Assassin Roleplay questions

[Jaffool]

1.) How long should it take a newly trained assassin (INT-based Swashbuckler/Duelist going into assassin if that helps) to learn spellcasting if I were to role-play it? I've been receiving lessons from a wizard friend as I thought it would make for good role-play but I'm unsure of how quickly to progress.

2.) Is it okay to say that my character can have picked up Assassin's Can't by way of books and studying? Or is this something of a hidden language, a la Sylvan and Druidic?

3.) How to role-play death attack? Is it like an hyper-accurate sneak attack, or should it be played like a poison? Something else?

Side-note: Flanking doesn't add my death attack damage, but that might be because I don't yet have normal sneak attack dice. The Fort save should only apply when they are not in combat, but the damage seems like it should apply like sneak attack. Working as intended?
Will Feint allow for Death attacks, with or without Fort saves?

Thanks!

[Blackman D]

1 - depends on how good you plan on making them i guess? do they learn quick or slow?

2 - you will not just "find" thieves cant laying around in some book, if there is a written codex it would be highly guarded, so to learn it you would likely need someone who already knows it

3 - death attack is a highly calculated precision attack that takes 3 rounds of studying the target to find their weakness to use, before you make the attack you can decide to instantly kill them or just paralyze them, in nwn tho you can only paralyze

4 - death attack is not a damage dice its a fort save vs paralysis that requires the target to not be in combat already, so if they are already engaged it will not trigger

"death attack 1d6" is actually death attack fort save and sneak attack damage 1d6, the sneak damage applies whenever you would normally get sneaks

so feint requiring you to use it in combat will not trigger death attack but will enable the sneak damage as normal

[Tsidkenu]

Death Attack dice scale and apply bonus damage as per sneak attack, however you will never see the grey 'pop-up' that you've effected a Death Attack. If you already have sneak attack from another class, the *Sneak Attack* pop-up will appear and will stack with Death Attack damage dice. The bonus damage applies when relevant, though, even though you've no notification for it.

The paralysis aspect of Death Attack can only take place if your target is out of combat (ie, just standing there idling). You can never effect a paralysis death attack even if you flank a target that is fighting someone else; they must be entirely out of combat and completely flat-footed for it to force the Fortitude saving throw.

[Jaffool]

Thank you all so much! I understand it all now quite well.

As for the magic part, my character learns quick and has a 19 base INT right now, but I'm curious about a time frame. Wizards would have similar intelligence levels and take years to learn, but we roleplay that in short times anyway.. I suppose it will be up to how we RP it.

Thanks again!

[chad878262]

Also should be noted that Assassin's don't get Thieves Cant, they get Assassin language which is not nearly as cool. If you want to learn Thieves Cant without Rogue levels you are going to have to make the right contacts, document the RP over time and then request the language from a DM.

[Mork]

1.) How long should it take a newly trained assassin (INT-based Swashbuckler/Duelist going into assassin if that helps) to learn spellcasting if I were to role-play it? I've been receiving lessons from a wizard friend as I thought it would make for good role-play but I'm unsure of how quickly to progress.

It was once explained to me on other server that wizards/sorcerers cannot train assasins and only assassin can train another assassin.
It is supposed to make the same sense like druid training a warlock. Person that told me this seemed quite informed in D&D - of course there is nothing to stop you from ignoring this but I thought just to let you know that apparently PnP concerned it does not make any sense, so do not be surprised if someone with spellcraft IC will take such training as an absurd.

Although like I've said - it is was just a DM ruling of D&D knowledgeable person from another server - perhaps someone else can confirm.

[Blackman D]

my guess would be they are using it is "arcane casting is arcane casting" tho assassins do have a different style of casting it, like sorc and bard can be considered slightly different but still arcane as bard may use song to cast some spells

generally i suppose you should always default on "takes one to know one" but given he is trying to learn from a wizard who study nearly non stop, its probably not that big of a stretch if they are familiar with the slight differences between each

[Omega07]

Only my speculation here but perhaps this insight could help hopefully.

An Assassin gains up to fourth level arcane spells and gains d6 per level.

A Wizard gains up to ninth level arcane spells and gains d4 per level.

So with that said, Is it the fact that as long as the ability to learn is there (Intelligence) is it not a matter of completing extensive study and having the methodology of a devoted arcane user?

The complexity of learning the new formulae and effort required (Not to mention the change and dedication in routine from a combination of stealthy arts and martial prowess to full dedication learning complex arcane spells is noted.) is indeed a change but not impossible in my humble opinion.

As far as using Death Attack is concerned correlating towards your wizard roleplay, perhaps studying the anatomy of beings before striking and studying in that manner could benefit your characters wizardly studies towards learning more advanced spells.

But with a character with enough intelligence that could be a factor to how quickly your character adapts to the required extra time to study.