Player's Handbook Only Assassin

[Melkiri]

My group is having a special event night where the players can make a level 12 character. The only limitation is that only the Player's Handbook can be used for race, class, skills, and feats. I was wanting to make something like Connor from Assassin's Creed 3. Any suggestions as to how I would build it. I was thinking Rogue 1/Monk 11. That way I have a lot of the unarmored abilities and the sneak attack. Suggestions?

[Zaq]

Monk is basically never a good idea beyond a very brief dip, and that's especially true if you can't use ACFs to get interesting things, which is going to be the case in a PHB-only environment. You'd be much better off as a straight Rogue, maybe with a brief dip in Fighter if you can't squeeze in the feats you want. It's not a good idea to be unarmored—unless you have WTFcrazy stats, you'll be better off just wearing armor, especially if you make it magical. Monk unarmed strikes still do less damage than just using a weapon—your weapon's base die size basically doesn't matter, and you can't two-hand it to get a 1.5 times your STR to damage (plus you can't get double returns with Power Attack). And that's without counting the Sneak Attack you'd give up by taking mostly Monk instead of mostly Rogue.

If you wanted to go in a different direction, you might have fun using a Sorcerer or a Wizard. They can use spells to sneak around and make themselves hard to find, arguably better than a mundane class can. But from your post, that's probably not what you're interested in.

You're going to have a hard time dealing with things with Scent/Blindsense/Tremorsense/Blindsight, because you don't have the wonderful feat Darkstalker, which makes things with those forms of senses still have to roll to beat your Hide/Move Silently checks. So if your GM is going to throw a lot of those things at you, you're not going to be able to do much sneaking, no matter what class you are. But if you expect to mostly be up against, for example, humanoids with class levels, then you might still be able to pull it off.

Overall, I think straight Rogue is the way to go. That will give you the best skills, which you'll probably need, and although a PHB-only environment makes it difficult to squeeze in full attacks reliably (since you can't move and full attack in a PHB-only game), a full set of Sneak Attack is probably about as much hurt as you'll be able to pile onto a single attack.

[Karl Aegis]

In a PHB only game, it's best to just use a druid and pretend like you're doing whatever you want to do. In this case, for some reason, you're playing as a seven year old kid who died of typhoid fever. A druid can do that.

[Lorddenorstrus]

Im not sure if this helps but someone made Ezio. Who is extremely similar to Connor :P

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=17511616&postcount=196

[Blackhawk748]

Well going like 2 levels of Monk is fine, get a few feats that are pretty good as well as always being armed, then Rogue afterwards, maybe with a Ranger dip for TWF (if thats what you want to do)

[deuxhero]

Assassin is DMG, so it's impossible.

(Though if the core prestige classes, Arcane Archer, Eldritch Knight, Assassin ect, are allowed is an important question)

[Wheelhouse]

Assassin is DMG, so it's impossible.

)

Uh that's not what he means at all, or did I just let the joke fly over my head?

Honestly straight rogue with a high int for your acrobatic skill you'll do fine, I've had a lot of fun with unarmed strike+sneak attack, your damage is coming from your sneak attack anyway, heck one level of monk if you want the ability to do 6d6 with your forehead (or whatever an 11th level rogue gets. One of my players was deadly with improved faint but that's very situational.

[Troacctid]

Don't you get cohorts in Assassin's Creed, or was that not in the third one? Because Leadership is an excellent feat.