Assassin variant minus spells?

[uv23]

They don't get many, but I'm in the process of weeding out the excessive proilferation of spell casting from non core casting classes and I'm onto the assassin currently.

That being said, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for what to replace the assassin's limited spell casting ability with. Given the option, I'll take extraordinary abilities over supernatural ones.

 

[Lily Inverse]

Well. . . .

I would suggest giving them 8 skill points per level, and perhaps a skill focus at 4th and 8th level for a class skill and leaving it at that.

It might be helpful to know why you're doing this, exactly. Especially as most prestiege classes that give spellcasting do so because they are intended as enhancements to a core spellcasting class. Eliminating spellcasting abilities from THOSE prestiege classes would really defeat the point of even having them.

 

[uv23]

My campaign setting is relatively low (arcane) magic. Core D&D has the attitude that many people have a basic knowledge of magic where as in mine, its something exclusively taught. I have removed spell casting from the paladin and ranger already, and done away with the bard altogether. Assassins are an important part of the campaign setting, but spell casting assassins are not.

 

[Lily Inverse]

I can see getting rid of asassin spellcasters. I was referring more to classes like the Loremaster, anything from Tome & Blood, and the like. Spellcasting is just as essential to these prestiege classes as it is to the core Sorcerer and Wizard, indeed without these core classes the prestiege classes simply couldn't exist.

 

[HellHound]

Going to blow my own horn here a bit, ok?

(looks around nervously)

Alright then.

In Librum Equitis volume 1 (available for download from RPGnow.com or VERY VERY soon at a bookstore near you from Mystic Eye Games), there is a non-spellcasting assassin that has been hailed as one of the most interesting classes in the book - The Practical Ones.

As an aside, the Practical Ones are significantly based on the assassins from the Assassins' Guild of Ankh-Morpork, for those of you in the know.

 

[uv23]

I'm not removing the loremaster's spellcasting. Of the core classes and prestige classes, I have neutered paladins, rangers, and assassins. Bards don't exist (they're just experts or rogues), arcane archers and shadow dancers do not exist, druids are all but gone, sorcerer's use a new spell casting system, all wizards are specialists, loremasters hang out with the wizards, and dwarven defenders have been replaced. I haven't decided what to do with the blackguard yet but it will probably also be replaced seeing as paladins can be of any lawful alignment. I'll probably end up with a chaos-themed equivalent. Anyways, rambling on...

More ideas for variant assassin welcome.

 

[uv23]

Going to blow my own horn here a bit, ok?

(looks around nervously)

Alright then.

In Librum Equitis volume 1 (available for download from RPGnow.com or VERY VERY soon at a bookstore near you from Mystic Eye Games), there is a non-spellcasting assassin that has been hailed as one of the most interesting classes in the book - The Practical Ones.

As an aside, the Practical Ones are significantly based on the assassins from the Assassins' Guild of Ankh-Morpork, for those of you in the know.

As punishment for blowing your own horn, you must now provide this assassin variant in full and gory detail right here, right now.

 

[Lily Inverse]

Getting off-topic, I know. If you want to preserve the feel of the Blackguard you might want to leave their spellcasting in. Nothing has quite the same quality as someone who has sold their soul to the Dark Powers and recieved something back in the bargain. Maybe tone it down a bit, but emphasize that they've made a bargain and gotten something supernatural but unwholesome back.

 

[uv23]

The blackguard may well have some spell casting ability. Some very specific events have occured in the campaign setting that have made things very different.

And the fact that paladins have no spell casting lends more credence to letting blackguards keep theirs. They are no longer mirrors of eachother.

But this thread is about assassins!

 

[HellHound]

Okay.

Here is a sliced-up version of LE1... containing ONLY the Practical One, minus all art, storyline and sample character.

It's a PDF, zipped. (134 k - not TOO big - includes a 150 dpi version of the original LE1 cover - I could of course strip the cover to make it smaller, but I like to advertise, obviously)