Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
You Don’t Have To Leave Wolfy Behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' Your Companions Level Up With You!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Help with an NPC assassin?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Unwise" data-source="post: 5837428" data-attributes="member: 98008"><p>The thing is, what do you want to achieve with the assassin? Is he there to kill a single person? Is it just a straight up fight or is it a real attempt at killing off one person?</p><p></p><p>In the past I have used the following to make assassination terrifying for the PCs.</p><p>- If there is an expendable NPC, it is simply found dead later on.</p><p>- The party is drugged. Everybody starts the encounter Unconcious (save ends) The only reason they get the save-ends rather than just all being killed in their sleep is that a cat familiar is screeching out trying to wake them.</p><p>- The combat starts as somebody stirs from their sleep due to the cat and is immediately auto-crit by the assassin.</p><p>- The assassin's dagger has a silence spell on it. Once hit, no sound will travel past 2ft away from you.</p><p>- The assassin always grabs and silences (garrotte). So the person can't call for help or reach their friends.</p><p>- The assassin can pull a bloodied person into the hells to try to finish them off 1v1. The person is taken out of play (save-ends) and has to fight the assassin solo.</p><p>- When fighting in groups, the assassins use a special ability that makes both them and the person they are grabbing invisible (but not too each other). As an extra annoyance, this ability destroys line of effect to the victim. The victim can also not see anybody except for the assassin.</p><p></p><p>The feeling of dying alone, unable to get help while in a camp surrounded by friends is pretty powerful. This really makes them fear the assassin. Personally I think that just using assassins as lurkers is pretty weak if you want the PCs to fear them.</p><p></p><p>Oh, one more thing, the wonderous item I think it is called the Ebon Skull. It puts out all light sources in a 10 square area at will I think. So see how the PCs like fighting in pitch black unable to keep a torch lit.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Unwise, post: 5837428, member: 98008"] The thing is, what do you want to achieve with the assassin? Is he there to kill a single person? Is it just a straight up fight or is it a real attempt at killing off one person? In the past I have used the following to make assassination terrifying for the PCs. - If there is an expendable NPC, it is simply found dead later on. - The party is drugged. Everybody starts the encounter Unconcious (save ends) The only reason they get the save-ends rather than just all being killed in their sleep is that a cat familiar is screeching out trying to wake them. - The combat starts as somebody stirs from their sleep due to the cat and is immediately auto-crit by the assassin. - The assassin's dagger has a silence spell on it. Once hit, no sound will travel past 2ft away from you. - The assassin always grabs and silences (garrotte). So the person can't call for help or reach their friends. - The assassin can pull a bloodied person into the hells to try to finish them off 1v1. The person is taken out of play (save-ends) and has to fight the assassin solo. - When fighting in groups, the assassins use a special ability that makes both them and the person they are grabbing invisible (but not too each other). As an extra annoyance, this ability destroys line of effect to the victim. The victim can also not see anybody except for the assassin. The feeling of dying alone, unable to get help while in a camp surrounded by friends is pretty powerful. This really makes them fear the assassin. Personally I think that just using assassins as lurkers is pretty weak if you want the PCs to fear them. Oh, one more thing, the wonderous item I think it is called the Ebon Skull. It puts out all light sources in a 10 square area at will I think. So see how the PCs like fighting in pitch black unable to keep a torch lit. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Help with an NPC assassin?
Top