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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010048" data-attributes="member: 18387">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 HandbookLike 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.</blockquote>

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