Power Classes I - Assassin

[GameWyrd]

I arched an eyebrow when I noticed "Power Classes" on the Mongoose release schedule. The British company already does well through their Collector Series and I believe the Quintessential Fighter must be one of the few non-WotC d20 supplements ever to be make additional print runs, so just what on earth could the Power Classes be? I doubt there’s a market for a 32-page class book nor can I imagine hardbacks for any given class selling in sufficient number to make the production run worthwhile.

The Power Class series from Mongoose are 16-paged booklets. These booklets are similar to AEG’s old d20 mini-adventures. They’re just shy of being as tall as an A4 page and are half as wide. The cover price of $2.95 reflects the size. I’m not fond of the phrase at all but you’ll know what I mean when I say that there’s no ‘fat’ in this book.

Value for money seems pretty good. You don’t get much but you don’t pay very much either. There’s no danger of dishing out $39.95 for something that you end up hating or never getting around to using. You have the assassin presented as a core character option rather than a prestige class. This core assassin isn’t inherently magical either; whereas I expect some die hard high fantasy fans might be left scratching their heads at this I rate this as a real winner. You can use this tiny book for any sort of fantasy game whatsoever. The class is a bit like a rogue; you’ve got a lot of sneaking around and backstabbing but in addition (and at the cost of less skill points and supplementary rogue abilities) the assassin has a way with poisons. I particularly like the class ability where an assassin gets to pick a favourite poison and gains further pluses when dealing with it. It’s nice to think that the game mechanics backs meaty story threads where it might be possible to guess at that a political killing may have been the work of an infamous assassin simply through the choice of poison.

There’s a little bit more than just the twenty level core assassin class here. There’s space found for a quick boost to your GM style poison collection and there’s a couple of assassin-esq weapons like blowpipes and weighted daggers. There are some interesting items like various poison rings and even room for supplementary rules for trying to conceal weapons.

This Power Class doesn’t really put a foot wrong. It couldn’t put a foot wrong. The size of the booklet means the whole project is an inexpensive do or die gamble. I doubt it’ll die on anybody. That said; I do find the size awkward. I’d be reluctant to slide the Power Class booklet into my bag and head off to a gaming session for fear of it being dog eared, folded over and otherwise squished my by folder of notes or hardback rules. The thing to do is find a plastic wallet and slide the booklet into that and attach the pair to the folder of notes – that’ll work but it’s the sort of special attention that starts to eat up GM time. Wielding the booklet isn’t as satisfying as pulling out a hardback tome and running the game from that either. In fact I can almost imagine the sceptical looks on player’s faces when I inform them that everyone else will be generating their PCs from these 300-paged books but they’re using this cheap booklet. I’m spoilt for choice though, the shelves in my room heave with RPG supplements. If you don’t have the cash to take a chance on an assassin book for your fantasy d20 then this Power Class booklet is your saviour.

* This GameWyrd review was first published here.

 

[trancejeremy]

This is the first in a line of mini-books from Mongoose, "Power Classes", each of which introduce a new core class. This details the Assassin core class. By mini-book, I mean basically like the various mini-modules from AEG and FFG - an 8 page regular sized book folded in half so it's 16 small or half pages. It's priced at $2.95.

This assassin is a more traditional 1st edition AD&D style assassin than previous efforts for 3E/d20. Unlike the prestige class in the DMG or the one from Green Ronin, this assassin does not use magic spells. It has the average base attack bonus (like the rogue or cleric - starting at +0 and +15 at 20th level), d6 for hit dice, and 4 skill points per level. Saves are like that for a Rogue - poor in Fort and Will, great for Reflexes.

It gets a lot of abilities. Or rather, a few abilities, but ones focused rather narrowly on assassinating. I'm not sure I like how they did this. Seems like they made the class too narrow.

At first level, they get the assassinate ability, which is more or less the Death Attack of the prestige class assassin. They also get a sneak attack of +1d6 (+2d6 when assassinating). Then at 2nd, they get poison use. Basically, all they get as they increase in levels is the sneak attack and poison use improving. They do get a couple of exotic weapon proficiencies, and "Meticulous Planning", but that's about it.

So, you end up with a character that is essentially really really good at doing sneak attacks, and not that much else. Compared to the Rogue/Prestige Assassin combo, this assassin pales in both power and in flexibility. Compared to the original 1st edition AD&D assassin, it pales in power and flexibility. It does seem a bit better than the Green Ronin assassin (which doesn't even sneak attack well), but again, isn't as flexible.

Besides the new character class, there's some new poisons, some new magic items and equipment (poison rings). Many new weapons, mostly for assassins (imagine that), but many have analogs or near items in the PHB (There's an Estoc, but it's really just like a rapier. A fancier garotte, a couple different daggers, and a blowgun. Nothing too exciting.)

So, while this is a bit disappointing, given the low price, it's not terrible I'm really looking more for an assassin derived from the one in the DMG, only without magic. This isn't the worst I've seen, but I would have liked one with uncanny dodge ability, among other things.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Mongoose's Power Class: Assassin book is quite inexpensive (about $3 U.S.) but you don't get a whole lot for your money: the whole book corresponds to about 9 standard size pages, of which about 6 pages is game rule information.

What you get first is the assassin as a base class. Unlike standard assassins, the Mongoose assassin has to be non-good rather than evil. If an assassin becomes good, he or she loses the assassination class feature.

A Mongoose assassin has d6 hit dice, a rogue's BAB, saves and sneak attack progression, and 4 skill points per level. After 2nd level he never poisons himself accidentally.

The assassination special ability requires three rounds of study to use, and the intended target must either be unaware of you, or fail to recognize you as hostile. The primary effect of successful study is to double the sneak attack damage inflicted on the target. If this triggers a massive damage check, a special save must be rolled to avoid death.

The "Meticulous Planning" special ability allows the assassin to get a bonus to Disguise, Hide and Move Silently checks while on a particular job. It takes at least 6 hours to plan, and costs upwards of 100 gp in miscellaneous expenses. The maximum bonus that Meticulous Planning can provide is +3, at 16th level.

Favored poison gives a small bonus to Craft (poison) checks, to fortitude saves against the favored poison, and an even smaller bonus to the chance of successfully concealing the poison inside of food or drink. It tops out at +6 (or +3 to the Spot DC to notice poison). The Mongoose assassin also gets a bonus exotic weapon proficiency every 6 levels.

On the whole I find it a rather bland class.

The section on new poisons introduces the "mock disease" poisons, which have the symptoms of a disease, but which do not respond to cure disease spells or abilities. Repeated doses would have to be administered to keep up the appearance of infection, and unless there were no healers around these poisons would seem to be an annoyance at best.

More interesting is the "Loyalty Stone," which, upon being swallowed, poisons the victim every day for a month. A dose of antidote (administered daily) prevents the poison from taking effect. Access to the antidote is thus a way of exerting control on the victim, even to the point of forcing the victim to swallow a new loyalty stone as a month draws to a close. It seems that this could work only in a very low magic setting- a neutralize poison would foil the whole scheme, and a few low level clerics (with lesser restoration spells) could tend the victim while suffering from the stone's effects. As a loyalty stone costs 50 000 gp, it seems like a poor investment.

The equipment and weapons sections are quite good. Poison rings, sniper cross-bows, armor-penetrating blades, finger razors, garrotte's... lots of nice (I mean "nasty") items. And the rules given for concealing weapons are excellent. Unfortunately, I don't think that the quality of this portion of Power Class: Assassin is enough to make the booklet worth buying, even at this price.

 

[zorlag]

AEG's Ninja core class seems good as an Assassin as well, damn there just are too many of these around... It starts to feel that none of them exactly match my vision on an assassin, I'm getting deja-vu since situation with ranger is just about the same.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Four assassin product hit shelves at nearly the same time. So what is one to do? Buy them all and sort the chaff.

Power Class: Assassin, unfortunately, was the quickest to lose out.

This booklet is Officially 16 pages, but each page is only half the size of a normal page, so it comes out at 8 pages.

$3 = 8 page equivalent for Mongoose's Power Class book
$5 = 40 pages for Whispers of Death (PDF)
$7.50 = 128 pages for Crimson Contracts (PDF)
$19.95 = 64 pages for The Assassin's Handbook

Like Whispers of Death, this book has little flavor and lots of mechanics. At $3 US it's pocket change, but if assassins are your thing, you probably won't use anything from this book.

The main aspect of the book is the Assassin class. At heart, the assassin is a 4 skill point rogue who gains the poison use ability at level 2.

And the assassination ability. The assassination ability isn't as deadly as the death attack ability of the DMG assassin at lower levels, but can be far more deadly at high levels. After studying a target, the assassin deals double damage on a sneak attack. By level 5, this is MESSY, by level 19, this is an extra 10d6 damage.

Minor abilities include "meticulous planning" and "favored poison", the first of which gives bonuses to some skills in exchange for 6 hours of planning and about 100 gp of expenses. But not much of a bonus, it tops out at +3. I can't imagine it being used except in solo games, or by NPC assassins. The second "favored poison" provides a small bonus to craft poison checks, fort saves against the favored poison, and a VERY small bonus to the chance of concealing a poison.

Finally, the class gains an exotic weapon proficiency every 6 levels.

Overall, I can't see adding this class to a game, when a rogue could do most of the jobs far better except for the poison handling (which can be remedied with a single level of - the assassin Prestige Class from the DMG).

The mock disease poisons are interesting flavor for a campaign, but are incredibly low-powered as are most diseases in the d20 system, especially in a fantasy game where there are restoration and cure disease or neutralize poison spells.

Finally the equipment rears it's head, and the last few pages of the book become a keeper. I ended up just photocopying these pages and putting them inside my printout of Crimson Contracts. In addition to the new equipment for killers, there are rules for concealing weapons which are handled quite well (using the disguise skill instead of the Pick Pocket skill).

Unfortunately, this comes out to a page and a bit of material from a $3 booklet. If assassins are going to be a prevalent part of a game, then more detial than this is needed, and all the other books on the topic provide what are, in my opinion, better alternatives than this class, unless of course you are looking for an assassin class without magic.

 

[John Cooper]

Power Classes I: Assassin
By Ian Sturrock
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 1101
16 half-pages, $2.95

Assassins is the first in Mongoose's "Power Classes" series, half-sized booklets (4 1/4" wide by 10 1/2" tall) that each present a new 20-level character class. This first offering is a non-magical assassin, evoking the character class of 1st Edition AD&D. It differs significantly from the prestige class available in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

The format used in the booklet is virtually identical to the character class sections in the Player's Handbook, with paragraphs on "Adventures," "Characteristics," "Alignment," "Religion," "Background," "Races," "Class Skills," and "Class Features." This version of the assassin gets a sneak attack, an assassination attack (a sneak attack after studying the victim for 3 rounds or more), poison use, meticulous planning (a bonus to Disguise, Hide, and Move Silently skill checks after "casing the joint" where he intends to perform an assassination), and exotic weapon proficiencies. Hit dice are d6s, with 4 skill points per level.

I like the fact that as the assassin gains levels he becomes more proficient with specific poisons. It's a nice touch that I haven't seen elsewhere. I also prefer my assassins, like this version, to stay away from the spells - if I want a spell-using assassin, I greatly prefer that he multiclass and pick up some wizard or sorcerer levels. And since this is a normal character class (as opposed to a prestige class), I can have 1st-level assassins skulking about in the shadows, posing a level-appropriate threat to my low-level PCs.

Following the actual character class information is a section on 8 new poisons: seven that imitate various diseases (thereby making them difficult to counter - you'll be trying to cure disease rather than neutralize poison), and one that poisons a victim daily for 30 days. This last one, "loyalty stone," is a bit on the pricey side - 50,000 gp - but if you look at it as 30 doses of poison that are automatically administered to the victim once he swallows it, it might make a bit more sense. (The whole point of the loyalty stone poison is to feed it to your victim and then make him do whatever you want him to do to earn his daily dose of the antidote. I've seen this concept used as a plot device in several novels, one of them a non-Robert E. Howard "Conan" novel.)

Finally, we get some new equipment (3 poison-administering rings, that drip, inject, or squirt their respective poisons) and some new weapons (the blowgun, sniper's crossbow, estoc - an armor-penetrating sword, finger razors, garrotte, spring dagger, stiletto, weighted dagger, and wire garrotte), as well as a means of hiding weapons on your person using the Disguise skill. The weapon selection was nicely done, giving the assassin plenty of "tools of the trade."

The cover artwork is by Nathan Webb and Scott Clark. Given that Scott Clark gets co-credit for all of the covers in the "Power Classes" books I've seen thus far, I'd be willing to bet that he did the background (a nice leather look) and Nathan Webb drew the female elf (or half-elf) assassin that graces the cover. This is further evidenced by the fact that the elf's head seems a bit small for her body, and the four black-and-white interior illustrations (also by Nathan) are similarly somewhat out of proportion: the dead ruler on page 2 has a hulking, Conanesque upper body on skinny little legs; the assassin dropping a snake onto a sleeping victim has his right hand a bit too large to seem correct (granted, it's closer to the viewer than the rest of the assassin's body, but it still looks overly big). Nathan's best work is on the last page of the book, where an assassin stands looking well-satisfied as his victim hangs by a noose from a tree. He does a nice job on shading, but his body proportions could use some work.

Finally, the proofreading and editing are spot-on, with nary a mistake in the whole book (as far as I could see). Kudos to proofreader William James and editor Matthew Sprange.

All in all, Assassins is a nice beginning to the "Power Classes" series of booklets, well within just about anyone's budget.

 

[simon]

Maybe instead of Weapon Specialisation 6 skill points/level would work, that'd keep it up with the 3.5 Ranger.