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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2009730" data-attributes="member: 18387">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.</blockquote>

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