D&D 5E Do Assassins suck?

[Zardnaar]

that is how we roll also.

Either you invest in Perception or get trashed in ambushes.

Best skill in the game. Secret doors etc as well.

 

[Flamestrike]

at 3rd level, ONCE per encounter, for 11 extra damage you should pass; 1st ability check(stealth), 2nd ability check(initiative), 3rd attack roll.

Yes.

 

[TheSword]

RAW half have to succeed for the party to suceed

Really, How does that work?

 

[Flamestrike]

Really, How does that work?

Group stealth checks.

 

[Immoralkickass]

There's too many variables to really judge Assassin. First of all, it depends on your setting and campaign. The more mundane the better it is for the Assassin, because common bandits like to set up camp, orc have strongholds and gnolls have lairs etc, which you can infiltrate and plan your ambush.

If you are in a setting where you are exploring unknown mystical lands, most likely the monsters spawn out of nowhere, or are disguised as something else like plants, or are invisible. You are hardly going to get your Surprise.

IMO at low levels Assassins are mostly fine, but gets worse as they level up. Their absolute stinker of high level features contribute a lot to this. The 7 days requirement is absurd, and Disguise Self/Disguise Kit can imitate it. 3 hours is a long time, especially when feats like Actor can do what Imposter does for 1 minute. Death Strike is also terrible, because everyone and their mothers have Legendary Resistance by 17, and have bonus to Con saves up the wazoo. That is also assuming you meet all the requirements for Surprise in the first place.

Basically if you dont surprise your enemies, you don't have a subclass in combat.

 

[Zardnaar]

There's too many variables to really judge Assassin. First of all, it depends on your setting and campaign. The more mundane the better it is for the Assassin, because common bandits like to set up camp, orc have strongholds and gnolls have lairs etc, which you can infiltrate and plan your ambush.

If you are in a setting where you are exploring unknown mystical lands, most likely the monsters spawn out of nowhere, or are disguised as something else like plants, or are invisible. You are hardly going to get your Surprise.

IMO at low levels Assassins are mostly fine, but gets worse as they level up. Their absolute stinker of high level features contribute a lot to this. The 7 days requirement is absurd, and Disguise Self/Disguise Kit can imitate it. 3 hours is a long time, especially when feats like Actor can do what Imposter does for 1 minute. Death Strike is also terrible, because everyone and their mothers have Legendary Resistance by 17, and have bonus to Con saves up the wazoo. That is also assuming you meet all the requirements for Surprise in the first place.

Basically if you dont surprise your enemies, you don't have a subclass in combat.

Pretty much and doesn't work as advertised.

Arcane Trickster us probably the best one if your a powergamer but you can balls it up as well.

Scout and Swashbuckler are the best rogues for the casual player and still great for power gamers maybe not quite as good at AT depending on level.

 

[Horwath]

There's too many variables to really judge Assassin. First of all, it depends on your setting and campaign. The more mundane the better it is for the Assassin, because common bandits like to set up camp, orc have strongholds and gnolls have lairs etc, which you can infiltrate and plan your ambush.

If you are in a setting where you are exploring unknown mystical lands, most likely the monsters spawn out of nowhere, or are disguised as something else like plants, or are invisible. You are hardly going to get your Surprise.

IMO at low levels Assassins are mostly fine, but gets worse as they level up. Their absolute stinker of high level features contribute a lot to this. The 7 days requirement is absurd, and Disguise Self/Disguise Kit can imitate it. 3 hours is a long time, especially when feats like Actor can do what Imposter does for 1 minute. Death Strike is also terrible, because everyone and their mothers have Legendary Resistance by 17, and have bonus to Con saves up the wazoo. That is also assuming you meet all the requirements for Surprise in the first place.

Basically if you dont surprise your enemies, you don't have a subclass in combat.

Yes, higher level (crap)abilities of assassin does not help much, if at all. until 17th level death strike. which should been from level 9 at smaller impact. without a save.

So one suggestion is;
Death strike: 9th level; against surprised targets attack that has sneak attack damage applied deals 3×damage in dice instead of 2×dice damage. I.E. if you have rapier/longbow and +5d6 SA damage dice, your single surprise sneak attack critical would be 3d8+15d6. 66 damage plus some static bonuses.
At 13th level that attack deals 4×dice damage,
at 17th level that attack deals 5×dice damage.
remove current 9th,13th and 17th level features.

 

[AtomicPope]

Assassins are OK but they really need gear and feats to boost their damage. You want weapons that grant additional damage dice and have additional crit damage, and feats like Savage Attacker to keep the damage averages up. Overall, I feel Assassin is the weakest subclass for Rogue and Arcane Trickster is probably the best followed by the highly underrated Thief. Access to spells changes everything. There are many spells that can add damage dice your weapon attacks, and even grant multiple attacks. Spells act as like another class building feature and allow you to create a fighting style of sorts.

 

[fearsomepirate]

IMO at low levels Assassins are mostly fine, but gets worse as they level up. Their absolute stinker of high level features contribute a lot to this. The 7 days requirement is absurd, and Disguise Self/Disguise Kit can imitate it.

The 9th level assassin ability allows for nigh on undetectable infiltration, and when you add the 13th level ability to it, you can infiltrate undetectably as somebody else. It can actually be really cool when used, but it is extremely campaign-dependent. If it's a typical AP-style adventure where the party rides the choo-choo train from one killing site to the next, it's a borderline useless ribbon. Or if the DM just isn't into that sort of thing. Hard to know at level 3.

because everyone and their mothers have Legendary Resistance by 17, and have bonus to Con saves up the wazoo. That is also assuming you meet all the requirements for Surprise in the first place.

I find this one particularly funny, given that the Thief subclass gets two turns on the first round, every combat, and therefore most likely gets his sneak attack twice. So the assassin's sneak attack gets 4x damage on the first round if the DM allows it.

Basically if you dont surprise your enemies, you don't have a subclass in combat.

This is probably its biggest weakness. Some DMs just hate letting the party get the drop on monsters, which is why I have fairly clear house rules for how you can do it.

 

[Weiley31]

Albeit the Thief is definitely underappreciated.

It is a pretty cool subclass.