found in modern spy movies.

The 5e Rogue revert back his chickeny roots from the martial badass 4e Rogue.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Isn't the bolded almost the very definition of an assassin?

Which makes EVERY class an assassin. There are no not-killing-people classes in D&D.

The 5e Rogue revert back his chickeny roots

There is no room for non-combat classes in 5e. If you had two rogue classes, one that was good at killing things and one that was not good at killing things no one would play the bad-at-killing-things class. You might as well delete it from the game.