D&D 5E Assassinate and Greater Invisibility

[Iry]

So in less than 30 feet my assassin has 5 combat encounters for the day. Your PC is surprise etc. Do think having this type of power would be fair and balanced.

Monsters can already do this. If the party is sound asleep and they keep failing their perception checks, an assassin could come in and take out the person on watch, then proceed from one party member to the next without anybody waking up. That is a LOT of failed perception checks, but it is possible.

Of course, this would be really miserable for the rest of the players and I wouldn't do it.

 

[jasper]

Monsters can already do this. If the party is sound asleep and they keep failing their perception checks, an assassin could come in and take out the person on watch, then proceed from one party member to the next without anybody waking up. That is a LOT of failed perception checks, but it is possible.

Of course, this would be really miserable for the rest of the players and I wouldn't do it.

I am not talking about monsters having the ability. I am talking about your build and the cool ability of separate combat encounters.

 

[Iry]

I am not talking about monsters having the ability. I am talking about your build and the cool ability of separate combat encounters.

I don't have a build.

 

[ad_hoc]

Assassinate is easy, I get that in general.

Is it though?

You, as well as many others, are getting it wrong.

I chalk this up to the "I want my character to be better so I'm ready the rules the way I want to see them" reasoning.

For the record -

The Rogue Assassin's autocrit ability only occurs if the following is true:

1) The enemy creature is surprised at the start of combat. Note that some but not all creatures on one side of an encounter may be surprised. This goes for the PCs too.
2) The assassin wins initiative. This is because a creature is no longer surprised after their turn. The creature still needs to be surprised when the assassin makes their attack.


The autocrit ability will usually come up only rarely in a campaign. Fulfilling both criteria is hard. The main ability they have is to gain advantage when they win initiative. The autocrit is a secondary bonus for being unseen where you would have advantage anyway.

 

[DM-Rocco]

There is already a mechanics for blindness. It gives you disadvantage on attack rolls, and attacks against you have advantage. Accordingly, an invisible character has advantage on attacks and attacks against invisible characters have advantage. This is a different thing than surprise. A surprised character is a character who is not on guard. Characters are assumed to be on guard as long as they are in combat. Only on the first round can a character be surprised. After that, they are on guard (not surprised) even if they might be blind to their attackers (advantage/disadvantage on attacks.)

Okay, do they have an actual mechanic called on guard, or is that something you are making up to help explain

 

[NotAYakk]

Yes, it is called "not being surprised".

 

[Charlaquin]

Okay, do they have an actual mechanic called on guard, or is that something you are making up to help explain

What @NotAYakk said. The term “on guard” is plain English that I am using to explain how the “surprised” mechanic works. “Surprised” is an actual mechanic in 5e, not just a plain English term.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It does if the multiclass into something that does turn them into damage monsters.

So what? Multiclassing is weird.

 

[Hriston]

Okay, do they have an actual mechanic called on guard, or is that something you are making up to help explain

“In combat, most creatures stay alert for signs of danger all around, so if you come out of hiding and approach a creature, it usually sees you. However, under certain circumstances, the DM might allow you to stay hidden as you approach a creature that is distracted, allowing you to gain advantage on an attack roll before you are seen.”

Edit: Actually, I’m not sure that this is what @Charlaquin meant by “on guard”. You can be alert for danger and still be surprised when you are attacked by hidden threats that have beaten your passive Perception score. I think the opposite of surprise is better expressed as awareness of a present threat. If you haven’t noticed even a single threat before the beginning of combat, then you are surprised when combat suddenly begins.

 

[Stoutstien]

So what? Multiclassing is weird.

If I take the time to change a class I might as well make sure it meshes well for all player options.