Create an "Assassin"

[Satori]

After a coworker and I had a heated debate about this very topic, I decided to put it to the EN World community to see if similar results ensue. By "similar results", I don't mean a heated debate, but rather the topic of the debate.

There are no guidelines, and no set standards (aside from using DnD as a frame). Please answer with what your initial instinct tells you to, and don't answer based on what is the "Correct" or least "Badwrongfun" answer.

Having said that, please "Create an Assassin"

 

[Rhun]

From a mechanical standpoint, I think I would use a straight Swordsage from TOB:Bo9S to build an assassin. I haven't tried it, but the class seems like it has all the proper skills and maneuvers to make an incredible assassin.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I like psionic classes as assassins. Soul blades in particular - no need to concern yourself with concealing or disposing of a weapon. Add in some psion or psychic warrior levels for some extra powers and you can be very effective. Add in soem sneak attack, plus Psionic Weapon for a big front-loaded damage wallop and you're in business.

Assassins in my games work in teams - one person is the real capital-A Assassin, and the others run interference, scout things out, cast utility spells, or provide getaway assistance.

Lastly, make heavy use of non-magical disguises and effects, or else use nondetection spells to hide your magic. Face it - if you're looking for an assassin in the middle of a group of folks, and find someone with no magic whatsoever on them, you'll fiigure its a peasant and move on.

 

[Reynard]

Save-or-Die undead make great assassins, especially as agents of dark cults, necromancers and powerful undead. Adding a few class levels helps, too, but isn't necessary.

Alternatively, a mid-level monk can make a great assassin -- a couple grapple checks in the middle of the night in a secluded room in an inn (and the people most likely to be assassinated always ask for the secluded room) and the target is pinned and aking full attack damage until dead. I can hear the bones popping already.

Really, though, it depends on who your target is. Since characters of different classes and types have different strengths and weaknesses, you should tailor your assassin to the target. That's where the assassin's guild comes in. Need to take out a beefy fighter type? Forget the poisons and the sneak attacks (or anything else that relies on a Fort save or hp damage) and hire yourself an enchanter or a psion. Need to take out an archmage? That beholder assassin is just right. And so on.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

From a mechanical standpoint, I think I would use a straight Swordsage from TOB:Bo9S to build an assassin. I haven't tried it, but the class seems like it has all the proper skills and maneuvers to make an incredible assassin.

Yup. My current "assassin" character is a swordsage/martial rogue. She teams with a more traditional rogue/assassin. Swordsage gives great stealth and maneuverability, and plenty of attacks to deal bucketloads of dice of damage to creatures, several of them making the target flatfooted to boot.

I would be kinda curious to see a bard or beguiler "assassin" build, though. It'd work amazingly well, I'd think. And in a completely different way than the standard veiwpoint.

 

[Set]

The objectives of an Assassin are;

Advertise services.
Locate targets.
Get to protected / secure targets.
Kill targets.
Get out alive, and preferably undetected.
Collect payment without getting killed by unreliable employer.

Most employers will know where their target is (with a few exceptions, like the merchant who tells you to find that no-good elven minstrel who blew through town three months ago and knocked up his daughter...), so step two isn't always gonna be required.

For the majority of these functions, powers that allow one to bypass security and get in / out unseen are key. Rogues with trapfinding and ridiculous stealth numbers, Bards or Beguilers with ridiculous Disguise / Bluff skills who schmooze their way in and then make the kill and use magic to escape, Ninja or Shadow Dancers with the appropriate class abilities, various spellcasters and Warlocks with the right Invocations, Psions.

Ideally, the Assassin kills quickly, quietly and, in a perfect world, with a single blow. Sneak Attack or Sudden Strike are key for one-shot kills, although Death Attack and poison could also help somewhat. A Warlock 'assassin' using Hideous Blow, a Psion overloading some damaging effect, a Soulknife using Deep Impact and Psychic Strike out the wazoo, or a spellcaster using Maximized Twinned Scorching Ray of DOOOM are all variations on this same feature. Big, beeeeeg bang.

The notion that an 'assassin' is some sort of awesome combatant who can hold his own against a dozen armed men (a la various movies) is just completely out of the scope here. The dude who walks through all of your guards, mowing them down, shoots you, and then walks out unmolested isn't an 'assassin,' he's just some ridiculously higher-level character showing off. If the assassin has to fight, he's already screwed up, and 'ninja' fighting consisted of throws and the like, as the assassin's job is to make a clean kill and then get away, not to kill a bunch of armored guards, any one of whom can probably kick his butt in a stand-up fight. (At least in the real-world, where we don't have levels and the bestest 'assassin' in the entire world would die within moments of some servant girl's dagger entering his gut.)

 

[Doug McCrae]

OD&D: Fighting man
BECMI: Thief
1e: Assassin
2e: Rogue
3e: Rogue with assassin PrC
4e: Rogue


I'm guessing the debate with your coworker was about whether 'assassin' suggests a specific class or is a profession - killing for money - that any D&D class could undertake. Given that every PC class is good at killing things and taking their stuff, it so happens that they all end up making pretty good assassins too.

 

[Arkhandus]

Yep. I'd just go Swordsage with a few levels of Ninja mixed in. Say, start off Swordsage until 5th, then go into Ninja for 5 levels, then finish advancing as a Swordsage. Maybe just 3 levels of Ninja, though.

You get some invisibility, trapfinding, 3d6 Sudden Strike, and great leap from the Ninja levels, so you do good at surprising enemies and taking them down. While getting all kinds of Shadow Hand and Diamond Mind maneuvers as a Swordsage, and Assassin's Stance, Dance of the Spider, and some levitating/flying stances later on, to move around without leaving a trace and still reach your targets. You'll eventually get an 8th-level stance (though you might have to allocate your 18th-level feat to it) and one or two 9th-level maneuvers, maybe three or so if you go Nin 3/Swr 17.

And you can pose as just a mercenary warrior or similar with your few Diamond Mind, Stone Dragon, or Desert Wind maneuvers/stances. While stuff like Insightful Strike, Greater Insightful Strike, Diamond Nightmare Blade, Death in the Dark, and such can be pretty potent for taking down a target quickly. Time Stands Still can be pretty deadly with an invisible series of Sneak Attacks/Sudden Strikes using Assassin's Stance and the Ninja's Ghost Step.

Heck, it might even be worthwhile to try going something like Ninja 10/Swordsage 10 or whatever, to get the Ninja's ethereal ghost step ability. Of course, the Shadow Stride/Shadow Blink/Shadow Jaunt maneuvers from Shadow Hand might be sufficient for reaching targets, maybe.

 

[Victim]

The notion that an 'assassin' is some sort of awesome combatant who can hold his own against a dozen armed men (a la various movies) is just completely out of the scope here. The dude who walks through all of your guards, mowing them down, shoots you, and then walks out unmolested isn't an 'assassin,' he's just some ridiculously higher-level character showing off. If the assassin has to fight, he's already screwed up, and 'ninja' fighting consisted of throws and the like, as the assassin's job is to make a clean kill and then get away, not to kill a bunch of armored guards, any one of whom can probably kick his butt in a stand-up fight. (At least in the real-world, where we don't have levels and the bestest 'assassin' in the entire world would die within moments of some servant girl's dagger entering his gut.)

On the other hand, since in DnD an assassin can have the raw power to just blow through guards, I'm not sure why that should be excluded. If stealth isn't required, then why bother? It's not particularly efficient and may attract the wrong kind of attention. That doesn't make any less of an option.

And your priorities for assassination are hardly universal. Political assassanations are often missing a number of those objectives. The objective is set by ideology, so there's no need to advertise. Similarly, self motivated assassin's don't need to worry about payment. While escape might be preferable, I don't think it's considered particularly reasonable by modern assassins.

I'd consider most casters with general adventuring spells to be adequate assassins, for instance.

 

[rgard]

I've always found that a wizard makes the best assassin. Just have to pick your spells correctly.