E6 Assassin looking for some help

[unundindur]

Hello. For an E6 campaign I am trying to make a fair build for a half-drow assassin, and here is my current lineup:

Half drow rogue2/monk1/rogue1/monk1/assassin1

Feats in order: Craven, Weapon finesse, Carmendine monk, Improved death attack, Martial study (Shadow Jaunt), Martial stance (Island of Blades), Shadow Blade Technique, Martial study (Cloak of Desception), Leadership, Staggering strike, Quick Draw, Darkstalker, Poison Mastery, Delay potion, Improved initiative

This character will be using two sai's, and I will use two alternate class features, namely Penetrating strike (DS) and Spell reflection (CM). I also have some vague idea of what items I will be looking for:

+1 Shadow discipline Sai, +1 Shadow discipline Sai, Amulet of resistance +1 , Wand of detect magic, Hat of disguise, Hand of the mage
Bag of Holding I, Mantle of the predator, Cloak of Arachnida , Bracers of blinding strike, Sandals of the light step

Now I have a few questions
1. Do flurry of blows stack with two weapon fighting (aka. sai-sai-kick)?
2. Can anyone spot any way to increase this guys offense?
3. Do anyone know a good substitute for the monk levels? Its not bad, I am just looking to see if there are anything better.
4. Do you see any items this character would do well to obtain?

Thank you for spending time on me

 

[Runestar]

E6...? What the heck is that? The name of some adventure module?

Are you using fractional bab? Else, your build has a bab of just +1. And where are you getting all those feats and eq?

From a mechanical POV, the assassin prc makes for a very poor assassin, IMO. You could replace the 2 monk lvs with 2 lvs of swordsage, which still gives you your wis mod to AC (and you can still wear light armour). You won't have to waste feats on martial study feats, and by taking adaptive style, even have a chance of refreshing your maneuvers during combat.

Shadow sun ninja (SSN) is just too good to give up, IMO. I am thinking that you can try either warblade/swordsage/SSN, warblade3/crusader1/swordsage1/SSN1 or ninja/monk/swordsage/SSN. You should still be able to max out the required "assassin'esqe" skills. Remember to enter swordsage at 5th lv so you have IL3 and can select up to 2nd lv maneuvers (paving the way for cloak of deception and shadow jaunt).

1. Do flurry of blows stack with two weapon fighting (aka. sai-sai-kick)?

Yes. So you attack with your sai in your main hand (and flurry) and make an unarmed strike as an off-hand (but why don't you just use your 2nd sai?)

 

[unundindur]

E6...? What the heck is that? The name of some adventure module?

Are you using fractional bab? Else, your build has a bab of just +1. And where are you getting all those feats and eq?

From a mechanical POV, the assassin prc makes for a very poor assassin, IMO. You could replace the 2 monk lvs with 2 lvs of swordsage, which still gives you your wis mod to AC (and you can still wear light armour). You won't have to waste feats on martial study feats, and by taking adaptive style, even have a chance of refreshing your maneuvers during combat.

Shadow sun ninja (SSN) is just too good to give up, IMO. I am thinking that you can try either warblade/swordsage/SSN, warblade3/crusader1/swordsage1/SSN1 or ninja/monk/swordsage/SSN. You should still be able to max out the required "assassin'esqe" skills. Remember to enter swordsage at 5th lv so you have IL3 and can select up to 2nd lv maneuvers (paving the way for cloak of deception and shadow jaunt).



Yes. So you attack with your sai in your main hand (and flurry) and make an unarmed strike as an off-hand (but why don't you just use your 2nd sai?)

Hehe, long time since I saw you over at wizards

E6 is a modification to D&D which caps out at lv 6, but continues by pure feat progression. Check it out here.

Anyway, without fractional bonuses I would have a BaB of 3 (there are 3 levels of rogue and 2 levels of monk), not very good, but not all that bad either.

As for Swordsage, I would need 4 levels of that to qualify for assassin's stance by level 6, which pretty much makes me a swordsage. This is something I have considdered, but I found that I would prefer rogue as a base, and the assassin for added sneak attack, and jummy (given the system "sleep" is a great spell, and death attack is useful).

The differnet builds I have considdered are as following: Rogue5/Assassin1, Rogue1/Swashbuckler3/Monk2, Rogue1/monk1/Swordsage4, Swordsage5/Assassin1.

E6 is very different because feats are rather common, while class abilities are rare (caps at 6, feats continue in a way).

Anyway, you should take a look, cause it is really well thought out

 

[Runestar]

Screw assassin's stance...

Is death attack that useful? Do you expect to be regularly able to study your foe for 3 rounds? Also, what do you expect your PC to be capable of?

 

[unundindur]

I espect him to be able to get in, kill and get out, as well as beeing well rounded as a whole. Its not much dungeon delving, more missions of killing various nobles, sneaking in to castles and scounting out commanders for armies etc.

What do you think now that you know the build-environment?

 

[unundindur]

I espect him to be able to get in, kill and get out, as well as beeing well rounded as a whole. Its not much dungeon delving, more missions of killing various nobles, sneaking in to castles and scounting out commanders for armies etc.

What do you think now that you know the build-environment?

 

[Runestar]

I am still skeptical about death attack, namely due to its low DC. Assuming an int of 16, your DC is just 14, or 16 with ability focus (or 18 if you quaff a potion of fox's cunning first). And fort saves appear to be the most abundant in the game (though admitably, aristocrats aka the npc class do have poor fort saves). Are you comfortable with this sort of odds?

Likewise, your combat capabilities appear okay (for a roguish PC at any rate), so it should be possible to fell your assassination target in 1-2 rounds (right?).

Monk2/swashbuckler3/assassin1 is indeed interesting (dex and int to damage), but I am not sure if you can stomach the loss of skills like open lock and disable device, which seem crucial to your profession.

On a side note, doesn't carmendine monk have a prereq that is tantamount to requiring you to be LG? Or did your DM handwave that as well?

Hmm...definitely not easy, optimizing with only 6 lvs to play with...