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View Full Version : Nizari [OR Ascetic Assassin] (3.5 PrC)



boomwolf
2009-10-08, 06:40 AM
Well, I'll admit this is aiming for a little "Assassin's Creed" feel, but its slightly more DnD balanced, and makes for one fine monk PrC. I'll play a monk if I'm allowed to get this baby later on. also made high wisdom quite devastating in his hands, lessens the need for MAD if you are a monk.

Nizari

Masters of martial skills and mobility, a Nizari is one who follows the path of shadow in order to bring the light, he acts behind the law in order to uphold it and he does it all without ever turning to the realm of the impure magics, but with wits and agility. blending into the crowd and attacking without warning, then disappearing just as quickly, abusing the aid of the crowd in the urban environment to their advantage, usually without the crowd even aware of them.
Most Nizari have turned from the path of true monkhood as they see how they fail at keeping up with the armored world, and that in direct combat they rarely prevail, but on the other hand striking form the shadows, and being always on the run allows them to pick off unsuspecting opponents one by one, and quickly escape before anyone manages to come to the aid of the victim of such an attack.
Adaptation: While this class is mostly intended for monk advancement, there are other ways to obtain it's entry requirements, effectively gaining some of a 10th level monk abilities without actually being one. Turning the flavor of this class to "Acrobatic Assassin" or "Material Assassin" can turn it into something that does not sound that law-like. also you may want to remove the lawful requirement, maybe placing another instead, in order to make this class available to the "bad" side of stealthy assassinations.


Requirements:
Alignment: Any lawful.
BAB: +4.
Skills: Jump 8 ranks, Tumble 8 ranks, Disguise 6 ranks,
Class Abilities: Slow fall 20 ft. or more.

Hit Die: d8
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+2|Assassinate 1d6, Monk Abilities

2nd|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+3|Leap of Faith

3rd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Assassinate 2d6

4th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Fast Acrobatics, Blend in the Crowd

5th|
+3|
+5|
+5|
+5|Assassinate 3d6

6th|
+4|
+5|
+5|
+5|Wise Strike

7th|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+5|Assassinate 4d6

8th|
+6|
+6|
+6|
+6|Destined Death

9th|
+6|
+6|
+6|
+6|Assassinate 5d6

10th|
+7|
+7|
+7|
+7|Touch of Fate[/table]
Class Skills (6+int modifier for level) Balance, Bluff, Climb, Diplomacy, Disable Device Disguise, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight Of Hand, Spot, Tumble.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
The Ascetic Assassin is proficient with the kukri, rapier and dagger, they also count as special monk weapons for him.

Assassinate (Ex)
When a Nizari attacks an opponent that is flat footed or when he makes a confirmed critical strike he deals 1d6 extra damage, this improves by an additional 1d6 damage at every odd level. in the case of a confirmed critical strike against a flat footed opponent the damage from the Assassinate ability is multiplied as if it was a part of the weapon's natural damage.
Creatures immune to critical strikes does not receive this extra damage.

Monk Abilities
Levels of Nizari stack with monk levels (if any) for determining the distance of slow fall, speed bonus, AC bonus when unarmored and flurry of blows efficiency. if the Nizari has no levels as a monk he receives these abilities as a monk of his level.

Leap of Faith (Ex)
A second level Nizari gains the bonus of the Slow Fall class feature even if not within arm's reach of a wall.

Fast Acrobatics (Ex)
A forth level Nizari can avoid the normal penalties for accelerated movement while using his acrobatic talents. He ignores the normal –5 penalty when making a Balance check while moving at her full normal speed. He can climb at half her speed as a move action without taking a –5 penalty on his Climb check. Finally, he can tumble at her full speed without taking the normal –10 penalty on his Tumble check.

Blend in the Crowd (Ex)
A forth level Nizari learns to observe the movements of a crowd, and take advantage of this seemingly random movement pattern, he may use a Disguise check as a move action to blend in the crowd, gaining a +1 bonus to each living creature that shares a creature type (humanoid, goblinoid, etc.) that is within 30 ft. and be indistinguishable from any other member of the crowd unless the observes makes in a Spot check opposed to the result of the Disguise check.
While blended in the crowd all opponents are considered flat footed against him, however any time he enters within 10 ft. of an opponent actively searching for him that opponent need to make a check equal to only half the result of the disguise check. making any obviously suspicious action (attacking someone, going where a random civilian would not, moving at a quicker speed then a single move action a turn, etc) with an opponent searching for you witnessing blows your cover as well.
One must also remember that a crowd of innocents is likely to enter a panic and run away if you kill anyone, usually blowing your cover quickly.

Blend in the Crowd is used under the same restriction of the Hide skill if being observed. (AKA-a bluff can grant you distraction to pull it off, and having "hide in plain sight" allows you to do so while being watched, etc.)

Wise Strike (Ex)
A sixth level Nizari uses his senses to direct his attacks to the best possible impact, he may use his wisdom modifier instead of his strength modifier for bonus damage on melee attacks, he also gains the ability to add bonus damage to ranged or thrown attacks made this way.

Destined Death (Su)
The attacks of an 8th level Nizari are truly devastating the wounds from the Assassinate class feature are considered coursed and cannot be healed by any means until a "Remove Curse" spell or a similar effect as been used on them, even then they provide a danger, as the victim of the assassinate takes that much damage once more if the curse is removed.

Touch of Fate (Su)
Once per day, as a standard action the tenth level Nizari can use a Touch of Fate as a part of an attack.
A subject struck by a Touch of Fate must make a will save (DC 20+double Wisdom modifier) or be immediately slain, without the possibility of being returned to life by anything short of a Wish or Miracle.
If the targets makes the will save, he is takes damage as normal, and is affected by any relevant abilities as if the Nizari used a normal attack.
The use of this ability must be declared before rolling attack, a missed attack wastes the daily attempt.

The Rose Dragon
2009-10-08, 08:19 AM
Personally, I think Fedayeen (or Fedayi) would be a good name for the class, as the traditional name of the Nizari assassins.

Ascetic Assassin sounds more like one of those monk multiclass feats than a class name.

boomwolf
2009-10-08, 08:26 AM
A-what's Nizari?

B-it was originally intended to be the natural evolution of "Ascetic Rouge" feat, as the assassin is the natural evolution of rouge. but then I saw that feat sucked to no end (didn't remember it when I came up with the class), and decided to ditch the rouge/monk multiclass PrC, and make it a mostly-monk PrC to compete with the magical assassin.

The Rose Dragon
2009-10-08, 08:30 AM
Nizari. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin)

They are the ones the Assassins in Assassin's Creed are based on.

boomwolf
2009-10-08, 08:34 AM
Idiot me then. should have thought about that.

That's a quite fitting name. I'll take it.

Any comments on the class itself? balance problems? hard reading? something?

The Rose Dragon
2009-10-08, 08:39 AM
Do note that Nizari is the name of a religious sect, while Fedayeen means "one who sacrifices himself", therefore does not have a direct religious meaning. That's why I suggested Fedayeen and not Nizari.

Waargh!
2009-10-08, 08:50 AM
Shouldn't Monk Abilities also provide the number of Stunning Fists per day as well?

Half a disguise check seems a bit odd. Its preferably to put normally a penalty. Maybe a -20 if they are 5ft close?

Lets see, Touch of Fate. At 16th level, you can have a +8 on WIS? That would give a 32 Will save DC. That is kind of high. Its better, I think to make the ability weaker but used more than 1/day.

Like used WIS/day, DC 20+WIS, immune for 24h if you save against it.

ErrantX
2009-10-08, 08:55 AM
I dig it Boomwolf, in fact, I was actually working on my own Nizari class! I was using Tome of Battle with mine, so ours will definitely be different. But anyhow, on to your class.

First off, I love your Assassinate class feature. A new form of sneak attack that doesn't actually irritate me. Way to go :) The monk ability improves are also good, very fitting. I'd include scimitar with the monk weapons you're adding as well, as it fits the flavor. Possibly give them an ability to finesse them as well.

Leap of Faith and Fast Acrobatics are fine, Blend into the Crowd is fun. Wise Strike could be a little stronger; perhaps simply adding Wisdom to damage in addition to Strength. Monks and monk-like prestige classes need all the help they can get.

Destined Strike is cool, but as I've never played Assassin's Creed, I'm not sure how fitting. I'm going off of what I know of the game and off of what I know of the Nizari of our silly world. Same goes for Touch of Fate, though neither are over powered.

Overall, I like it and as I said, I really like Assassinate.

-X

boomwolf
2009-10-08, 10:39 AM
Do note that Nizari is the name of a religious sect, while Fedayeen means "one who sacrifices himself", therefore does not have a direct religious meaning. That's why I suggested Fedayeen and not Nizari.

The rule of cool overrides religion. Nizari sounds cool.


Shouldn't Monk Abilities also provide the number of Stunning Fists per day as well?
Not all monks have stunning fists, nor does a fighting style that relies on quick killing, and hit-and-run tactics tending to stun people.


Half a disguise check seems a bit odd. Its preferably to put normally a penalty. Maybe a -20 if they are 5ft close?
Odd, yet proves effective (as far I see), the "half" makes it work better for variad crowd sizes, and a strait negative will tend to be overwealming on small crowds, yet useless in large crowds.
Unless there is something I'm not noticing here?


Lets see, Touch of Fate. At 16th level, you can have a +8 on WIS? That would give a 32 Will save DC. That is kind of high. Its better, I think to make the ability weaker but used more than 1/day.

Like used WIS/day, DC 20+WIS, immune for 24h if you save against it.
While this makes it happen alot more, it will take a bit of the "overwhelming" factor of this attack. part of the idea here is to make a rare attack that is nearly irresistible, therefor the "proper" tactical use is when the impact is as close as possible to guaranteed, for not wasting such a powerful effect.


ErrantX-X_X just say the "hybrid theory" contest. it could fit in nicely with a few changes. (make it rouge/monk) ho well, I'll just find something else to build on.

I love assassinate too, gives critical strikes some love.
Was afraid that blend ito the crowd will get confusing. glad to see you love it.
Destined strike is not very related, just fits in as a powerful upgrade to assassinate. (never saw a guard in AC heal anyway, prove me his attacks AREN'T cursed.)

Waiting to see your work, it will probably be good considering your creations so far, although I never did like ToB. (made melee be too much magic. when I play a swordsman I don't want magic fiddling around. except for equipment.)

The Rose Dragon
2009-10-08, 10:43 AM
The rule of cool overrides religion. Nizari sounds cool.

Fedayeen also sounds cool (cooler, in fact) if you pronounce it correctly (that is, as we Turkish speaking people do).

boomwolf
2009-10-08, 10:46 AM
See, thats the root of the problem.

I am VERY good at English (not native), yet I got NO idea how to pronounce that.
Being half-Turkish myself does not seem to help either.