Leveling without a clue

[nickupick]

Hello,

Well... this is my first post on this site.:smallbiggrin:

Can anyone help me with leveling. I am a player in a group of four, in AD&D 3.5 and I am a little stuck.

I am a level six player, 4 levels rogue and 2 levels assassin. My base scores are:

Str 14
Dex 18 (20 with gloves of dex +2)
Con 16
Int 18 (20 with headband of intellect +2)
Wis 11
Cha 11

My feats are: weapon finesse, improved initiative, quick reconnoiter and point blank shot.

I would like to make a little difference in a battle. Comparing to my fellow players, I die to quick, en do damage to little.

Does anyone have any tips for me?

Thanks for helping me out!

Greetz Nickupick:smallcool:

[SowZ]

Well, what houserules are ya'll using? Usually you can't go into assassin until level 6. Craven is a great feat to consider, it adds your level, (not your rogue level,) to sneak attack damage. If you can get a hold of some bracers of murder you will be doing better as well. Is your problem with tactics or items or build?

[eggs]

Welcome! :smallsmile:

Your feats look a bit scattered, but I'm going to guess your default strategy is something like tumbling into melee, getting the flank and sneak attacking.

If your party casters are playing to their strengths, this typically works wonderfully, but I'm going to assume they aren't.

Without casters using spells to blind/stun enemies or make them balance/grapple, Rogues and assassins have a tough time in melee. If enemies can see you, it's risky to get close, so it's often best to sit back and plink at them with things like wand of seeking ray or an ordinary run-of-the-mill shortbow. Getting sneak attack with those usually means doing one of several things - getting invisibility (via Shadow Hands from ToB for 1/fight invisibility for a round at 1500gp or a Wand of Blink, which would still be rather expensive for your level) or making your opponents balance (via a relatively inexpensive CL 3+ wand of grease or a dirt-cheap bag of marbles, from the ).

But coordinating with casters can make things much easier - spells like Glitterdust and Black Tentacles are beastly anyway, and adding your sneak attack to the spells' outcomes just makes the options sweeter.

Looking forward to Assassin level 3, it gets 2nd level spells. The high point is Alter Self. Just turning into a Lizardfolk or Troglodyte adds +5 or 6 to AC and 3 natural weapons, which should up your survivability if you go into melee, as well as your damage output.

Alternatively, you could just grab a wand of Alter Self and drop a level in Warblade, for Wall of Blades, Moment of Perfect Mind and Sapphire Nightmare Blade. Those should both dramatically improve your survivability and make sneak attacks a bit easier to pull off.

But beyond that, there aren't a whole lot of decisions to make at this level. I hope some of that helped.

[Sturmcrow]

Knowing how you qualified for Assassin at least 1 level early might help since it implies there are houserules that we do not know about.

[DrGonzo]

As a fellow partymember I can elaborate a bit:

The early level entry in Assassin is kind of handwaved bij the DM. Myself and the other player are Swordsage (me), focused on Tiger Claw and Shadow Hand, and a fairly well optimized cleric. No arcane caster, so the assassin spells could be very handy, covering some arcane needs..

[Curmudgeon]

Dump Improved Initiative. A small increase in chance of going before enemies isn't as valuable as a more consistent benefit. Craven (Champions of Ruin, page 17; already recommended) is much better.

If you don't have it, get your DM to approve retroactively the Lightbringer Penetrating Strike alternative class feature (Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, page 208). This replaces trap sense at Rogue 3, which should be largely useless for a Rogue. (You've got the ability to detect traps, so you shouldn't be triggering them accidentally. Plus with evasion you'd still avoid damage from a lot of traps anyway.) Lightbringer Penetrating Strike lets you deal sneak attack damage, with ½ the normal dice, to foes who are normally sneak-immune ─ but only when you flank them. Craven damage isn't from dice, so it doesn't get halved.

With an unoptimized build you've probably got some unoptimized execution as well. Here's what I recommend.

Maximize Spot (and maybe Listen) so you won't be surprised.
Walk around with your composite shortbow ready to fire. You'll get to shoot flat-footed enemies in the surprise round, and deal sneak attack damage enabled by them being flat-footed.
Continue with the shortbow for the first full round of combat, attacking any foe who hasn't acted yet. Never squander an opportunity for easy sneak attack damage by doing something so foolish as moving instead of attacking.
You should have a flanking buddy. If they haven't already gotten into position next to an enemy, Delay until they do. Draw your rapier as you move into position opposite your flanking buddy, and you'll be able to deal sneak attack damage enabled by them being flanked.

[Sturmcrow]

eggs makes some very good points.


Upping your AC would be good and alter self is a good way to do that.
Any item which helps you hide in a fight is good that way you start out with a death attack and then move onto normal sneak attacks.

Poison poison poison! The DCs on some of the saves arent very high but your DM might let you called shot chucking bags of the Ingested ones into open enemy mouths.

For now probably Large Scorpion Venom or Purple Worm for the big bad. Focus your poisoned attacks on targets with poor Fort saves such as arcane casters

What weapon are you using?
What items do you have now?
Would your DM let you swap out feats?
You seem split on your feats so picking one direction to go might help you out.

For now you should probably try to hover at the 30ft range and try sniping from cover on the weakest targets to drop them.

What books do you have access to?

- edit : combining post

An Eager Weapon (+1) combined with Skill Tricks from Complete Scoundrel
When you can afford it Shadowstrike (5,000gp) lets you attack someone from 5ft away and denies the Dex to AC thus granting Sneak Attack.
Then several levels later Blurstrike (+2) 10 times a day your first attack in a round will get your sneak attack.

Earlier options, Bladeshimmer (750gp) on a weapon they must make a Spot check to notice something amiss versus your Sleight of Hand check with +10 Competence bonus. Flat-footed if they fail to Spot, goes away once you hit.

Panic Button (750) Escape to get a 30ft Dimension Door jump, enough to get you out of danger and maybe into Cover to hide.

Deadly Precision for your Bow (+1) to add another d6 to your sneak attack

Boots of Desperation to get you out of Melee if things are going bad for you.

It may not seem brave but let whoever is the main fighter get into it first and just move in for flank if you choose to melee and help pick off what they are fighting. Otherwise dont feel bad if you take a turn to set up a sneak attack since a lot of your damage will come from that and for now you do not have easy ways to guarantee sneak attack each round except in melee.

[DrGonzo]

It may not seem brave but let whoever is the main fighter get into it first and just move in for flank if you choose to melee and help pick off what they are fighting. Otherwise dont feel bad if you take a turn to set up a sneak attack since a lot of your damage will come from that and for now you do not have easy ways to guarantee sneak attack each round except in melee.

Don't be brave indeed. Be alive. Let Clericzilla beat the living crap out of everything, and then steal all of his kills!