Bits and Pieces of Worlds & Monsters

[The Little Raven]

I dig where you're coming from. There is no sense at all in assassins wielding any kind of magic by default. Still, I could deal with the 4e Assassin being a "Shadow Striker" by rationalizing that the class just represents some kind of shadow warrior. Most actual assassins, therefor, wouldn't be Assassins, but Rogues (note the capitals for game terms).

Like someone said earlier, I see it being a paragon path (call it 'the silent blade' if you're going for evocative titles like 'prince of knaves'), rather than a core class. Assassins seem too thematically close to sneaky, poison-using rogues to be warrant their own core class in my eyes.

Now a Shadowdancer being a Shadow-source Striker... that I could totally get jiggy with.

 

[Jim DelRosso]

Now a Shadowdancer being a Shadow-source Striker... that I could totally get jiggy with.

I can dig that. I'll admit, when I made my suggestion I was thinking of the magical capital-A Assassin like we saw in 3e. It'd be very cool to see that archetype handled by a Shadowdancer, and give neat tricks to paragon-level rogues (and fighters and rangers and so forth) who just made a living killing folks.

(And it would probably match up even better with Malazan Book of the Fallen, which is a good thing in my book. )

 

[Belorin]

Like someone said earlier, I see it being a paragon path (call it 'the silent blade' if you're going for evocative titles like 'prince of knaves'), rather than a core class. Assassins seem too thematically close to sneaky, poison-using rogues to be warrant their own core class in my eyes.

Now a Shadowdancer being a Shadow-source Striker... that I could totally get jiggy with.

I heartily concur, Shadowdancer FTW!