D&D 5E Fun with Assasins

[AGrzes]

Player characters in my campaign makes powerful enemies. Enemies wealth and influence to employ best hired killers money can buy.

Now I imagine best hired killers money can buy as being good at killing their marks but more importantly at staying alive. They would strike when and where they have overwhelming advantage.
I want to show my players they are facing dangerous professional.
What I would not like to do is to put it in terms of either spotting the attacker early enough or rolling new characters.

I would like to make encounter with an Assassin difficult, memorable and different from straightforward fight.

Any suggestions how to do that?

My first idea is to have the assassin stalk them - looking for opportunity to strike and providing them chances to spot something is up, investigate and then turn the table and hunt for him.
To make things more interesting I would give the party other things to do at the same time so they can not focus solely on the killer or dug in and wait him out.

 

[redrick]

Player characters in my campaign makes powerful enemies. Enemies wealth and influence to employ best hired killers money can buy.

Now I imagine best hired killers money can buy as being good at killing their marks but more importantly at staying alive. They would strike when and where they have overwhelming advantage.
I want to show my players they are facing dangerous professional.
What I would not like to do is to put it in terms of either spotting the attacker early enough or rolling new characters.

I would like to make encounter with an Assassin difficult, memorable and different from straightforward fight.

Any suggestions how to do that?

My first idea is to have the assassin stalk them - looking for opportunity to strike and providing them chances to spot something is up, investigate and then turn the table and hunt for him.
To make things more interesting I would give the party other things to do at the same time so they can not focus solely on the killer or dug in and wait him out.

One possibility would to have the assassin start by picking off NPCs close to the Player Characters. This lets him be introduced as successful and deadly, instead of learning about him through a botched assassination attempt, or giving his location away through carelessness.

I'd give him a consistent MO, and some sort of flaw that gives him away and ultimately allows the PCs to turn the tables on him. For instance, I had an assassin who believed in a "fair" fight, so he would hobble his victims with strategically placed arrows from afar, and then finish them off in close combat. This gave the PCs something to take advantage of. (This was a Cthulhu game, so PCs were not exactly suited for hand to hand combat.)

Anyway, I love the idea of a "hunter becomes the hunted" sort of narrative.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Basic initial question.

Do you want the assassin to win lose or tie and live to fight another day? The reason I ask is most players are beyond predictable and an assassin that spends even a few days stalking the party in town is going to know what buttons to push to get the party right where they want them and then finish them off.

A smart killer would follow them on their next dungeon crawl and wipe them out 5 minutes after some particularly vicious fight but before they take the time to heal and recover. How many players heal as much as possible after they finished off the BBEG in the dungeon. Assassin attacks, kills them, and then collects all the loot he wants while also getting paid.

Sent from my SM-T820 using EN World mobile app

 

[CTurbo]

I have to agree with DocMoriartty. A properly played "smart" Assassin would probably kill an entire group. You would have to downplay it's abilities or at least make him a less capable Assassin. A smart Assassin is not going to get into a fair fight. A REALLY smart Assassin would kill an entire group without the group ever even know what hit them.

If you're going to try it, I like redrick's idea of letting him pick off some NPCs to validate him as a real threat, and give the group a way of learning about the hit.


I had a DM attempt this once with a group I was in, and it KO'd a player character before we knew what hit us. We did end up killing him BUT it took a little bit of PIS from the DM, a couple of lucky rolls, and the Hold Person spell for us to win. If Hold Person would have failed, he probably would have got away.

 

[Guest 6801328]

1. I disagree with having the assassin "pick off" NPCs. What kind of hired assassin would do that? A psychopathic, revenge-motivated lunatic in a horror film, sure. But not a professional.

2. So find other ways to broadcast that they are being hunted, but not in a heavy-handed way. If they backtrack in the wilderness, make it seem like they are very lucky to discover some strange tracks, newer than their own. A trusted friend in town shares a curious thing he overheard. Etc. Make sure all these hints are not heavy-handed or obvious, though.

3. Once they are aware of the assassin, if they immediately do something obvious, the assassin will disappear and try again later. On the other hand, if they don't broadcast their own clues, maybe they can lure the assassin into a trap.

 

[Eltab]

Very carefully read the Rogue/Assassin rules for a surprise attack.
Find an opportunity to do this to your PCs.
Have friendly NPCs let the PCs know that a mysterious stranger is in town asking about them.
At the opportune time, BAM.

The real assassin might hire a bard and/or a rogue to gather information for him. The PCs can get a chance to turn the tables on THEM - the real assassin takes notes on how they handle things, and adjusts his plans accordingly.

The PCs should get a warning that something is up - a la "Caesar! Beware the Ides of March!" voice in the swirling crowd - but not enough information to just sidestep everything.

Also, talk over with the players how they would handle character deaths, and the circumstances leading to it.
In my Tiamat campaign, the two times I seriously tried to TPK the group was (1) an assassination attempt, and (2) when they attacked Arauthator (ancient white dragon) in his lair. In other combats, I was trying to pick off whoever was tactically the most foolish but let the group-as-a-whole continue.

 

[LordEntrails]

I would have the assassin target one or more of the players with a rare disease, curse, or poison that is normally fatal, BUT, by apparent luck have it target someone close to the party. A hireling or perhaps lover.

This will let the party know that someone may be targeting them, but it will also let them know that they affect those around them too. And give a chance for the party to start to take precautions.

As for killing them all at once. I don't think most assassins would be able to take the party all at once.Even after fighting a BBEG except in rare cases. It would be much more reasonable for the assassin to pick them off one or two at a time, after fighting a BBEG.

This also means the power of the assassin is within reason for the party to handle and not result in a TPK. And most likely not even in the death of a PC is the party takes precautions (given the warning you give them above).

 

[FrogReaver]

What level is the party?

 

[Ancalagon]

Very carefully read the Rogue/Assassin rules for a surprise attack.
Find an opportunity to do this to your PCs.
Have friendly NPCs let the PCs know that a mysterious stranger is in town asking about them.
At the opportune time, BAM.

The real assassin might hire a bard and/or a rogue to gather information for him. The PCs can get a chance to turn the tables on THEM - the real assassin takes notes on how they handle things, and adjusts his plans accordingly.

A version of that would be the real assassin hiring a sub-contractor: another assassin, but one not as good. He expects this assassin to fail, but if he succeed, greats - the lesser assassin gets his cut of the fee and the real assassin is not in any danger. But if the subcontractor fails, the real assassin is there, taking notes as you suggest.

For extra fun, the real assassin disguised themselves as a powerful figure poorly disguised as someone else when hiring the sub-contractor assassin. This way, if the sub-contractor is captured, he will blame this figure instead of the real assassin...

 

[Croesus]

One possibility is to have the PCs hear about the assassin, perhaps because he/she/it takes out someone unrelated to them - a minor princeling, a high priest, a rich merchant. Or maybe the assassin is so infamous, every unsolved murder is inevitably blamed on him. "Hmm. This was a professional kill. Look's like (fill in the blank's) work."

Or perhaps the PCs are hired to investigate a murder by that assassin.

Another option, one of their contacts warns them that someone has put a contract out of them. If the PCs have any sense at all, they'll start to ask around about the type of folks who would take such a contract.