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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Cooper" data-source="post: 2011016" data-attributes="member: 24255">Power Classes I: AssassinBy Ian SturrockMongoose Publishing product number MGP 110116 half-pages, $2.95Assassins 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.</blockquote>

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