Sneaky Assassin!

[noellesam]

I am starting a private 3.5 campaign (just me and the DM) and I know I want to be an drow assassin. Awesome. I get to start at lvl 5 and it will probably go to 20. I was thinking of going Rogue 5/Assassin 6/Shadowdancer... gosh knows how high...
My problem is... it all gets so redundant! I get evasion twice and uncanny dodge a bunch as well. Are there any other classes that allow me to be super sneaky (and not that dependent on magic... I want to stay light magic) that I can choose from? I need some ideas to help out!
I want this character to be melee driven, and hidden in the shadows most of the time. Strong and sneaky, that's the plan.
Help please and thanks!

[Curmudgeon]

If you're only taking 1 level of Shadowdancer you're OK. There are Rogue Alternative Class Features that swap evasion, uncanny dodge, and improved uncanny dodge for other things. So you'll pick up those ACFs, and just one version of each class feature from your Assassin levels. See here (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872054/Alternative_Class_Features_III) for those Rogue ACFs.

[noellesam]

Thank you!(:

[Kulture]

If your DM allows Forgotten Realms material then consider Telflammar Shadow lord and the prerequisite Shadow Walker template.

The template gives +2 dex, -2 con, some light sensitivity and a new spell like ability every other level, including dimension door.

Shadow lord is 6 levels, gives death attack (which stacks with assassin levels), has 3 levels of casting and the ability to full attack after every teleport.
The prereqs are the ability to dim door, dodge, mobility, spring attack and blind fighting, as well as 10 ranks in hide and move silently.

The template can be acquired as a follower of mask for 2,000gp and is +1la, easily bought off at your level.

Shadow lord also gains some darkness related abilities, like constant blur in low light and the ability to dis-corporate into shadows instead of dying.

If you're willing to go spell thief then you'll get some spells and more importantly spell thief, assassin and shadow lord are all casting classes, meaning that with master spellthief you get normal spell theft progression and your CL stacks for spells like heart ripper.

I'd suggest Spell thief 5, assassin 9, shadow lord 6. You'll get a nice complement of spells, be able to steal 9th level spells from casters, have the highest possible death attack and pounce after porting.
Combine with your racial darkness ability and you're laughing all the way to their funeral.

[noellesam]

That sounds pretty epic... even though its a tad spell dependent, I am loving the full attack after teleport and death attack stacking. Pretty dope.
Thanks for the advice!

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Use the Savage Progression Drow (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a), you can delay taking the racial levels (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030824a) for as long as you want per that link. Start with the Dark Creature template from Tome of Magic to get Hide in Plain Sight and tons of other benefits, say you bought it off (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm) at your 3rd class level for 3,000 xp. Your next level gained after 3rd is the first Drow racial level, effectively putting you back at a +1 LA at ECL 4. Three levels later when you gain your 6th class level you can buy that off for 6,000 xp, and your next level gained should be the other Drow racial level, again putting you at +1 LA at ECL 7. Another three levels after that at your 9th class level it can be bought off for 9,000 xp, and you're a full Dark Creature Drow with no LA. You'll get better XP per encounter that way as well since you'll count as a lower ECL.

Take Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) at 3rd level, and invest every skill point you get after that into it for the greatest return. You'll get a 10% bonus to all current and future XP, and that will kick in before spending that first 3,000 xp to buy off your Dark Creature level adjustment. Make it start as a +1 Ring of Protection, your house signet. You can upgrade it yourself for half price (plus 1/25 xp) as though you possessed the proper feats, but you'll need someone to cast the required spells if you can't. As an Item Familiar it's an intelligent item, which means it's regarded as a creature (construct) in many ways. Constructs cannot be dispelled or disjoined and continue functioning in antimagic and dead magic areas. It gets its own actions every round, which it can use to activate its own abilities every round independent of your own actions. Wear a gauntlet or similar over it and opponents will never have line of sight nor line of effect to it, so it cannot be sundered or slight of handed. You can even give it intelligent item special abilities, including designating a special purpose and dedicated power, as long as you can pay to craft it. You can give it the ability to fire a 10d6 Lightning Bolt at will, freely activated by you spending an action or with its own actions. Note that you can add powers to an item familiar via normal item creation methods or by the level-based item familiar progression, so your only limit is cash. Definitely upgrade it to a Ring of Invisibility with a +1 Deflection bonus added (MIC p234) for 10,000 gp and 800 xp. It can make you invisible after you've attacked, and you can move (silently) so opponents won't know where to strike.

I'd go Spellthief 1/ Psion or Ardent 4/ Psychic Assassin (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723d) 6/ Slayer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/slayer.htm) 9. Psychic Assassin is worlds better than Assassin due to advancing a primary casting class and its Mind Cripple ability. You need to take Practiced Manifester to qualify for Psychic Assassin, you can put it on your Psion 1 bonus feat. That one level of Spellthief allows you to use wands of any Wizard spells from the schools of abjuration, divination, enchantment, illusion, and transmutation, namely a Wand of Wraithstrike in a wand chamber of a weapon.

Ardent gets 9th level powers in that build, and Substitute Powers (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a) makes it a lot more viable, but I'd prefer Psion for Int synergy. If using Ardent you should consider starting out Swordsage 1/ Ardent 3/ Swordsage 1/ Psychic Assassin 6/ Slayer 9 instead, or even take Psychic Assassin to 8th for Hide in Plain Sight if you're not using Dark Creature as you'll still get 9th level powers by 20th with Practiced Manifester.

Get lots of skill tricks from Complete Scoundrel, particularly any from the Movement section. You can also get Up The Walls (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#upTheWalls) and other tricky psionic feats. Take Psicrystal Affinity and get the powers Vigor and Share Pain, put a Healing Belt on the Psicrystal, and since it gets actual HD it can take feats so give it Improved Toughness and any item creation feats it can qualify for. Keep it in a compartment of your armor so opponents will never have line of sight nor line of effect to it but you still will. Keep Share Pain active on it and any damage you take will be halved, and its Hardness 8 will reduce every instance of damage it takes from Share Pain by that much regardless of the damage type of the attack. You can manifest Vigor and both you and the psicrystal will get a nice hp cushion per sharing powers with it. The psicrystal can use its healing belt to cure you and activate your psionic tattoos (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/items/psionicTattoos.htm) while you fight and manifest powers.

With a solo character it's good to be self-sufficient. Consider taking Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) for a flanking partner just in case, just be sure it's something sneaky, and give it the feat Mage Slayer as soon as possible.

[limejuicepowder]

I know you said you want to avoid magic, but a 2 level dip in to warlock could be interesting. Take the darkness and devil's sight invocations, then take the blend in to shadows feat. You can now, at-will, hide in plain sight as long as you are within 10 ft of magical darkness. If your hide check is good enough, this can even be used in combat.

There are also a bevy of other darkness-related feats in DotU. Eldritch blast can be used for sneak attacks if you are weapon deprived as well.

1 level in shadowdancer might be more economical if your just going after hide in plain site, but warlock has some other goodies.

How deep in to assassin were you planning on going? They get HipS at level 7, along with their spells, which are quite potent. Is shadowdancer even worth it?

What's your full build, if you don't mind me asking?

[gomipile]

Psychic Rogue is good. I know you want to avoid magic, but you could pick only utility powers like Camouflage, which gives +10 to hide, for example.

Another option is replacing one base class with Factotum, which sort of has magic, but you don't really lose much by completely ignoring its spell like abilities until you really need them on an adventure.

Ah, I just noticed that you said "not that dependent on magic." Both Psychic Rogue and Factotum get Spot, Listen, Hide, and Move Silently as class skills and sources of bonus damage that don't depend on magic. Thus, their "stealthy assassin-ness" is assured even when their psionic or spell-like abilities cannot be used. As long as you max out those four skills (and probably Iaijutsu Focus on the Factotum,) at least.

Another option is Swordsage, but Swordsage does not get Spot, unfortunately. :smallfrown: A Swordsage can still be played as an effective stealthy assassin, but you need to do something clever to either get Spot as a class skill, boost Spot otherwise, or bypass the need for Spot entirely most of the time with something like Earth Sense.

Another thing you could use is the Dark Creature template from Tome of Magic. It gives +10 speed, 60' Darkvision, +8 untyped bonus to Hide, +6 untyped to Move Silently. To cap all that off, Dark Creature gives Hide in Plain Sight as long as your character isn't in direct sunlight. All this and a tad more for the low, low price of +1 level adjustment.

[Curmudgeon]

To cap all that off, Dark Creature gives Hide in Plain Sight as long as your character isn't in direct sunlight. All this and a tad more for the low, low price of +1 level adjustment. That's incorrect. The Dark Creature Hide in Plain Sight fails to work in any daylight, not just "direct sunlight". And, of course, you've still got to have cover/concealment before you're allowed to Hide (standard for Extraordinary versions of HiPS; it's the Supernatural versions like Shadowdancer HiPS that also remove the need for cover/concealment).

[White_Drake]

I hate to suggest homebrew when it's not asked for, but the sublime assassin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219233) by Zakaraoth is an assassin that gets martial maneuvers, so it might be what you want. It also gets access to all of that HiPS and such.

If you do end up looking at it, the most up-to-date version of the Black Lotus discipline it uses can be found here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217619).