assassin build

[rrwoods]

Hello playground!

I plan to play an Assassin striker character in a campaign starting at 3rd level in a month or so. I've put some work into the build but the other players aren't exactly high-op players, so fun-factor is the primary concern (but effectiveness is a close second!). Anyway here's the build:

LE Whisper Gnome Swordsage 5/Assassin 9/Unseen Seer 1/Rogue 5
Rolled stats: 13/17/15/16/16/13 (after racial adjustments: 11/19/17/16/16/11)
Swordsage 5 (+INT; Shadow Blade, Weapon Finesse; Dis 4, MS 8, Hide 8, SM 7, Lis 7, Con 8, Bal 7, Climb 7, K-nobility 6, Jump 6)
Assassin 5 (+INT; Craven, Combat Expertise; Hid +1, Search 8, SC 4, Spot 8, Bluff 13)
Unseen Seer 1 (MS +2, Hide +1, Bluff +1, Con +6)
Assassin +4 (+DEX; Improved Feint, Staggering Strike; MS +8, Hide +8, Spot +10, Bluff +4, Con +1)
Rogue 5 (+DEX, +DEX; Surprising Riposte; MS +5, Hide +5, Search +8, Spot +5, Lis +16, Bluff +5, Con +8)

Swordsage Maneuvers:
1st - Island of Blades, Distracting Ember, Burning Blade, Wind Stride, Stone Bones, Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Clinging Shadow Strike
2nd - Child of Shadow, Counter Charge
3rd - Cloak of Deception
4th - Fire Riposte, Shadow Jaunt; lose Counter Charge
5th - Assassin's Stance, Shadow Garrote

Assassin Spells (character level indicated):
6th - critical strike, insightful feint
7th - distract assailant
8th - alter self, swift invisibility
9th - shock and awe, cat's grace
10th - wraithstrike, misdirection
11th - fell the greatest foe, absorb weapon
12th - greater invisibility, freedom of movement
13th - find the gap, assassin's darkness; if we have gloves of dex +4, trade out cat's grace for invisibility
15th - dimension door

Starting equipment:
masterwork short sword, 4 daggers, Healing Belt, Anklet of Translocation, studded leather armor; 207 gp

Equipment wish list:
Chronocharm of the Horizon Walker, Chronocharm of the Grand Master
Wand of vigilant slumber
Headband of Conscious Effort; later, Circlet of Rapid Casting
Ring of the Diamond Mind (Mind Over Body)
Gloves of Dexterity, or Gloves of Endless Javelins
Twilight +1 mithral chain shirt*
Shadow Cloak
Ring of Anticipation
Bracers of Murder
Blindfold of True Darkness
Belt of Battle
Rogue's Vest
Boots of Temporal Acceleration

* DM has ruled that Assassins do suffer ASF. As the rules are unclear and the community seems divided, at my own suggestion he considered my high stat rolls and penchant for optimization before making a decision.

Thoughts? Ideas? Am I completely off my rocker or is this a sane build?

[Flickerdart]

Replace the Rogue levels at the end with more Swordsage, so you can get high level maneuvers.

[Grayson01]

Have you thought about any of the Skill tricks? Back on your Feet, Spot the Weekness, or Acrobatic Backstab off the top of my head.

[rrwoods]

Oh I like more Swordsage. Haven't played a ToB class before and I forgot that your non-adept levels counted half for your initiator level. Here's what I'm thinking:

(Swordsage level is character level minus 10; initiator level is character level minus 5)
16th: Insightful Strike
17th: Mind Over Body*
18th: Greater Insightful Strike, Avalanche of Blades; lose Insightful Strike
19th: Giant Killing Style, Inferno Blade
20th: Wyrm's Flame**

* now what am I gonna put in the ring slot? :-P
** not because it's good (it might be, don't know) but because it's hilarious and I don't really expect the campaign to go to 20th level anyway.

Looking through the skill tricks I'm not sure I like any of them more than where I've got my skills now. I don't plan on pumping Tumble (maybe I should though?) so the Tumble 12 tricks are out right off the bat. Spot the Weakness is redundant with all the other ways to lower AC I have -- but maybe you can't have too many?

Anyway thanks for the help guys, really appreciate it :-)

[pilvento]

I belive any PrC count for full initiator lvl. You better check that out.

May i ask why Assassin? And for skill tricks you can never have to many, i dont see a reason to why not pum tumble. And i like Gloom Razor from ToB a lot more than... improved feint.

Also, look for the teflamar shadowlord PrC. Gives spells, death attack and shadow like features like free full attack after a teleport effect.

[Captnq]

Go to my sig, get the EVD, look at the combat section, review the poisons.

Gte a weapon with Assassination. Get Greater magic weapon by hook or by crook. Also review the file on weapon special abilities. In the front there is a section titled Poisons. Look it up for poison based WSAs.