Dragon 379: Assassin Heroic Tier

[coyote6]

Knowing the status of the Rogue was never the issue. It was preventing him from dying. If he went up ahead by himself, he'd be dead before we could get to him.

To paraphrase the fiend, closed doors are the bane of stealth. The key to not getting killed by recon is being smart; you either stop at closed doors and wait for your friends to get close enough to help if there's a fight, or bypass them.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I musta missed that, what weapons count as implements?

Any weapon you are proficient in.

Also if anyone can get ahold of mearls again, there are threads saying the shrouds are instead of the normal damager over in the wotc board.

The reason that discussion is going on is the following text:

Before you make an attack roll against the target, you
choose to invoke either all your shrouds on it or none of
them. If you invoke your shrouds, the attack deals 1d6
damage per shroud, minus one shroud if the attack misses,
and all your shrouds then vanish from the target. This damage
roll never benefits from bonuses to damage rolls.

Because the text says "the attack deals 1d6 damage per shroud" instead of "the attack deals an ADDITIONAL 1d6 damager per shroud" there are a lot of people out there taking it literally to mean it replaces the entire damage of the attack instead of adding to it.

There are a bunch of people over there defending the wording and saying, "It's fairly obvious that it is in addition to the normal damage or the ability is really, really horrible. I think we all agree that's what was intended." who are being shot down by people saying that it doesn't matter what was intended, only what is written.

 

[Kinneus]

Personally, I think it looks like a great class. Perhaps a little bit more high-magic than I would like an assassin to be, but the at-will teleporting, focus on stealth, and roleplay-heavy utilities are simply fantastic (Cat's Trickery? I cannot say 'awesome' loud enough, despite the fact that it'll probably never be used).
I can handle the class being a little weak mechanically because it is simply oozing with flavorful goodness. I don't usually like stealth-types, but I'm honestly tempted by the assassin.

 

[Nikosandros]

I'm really baffled that there are people who can seriously argue that the shroud damage is in place of normal damage... anyways, Mearls has just confirmed that it is additional damage.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

To paraphrase the fiend, closed doors are the bane of stealth. The key to not getting killed by recon is being smart; you either stop at closed doors and wait for your friends to get close enough to help if there's a fight, or bypass them.

Heh. Yeah. Unfortunately, in an average dungeon, 95% of all monsters are directly on the other side of closed doors. Thus, removing any benefit to scouting ahead at all.

It's just any group I've been a part of really takes the mantra of "never split the party" to heart. That means that any more than 10 feet ahead of the party is too much.

 

[lexoanvil]

can't shade form be used to walk through doors? says the following
"As a result, you
can assume a shadowy form that allows you to pass
through barriers and evade enemies that you could
not normally avoid.
When you adopt this."

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

can't shade form be used to walk through doors?

No. That's what the flavor text says. I'm guessing it used to provide phasing at some point but it was probably ruled too powerful. Assassins have a higher level daily utility that does give them phasing, however.

 

[swiftshade]

Mr Mearls,

Could you please elaborate on how implement and focussed expertise feats interact with ki focus, especially when using it to enhance weapon attacks?

Thank you.

 

[Piratecat]

There are a bunch of people over there defending the wording and saying, "It's fairly obvious that it is in addition to the normal damage or the ability is really, really horrible. I think we all agree that's what was intended." who are being shot down by people saying that it doesn't matter what was intended, only what is written.

I consider the latter to serve double duty as "a list of the people Piratecat shouldn't game with."

On his twitter feed, Mearls mentions "I wonder how long before anyone finds the #dnd nostalgia easter egg in the assassins character class that just went live on DDI?" I have my suspicions -- anyone want to guess?

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

On his twitter feed, Mearls mentions "I wonder how long before anyone finds the #dnd nostalgia easter egg in the assassins character class that just went live on DDI?" I have my suspicions -- anyone want to guess?

I know the answer already as someone on twitter guessed correctly and I saw it when I clicked the link to Mike Mearls' twitter.

It is

Spoiler

The feat Scions of Zarak Initiate which is named after Zarak the Half-Orc Assassin from back in the 1e days.