doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
I like @vincegetorix go at the concept, but it doesn't quite do what I'm looking for, so I'll present a draft of my own, here. I do want to see your take fully developed, though! If you want, I'll lean on you more for the Guilds than I have so far in the base class.
Special thanks to vince and to @Fenris-77 for informing and refining so many of these ideas.
Definitely not done, needs a lot of clean up, more concise language, maybe fewer moving parts, etc.
right now the design model has come out to be that the base class provides the bulk of the combat efficacy, and the Guilds will provide more tactics, and more exploration and interaction heft. The class leans heavily on Shrouds, which represent focus, and a semi-mystical bond with a target, as well as the Executioner's (probably gonna go back to Assassin, but I picked Executioner at the start of the document) training their senses and awareness to preternatural levels, which is why you get advantage on skill checks against a shroud target, and why it's used to fuel the counter-attack that is deadlier than a normal attack (you can invoke on any attack, and the counterattack adds 1d10 damage if you hit, which means you do more damage when counterattacking or attacking from a place of hard advantage than attacking in straight up melee).
The class also doesn't privelege melee or ranged combat, because assassins shouldn't be stuck with one or the other.
The Specialised Tools feature allows you to choose at level 1 what your main methodology is, without forcing subclasses to be about one of the three. Tool as subclass would be boring, and limit the number of subclasses a great deal, or force me to make a few tool subclasses and then other subclasses that run a totally different types of concepts, which would be weird.
At level 1, you get a minor feature, basically a special item related to your chosen tool. Then you can gain expertise in your tool if you want, or in soemthing else, at level 2, but you gain it in stealth regardless. You can choose disguise kit at level 1 but choose deception at level 2, for instance, or tinkers tools and then athletics, or whatever makes sense for the character.
The class is modeled after a mixture of the ranger and monk, mostly, but not nearly as closely as the Marshal I'm still working on is modeled after the monk. (and the swordmage might end up just as closely modeled after the monk, if I'm not careful. It's a really good chassis, but I'm gonna try to mix some warlock formatting in there, as well, and maybe some paladin) However, the model classes are just there for benchmarks and guideposts, not as something to mimic.
Known issues: LEvel 11 is too strong. It works out to about double the damage potential and average of the gloomstalker ranger in round 1, at the same level, assuming surprise, all attacks hitting, and 1 crit. Not a hard benchmark to hit for either build, in a surprise round*. Gonna mess with it more today if I have time.
Early levels have too much text. The features aren't overpowered, and compare nicely with the intended power level of the low level ranger (ie, if you assume a game where people don't handwave travel, and where the ranger's choices of favored thingies will matter fairly often)
Things I wish I could fit, but don't know how or what I'd drop to fit them in;
The ability to study terrain/an area, and become totally familiar with it, gaining advantage on checks to navigate the area, find a place from even a brief description, spot and identify fences, cops, etc, and perhaps ignore difficult terrain from artificial structures and objects within the area? Maybe the Guild that is more heavily inspired by the AssCreed games and the 4e executioner could get this at level 3, along with a climb speed, and advantage on checks to blend into a crowd or hide from a creature while following them? I also want that Guild to be especially good at falling onto their prey without hurting themselves, and then using the rest of their movement to piss off outta there. Death from above. Guild of The Peryton.
I may also give most or all Guilds unique Specialized Tools. Right now, the hidden blade is doable, as is a straight up shortbow that you can unfold to attack and fold it back up as you walk away from the kill, which is extremely cool without being that powerful (imo), while disguise and poison kits allow you to pop in and out of a disguise super fast, and apply poisons with incredible efficiency. They're...quality of life upgrades. Making the action economy of tool use friendlier.
Perhaps the second or third Guild feature could be something really specialized to that guild, for each tool. A wraith poison that feeds HP from the target to the executioner, a Diguise Mask for the Doppleganger that allows you hide the body and adopt their appearance and voice as part of the same action you drop them to 0hp with, a suit of tinker's leather armor that looks like finely made but simple clothing but can allow a short gliding flight if you jump from something, etc.
Special thanks to vince and to @Fenris-77 for informing and refining so many of these ideas.
Definitely not done, needs a lot of clean up, more concise language, maybe fewer moving parts, etc.
right now the design model has come out to be that the base class provides the bulk of the combat efficacy, and the Guilds will provide more tactics, and more exploration and interaction heft. The class leans heavily on Shrouds, which represent focus, and a semi-mystical bond with a target, as well as the Executioner's (probably gonna go back to Assassin, but I picked Executioner at the start of the document) training their senses and awareness to preternatural levels, which is why you get advantage on skill checks against a shroud target, and why it's used to fuel the counter-attack that is deadlier than a normal attack (you can invoke on any attack, and the counterattack adds 1d10 damage if you hit, which means you do more damage when counterattacking or attacking from a place of hard advantage than attacking in straight up melee).
The class also doesn't privelege melee or ranged combat, because assassins shouldn't be stuck with one or the other.
The Specialised Tools feature allows you to choose at level 1 what your main methodology is, without forcing subclasses to be about one of the three. Tool as subclass would be boring, and limit the number of subclasses a great deal, or force me to make a few tool subclasses and then other subclasses that run a totally different types of concepts, which would be weird.
At level 1, you get a minor feature, basically a special item related to your chosen tool. Then you can gain expertise in your tool if you want, or in soemthing else, at level 2, but you gain it in stealth regardless. You can choose disguise kit at level 1 but choose deception at level 2, for instance, or tinkers tools and then athletics, or whatever makes sense for the character.
The class is modeled after a mixture of the ranger and monk, mostly, but not nearly as closely as the Marshal I'm still working on is modeled after the monk. (and the swordmage might end up just as closely modeled after the monk, if I'm not careful. It's a really good chassis, but I'm gonna try to mix some warlock formatting in there, as well, and maybe some paladin) However, the model classes are just there for benchmarks and guideposts, not as something to mimic.
Known issues: LEvel 11 is too strong. It works out to about double the damage potential and average of the gloomstalker ranger in round 1, at the same level, assuming surprise, all attacks hitting, and 1 crit. Not a hard benchmark to hit for either build, in a surprise round*. Gonna mess with it more today if I have time.
Early levels have too much text. The features aren't overpowered, and compare nicely with the intended power level of the low level ranger (ie, if you assume a game where people don't handwave travel, and where the ranger's choices of favored thingies will matter fairly often)
Things I wish I could fit, but don't know how or what I'd drop to fit them in;
The ability to study terrain/an area, and become totally familiar with it, gaining advantage on checks to navigate the area, find a place from even a brief description, spot and identify fences, cops, etc, and perhaps ignore difficult terrain from artificial structures and objects within the area? Maybe the Guild that is more heavily inspired by the AssCreed games and the 4e executioner could get this at level 3, along with a climb speed, and advantage on checks to blend into a crowd or hide from a creature while following them? I also want that Guild to be especially good at falling onto their prey without hurting themselves, and then using the rest of their movement to piss off outta there. Death from above. Guild of The Peryton.
I may also give most or all Guilds unique Specialized Tools. Right now, the hidden blade is doable, as is a straight up shortbow that you can unfold to attack and fold it back up as you walk away from the kill, which is extremely cool without being that powerful (imo), while disguise and poison kits allow you to pop in and out of a disguise super fast, and apply poisons with incredible efficiency. They're...quality of life upgrades. Making the action economy of tool use friendlier.
Perhaps the second or third Guild feature could be something really specialized to that guild, for each tool. A wraith poison that feeds HP from the target to the executioner, a Diguise Mask for the Doppleganger that allows you hide the body and adopt their appearance and voice as part of the same action you drop them to 0hp with, a suit of tinker's leather armor that looks like finely made but simple clothing but can allow a short gliding flight if you jump from something, etc.
