Good assassins?

[Gort]

Hate to burst your bubble, but killing Saddam won't "end the war".

Anyway, if the original poster is interested, there's a "good assassin" prestige class in the Midnight campaign world known as the "Avenging Knife".

They're ex-soldiers of a conquered country who kill orc commanders and evil clerics using stealth and surprise rather than full-frontal battle, as they know that kind of war's already been fought and lost.

Kind of a parallel with the Iraq situation emerging, ain't there?

 

[TiQuinn]

My personal rule of thumb: never let alignment get in the way of fun character concept.

 

[Wolfspider]

In my homebrew there is an order of assassins who serve good. They are based on Monica Bellucci's character in Brotherhood of the Wolf. She is a tarot-card reading prostitute and assassin working for the pope.

Sounds like Lawful Evil to me....

 

[Mark Chance]

My personal rule of thumb: never let alignment get in the way of fun character concept.

Exactly.

Avatar_V, if you have access to Path of Shadow, check it out. It has two (IIRC) non-evil assassin-type PrCs in it. The one I wrote (the Ossorus) is more of a cleric/rogue and is lawful, so really doesn't fit your character without some modification. I forget the other one, and my copy of PoS is hiding from me.

 

[BelXiror]

One way to think about this that may help is basicilly, when an your character is killing someone, are they killing in combat, or in fact commiting murder?


Thats may or may not make a difference, depending on the campaign, but it can be argued that only the forces of evil would think to use murder as a tool.

I've watched various shows where there are characters that believe in killing evil, no matter what. This includes the act of murder, and despite the "good" intentions, etc, they have always rubbed me wrong.

Of course, it could show a character sliding towards evil, after all, if they start seeing murder as an end to a means, that killing one person in cold blood can solve so many problems, the problems they may be willing to solve in this way may increase more and more.

Instead of murdering to save thousands, they may start to murder to save hundreds... then tens, then one or two, or just themselves... after all, it may only be one hostage, whats the harm? It's just so much EASIER to kill them...

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

The Rogue class has plenty of skills for assassinating anyone that you feel needs killed-- the Assassin class is useful mainly for the Death Attack, poison use, Hide in Plain Sight, and spells.

You've already mentioned Wizard, and you can get Hide in Plain Sight easily enough from Shadowdancer. You might have an easier time convincing the DM to let you take HiPS as a Rogue special ability than letting you play a Good Assassin. Sneak Attack does plenty of damage on an unwary target, so Death Attack is mostly useless, and poison use seems like a logical candidate for a feat.

Now you have a nice, morally ambiguous assassin without having to be a member of the mercenary death-cult.

 

[crmsnstll]

Good Assassins

Here is the way I see it.

Good assassins are a viable concept since being an assassin is not about your thinking it is about your skills. In modern terms a Sniper in the military is an assassin because the victim never sees them and the kill is one shot. I would be willing to bet that there are plenty of moral people that are military snipers.

Some people will say, "but that is in war". I contend that the forces of Good and Evil are always at war. Weather it is covertly or an arm marching across the fields.

 

[Mallus]

This is very simple, really --of course, its always these simple questions that get debated ad infinitum

Receiving financial reward for killing living being has always been an acceptable "good" act in every iteration of D&D so far. So long as said beings are evil.

The entire game system is predicated on killing people for money. The skill set employed is morally neutral. Use assasin skills to kill a demonic cultists and you could be good. Use fighter skills to cleave innocents merchants in twain, you would be evil...

 

[Hejdun]

Assassination, as in killing someone quickly, without warning, with the other party not having a chance to defend themselves, is not, to me, a "good" act.

It's not an evil act either. One could make an argument for it being chaotic, but the act of assassinating someone is not in and of itself a good or evil act. It's no more evil to kill a guy in his sleep than it is to hack him up with a greataxe or burn his flesh off with a fireball. It depends on who you kill.

If you were assassinating a thoroughly evil Baron who tortures his people, has them murdered at wanton, etc., would it really be an evil act? It's much easier than challenging him openly and having to fight his entire army (which mid-high level characters could actually do quite easily).

 

[takyris]

Here it is, ladies and gentlemen -- yet another argument for the d20 Modern Allegiances system!

I don't think that James Bond has a particular allegiance to the idea of charitably helping the homeless and working in soup kitchens and working at a Toys for Tots program. I also don't think that Bond would let a bus full of orphans crash into the puppy farm and explode if he had the power to prevent such a thing from happening.

James Bond's allegiances are, and have always been:

1) His Country
2) Looking Good and Getting that Hot Chick

In some movies, "Getting Revenge on the Bad Guy Who's Been Dogging Him for Five Movies Now" gets bumped up to number one, but in general, that's what you've got. James Bond doesn't spend a lot of time in any place of worship, unless he's blowing it up, but he also doesn't make deals with the devil and sacrifice babies.

In the Revolutionary War, colonials snuck in to kill British generals rather than fighting honorably. Some of them probably liked it a bit too much. Some of them were doing it for their country and freedom from persecution. Some were doing it because a man they trusted was telling them to do it. And some were being paid. That's a wide range of possible alignments.

For someone who does it purely for the money, good is out, but neutral is possible ("I am the ultimate extension of capitalism as the perfect form of government... anyone with the means to do so may order the execution of another for perceived crimes, and I am fair and impartial, open to all who can pay. I kill without passion or prejudice, I am loyal to my clients, and I bear no grudges to those who would stop me."). For someone doing it for some other reason, almost any alignment is possible.