Assassin :v

[Val666]

Hello people

I'll start a game on saturday and wanted to play an assassin/skill monkey. I had in mind:

Factotum 1/ Monk 2 (invisible fist)/ Swordsage 2/ Fist of the forest 3/ Swordsage +11.

I think people said swordsage builds go for twf but I wanted to go with one strike. Just one simple strike with the overwhelming attack monk variant. I want the feel of: Step from shadows, one big blow and then back into shadows.
How can I acomplish this without lossing the "roguish" part?

Thanks everyone for replies :v

[Extra Anchovies]

Best way to optimize SA damage is by getting lots of attacks, so avoid Sneak Attack. Not sure what there is in 3.5 to boost single-attack damage; ask your DM if you can port in Pathfinder's version of Cleave and/or Vital Strike.

[Milodiah]

Fist of the Forest is very problematic if your DM chooses to actually stick to the write-up on it...it's easily five times as restrictive as Druid, i.e. you lose class abilities if you eat purchased food more than 3 times in a month or sleep indoors 3 times in a month.

[Snowbluff]

:v

I like :v

Anyway, I think getting some size bonuses to damage would help. Battlefist with those Warforged arm grafts. Ring of Fangs (? The one that gives Imp Unarmed and Imp Natural Attack). Stuff like that.

[Crake]

If you go pure swordsage, focus on tiger claw and desert wind, they have plenty of high damage single strike maneuvers, sometimes coming with carrier benefits like stun and the like, usually involving jump checks or something, so that adds to the whole acrobatic side of things, looking like a flippy ninja or something. If you go unarmed swordsage, get superior unarmed strike and improved natural attack, plus hammerfist, you can get your level +4 large sized monk unarmed strike damage (so at level 6, when you get improved natural attack, you'd be hitting for 2d8) and hammerfist lets you get 1.5x str to your unarmed strike, and get power attack as if it were a two handed weapon since you're using both hands.

This lets you open up power attack extra damage which can be nice for adding to the "one big hit" sentiment, and with some charge maneuvers you can use shock trooper to negate the penalties to hit with penalties to AC. Take for example searing charge at level 9, combined with searing fist, and full power attack on a charge. You'd deal 3d6 damage from your unarmed strike, plus 5d6 fire from searing charge, plus another 2d6+9 from searing fistfor a total of 10d6+9+1.5x str. If we assume 20str (18 base, +2 levelup) with a +2 item, so +6 modifier, that's another +9 damage from str, and another 12 from power attack, you're looking at a total of 10d6+30 damage in a single charge attack at level 9, not including any enhancements you're getting to your unarmed strike, getting +6 bab, +1 weapon focus (swordsage bonus) +2 charge and +6 strength, for +15 to hit, not too bad really. Probably not the biggest numbers you could pull, but it's a fairly simple build, that can be tailored as you like, without too much multiclassing, letting you just go straight swordsage and have fun with maneuvers, rather than worrying about this or that with a bunch of prestige classes to get a few extra numbers to your damage

And if you want to keep the whole shadowy feel, you can pick up shadow hand stuff to round out your character, so for example, after you pull that off, use cloak of deception to go invisible, then shadow jaunt away to disappear (and regain maneuvers to rinse and repeat, charging out from the shadows each time)

Edit: Also, i just have to nitpick cause it irritates me, but assassin is spelt with a double s both times

[Val666]

If you go pure swordsage, focus on tiger claw and desert wind, they have plenty of high damage single strike maneuvers, sometimes coming with carrier benefits like stun and the like, usually involving jump checks or something, so that adds to the whole acrobatic side of things, looking like a flippy ninja or something. If you go unarmed swordsage, get superior unarmed strike and improved natural attack, plus hammerfist, you can get your level +4 large sized monk unarmed strike damage (so at level 6, when you get improved natural attack, you'd be hitting for 2d8) and hammerfist lets you get 1.5x str to your unarmed strike, and get power attack as if it were a two handed weapon since you're using both hands.

This lets you open up power attack extra damage which can be nice for adding to the "one big hit" sentiment, and with some charge maneuvers you can use shock trooper to negate the penalties to hit with penalties to AC. Take for example searing charge at level 9, combined with searing fist, and full power attack on a charge. You'd deal 3d6 damage from your unarmed strike, plus 5d6 fire from searing charge, plus another 2d6+9 from searing fistfor a total of 10d6+9+1.5x str. If we assume 20str (18 base, +2 levelup) with a +2 item, so +6 modifier, that's another +9 damage from str, and another 12 from power attack, you're looking at a total of 10d6+30 damage in a single charge attack at level 9, not including any enhancements you're getting to your unarmed strike, getting +6 bab, +1 weapon focus (swordsage bonus) +2 charge and +6 strength, for +15 to hit, not too bad really. Probably not the biggest numbers you could pull, but it's a fairly simple build, that can be tailored as you like, without too much multiclassing, letting you just go straight swordsage and have fun with maneuvers, rather than worrying about this or that with a bunch of prestige classes to get a few extra numbers to your damage

And if you want to keep the whole shadowy feel, you can pick up shadow hand stuff to round out your character, so for example, after you pull that off, use cloak of deception to go invisible, then shadow jaunt away to disappear (and regain maneuvers to rinse and repeat, charging out from the shadows each time)

Edit: Also, i just have to nitpick cause it irritates me, but assassin is spelt with a double s both times

Woah...............