assassins, death attacks, and spells

[Bad Paper]

RAW are a little unclear: can an assassin study a target for three rounds, then cast, say, True Strike, then make the death attack? Does casting a spell break the concentration from the three rounds of studying?

 

[Infiniti2000]

Sure, the assassin can do that. He has three rounds to make the death attack. He just cannot lose his attention during the three rounds.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

In fact, there are spells in Complete Adventurer to allow Assassins extra bonuses on their Death Attacks, so, more generally speaking, spell casting does not break his attention.

The spell, however, has verbal components - which might mean that the assassin is heard casting it before he can launch his attack, which means the target may no longer be unaware, and thus cannot be Death Attacked.

 

[sfedi]

Of course that's when Metamagic Rods come in.