Character concept: Stand alone undetectable assassin/spy/leader

[bean illus]

I have played DnD since '78 (Chainmail, Sword n Sorcery. Remember those little 5x8 cardboard cover pamphlets?), and have always enjoyed the same character. Now I have played this character in several different classes, but the motivation and personality are the same.

I only got into 3.5 in '08 and min/max/CO about 2-3 years ago, and have made a few clumsy attempts at exploring the character's classes, but i still haven't read everything much less memorized it.
....Particularly with items, and with fancy combos, i've never really fleshed him out. I've never really nailed down the old 'nova strike', etc.

So, i've decided to start a pretty big project (big for me) and detail more of the build than ever before, including magic items. And to use this forum to help, edit, and file the information.

Please feel free to assist me on this project. I am certain that i will need all advice.

I think what I will do is start an editing round of several post, and then maybe transpose the results onto a 'final' document/thread.

Therewith; the purpose of this thread will be to ponder:

How possible and to what definition is 'stand alone character' as well as 'undetectable', assassin, spy, etc. Doing so should lead to classes?

Male Half elf, raised at the Court of a small half-elven princedom far far away, by a father who was weapons master to the king, and mother of royal elven blood.
...This promising fledgling half-elven princedom was razed in it's first century by allied racial purist elves and humans.

And our hero is....you guessed it! The surviving son, buried under the overturned furniture while his mother and father were murdered. Then to spend his life in fear that he will be assassinated by evil affiliations before he can claim his rightful fiefdom and his fathers sword!

These things create the character, who will go undercover for years at a time, then change completely and go undercover as someone else. A PC who needs stealth, and non-detection, and meta (divination, etc). And a way to 'one shot' pretty much any other assassin.

Now I know the character won't be able to toe-to-toe, but he doesn't do that so much, except as part of an alias. What he needs to do is NEVER BE FOUND BY ANYBODY until he knows he needs to KILL THEM. And spying.

I really love playing skills, and think they might be important to this character. I used to always start him as a rogue, but have looked into others...I know more about items now, and I am now more aware that spells are mandatory.

Suggestions?

[bean illus]

Obvious class choices would be rogue, factotum, bard, ...chameleon....

Oh, and don't i love Vecna? It's a feat, right? Totally undetectable forever saves a whole lot of slots and other bother. What are the drawbacks to Vecna Blooded?

[Geddy2112]

Before you go about putting mechanics to this, you should understand that stand alone, rogue agent, and lone wolf archetypes are not very good for a group RPG setting. Assassins, spies, infiltrators, people trying to hide their past, no names looking for revenge princess bride style etc. are GREAT character concepts. You can be any of those things, or any combination of them and still be a great team player. The sneaky rogue who tells the party nothing and refuses to work with them unless they are doing your unique backstory quest is going to get left in the tavern. If you are going to unreasonably hide your identity(and perhaps just hide) from the party all the time, nobody is going to even bother playing with you. Having friends you can trust is a godsend for this type of character- people who will shelter and protect them, who will vogue for their false identity, and who can ultimately help them do more than they could alone.

A leader concept does not really fit with your backstory-leaders normally attract attention, and your character is doing the opposite. I would drop that part from your concept and focus on the assassin/spy.

Bards normally attract attention, but they can hide as normal musicians/whatever. So can rogues. If you are going straight for the "sneak up and assassinate" then go with rogue/assassin. Max stealth, disguise, perception, bluff, etc. There are fairly cheap magics to hide alignment, your thoughts, presence etc. Wands are you friend until you get permanent items to do this(ring of mind shielding).

[JW86]

How about a level or two each of Rogue and Ranger to pick up Sneak Attack, Trap and lots of skills... then bumble into Psion (Telepath) for a few rounds to pick up all the Jedi Spying Powers you could possibly want, then go into Slayer to gain full BAB, full manifesting, decent skill points and mindblank.

Get a Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis to gain the Dark template, granting large bonuses to hide and move silently.

Get some of the magical items that increase Sneak Attack damage. Take the Craven feat if it suits your character (not good for courageous sorts) for extra SA damage. Combine with a Dorje of Crystal Shard for some nice sneak attack damage.

At Psion 5 take the Telepathy ACF, granting you.. Telepathy. Always useful.

Take Leadership, or heck, go into Thrallherd..

[bean illus]

Before you go about putting mechanics to this, you should understand that stand alone, rogue agent, and lone wolf archetypes are not very good for a group RPG setting. Assassins, spies, infiltrators, people trying to hide their past, no names looking for revenge princess bride style etc. are GREAT character concepts. You can be any of those things, or any combination of them and still be a great team player. The sneaky rogue who tells the party nothing and refuses to work with them unless they are doing your unique backstory quest is going to get left in the tavern. If you are going to unreasonably hide your identity(and perhaps just hide) from the party all the time, nobody is going to even bother playing with you. Having friends you can trust is a godsend for this type of character- people who will shelter and protect them, who will vogue for their false identity, and who can ultimately help them do more than they could alone.

That's not quite what i had in mind. The PC is in mid twenties and has 50-100+ years to complete his quest, if he ever succeeds. He is undercover from his true identity, but is an adventurer under a different identity whilst gaining experience and etc. The quest need interfere little logistically with day to day campaigning (and i would hope a DM might be able to work it in eventually).



A leader concept does not really fit with your backstory-leaders normally attract attention, and your character is doing the opposite. I would drop that part from your concept and focus on the assassin/spy.


The leadership is not necessarily the feat, nor need it be overt. The PC would want to make what use he could of organizations, knowledges, charm, networks, stuff like that, but always undercover, and trusting almost no-one. (of course the party would eventually know)



Bards normally attract attention, but they can hide as normal musicians/whatever. So can rogues. If you are going straight for the "sneak up and assassinate" then go with rogue/assassin. Max stealth, disguise, perception, bluff, etc. There are fairly cheap magics to hide alignment, your thoughts, presence etc. Wands are you friend until you get permanent items to do this(ring of mind shielding).

I'm pretty sure that i will need some hide, but also spells. I think that there are prcs that meld magic and SA, but i'm not sure that would give all i need. I have considered that a max UMD can do wonders.

[bean illus]

How about a level or two each of Rogue and Ranger to pick up Sneak Attack, Trap and lots of skills... then bumble into Psion (Telepath) for a few rounds to pick up all the Jedi Spying Powers you could possibly want, then go into Slayer to gain full BAB, full manifesting, decent skill points and mindblank.

Get a Collar of Umbral Metamorphosis to gain the Dark template, granting large bonuses to hide and move silently.
I hadn't thought about psionics. Most of my tables haven't used it. I'll consider that, but am interested in the other options also.


Get some of the magical items that increase Sneak Attack damage. Take the Craven feat if it suits your character (not good for courageous sorts) for extra SA damage. Combine with a Dorje of Crystal Shard for some nice sneak attack damage

Prerequisite: Cannot be immune to fear, Sneak attack class feature.
Benefit:You take a -2 penalty on saving throws against fear effects. However, when making a sneak attack, you deal an extra 1 point of damage per character level.

I was hoping to be immune to fear, and I think i can beat +20 damage with metamagic.


At Psion 5 take the Telepathy ACF, granting you.. Telepathy. Always useful.

Take Leadership, or heck, go into Thrallherd..

Besides the fact that Thrallherd is pretty broke, I'm not really interested in keeping a spreadsheet of 200 followers. Thanks for the suggestions.