Fear Assassin?

[Os1ris09]

As the title suggests I would like to build an assassin that kills either by blade or fear (whichever is preferable to the situation). Any suggestions on builds that aren't to cheesy? I have looked at the fear / assassins handbooks and can't see any good ideas.

[Flickerdart]

Given that you can't actually kill by fear (aside from things like Phantasmal Killer) I'm not sure exactly what it is you're asking for.

[Gildedragon]

there are precious few fear effects that kill, but several that can make the use of a weapon handier.
A start in wizard sorcerer or cleric might be advised

[Chaosvii7]

The best prestige class I can think of that fits this fantasy is probably Ghost-Faced Killer, from Complete Adventurer. It's aimed more towards mundane characters, but it essentially goes invisible and fades into darkness only to deal one fatal blow that scares their target to death, and then panics everybody nearby who sees the attack. However, spell options can probably make this a more achievable goal with the added benefit of being a spellcaster, which is almost always a boon.

[infomatic]

Isn't this the Ghost Faced Killer?


Frightful Attack (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a GFK can panic onlookers and even frighten his victim to death by making a sudden strike attack.

So Something like Zhentarim Fighter4/Ranger1/GhostFacedKiller10/Blackguard5.
BAB +20, Cha to Saves/Death Attack, 3rd level spells. The ranger level is for the skills needed for GFK. Rogue/Swordsage levels would work but you'd lose Blackguard5


Edit: Ghost-Faced Killa'd

[Os1ris09]

I'm looking for a fear themed Assassin. I know there aren't much fear effects that kill targets but that doesn't mean I cant use fear as a theme for the build. You know... your target is all of a sudden quaking at your presence in a corner scared for their life and can't say anything because they are cowering until you BAM assassinate them.

[Demidos]

Imperious Command?
Barbarian with power attack and imperious command? You appear, they cower, then they die.

Also has the ability to enter a killing trance where their strength and durability increase.

Bit of refluffing goes a loooooong way. :smallbiggrin:

[gorfnab]

Here is a handbook for different fear effects and builds based on them: The Fear Handbook (http://www.brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809.0)

The Nightmare Spinner prestige class might be something to look into.

[Os1ris09]

Here is a handbook for different fear effects and builds based on them: The Fear Handbook (http://www.brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809.0)

The Nightmare Spinner prestige class might be something to look into.

I had stated I already read the handbook. I'm looking for interesting and unique ideas. Not total power optimization.

Thanks though for the input and the relink. Appreciate the help. :smallsmile:

[infomatic]

Any intimidate build will do that. Though cowering isn't helpless, they just lose Dex to AC, so they do open themselves to Sudden Strike (and thus Frightful Attack). You'll want to pick up some way to demoralize quickly -- Intimidating Rage, for example. So Bbn1/ZhentFighter3/Ranger1/GFKX/Blackguard2+

[kardar233]

Ghost-Faced Killer and Avenging Executioner work really well together. Note that the Save DC on the Ghost-Faced Killer's Frightful Attack ability is based on your Power Attack returns, so with a two-handed weapon and Leap Attack you can make the DC nigh-insurmountable.

[infomatic]

You only apply the PA bonus to the DC for the secondary effect (freaking out the witnesses). Still fun though.

[Red Fel]

I'm looking for a fear themed Assassin. I know there aren't much fear effects that kill targets but that doesn't mean I cant use fear as a theme for the build. You know... your target is all of a sudden quaking at your presence in a corner scared for their life and can't say anything because they are cowering until you BAM assassinate them.

Okay. Here's what you do. You're going to make a Bard.

Bear with me. You're making a Bard. Nobody suspects the Bard. Go with Bard 8, and trade Inspire Courage for Inspire Awe, meaning that all must fear you. You will be using fear escalation rules, such that basically everything in your presence is consumed by pants-crapping terror.

After 8 levels of Bard, you will take a single-level dip in each of Dread Witch and Nightmare Spinner, in that order. That's Bard 8/ DW 1/ NS 1. This increases your fear spell DCs, gets you bonus spells, and gives you an at-will fear power.

Next, you take Sublime Chord, 2 levels. That's Bard 8/ DW 1/ NS 1/ SC 2. This gets you the ability to augment your spellcasting with your Bardic Music. Guess what kind of spells you'll be using? Oh, yes, fear spells.

Now you go back into Dread Witch, taking the last four levels. That's Bard 8/ DW 1/ NS 1/ SC 2/ DW +4. These levels advance your Sublime Chord spellcasting. They let you add fear effects to your spells, increase your save DCs further, and even let your fear spells affect beings otherwise immune to fear, such as Paladins. You also radiate an aura of fear that automatically terrifies lesser beings.

Finally, take your last four levels and fill out Nightmare Spinner. That brings you to Bard 8/ DW 1/ NS 1/ SC 2/ DW +4/ NS +4. Again, these levels advance Sublime Chord spellcasting. Now, when you cast certain illusion spells, you can add the [Phantasm] descriptor to them. When they disbelieve those illusions, they become shaken, no save. The last two class abilities are the big ones, however. First, "Spirit Chill" - anybody affected by a fear effect you cause takes nonlethal damage. That's right, fear physically hurts them. And you cause a lot of fear effects, from Inspire Awe, from your spells, from your aura, from various class abilities... And these fear effects stack and escalate... And they all cause damage. Fear will slowly eat away at them. But your capstone? That's king. Three times a day, you can use a fear effect that creates a suck-or-die - either they fail the save (which has an increased DC thanks to Dread Witch) and die, or they succeed and become panicked (and take nonlethal damage).

Now you're killing with fear.

[Os1ris09]

Okay. Here's what you do. You're going to make a Bard.

Bear with me. You're making a Bard. Nobody suspects the Bard. Go with Bard 8, and trade Inspire Courage for Inspire Awe, meaning that all must fear you. You will be using fear escalation rules, such that basically everything in your presence is consumed by pants-crapping terror.

After 8 levels of Bard, you will take a single-level dip in each of Dread Witch and Nightmare Spinner, in that order. That's Bard 8/ DW 1/ NS 1. This increases your fear spell DCs, gets you bonus spells, and gives you an at-will fear power.

Next, you take Sublime Chord, 2 levels. That's Bard 8/ DW 1/ NS 1/ SC 2. This gets you the ability to augment your spellcasting with your Bardic Music. Guess what kind of spells you'll be using? Oh, yes, fear spells.

Now you go back into Dread Witch, taking the last four levels. That's Bard 8/ DW 1/ NS 1/ SC 2/ DW +4. These levels advance your Sublime Chord spellcasting. They let you add fear effects to your spells, increase your save DCs further, and even let your fear spells affect beings otherwise immune to fear, such as Paladins. You also radiate an aura of fear that automatically terrifies lesser beings.

Finally, take your last four levels and fill out Nightmare Spinner. That brings you to Bard 8/ DW 1/ NS 1/ SC 2/ DW +4/ NS +4. Again, these levels advance Sublime Chord spellcasting. Now, when you cast certain illusion spells, you can add the [Phantasm] descriptor to them. When they disbelieve those illusions, they become shaken, no save. The last two class abilities are the big ones, however. First, "Spirit Chill" - anybody affected by a fear effect you cause takes nonlethal damage. That's right, fear physically hurts them. And you cause a lot of fear effects, from Inspire Awe, from your spells, from your aura, from various class abilities... And these fear effects stack and escalate... And they all cause damage. Fear will slowly eat away at them. But your capstone? That's king. Three times a day, you can use a fear effect that creates a suck-or-die - either they fail the save (which has an increased DC thanks to Dread Witch) and die, or they succeed and become panicked (and take nonlethal damage).

Now you're killing with fear.

I LOVE IT. Any way this is charisma based and where are teh classes located so I can read up on them?

[Diovid]

I'm a fan of the following build:

Race: Desert Half-Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertHalfOrcs)
Classes: Fighter 5 / Half-Orc Paragon (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/racialParagonClasses.htm#halfOrcParagon) 1 / Fighter +4 / Scarlet Corsair (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20050805b) 10
Fighter variants: Sneak Attack Fighter (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#fighter), Zhentarim Fighter substitution levels (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a), Dead Levels (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20061013a), Skilled City-Dweller (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) and either Thug (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#fighterVariantThug) or Hit-and-Run Fighter (Drow of the Underdark).
Highly recommended feats: Imperious Command (Drow of the Underdark), Dreadful Wrath* (Player's Guide to Faerun)
Other possible feats: Craven (Champions of Ruin), Menacing Demeanor (Races of Destiny), Two-Weapon Fighting (and it's chain), Weapon Finesse, Suprising Riposte (Drow of the Underdark), Flick of the Wrist (Races of the Wild)
Highly recommended skill trick: Never Outnumbered (Complete Scoundrel)
Other possible skill tricks: Group Fake-out, Timely Misdirection, Acrobatic Backstab, Hidden Blade, Sudden Draw

*This requires you to be human. A half-orc can get around this either by taking the Human Heritage feat (Races of Destiny) or by using the Half-Human Half-Orc variant (Races of Destiny, p. 150). The latter is preferable.

This build uses intimidation, feints and sneak attacks to defeat his opponents.

[Red Fel]

I LOVE IT. Any way this is charisma based and where are teh classes located so I can read up on them?

Bard is Bard. PHB. You know the place. The Inspire Awe ACF comes from Dragon Magic. Dread Witch is from Heroes of Horror. Nightmare Spinner is from Complete Mage. Sublime Chord is from Complete Arcane.

Basically, you get 8 levels of Bard casting, 10 levels of Sublime Chord casting, 10 levels of Bardic Music advancement, Cha-based abilities, and all sorts of nasty fear powers. You could take feats too, to make it even worse. Dreadful Wrath (Player's Guide to Faerun) gives you the equivalent of a Dragon's Frightful Presence. If you're Evil, you can take the Devil-Touched feat Devil's Aura (Fiendish Codex II) and generate a fear aura as a swift action. You can take the Haunting Melody feat (Heroes of Horror) to use one Bardic Music to cause enemies to be shaken for a number of rounds equal to your Perform skill ranks, which is huge.

Heck, if you really just want to throw away your feats, you could take the Spelltouched feat Live My Nightmare (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/spelltouchedFeats.htm#liveMyNightmare). It functions as the Phantasmal Killer spell, which means that all of your usual fear-spell-boosting powers function normally, jacking up the DC and making it tougher to stop. Further, as a Cha-based caster, your Cha will be fairly high; with a Cha modifier of +6, that means the subject has to make at least one DC 20 save. Admittedly, two chances to save hurts the effectiveness of this feat, but consider the side effects.

First, the feat takes effect if anyone "successfully targets you with a divination spell or effect." That could be anything. Detect Evil. True Seeing. Detect Magic. If it has a divination tag, you can blast them. Second, and here's the kicker - the feat says "you can" hit them with the Phantasmal Killer effect. Not that it's automatic - that it's a choice. But in order to do so, you would have to know that you've been targeted successfully. In other words, this feat lets you automatically know if you've been hit with a divination spell or effect.

Imagine the scene, if you will. The victim is fleeing in terror, not knowing what pursues, only knowing that it's scary as hell. Finally, he works up the courage to turn around. No more illusions, no more tricks; he flips on True Seeing. Immediately, his mind is bombarded with terror and he dies.

Yes. I used it in a build (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?304135-3-5-Build-My-Nightmare). I love that useless little feat.

[Psyren]

I think, rather than trying to kill them with fear itself (too many saving throws, SR etc.), you should instead be using a fear effect to make them cower/denied Dex and then finish hem off with a sneak attack or death attack. For example, Cornugon Smash (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/cornugon-smash-combat) + Intimidating Prowess (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/intimidating-prowess-combat---final) + Shatter Defenses (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/shatter-defenses-combat---final) ignores SR/immunity and lets you splatter your foes - combine with a Hyde Vivisectionist Beastmorph Alchemist for absolutely ridiculous amounts of damage + pounce.

[Flickerdart]

DC 20 save
Yeah, that's totally a competitive DC that's worth dropping a feat on for your entire career. No way the people divining you will be casters with high Will saves that laugh at something like this starting quite early on.

[PraxisVetli]

Theres a feat, Dreadful Wrath, that would be good for you.
I played a sorc/ardent/dread witch/nightmare/cerebromancer fear build a while back that used it, and she was SO MUCH FREAKIN FUN.

also, my phone's too dumb to let me quote, but Red Fel speakes much truth.

[Red Fel]

Yeah, that's totally a competitive DC that's worth dropping a feat on for your entire career. No way the people divining you will be casters with high Will saves that laugh at something like this starting quite early on.

You did see the part where I said "throwing away your feats" and how bad it was that the victims got not one, but two chances to make a fairly straightforward save, right?

I never said it was awesome for that purpose. I said it was fun, and there's always a chance that they'll roll badly. (I also said that the big benefit was automatically knowing when someone used a divination on you.) It's one of those "If you happen to have a feat to spare, you could do worse" feats.

[Peelee]

You did see the part where I said "throwing away your feats" and how bad it was that the victims got not one, but two chances to make a fairly straightforward save, right?

I never said it was awesome for that purpose. I said it was fun, and there's always a chance that they'll roll badly. (I also said that the big benefit was automatically knowing when someone used a divination on you.) It's one of those "If you happen to have a feat to spare, you could do worse" feats.

I was about to say, that sounds really fun, and its pretty tempting for me to take next time one of my friends wants to take over DM duties. We don't play to powergame or even optimize all that well, we play to have fun, and that just sounds fun.

[Flickerdart]

I said it was fun
It's not an active thing you can do, it will fail most of the time, and it causes extra rolling that is almost always futile. In other words, it's wasting everybody's time. Is that fun for you? Because that's not fun for me.

[Red Fel]

It's not an active thing you can do, it will fail most of the time, and it causes extra rolling that is almost always futile. In other words, it's wasting everybody's time. Is that fun for you? Because that's not fun for me.

It's an active choice in response to a broad range of abilities, when it does succeed it causes death, and frankly, not every feat in a build must be perfect. You're welcome to dislike the feat; I certainly don't generally encourage it, and it's hardly a priority. But if you have the room for it, I hardly think the DM rolling d20 twice is going to ruin everybody's evening.

As I continue to say - it's a flavor choice. Not the only choice, and not the best choice, but not the worst either.

[gorfnab]

How about importing the Dread (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/dread) class from Pathfinder?

[Chaosvii7]

It's not an active thing you can do, it will fail most of the time, and it causes extra rolling that is almost always futile. In other words, it's wasting everybody's time. Is that fun for you? Because that's not fun for me.

You could argue that from the very first die you roll that everything you can potentially do is futile and will waste everybody's time, granted you still must make active decisions to make those rolls. You might not find being able to scare people who gaze into your mind to death to be a fun experience if it doesn't have a highly advantageous statistical chance return and requires a lot of die rolling, but others will. The dice rolling is just one way to immerse people and have a fun experience. It's fine to not consider having to dump bucketloads of dice onto a table, but some people consider it effective in being able to immerse themselves by giving them an objectification of their impact of the world. I can't imagine many planets to be happy when a wizard drops a fireball or horrid wilting on top of it, but they don't ever seem to complain about the excessive dice-rolling.

Also, as pointed out, you do have to make the decision to use it.

[Psyren]

It might sound fun on paper but if you fail most of the time it'll probably just feel frustrating. That's just my opinion anyway.

The feat chain I listed though - crazy easy to boost and even if you fail you're still pounding them into paste. Hulk Smash!

[Os1ris09]

Well thank you all for the advice and suggestions. I dont know much about psion's though so I think i'll stray from the dread class.