Skill monkey assassin build?Rogue or Assassin?

[littleskrofa]

Hello guys this is my third character on the world of dnd and first on 3.5
initially playing on pathfinder. I wanted to make a skill monkey with a kind of heavy single target burst damage but I can't seem to get the build right . Looked up some classes (ninja, Assassin, rogue ) but all lacked something vital ninja lacked burst , assassin lacked in trapfinding .. etc Help would be appreciated

[Czin]

A straight rogue is mostly a trapbusting skill monkey, an assassin is what you break into when you want to murder someone, supplementing sneak attacks with save or dies and spellcasting geared to setting up the kill, ninjas are definitely the most mobile and esoteric. It's a matter of taste really.

[Curmudgeon]

Are you playing in Forgotten Realms? Then the FR-only Dark Creature template in Cormyr: The Tearing Of The Weave (page 152) is worth having. You get Supernatural Hide in Plain Sight for +1 LA. (It won't work at all in daylight, but a half-dependable ability just means you've got to plan your assassinations around the lighting.) Then straight Rogue with maximum ranks in Hide, and the Craven (Champions of Ruin, page 17) and Darkstalker (Lords of Madness, page 179) feats is a good way to go.

[ArcturusV]

Another option to think of is Ranger/Scout. With a decent ranged build (Or I've heard about some Power Attack focused variants of the Ranger Combat Style, but I don't know where they're from), you can put out some decent numbers, remain highly mobile, buzzsawing people from range, and still have the skill points to be the Scout/Spotter and trap finder.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Spellthief 1/ Psion 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

That Spellthief level allows you to freely use Wands of any Wizard spell from the schools of abjuration, divination, enchantment, illusion, and transmutation. In the mid to late levels you can put a Wand of Wraithstrike in a Wand Chamber of your weapon.

Psion gives you tons of powers for buffing, problem solving, and making strong ranged (sneak) attacks. You'll need Practiced Manifester to qualify for Psychic Assassin. Get a Psicrystal and put Share Pain on it every day, you'll take half damage from all sources and its Hardness 8 reduces every instance of damage it takes from Share Pain, regardless of the original attack's type. Keep it in a compartment on your person so opponents will never have line of sight/effect to it and cannot target it directly or hit it with area effects. Put a Healing Belt on it and it can spend its own actions to use that to heal you in combat when needed. You can manifest Vigor and share it with the psicrystal just like any other buff.

Psychic Assassin gets you Mind Cripple, so with two-weapon fighting (or using Metamorphosis to take the form of a creature with multiple natural attacks, such as a Hydra or Darktentacles) you can outright disable most physically strong opponents on a single full attack. You can get a Greater Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis to get Hide in Plain Sight plus tons of other benefits (or just start with the Dark Creature template and buy off (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm) the +1 LA).

Slayer is just a strong choice for finishing out the build, especially considering it gets most of the same class skills as what you'll be using.

[Callin]

Factotum for skill monkey with Gnomish Quickrazor and Inspiration Points for extra attacks for burst damage.


Baring that what books are allowed and what level? A Swordsage could work easily if you dont want the Factotum.

[Emperor Tippy]

Factotum 8/ Invisible Fist Decisive Strike Monk 1/ Assassin 9/ Swordsage 2

Step 1: Use Cunning Surge and approach your enemy.
Step 2: Spend your Swift action on Searing Blade or Burning Blade.
Step 3: Spend your full round action on Decisive Strike against your enemy.
Step 4: Use Cunning Surge plus Cunning Insight and attack your foe. Repeat until your foe is dead or you are out of IP (you should be able to do this about 10 times).

Cunning Insight gives you Int to damage. Burning Blade gives you Initiator Level to damage (+11). Craven gives you +HD to damage. Shadow Blade gives you +Dex to damage (in addition to +Str). A Collision weapon gives you +5 to damage.

With 30 Int, 26 Dex, and 26 Str that gives you +72 damage on the attack. Now Decisive Strike doubles the damage you deal to a foe for the rest of the round, so that is +144 damage on every attack. With Cunning Surge you can be making 10 of those, for a total of +1,440 damage. Each is also made as a +7d6 sneak attack.

[Chronos]

Assassin lacking trapfinding is irrelevant, since it's a prestige class. You have to have some base class before taking assassin anyway, and you'll almost always be getting trapfinding from that base class (most skillmonkey base classes get it at first level).

But when you say you want to be an assassin, do you mean you want to be good at assassination, or fighting? There's a difference between sneaking into the palace, murdering someone unsuspecting, and sneaking back out, and facing something in straight combat alongside your friends. And while the assassin class is actually decent at the former, it's not so great for the latter.

[Pluto!]

I'm a sucker (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=8273.0) for Assassin, but as usual in D&D, anything with full or near-full casting or manifesting (BF's suggestion for instance) is just going to be the strongest option.

For the most possible versatility and power while chucking fistfuls of sneak attack dice around, Rogue 1/Wizard 4/Unseen Seer 10/Spellwarp Sniper 5 would be my bet. With Hunter's Eye and Craven it gets 13d6+20 sneak attack damage before item-based Sneak Attack bonuses, and can just generate a ton of attacks each round with things like Cloud of Knives, Kaupaer's Quickblast (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20050112a), Arrow Demon morph effects, etc.

[Emperor Tippy]

Rogue 1/ Factotum 8/ Ninja 8/ Invisible Fist Decisive Strike Monk 1/ Swordsage 2 with a Weirdstone and a Third Eye Conceal can make a hilariously fun assassin.

You go to the Etheral Plane before finding your foe (Mind Blank beats the ability to See Invisibility and True Seeing to detect you on the Etheral Plane) before activating your Weirdstone.

Now you use Cunning Surge to gain an action to activate Ghost Strike. Then you make a Decisive Strike against your foe while blowing all of your IP (should be around 30 points) on Sneak Attack (also use all methods of boosting the damage of a single attack that you have available). You should one shot your foe.

Even if your foe knows that the attack came from the Etheral plane they still need to either move 6 miles or teleport away (as the Weirdstone doesn't breach planar boundaries) before going Ethereal, and then move 6 miles again to reach you. By which point you disabled the Weirdstone, stuffed it in your portable hole, and have teleported out to a safe location.

You get to strike from another plane with near total impunity (transdimensional spell is about the only method left for your enemies to strike back).