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Message: <blockquote data-quote="niko718" data-source="post: 13313" data-attributes="member: 1469">Reply and an additional suggestionSo far I see where you are going and can agree with you that something like this can be of use and makes sense....I don't like the intelligence idea as the assassin can boost up levels in intelligence and to who knows how high in the epic level.  Although it would be nice to have a chance to assassinate a player that was of a higher level then you as in the 1st ed. book, I think this can lead to much abuse, especially when one creates spells, potions, or magical items that can boost intelligence and such.  This would make the uncanny dodge ability or other such defensive awareness ability much of a joke.  My major beef with this is that intelligence is not the ability an assassin needs to have much of.  Honestly, I think I prefer the other option as it limits to that of equal level.... I think that this is the better of the two choices but suggest that you do something similar.  As you mention, this ability would not be used as often.  Why not have the first portion appear at 5th level so that the assassin can assassinate someone two levels and the second and last boost appear at 10th level that would allow the assassin to assassinate someone of equal level.  Well there goes the level suggestion, simple, equally distributed and makes sense.  Perhaps this ability should not be a death master secret but something else that does not take away from deathmaster secret, for argument sake call it deathmaster lore or deathdealer secret.  This ability on itself should be available to all assassins I think.  If you think it makes this too powerful, replace it with a sneak attack or something else.  Fudge the way the specials are arranged and choose the weaker of the powers to be added to these special 2 abilities. Another option is to use existing skills to do the same so that you do not really on intelligence.  Without placing much thought, perhaps the bluff skill will suffice, where for every 5 ranks, the level to assassinate is reduced by one.  So for example, an assassin with a rank of 20 in bluff (remember this can stack with any previous ranks from the thief), the assassin can assassinate a character of equal level.  If the epic rulebook increases the skills, then this will work well for higher level characters as well.  The reason I would prefer this over the intelligence idea that you had, is that the assassin must spend ranks in one skill which can be better spent in something else like hide or move silently.  The way I see it, this seems like a good trade of, while with intelligence, there is no drawback and limits all assassin's ability to do this not by skill of the trade but the ability to grasp knowledge.Although I have not done the math, the fact that the character can only take three more ranks then they have total class levels should also help this class balance it out if I am not mistaken.  So the max that a 10th level thief/10th level assassin can have in bluff, would be 23 ranks.  At 30th combined level (using epic concept), it would be 33 I guess.  This would allow the assassin to assassinate a character that is 2 levels higher then him or her only.  This doesn't seem to bad...and think of how masterful the assassin is in bluffing his opponent.  HMMM.....perhaps if not the bluff skill, then something else....Again that is only an alternative suggestion for a different skill.What do you think of the bluff idea?  It is already used in combat (S&F book), why not use it in this way too? </blockquote>

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