Assassin build help

[Draggyun]

So as the title says, I'm trying to figure out a build centered around the assassin for an upcoming greenskin campaign. The setting will be in the desert (based mostly off of the Sandstorm book) and I figured I'd ask for a few opinions from you all. I was debating between the spellthief (master spellthief) or the ranger. And Endure Elements is pretty much a must for this setting since we have someone going with the Walker of the Wastes. As for the assassin itself, I wanted to open up combat with a few well placed arrows (perhaps try a death attack with Sniper's Eye) and then when discovered, move into melee with the rest of the party with dual weapons to take advantage of flanking + sneak attack.

(these pros and cons are assuming I go into assassin by level 6 or 7)
Spellthief:

Pros:
Full CL progression for spells
2d6 sneak attack
magic based goodies (detect magic, steal spells, etc.)

Cons:
Low fort and ref saves
Med BAB progression.
Spend feats on dual wield, Skill Knowledge, and master spellthief


Ranger:

Pros:
Full BAB progression
heat endurance (optional replacement for endurance in Sandstorm)
Animal companion (with nature's bond, could be viable as a flanker, scout, free poison, etc depending on companion taken)
Free dual wield feats
Favored enemy (the main enemy in the campaign will be humans, so its a fairly safe bet to make use of it often.)

Cons:
Weak will save
feats spent on Skill Knowledge and Nature's Bond
No sneak attack dice until assassin


I know I forgot a few things here and there, and also the starting level is 6.
I'm open to other starting class ideas, and as for race I was probably going to do a desert kobold. Sorry for the long post, though hope to hear from you guys.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Assassin is just not a good class for what it's supposed to do. Consider using Psychic Assassin (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723d) instead, as its Mind Cripple ability is far more likely to disable an opponent in a single round than anything the core Assassin gets.

Go something like Spellthief 1/ Psion 4/ Psychic Assassin 6/ Slayer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/slayer.htm) 9, using Practiced Manifester to qualify. Note that a single Spellthief level enables you to use wands of any spell the class would get access to, namely Wraithstrike. You can find the Psionic Endure Elements power in Complete Psionics.

I'd use Whisper Gnome from Races of Stone, with the feats Extra Silence and Silencing Strike. You can use Energy Ray or Crystal Shard to attack from a distance, or TWF in melee with a Wand of Wraithstrike in a wand chamber of your weapon. Go Egoist or get Hidden Talent for Chameleon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/chameleon.htm) for a huge hide bonus. You can also UMD a Wand of Camouflage for another hide bonus that stacks with Chameleon.

[Draggyun]

Just texted my DM and he said maybe. He's not a big fan of psionics so we'll have to see. I'll admit the more I read about the assassin, the more I agree with the above poster. While I'm not looking to be OP, I'm looking to at least be useful. At the moment our group will be an incantifier, walker of the wastes, a dervish, and myself. We're in an evil campaign that's pretty much summed up as "rawr, hate humans". Are there any other assassin-type ideas out there? I'll admit, I like the idea of sneak attacking with twf, but again that's fairly easily obtained with feats. ALSO, the DM mentioned earlier he'd be willing to swap the black flame zealot's fire damage with dessication damage...but alas I'm still not sure if it would save said PrC.

[Piggy Knowles]

If you're interested in death attacks, Assassin is probably not the best choice. But it does add some decent spellcasting to a roguish chassis and requires next to no investment to do so. It's honestly one of my favorite PrC options for a rogue, especially if I'm playing a race where Chameleon isn't available.

Telflammar Shadowlord is another fun option. You get the spells and death attack to make you feel like an assassin, but also get to play nightcrawler. Rogue 1/Totemist 2/Fighter 2/Umbral Disciple 3/Telflammar Shadowlord 4/Swiftblade (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070327) 8 makes for a pretty solid shadowpouncing assassin, using Blink Shirt to teleport each round as a move action, so you can attack or cast a spell as a standard, DimDoor as a move, and get a full attack. (If you're not playing until level 20, though, I'd replace the two fighter levels with two levels of Cobra Strike (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#cobraStrike) Monk - it means you won't hit +16 BAB, but your skills will be less touch and go, and you'll nab invisible fist).

[gorfnab]

Assassin Handbook (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8273.0)

If you're looking for just a simple assassin build you could just do Rogue (Penetrating Strike ACF) 3/ Cobra Strike Monk (Invisible Fist ACF) 2/ Assassin 9/ Telflammar Shadowlord 6.

[Darth Stabber]

Assassin isn't as bad as people seem to think. It's got your sneak attack, and most of your skills, takes one of the flaws out of poison use (the other is cost, but a psion can fix that pretty easily), and adds a nice utility oriented spellcasting progression, just remember that death attack is a fluff only ability (I have seen exactly one successful death attack I all my years of playing, and that was delivered by an npc against a pc after many failed spot checks). It's much better than staying in rogue (not a high bar, but still).

Consider adding some swordsage to what ever your eventual build is. A two level dip will net you Island of Blades stance (just being adjacent to an enemy that an ally threatens counts as flanking) making it easier to activate that sweet sneak attack damage and Assassin's stance (2d6 SA) which means if you do have a normal sneak attack condition you can switch to get more damage, plus some useful maneuvers, or just one level and martial stance as a feat. 1 level of spell thief is all you need (along with master spell thief), since assassin is an arcane caster, and that will help ensure that you end up with odd levels of SA providing classes. Rogue is still the best method of entry (maybe a 2lvl ranger dip, but you lose a lot that way), giving you skills, and as good of sneak attacking as anything is going to give you, while also offering you the penetrating strike ACF which is VERY important. The big issue you are going to have with a ranged sneak attacker is that after the first round you have to work really hard to ensure sneak attack keeps activating, where as a melee sneak attacker can utilize flanks (and most melee classes appreciate the +2 to hit, even if they don't get extra damage). Now keep in mind that a melee twf rogue is going to be more vulnerable while fighting, but with the more reliable nature of melee sneak attack he is relying on offense as his defense, and that's a very strong defense. Sneak attack fighter is a useful thing to keep in mind (especially with the thug ACF added on top), taking a level or 3 couldn't hurt.

If you want to do something like this with ranger (and want greater efficacy at range) I would suggest instead that you use scout/ranger with swift hunter, which makes scout and ranger level stack for purposes of skirmish and favored enemy, and also lets you get skirmish against favored enemies who would otherwise be immune (undead and constructs should be near the top of that list, but even against humans, it gets around non-type based immunities too, rendering that armor reinforcement useless). I don't remember the number of levels you want in each, but scout4/ranger16 is probably your best bet from a bab standpoint.