Need help with 5/1 Rogue/Assassin

[nokla]

Hey guys, I'm new here, just registered.

So I'm pretty much new to the game (been playing for a couple of months now, currently on my second session) but I do enjoy reading alot on the subject and finding useful things to use in game.

I'm a 5th lvl rogue and 1st lvl Assassin. Now I always thought that I would go full Assassin but after carefully reading it, I decided it would only be a dip.

Since I had ****ty rolls at the beggining I took the feats Weapon Finesse and Improved Feint so I could max my chances of Sneak Attacking every round.


The trouble is, I have no idea how should I continue to build my character so I'm asking you guys for help, since this forum is the place I've mostly been looking for good advice and stuff.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: BTW, we're playing 3.5 with all books.

[georgie_leech]

I'm not a good person to give advice. I've mostly moved to 4th ed, and occasionally heavily house-ruled games; 3.5 experience has become mostly theoretical. However, I can say that you'll get the best advice you can if you post what you want your character to do or be in the first place. Are you trying to be a skill monkey rogue? Damage Dealer? Specifically sneak attacking? Being a super sneaky scout? Something else I can't think of at the moment? There's a whole heap of things you could do with that build, but until the optimisers know what you want, any advice you get is going to be extremely varied and often at odds with each other.

[nokla]

I'm not a good person to give advice. I've mostly moved to 4th ed, and occasionally heavily house-ruled games; 3.5 experience has become mostly theoretical. However, I can say that you'll get the best advice you can if you post what you want your character to do or be in the first place. Are you trying to be a skill monkey rogue? Damage Dealer? Specifically sneak attacking? Being a super sneaky scout? Something else I can't think of at the moment? There's a whole heap of things you could do with that build, but until the optimisers know what you want, any advice you get is going to be extremely varied and often at odds with each other.

Well I was thinking of maximizing the damage output. Doesn't just have to be sneak attack, but since it's the rogues most recgonizable ability, I'd say it's a good way to go.
The third feat I've taken is obviously Craven.

Don't plan on going big in the HP department, I envisioned myself as a stealthy rogue dealing quick deathblows.

Is Hide In Plain Sight really worth dipping so much in the Assassin class?

[Greyfeld85]

If you want HiPS, I'd suggest dipping Shadowdancer for it. It's only a 1 level dip, so you don't have to worry about taking a bunch of levels in a PrC you don't want. Though you can't take it till level 8 at the earliest, so YMMV.

You should seriously consider dipping two levels of Swordsage and picking up Assassin's Stance and the Shadow Blade feat. The stance adds +2d6 sneak attack damage and the feat lets you add your Dex modifier to damage as long as you're in a Shadow Hand stance.

If I were you, I'd see if I could retrain Improved Feint. Feinting is a woefully underpowered maneuver, and spending a feat on it is a waste of a feat. With HiPS and/or a wand of Greater Invisibility, you can pretty much sneak attack all day. If there is any other melee combatant in the party, work on flanking with him and you should pretty much be set permanently.

[Gavinfoxx]

If you want to maximize damage output as a skillful character with all books available... are you sure you want to take a level of assassin at all?

Penetrating Strike Rogue3/Sneak Attack Thug Fighter1/Whirling Frenzy Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian 1/Swashbuckler1 with Craven or something, maybe?

[nokla]

Yeah but with the rogues feat level progression and the Shadowdancer's prerequisites when will I be able to even make the dip?

There's 2 more fighters with me, a sorcerer and a ranger.

Dipping in Swordsage seems really nice, prolly going with that. Can you tell me from which book is it?



It's not that I want to take the Assassin level, it's that I already took it and just trying to get the best out of it. :smallbiggrin:

[Greyfeld85]

Yeah but with the rogues feat level progression and the Shadowdancer's prerequisites when will I be able to even make the dip?

Hmm I hadn't really thought about that. Unfortunately yeah, Shadowdancer prereqs require a lot of garbage feats. It's less of a problem if you get those feats for free somewhere (or get extra feats to play with), but I wouldn't want anybody to burn half their feats just to pick up HiPS.

If you're not specifically building your character around the ability, it's not really that necessary anyway. At least not if you can get some consistent flanking or some way to grant invisbility.


There's 2 more fighters with me, a sorcerer and a ranger.

That's rough. Personally, I would have suggested not playing a rogue in the first place with that party. An animal companion would set up as a good flanker, but a Ranger's companion being half progression of the Druid's makes it too squishy to send into combat. And I'm assuming the Ranger himself is an archer, not a TWFer.

Your Sorcerer buddy could pick up a "Summon Monster" spell or two to help you with flanking partners, but that's a tough sell when he could just use that round to blast away, himself.

Your best option is to get your hands on a wand of Greater Invisibility, but they cost something like 21k.

There's a Shadow Hand boost called Cloak of Deception that lets you become invisible for the duration of your turn as a swift action, but even if you take the Adaptive Style feat, you're still only going to be able to use it every other round at the very most.


Dipping in Swordsage seems really nice, prolly going with that. Can you tell me from which book is it?

Swordsage is in the Tome of Battle.