Time stop +death attack

[alii]

Thanks guys I just needed to know if death attack said anything that would make it impossible.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The alternative means simply hiding and waiting the rounds while your party keeps fighting and then get your attack in.

Well... seriously, if you think about the flavour of the class and of the ability, it's not designed to be used in the middle of a melee.

Assassination comes without warning, when someone is not expecting to be attacked... not while they're waving a sword around.

That's not to say it can't be used in combat... but I think the three rounds of study is a fair tradeoff in that situation.

Otherwise, to be honest, what's the difference between studying a Time-Stopped opponent, and studying a painting of that person before going to find him?

-Hyp.

 

[Janos Antero]

Well, the third dimension plays a big part in the study I would imagine, but I realize it's still a simplification.

 

[Al]

I see no reason why not.

In terms of logic, it works. Death Attack is all about examining your unaware (or unmoving, in this case) opponent, and seeing exactly where you could pinpoint a precise attack. With Time Stop, you can easily examine your opponent's weak spots, aim precisely and perform a Death Attack.

In terms of balance, again, no problem. The wizard with Time Stop is going to launching off barrages of Wail of the Banshees, Meteor Swarms and the like, so there is no reason why the assassin cannot use UMD to have a Time Stop to bolster his powers.

 

[the Jester]

At first I was going to say I didn't think it would work, but then I thought about this: can an assassin get his death attack in after 3 rounds of studying someone who's sleeping? (Ignore that he could theoretically do a coup de grace anyway...)

 

[drnuncheon]

I don't see why this wouldn't work. Imagine:

Assassin casts (somehow) time stop.
Assassin walks calmly up to target and draws dagger.
Assassin stands in front of target, making sure he is not in a position to get hit when the target continues its swing.
Assassin places dagger directly in front of target's eyeball.
Assassin readies action: when timestop ends, perform death attack.

Timestop ends, assassin shoves dagger through target's eye and into brain. If that's not a 'death attack', I don't know what is.

J

 

[reichtfeld]

I think the comparison between a painting and being near the living, actual target is pretty farfetched. So far as using assassination in combat, I actually got to play an assassin and his death attacks were used almost exclusively during combat sequences because the DM is not going to design their game or even the bulk of it around the concept of performing hits on people. That simply isn't fun for the rest of the group. So death attack came in very handy taking out major enemies with low Fortitude saves. While the rest of the group is focusing on the mooks, the assassin can crawl through the tallgrass or creep through the shadows for a clean kill against the enemy wizard, for instance. And if he had the incredible luck of finding a scroll of time stop or the money and inclination to buy such a scroll, I honestly don't understand why those rounds couldn't be made to scrutinize your opponent's apparent defenses and line up an attack. It's a bit of a cheese tactic not having to use your stealth for an "honorable" lethal sneak attack but it certainly isn't impossible from a logic perspective or a game balance perspective. You have to a) have the scroll b) succeed with UMD to use it and not get counterspelled c) make a successful attack roll d) overcome the target's Fortitude save.

Like Pepto mentioned, a real "assassin" could just be a rogue that sneaks into a place and makes a coup de grace on their sleeping form. The assassin PrC's death attack is a mechanic designed to allow lethal attacks against non-helpless foes in combat. Otherwise, make a straight rogue or even a bard and use UMD on hold monster scrolls to go ahead and coup de grace without even taking a level of assassin.