Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="DeanP" data-source="post: 7354433" data-attributes="member: 6681963">I'm not sure why there's a problem with assassinate. It confers two benefits. The first is a condition of acting before a foe. &quot;advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet.&quot; You obtain this by virtue of acting before an opponent in the initiative order. It does not require an assassin to scout ahead, and by virtue of gaining advantage, the assassin gains the benefit of his or her sneak attack damage. That's a pretty awesome trigger to one's sneak attack dice. It doesn't require the rogue to run solo either. Only the second element of the assassinate ability requires surprise &quot;In addition, any hit you score againsta creature that is surprised is a critical hit.&quot;&nbsp; Absolutely excellent, true, but again, a party can achieve surprise by setting up ambushes, which can be collective activity, and not exclusive to an assassin running solo. Even if surprise occurs infrequently, I think the trigger of advantage and a regular use of sneak attack damage more than makes up for it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DeanP, post: 7354433, member: 6681963"] I'm not sure why there's a problem with assassinate. It confers two benefits. The first is a condition of acting before a foe. "advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn in the combat yet." You obtain this by virtue of acting before an opponent in the initiative order. It does not require an assassin to scout ahead, and by virtue of gaining advantage, the assassin gains the benefit of his or her sneak attack damage. That's a pretty awesome trigger to one's sneak attack dice. It doesn't require the rogue to run solo either. Only the second element of the assassinate ability requires surprise "In addition, any hit you score against a creature that is surprised is a critical hit." Absolutely excellent, true, but again, a party can achieve surprise by setting up ambushes, which can be collective activity, and not exclusive to an assassin running solo. Even if surprise occurs infrequently, I think the trigger of advantage and a regular use of sneak attack damage more than makes up for it. [/QUOTE]

Verification