Assassin Spells needed

[Demoquin]

I am almost making my 6th lvl and i was wondering if the forum had any advice on what to add for spells. I was thinking of True Strike but i dont know what else to add. Lvl 2 i wanted Alter Self.

 

[Pinotage]

I am almost making my 6th lvl and i was wondering if the forum had any advice on what to add for spells. I was thinking of True Strike but i dont know what else to add. Lvl 2 i wanted Alter Self.

The best assassin spells are in Complete Adventurer. Insightful Feint (+10 to Bluff as a swift action), Distract Assailant (A failed Will save leaves the opponent flat-footed - swift action), Critical Strike (+1d6 damage, double threat range, +4 to confirm criticals - swift action) and Wraithstrike (Swift action - allows you to make melee touch attacks instead.) The swift action spells are great for assassins that specialise in sneak attacks. If you can't hit it, use Wraithstrike, if you can't get into a flanking position, use Distract Assailant, if you're going for the hard hit use Critical Strike or if you have Improved Feint, get Insightful Feint.

From the PHB and 1st level spells, I'd really only choose Feather Fall. Possibly True Strike, but I don't think that's as useful if you can get Wraithstrike as a 2nd level spell, unless you're a range assassin. Don't take Disguise Self since you can get Alter Self as 2nd level spell, and Sleep, Ghost Sound and others are rarely useful 1st level spells. Jump? Just increase you speed and you get a nice bonus in any case (Wand of Expeditious Retreat). Obscuring Mist - possibly, but Invisibility is nicer - leave battlefield control to others. Also consider that rarely used spells such as jump are easily obtained in potion form. Detect Poison might be worth a look as well.

Hope that helps.

Pinotage

 

[Liquidsabre]

Yea Complete Adventurer really has some nice additions to the Assassin spell list. Of those spells I'd recommend picking up distract assailant and sniper's shot. Though I'd check with your DM to make sure you can use these as they seem a bit overpowered compared to the other assasin spells. Since distract assailant makes your opponent flat-footed until their next turn, allowing you (not to mention anyone else) to make a full-attack worth of sneak attacks on the creature, and sniper's shot allows you to make a ranged sneak attack at any range. Both are pretty powerful additions to an assassin's arsenal if allowed.

After that I'd definately go with featherfall and truestrike, the first being useful for those plummets to escape or to catch yourself and truestrike negates miss chances - allowing an assassin to hide in shadows and then sneak attack a target also in the shadowy area when normally the miss chance for being in shadows would negate the ability to sneak attack. Though the jump spell at the higher caster levels absolutely rocks, having a +30 to your jump checks combined with some featherfall action makes for some serious crouching tiger hidden dragon moments!

Edit- For a wee fix on the distract assailant spell to make it useable for balanced game-play just have your DM alter the spell so it "makes the target flat-footed only against the caster and for a single attack, at which point the target is no longer considered flat-footed." Not one of the more well thought out 1st level swift spells I must say lol.

 

[yennico]

Sleep, Ghost Sound and others are rarely useful 1st level spells.

I disagree. Sleep is a hd-limited spell but it is useful for normal guards and persons (merchants) in a town.Sneaking around a normal guard is easy but subduing without killing the guard because you want to question this person is not so easy.
Killing is not always the best solution for low level NPCs.
Ghost sound is excellent for distracting guards.
These two spells are usefull for normal missions of an assassin but if your assassin only do dungeon-crawling in monster infested dungeons these spells are not so useful.

 

[Pinotage]

I disagree. Sleep is a hd-limited spell but it is useful for normal guards and persons (merchants) in a town.Sneaking around a normal guard is easy but subduing without killing the guard because you want to question this person is not so easy.
Killing is not always the best solution for low level NPCs.
Ghost sound is excellent for distracting guards.
These two spells are usefull for normal missions of an assassin but if your assassin only do dungeon-crawling in monster infested dungeons these spells are not so useful.

True. Either way, they're spells you'll want to switch out at later levels for more useful ones. But, if you're out and about trying to subdue guards, why not take the mage along, or other members of the party? Throwing a stone is an alternative to Ghost Sound, and if you want to subdue guards, get a sap or use your fist and deal non-lethal damage. There are options both ways. With your +4d6 sneak attack as non-lethal damage, if works quite well.

Pinotage