Help Designing a Cohesive Assassin Group

[thespiritofwar]

I'm working on designing an evil assassin's campaign for my friends and one thought I had was to try and make sure that the group covers all of their bases by forcing them to fulfill various assassin archetypes. There are 4 people that will probably be there every week and a fifth that's hit or miss. So far, I'm thinking about the following:

Spy
For the spy I'm envisioning a charisma based character with a heavy slant toward social skills. This character will probably avoid fighting and conflict and instead focus on gathering information and ingratiating himself with the target or other party. I'm guessing a rogue base would work well for this. Maybe some levels in spymaster as well.

Thief
For the thief I'm really thinking about a character focused on stealing. I think this one would be similar to the assassin below, but with less of a focus on damage dealing, and more focus on skills. Again, I'm thinking probably a rogue base class but very different prestige class options than the Spy.

Assassin
Similar to the thief but with more focus on doing damage. I'm thinking monk or ninja, or maybe multiclass fighter, ranger, swashbuckler, or barbarian with a few levels of rogue.

Magic Thief
Obviously having someone in the party that's able to deal with magic would be a plus. I'm thinking they'd want to still have some competency with hiding, etc. but that could likely be accomplished via magic. Sorcerer gets that obvious benefit of being charisma based, but wizards gets more variety which could be very useful.

What do you think about other archetypes that could work? Would you replace any of these with something else entirely? What about a 5th for the other player?

Also, any suggestions for classes, PrC, feats, races, etc. for the archetypes? Thanks a lot.

[zlefin]

For the 5th player, if you look through the roles played in Ocean's Eleven, you can probably find something that would work.

Make sure to get good use out of poison, and make sure someone gets the skill to craft it to save on costs.

Beguiler would work for the spy role, to reduce the number of people who'd be taking rogue levels.

A magic divination specialist could also work for the 5th slot. Good for scrying, but also has some nice buffs for assassination like true strike.

[thespiritofwar]

Beguiler would work for the spy role, to reduce the number of people who'd be taking rogue levels.

That's a good idea and exactly what I'm looking for. I want to be able to give each player an archetype to focus their build and a few class/PrC suggestions to help with that as well. Most of the players are relatively new so they haven't really looked into PrCs very much at all, so I'm hoping the direction of the role and my suggestions will help them focus and experiment a bit more than usual.


A magic divination specialist could also work for the 5th slot.

This is another good suggestion, but I'm probably going to avoid it simply because I want to try and keep all of the players active as much as possible. I see the spy as being able to worm his way into the keep and leave a door unlocked or something like that during the actual assassination attempt, but I worry that the diviner would just be back at camp watching from afar.

[Eldariel]

This is another good suggestion, but I'm probably going to avoid it simply because I want to try and keep all of the players active as much as possible. I see the spy as being able to worm his way into the keep and leave a door unlocked or something like that during the actual assassination attempt, but I worry that the diviner would just be back at camp watching from afar.

If he's a Wizard, he can certainly provide plenty of direct support too, in form of magic such as Invisibility, perhaps Silence through Arcane Disciple, Disguise Self, Reduce Person, Charm Person, Dominate Person and so on. Certainly, I feel the party would want at least one person bring the utility magic into the business.

Tho remember, where magic is used to attack, it's also used to defend; Teleportation seems amazing so it's probably warded against with e.g. Forbiddance/Dimensional Lock/etc. in the key places and scrying is awesome so important people probably have some degree of Nondetection-type effects available - this enables the sneaks and company to shine in their own domains.


For the assassin, well, Rogue is honestly among the best classes for shanking somebody out of nowhere thanks to Sneak Attack working so well with that. If you want it to be a straight-out Warrior, that's a different matter (use Ranger as a baseline, some weapon for Power Attacking, etc.), but for sneaking in and stabbing somebody, Rogue does provide you with the one-shot punch (certainly more than Ninja or Monk).

You could get Poison Use in exchange for Trapfinding as a Rogue with the Drow of the Underdark alternative class feature, in case that interests you.

[Averis Vol]

A good template for a hit squad that I use is something like:

Warder: This member specialises in control and distraction. he works with the Hitter when the target is in a large group. When working solo he provides distractions, whether mundane or alchemical, and can lay quite the smackdown if necessary.

Hitter: This member's job is to do the deed so to speak. He packs as much damage as he can into the shortest amount of time before fleeing the scene as quickly as possible. tactics may change depending on the target, so he relies heavily on the Informant to make sure he doesn't go in with the wrong set up.

Informant: Informants his name and recons his game. He is tasked with scoping out the target; he learns his routine, his current wherabouts, guard total, special defenses, weaknesses etc.....

Infiltrator: the infiltrator works in conjunction with the warder. While the warder deals with the masses, the infiltrator does the subtle things like infiltrating the targets manse and unlocking doors and the like. He makes sure the hitter has an entrance and an exit.

Smuggler: The Smuggler is responsible for supplying the team with the necessary gear. He uses an extensive network of contacts to get things where they don't belong. Whether it is poison, an extra butlers garb, a bit of morally questionable gear that would raise suspicions or hired hands, he has eyes and ears everywhere, and can get things where they need to be for mission success.

I've used it before, and I feel like it works well. Each individual member can be replaced, so you need to take out all of them to destroy the organisation.

[Azoth]

Spy= human or changeling factorum/chameleon

Magic/or assassin= rogue1/wiz5(martial wizard/abrupt jaunt/spontanious divination)/unseen seer10/arcane trickster4

mundane(ish) assassin= rogue3(penatrating strike acf)/barbarian1(pounce/whirling frenzy)/ranger1/dread commando5(concealment in natural terrain instead of srmor ease)/swordsage2/nightsong enforcer 8 or just go swift hunter scout/ranger

Thief= rogue2/factorum3/thief acrobat5/nightsong infiltrator6/exemplar1/xxx3 (this build focuses on hitting skill dcs without really needing to roll. Between ranks, int added to dex/str skills, and the ability to take 10 at nearly all skills it should be easy. If you are having difficulty with some skills check out feats which change the stats governing skills, such as Tactile Trapsmith) *warning: not a combat character at all*

[The Insanity]

I wouldn't force my players to do anything. But that's just me.

[Demonikus Aber]

have you thought about using a doppleganger for the spy? it is a total of ecl of lvl+8 I believe. this would definately help though as it gives you an ungodly disguise, as well as the ability to detect the thoughts around you.

Also, in the complete scoundrel, there is a skill trick called misquito's bite. you could use this with the hitter or the thief and they could move in, do damage, and move out. If the hitter focuses on doing lots of damage while moving, then you may also want to consider the scout out of the complete adventurer. this would allow you to get a skirmish bonus to ac and damage rather than just damage.

[Nihilarian]

You know how these types of movies have a hacker sitting at home talking to them through an earpiece? That could be fun.

For the magic thief, the spellthief is perfect. Or possibly the hellbreaker.

Some more roguish classes: factotum, psychic rogue and lurk come to mind.