Assassins were skilled at being able to kill or incapacitate targets while avoiding confrontation. They were masters at dealing high damage from sneak attacks, and could even poison their weapons without the risk of poisoning themselves. With training, they could deliver stealth attacks that could instantly kill their target. Alternatively, if their target was wanted alive, they had the ability to merely paralyze them, allowing time for them to be tied up, or otherwise restrained.
Provided they were intelligent enough, assassins also gained a limited amount of magical ability, allowing them to cast some minor arcane spells. The spell effects were generally those that made it easier to approach or kill a target, or those that aided the assassin's escape, if discovered.
Provided they were intelligent enough, assassins also gained a limited amount of magical ability, allowing them to cast some minor arcane spells. The spell effects were generally those that made it easier to approach or kill a target, or those that aided the assassin's escape, if discovered.
I've played an assassin for closing in on two years now, so pretty much since I started playing on the server overall. A fair few things have annoyed me and I won't go into all of them as stealth is a tricky thing to consider when it comes to balancing. I will however say that not once has my assassin character ever felt like an assassin. It feels like more of a clumsy unreliable thug. A mook not to be taken seriously, as opposed to a professional murderer to potentially be feared or not recognized before it's too late. It's said we should play our character sheets - that is more of a frustration for some than for others.
I'd like to suggest some things that might add some flavor to the class. I've heard it's been nerfed in the past on the server (and the details aren't know to me at the time of writing), so perhaps some might have a kneejerk reaction and immediately be against adding positives to the class.
My counter is this; Classes like assassin and shadowdancer are only taken for HipS (something that's not really optional for sneaks. You need it to survive. End of discussion.) and death attack. If all everyone ever takes a class for is a single thing it's a failure of game and balance design. It would be better to have them be subclasses to rogue rather than PRCs if that's the way it's going to be. Assassin is of course not the only class that could strongly use some looking over, but I'll admit my bias. I made this thread after all. One does tend to get attached to their characters.
I'll admit my gripes aren't purely about assassin but rather the stealth archetype overall, but that's not something I'll whine about today. That's a whole 'nother beast and a huge one at that so it's best to focus on one thing at a time.
Assassin
This thread isn't meant as a Take it all or leave it-suggestion, rather a list of things to look over. To see if any of it seems reasonable and fitting to the class. All of these are taken from the Forgotten Realms wiki.
As most people probably know assassin has a very select few casts of a very select few spells each day. Some of these spells are utterly useless in their current state. Take for instance being an assassin at epic level having a spell like Deep Slumber that has a DC of 17. DCs are a point of great concern for a class that has so few casts. They simply can't afford to use them.
Would you rather have 4 casts of that or 4 casts of Invisibility? Or 2 casts of Freedom of Movement vs 2 casts of Poison that gives a lackluster stat debuff (which, granted, for some has a DC of 30 as opposed to the other dodgy DCs of the class)?
There are, simply put, better options that could be available. Theoretically of course, as some of these suggestions might have issues with coding them that I'm unaware of. Some of them I'll list here. And before it is mentioned, I'm aware these are third edition assassin spells. There are however no second edition ones listed anywhere that I've been able to find, and there seems to be a fair few third edition things on the server regardless - so bear with me.
Spells:
Pass without trace: That's right, a spell already on the server. And for some reason not on one of the classes that would need it the most! A murderer! Who else could possibly need to cover their tracks more than someone needing to get to their target or leaving the scene of their crime? The spell effect mechanically is rather lackluster and could perhaps use some tuning, but thematically it's a no-brainer.
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Non-detection: Another tried and true of the server, a spell that's in a tabletop assassin's repertoire and also a spell that should be something any assassin with a brain would strive to learn if they for some reason already don't. Granted, DCs would be a worry, but it's not like they're archmages in the arts and shouldn't be able to outdo a diviner learned in the craft. It would still be something more valuable than a 17 DC sleep for instance.
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True Strike: It's pretty well known that one of the more glaring weaknesses outside of the janky stealth system is a rogue archetype's AB. This spell might seem like a way to solve that, but spending one of your very Tier 1 limited casts to spend 3 seconds of casting to get 9 seconds of +20 AB just isn't worth it. True strike makes more sense as a toggleable ability with a cooldown than a spell. An assassin can't afford to stand still for so long to cast a spell with such a limited duration of effect. This is a spell that just didn't translate well at all from tabletop to videogame.
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Find the Gap: Another spell that would likely translate better as a cooldown ability in a videogame. An assassin who can't account for a target wearing armor probably needs to go back to the basics and do some more training. This spell/ability would likely function very much like OOBI's Sharp Shooting ability. This could potentially be seen as overstepping onto another class' mechanics, but if any types of classes should know how to deal with an armored opponent it would surely be a master marksman and a professional murderer.
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Silent Portal: There's a bit of an inconsistency regarding interacting with objects and stealthiness in the server. It's difficult to feel like an established sneak when ever chest or bag rips you out of both stealth and invisibility, but opening a door or a full on gate has you remaining as you are. Silent Portal could act as a temporary means of remaining in stealth while doing all of that.
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Spider Climb: The concept of an assassin crawling across a ceiling or up a building to get to their target or their destination is an interesting one. Admittedly I've no idea how to properly portray this in the game as it is. It could be something as boring as just add some skillpoints to acrobatics and athletics or it could also function as a supernatural jump ability like Dimension Door. Which is another assassin spell as well, but I'm not going to overreach (more than I already am).
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Ebon Ray of Doom: A tool to enable an assassin to prevent a target from simply chugging a backpack/Bag of Holding full of Heal potions or sitting turtled up in a defensive state with regeneration active. Potentially functioning like Lifeward or cutting down on healing effectiveness rather than a blanket disabling of action. Like a forced resistance towards positive energy.
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Poison: "The caster had to successfully touch the target of this spell. The newer version of this spell did temporary but possibly devastating harm to the constitution of the victim immediately upon casting the spell and over the next minute. The older versions of this spell delivered a deadly poison into the victim that was immediately incapacitating and fatal within 10 minutes, barring magical intervention."
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Poison as an effect in general on the server is one of the most ignored and handwaved-away mechanics there are. Everyone and their mother carries about a bunch of strawberries/green beans/antidotes which work as universal cure-alls against every poison in the world, no matter how severe. That's not even getting into how easily cured those effects are with lesser restoration potions being equally as common .
In the original Baldur's Gate game getting a poison set on you in early game was immensely dangerous if you were understocked as it didn't mean a temporary stat debuff. You steadily took damage and eventually died - quickly if you weren't a sturdier type of character. It wasn't something you just shrugged off and went "meh" at. It startled you into action as it was a legitimate danger.
Assassin has one of it's main conceptual draws as being a handler of poisons. But it's not a draw at all if it's something ultimately useless. They have to have meaning and a purpose that can be felt.
This has delved a bit past the Poison spell overall since the greater issue is the poison system and truly needs a thread of it's own.The point is that it's simply not worth spending a 2 cast ability to throw out such an easily ignorable and fallible spell when one could instead put a lifesaving spell like FoM on themselves or a friend.
Death Attack
This is probably the thing that'll set the most people off into argument and I'll agree it's a sensitive thing to mess with. As an assassin the DCs feel terrible no matter how you build and as a non-assassin you'll likely want to dump a trashcan over anyone who might go after you with it and succeed. The unfortunate truth is that when it comes to assassination as a concept is that it's either a rolling success or miserable utter failure. I've heard of a few servers that have their death attacks be an outright roll vs instant death but most have it as it is here. Roll versus paralysis. I'd like to offer some food for thought.
Suggestion #1
- Death attack has a list of toggleable choices in a dropdown menu of poisontypes involved with the death attack:
- 1. Paralysis.
- 2. Damageticking poison per round.
- 3. Further statreducing poison effects.
- 4. AB/AC reducing debuff of some kind.
- Death attack has an added second roll if the paralysis succeeds - roll vs death. Preventable by deathward. Possibly add a specific caveat for this ability to not instakill players - either out of simply avoiding anger/drama or to avoid having to potentially worry about something instantly fugueing players or not. I'm just going to set this one down as least likely option.
- Death attack immediately sets you back into stealth mode (or into invisibility) if the target is killed in the death attack's flurry, as per the flavor description of "Assassins were skilled at being able to kill or incapacitate targets while avoiding confrontation".
Conclusion
My vision for assassin is to have more of a clear class identity, one that lives up to the title of assassin. A character type that has interesting choices in approaching a situation or a target. Something distinct from the other rogue classes and not just a pick for the sake of Hide in Plain Sight.
Go on and play a rogue without HipS. Especially with how aggro works in this game. You'll quickly see that Hide in Plain Sight isn't merely a powerful tool, it's an outright necessary one. And when something is so utterly needed perhaps it's time to consider that thing might need to become baseline somehow. But that's another threadtopic entirely.
Thoughts? Love? Hate? Suggestions of your own? I'll take it all.
I might come back and edit parts of this. Possibly add more.
And so I did. Parchment removal complete.
But lets calculate it..lets say maxed 10 level assassin = Base 10+ Assassin levels+ In Mod vs average 30+-40+ Fort save ....nope! Better to give blessin to Tymora! 
