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Message: <blockquote data-quote="airwalkrr" data-source="post: 3228594" data-attributes="member: 12460">Using a death attack in and of itself is not evil. There are several "good" prestige classes that receive similar abilities. However, an assassin is an implement of murder for hire. In order to join, one must murder someone for no other reason than to join the assassin's guild. An insidious DM often makes this a person the assassin is close to or has respect for. A professional killer needs to divest himself of emotional attachments to be a truly effective killing machine and, at least in the black-and-white morality of D&D, killing for killing's sake is evil.An assassin who uses a death attack against an evil creature is not committing an evil act unless the assassin is killing the creature for personal gain alone (e.g. being paid). If the assassin is simply defending himself from a creature he considers a dire threat to his person, it could be construed as self-defense, and at worst, neutral. The only way it could be considered good is if the assassin does it primarily for the benefit of others, like assassinating the evil ogre that has enslaved the town without any hope of a reward (e.g. the ogre is a destitute despot with not wealth to speak of and the town has no money either). Most (if not all) assassin's are loathe to put themselves at such personal risk for such altruistic reasons. For this reason, assassins are evil in alignment.</blockquote>