Crasical
2011-04-09, 03:29 AM
Looking for opinions on an elf rogue/assassin that I've been thinking about in a game where a big rule is 'Players Handbook Only', thought the DM is considering bumping that up to 'SRD only'. You can read his laughable backstory after this paragraph, and because I love rules and the weird things you can do with them, I had two questions that come after that.
An elven thief makes his way into a castle to loot it. Midway through pilfering the silverware, the lord of the castle appears, a vampire. Through trickery and guile, the thief manages to keep the Lord occupied until dawn, where he exposes the undead to the sun and slays him. When he leaves the castle, the villagers praise him for saving them from the lord, and offer him the throne and castle as his own. Being a greedy thief, he accepts, and soon discovers that the lands to the north, south, east and west are all ruled by vampire lords. As the new lord, he is invited into their number, as the other vampires see him as another creature of the night, and nearly as ageless as they. He enjoys their company, and begins ruling the barony in earnest.
Years pass, when suddenly one of their banquets is crashed by holy vampire killers, who herd the lords into a corner with holy symbols and unleash holy water upon them. The thief has taken on the mannerisms of his former comrades, and has to explain to the confused hunters that he's not actually undead. They begrudgingly allow him to leave, but take his castle and barony away. He is now angry and vengeful at the slaying of his former friends, and takes up the mantle of the rogue once more to regain the skills to enact revenge.
The first question was about Death Attack. Yes, I've heard this ability is awful and underpowered, but I was curious about the clause that you are still allowed to perform actions as long as you don't stop focusing on the target and he doesn't notice you. What actions are these? Can you open up combat by casting invisibility, spending a round tossing out caltrops or marbles, casting True Strike, and then attacking? Would it be worth picking up Silent Spell to facilitate this?
The second question was the SRD feat, Cloak Dance. One of the actions you can take with this feat is to take a full-round action action to gain full concealment until your next action. An article from WotC (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20040224a) indicates that
When facing a totally concealed foe, a creature is denied Dexterity bonus (if any) to Armor Class and the attacker gets a +2 attack bonus as well.
If this is the case, then can I arm myself with a longspear, plant myself in the midst of battle, dance, and shank anyone who passes near me with an AoO for full sneak attack damage?
An elven thief makes his way into a castle to loot it. Midway through pilfering the silverware, the lord of the castle appears, a vampire. Through trickery and guile, the thief manages to keep the Lord occupied until dawn, where he exposes the undead to the sun and slays him. When he leaves the castle, the villagers praise him for saving them from the lord, and offer him the throne and castle as his own. Being a greedy thief, he accepts, and soon discovers that the lands to the north, south, east and west are all ruled by vampire lords. As the new lord, he is invited into their number, as the other vampires see him as another creature of the night, and nearly as ageless as they. He enjoys their company, and begins ruling the barony in earnest.
Years pass, when suddenly one of their banquets is crashed by holy vampire killers, who herd the lords into a corner with holy symbols and unleash holy water upon them. The thief has taken on the mannerisms of his former comrades, and has to explain to the confused hunters that he's not actually undead. They begrudgingly allow him to leave, but take his castle and barony away. He is now angry and vengeful at the slaying of his former friends, and takes up the mantle of the rogue once more to regain the skills to enact revenge.
The first question was about Death Attack. Yes, I've heard this ability is awful and underpowered, but I was curious about the clause that you are still allowed to perform actions as long as you don't stop focusing on the target and he doesn't notice you. What actions are these? Can you open up combat by casting invisibility, spending a round tossing out caltrops or marbles, casting True Strike, and then attacking? Would it be worth picking up Silent Spell to facilitate this?
The second question was the SRD feat, Cloak Dance. One of the actions you can take with this feat is to take a full-round action action to gain full concealment until your next action. An article from WotC (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20040224a) indicates that
When facing a totally concealed foe, a creature is denied Dexterity bonus (if any) to Armor Class and the attacker gets a +2 attack bonus as well.
If this is the case, then can I arm myself with a longspear, plant myself in the midst of battle, dance, and shank anyone who passes near me with an AoO for full sneak attack damage?