Build me an Assassin

[Jimp]

I've always have had some good luck playing characters who specialise in assassination, but I've never seen an optimised build for one. So, let's build an assassin.
What I want: ECL 20 character that specialises in assassinating targets. 32 point buy for ability scores. Standard wealth by level. Any WotC book except Eberron.

[Da Beast]

Wizard 20.

[Jimp]

Oh, I'd also appreciate it if everyone avoided answers like 'wizard 20' or 'cleric 20' :P

[Black Hand]

While I dont' have time to go into little details on a build, from what I gather if you want a 20th level Wizard who gets paid to and is good at dispatching people.

Perhaps the wizard in question, has made uses of many potions of youth and is otherwise a 9 year old kid in his non magical form. That would be kind of fun. Now only if he/she could get hold of a Sphere of annihalation....

[Machete]

Druid 20

Kidding kidding.

Well, what is your style? Kill from 5,000 feet away style or whisper in your ear and melee death style? Patient and waiting or go kill them right now no matter what? No one ever knows who you were or laugh on a temple roof as the entire castle falls over and the commoners look up to see you there i only for a moment?

Some mix?

[Person_Man]

Here's an odd but perhaps useful suggestion:

Paladin 10/Gray Guard (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070320) 10

Paladin is a weak class, and Gray Guard is a weak PrC.

But Gray Guard has four useful features:

1) Stacks with Smite
2) Stacks with Lay on Hands
3) Has Hide and Move Silently as class Skills
4) Has the Devastating Touch class ability

Devastating Touch let's you make a touch attack that deals damage from your Lay on Hands pool, which is equal to your (Paladin Level+Gray Guard Level)*Cha bonus. Evil enemies receive No Save. Non-Evil Enemies Save for half damage.

So, a Paladin 10/Gray Guard 10 with 26 Cha (low, by ECL 20 standards for your primary attribute) can deal a 260 points of damage, with No Save if you're Evil, on a touch attack. Or you can split it up into any number of separate attacks that you want, limited only by your Lay on Hands pool. That's enough to assassinate pretty much anything, though you could pretty much only do it once or twice per day.

Plus its a melee attack, so you can add your Smite Evil damage to it. Give up your mount and use the PHBII Charging Smite alternative, which gives you a bonus to hit and some really potent damage output.

With the right equipment and feats, you could pump the damage even higher, while still having some decent stealth abilities (Ring of Invisibility, Armor of Greater Silent Moves, Gem of Seeing, etc).

A spellcaster would be far, far more powerful and versitile, in a lot of different ways. But this has high Saves, high hit points, some Skills, full BAB, and very flavorful - I kill Evil people for the church, and I use any methods I have to in order to get it done. Suck it Paladin Code.

[Flawless]

A melee style assassin works well with swashbuckler 4/ swordsage 2 / assassin x.
You can get the assassin's stance from the shadow hand discipline and add +2d6 sneak damage. You also qualify for the shadow blade feat which lets you add your dex bonus to damage. Oh, and you can take daring outlaw to get another +2d6 sneak attack. And you get insightful strike and thus add your int bonus to damage as well. Pick up two shortswords or daggers and you'll be fine.

EDIT: in order to get assassin's stance you have to do it like this: swashbuckler4/swordsage1/assassin2/swordsage+1/assassin+x

[JoeFredBob]

One thing you might want to look at is halfling ninja 15/ master thrower 5. TWF with shuriken in order to get cheap nasty enhancements (bane for whatever your target is at the moment, for example), use poison, and make judicious use of ghost step, hide, move silently, and acrobatics to infiltrate.

Basic stat block:
base stats:
9
22
14
14
14
10

BAB:
+16/+11/+6/+1

Highest attack bonus:
16 + 6 (base dex) + 3 (dex item) + 1 (weapon focus) + 1 (halfling) + 1 (size) = +28 + weapon enhancement

Feats:
TWF
ITWF
GTWF
Weapon Focus (shuriken)
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Far Shot

Thrown weapon tricks:
Palm Throw
Weak Spot
(your choice, i like trip shot)

Important skills:
Hide: +36
Move Silently: +34

Deadliest full attack (assume all shuriken are +2 your target bane coated with purple worm poison, for a grand total of 1,066 gold per shuriken. Expensive, but deadly. Oh, and use an oil of flame arrow):
2x +32, 1d6+2d6+1d6+2d6+8d6+two DC 24 fort saves
2x +27, 1d6+2d6+1d6+2d6+8d6+two fort saves
2x +22, 1d6+2d6+1d6+2d6+8d6+two fort saves
+18, 1d6+2d6+1d6+2d6+8d6+two fort saves

This assumes your target is flat footed, which is reasonable. Now, assuming all but one of those attacks hits (that one from a natural 1, you're hitting flat-footed touch AC here), that's 84d6 damage and 12 DC 24 fort saves to avoid 1d6 str damage. You've spent ~14,000 gold on the shuriken for that round. Depending on your target you can lighten up on the poison (which is 700 gold a dose), use more expensive poison (con poisons), or fewer doses of higher DC poison. Also using +1 instead of +2 could be reasonable, unless you expect them to have lots of deflection effects.

Other choices are to splash monk for flurry, or fighter for more feats, and how, precisely, you allocate your money. Obviously if you're an assassin-type you're going to rake in a LOT of money per encounter, so single use items are probably especially valuable.

[The_Snark]

Swordsage with Shadow Hand maneuvers could be good. Rogue/Assassin is a tried-and-tested one.

If you want a sniper-sort, the Cragtop Archer really will let you kill people from around 5,000 feet away, if you have the right equipment and can see them.

I know you said you wanted answers other than Wizard 20 and such, but a level 20 wizard or sorcerer with the right spells makes a formidable assassin. Silence and Invisibility for stealth; some charms, compulsions, and illusions for dealing with guards; Teleport, Disguise Self, and Polymorph for infiltration; and a Silenced Finger of Death or Power Word: Kill for taking out the target. If for some reason your client wants them alive, you can do that too. As a bonus, you're an expert at dealing with magical defenses, can Scry on and divine information about the target first, and have your own defenses against enemy divinations in the form of Nondetection, Mind Blank, and such.

[Fax Celestis]

Spellthief 9/Master of Masks 1/Avenging Executioner 5/Assassin 5.

[JackMage666]

Hmm.. I'm not sure of the entire build, but I think a Beguiler/Warlock/Eldritch Theurge (I think, away from books, but the one that's Warlock/Arcane), could be a cool mix for an Assassin. Alot of good spells for being sneaky, as well as some Invocations to help some more. Should be a potent mix.

Possible a Warlock 8/Rogue 2/Assassin 10 could work about the same as well, though less invocations of course. But, you'll still get the basic invisibility and flight, which will get you about anywhere you'd need to go. Plus, Eldritch Blast could be added to the Coup de Grace you'd do (coupled with Death Attack, and sneak attack). Pretty heavy damage.

Warlocks in general could make a useful Assassin, if done correctly.

[Were-Sandwich]

Swordsage 20 is pretty unstoppable as assassins go. He has stealth, de-buffs, save-or-des, mass-damage, area attacks, and telepotation, rendering most defences useless.

[storybookknight]

Pixie Rog2/Ninja1/Hexblade3/Ghost-Faced Killer 10. Pixies get -4 strength, so you're going to have to sock a 16 there at character creation for Power attack, but the stat array still comes out pretty darn nice.

Permanent greater invisibility, Dex and Wis to AC, etherealness, death attacks based on a pixie's awesome charisma, charisma bonus to saves vs. spells, a decent amount of sudden strike, Mettle AND Evasion - all this plus a fly speed!

With LA buyoff, add a few levels of Blackguard for extra sneak attack, poison use, and absurd saving throws.