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Greymarch
2007-05-19, 04:37 PM
Hey all, this seemed like the best spot to post these kind of d20 questions. Other forums sometimes get freaky when things get weird.

I've been playing in a friends "Evil Game" for the past while, and while it hasn't been the greatest game in the world, it has allowed us to try some different race/class combos than the ones that we were used to.

I've been playing a Whisper Gnome Rogue/Assassin and now by Assassin level 3 I'm finding that a lot of their powers are A) kinda frontloaded and B) kinda hard to get off due to low DCs. The character (Feather) was killed and brough back by the Necromancer of the group as a "Skeletal" character. So now shes a Skeletal Whisper Gnome Rog5/Ass3 (Character Level 9 due to Skeletal).

There seems to be many ways to go after flipping through the various books here at work. Poison themed, gnome themed, undead themed. I don't have Libris Mortis myself but was wondering if there was anything obvious I should do to avoid getting turned by uppity clerics?

Any juicy things I should know about? It kinda sucked when I made my first incarnation of this character and found that the series of 3 feats I had taken was basically replicated by the Gnomish Quickrazor...

ZeroNumerous
2007-05-19, 05:10 PM
First: Pump Disguise. Cleric spot checks, surprisingly, suck. Disguise away. Get a hat of disguise even. Now get a ring of nondetection. It suddenly stopped mattering that you are undead. 'Cause no one will ever know.

For feats, I highly suggest Necromantic Presence and Necromantic Might. You are, after all, in your own presence. Thats a nice boost to your Turn Resistance(which shouldn't ever come up unless your DM enjoys throwing Clerics at you) and Attack/Damage rolls.

If you're looking for PrCs go into Lurking Terror. The first level gives you a good boost to your DCs from all your Ex and Su abilities. And the endcap gives you Hide in Plain Sight.

Greymarch
2007-05-21, 01:59 PM
I suppose I should mention what I've already go going on... I only have a Disguise of +8 at the moment, but that is somewhat defrayed by my Hat of Disguise and Hide of +25...

Magic item wise, I've got a kinda ecletic mix of what I've been able to buy and use Sleight of Hand (+18) to acquire. Namely the aforementioned Hat of Disguise, a Pearl of Power (2), Panic Button (Escape), Ring of Lockpicking, Ring of Vile Damage +1 and a Gnomish Quickrazor +2, Bloodfeeding.

Feat wise I've got: Exotic Weapon Prf (Quickrazor), Weapon Finesse, Quickdraw and Extra Silence (for Whisper Gnome silence). This level I was originally going to take Eldritch Attacker (reduce targets SR), but now I'm thinking about going the poison route.

With the new Poison Ambush Feat in the drow book, the virulence spell and crafting it myself, I can theoretically get poisons with up to +5 the DC of normal. Making it theoretically possible to effect Fighter types...

OR, the other way I'm thinking is going for my gnome heritage (even though the character is "Bone" now) and taking either the Underfoot or Gnome Tunneller Tactical Feats.

Fax Celestis
2007-05-21, 02:06 PM
I'd suggest staying in Assassin. Assassin spells are remarkably awesome, particlarly with the addition of the Spell Compendium.

Also, in addition to the feat you mentioned from DotU, there's also Poison Master and Poison Expert from Complete Scoundrel (and a whole host of exciting new poisons in Dungeonscape).

Person_Man
2007-05-21, 02:30 PM
Assassin is a pretty weak PrC for a variety of reasons. But if you're stuck in it and can't rebuild, I agree with Fax. Use the Spell Compendium to get access to the highly useful Assassin spells, and to keep your Death Attack DC up there.

Being Skeletal doesn't help this, and it also screws a lot of roleplaying (going into a town as a rotting corpse is sorta frowned upon by most societies). If there's a way for you to be resurrected into a normal Whisper Gnome, you should probably take it.

Poisons are very useful, but very expensive. If you have down time in your campaign, Craft (Poison) can help a lot.

Or you could just let your PC die, and create a new PC that has similar fluff, but isn't as mechanically weak. For example, if your goal is Skills + Kills, a Swordsage would be far better. A Rogue 3/Swash X with Daring Outlaw has full Sneak Attack and 19/20 BAB for Power Attack. A well done Justicar build can Hogtie pretty much anything. Then you're free to do whatever you want to your target(s).