Assassins and Assassination

[Ahzad]

Since there are now 3 versions of an assassin out now. I thought I'd ask which version of their death attack do people prefer. The DMG death attack, Moongoose's assassination, or Green Ronin's killing blow?

For myself it has come up yet in my games, no one has ever bothered to run one and I've been defaulting to the DMG when it comes to npcs. But in the background of all the games I'm running I'm being to put together my next epic campaign and decided assassins will have a promient part and will need to nail down a good assassination abilty.

I really like the idea of Green Ronin's but it's seems a bit powerful even with the weaker BAB and limited times per day. It just feels right that your DC should in part be based off of how much you hurt your opponent.

One of my players likes mongoose's because it uses the massive damage rules, something that's in my game but no one ever remembers to use, myself included. He figures that if someone is using them fairly regularly we might be inclined to remember them, I tend to agree there. Also it's a neat way to take rule that's already in the game and say here's another way you can use this, and since all my players have the dice mongering disease it would let someone other than a spellcaster to roll a boatload of dice which is fun too.

 

[CCamfield]

Well, I think there are more than 3, with the PDF books of assassins that have been released. Take a look at the PDF reviews here...

I like the GR assassin but do not think it makes sense for death strikes to be automatic criticals. That favours weapons like axes over swords, so I changed it to x2 damage. (Which would add +1 to the multiplier, as usual, if you actually roll a critical.) And I use a DC of 10 + Int + Class level. However, I worry that I have reduced it too much in power and have been thinking about increasing their skill points to compensate, but I'm not sure and a post here (in House Rules) produced no useful advice.

I don't understand the use of massive damage rules for assassination. You can get 50 points of damage how easily? And if it's that easy I suspect you don't want to allow a DC of 10 + damage (like the GR assassin) because that makes for a DC of 60+ in such a situation.

 

[AuraSeer]

I dislike assassins.
Especially invisible assassins.

Especially invisible drow assassins who sneak up behind an unsuspecting sorcerer, and decapitate him with one blow, just before he was able to finish off that black dragon he'd been concentrating on.

Any connection between this attitude and recent events in my campaign are entirely coincidental.

 

[Wee Jas]

Any connection between this attitude and recent events in my campaign are entirely coincidental.

I need a good laugh today. I admire a player who can hold a grudge! lol.

 

[Ahzad]

Assassination

I don't understand the use of massive damage rules for assassination. You can get 50 points of damage how easily? And if it's that easy I suspect you don't want to allow a DC of 10 + damage (like the GR assassin) because that makes for a DC of 60+ in such a situation.

Mongoose's Assassination works like this. You study your opponent for 3 rds then make your assassination attempt, which is basically a sneak attack. The sneak attack has an increased damage bonus which applies rather than using the normal sneak attack, ie. a 7th level assassin has a sneak attack of +4d6 which ramps up to +8d6 when attempting an assassination. If the damage is sufficent for massive damage rules to apply, the victim makes a Fort save at DC 15 + the assassin's Int modifier + 1 per full 5 points of damage done above 50. You fail you die.

 

[Skullfyre]

I dislike assassins.
Especially invisible assassins.

Especially invisible drow assassins who sneak up behind an unsuspecting sorcerer, and decapitate him with one blow, just before he was able to finish off that black dragon he'd been concentrating on.

Any connection between this attitude and recent events in my campaign are entirely coincidental.

LOL

So they got you too?