One Man War

[Glitchy]

A friend of mine wants me to run a solo game for him that emulates the feel of games like Styx Master of Shadows, and Shadows of Mordor, where he will play a stealthy character behind enemy lines working to disrupt the enemy army. We have decided to use D&D 3.5 for the system since it is the one we both know the best. However, I'm not sure how to emulate the quick, stealth kills that are so prominent in this type of game. I want the goal to be to avoid straight up fights and normal combat. Are there any established mechanics for something like this?

[Tiri]

Death Attack? The number of classes I can remember that have it are Assassin, Dark Hunter and Black Flame Zealot. All are pretty good, except maybe BFZ, but in that case you likely have Cleric casting so it isn't that bad.

[ATHATH]

A Psychic Rogue/Ebon Saint might be fun. It even gets a pseudo-Death Attack!

[Glitchy]

I should mention we are starting the game at 4th level and he is playing a good aligned character

[Elder_Basilisk]

Here are a couple ways to emulate those quick, stealthy kills:

1. the assassin's death attach ability
2. High initiative plus high damage output and being higher level than your victim
3. It's not necessarily a quick kill but it can be stealthy: high initiative plus improved grapple, charge your opponent and start a grapple in the surprise round, then win initiative, pin him, and cover his mouth to prevent raising the alarm in the normal round.

D&D can do this better than many people appreciate if you don't assume that you need to be able to do it against an equal CR foe at 20th level. If you are playing in E6, E8, regular D&D before level 10 or so, most mooks won't have that many hit points. So if you find a mook who is isolated, there's a good chance that you can kill him before he raises the alarm. (Spells like silence etc can also help to cover your approach or give you a little room for error). D&D won't generally let you get a stealth kill on Thulsa Doom or the emperor's elite guards, but if you find the same circumstances as you do in those games (isolated guard, successful stealth, etc), you can often do it on a random cultist or storm trooper. If the game concept wants you to be able to get your stealth kill on any foe, you may need to look into variants, house-rules, or other systems, but if stealth kills on mooks are good enough, then you can probably make D&D work.

If you want this kind of ability on a good aligned character, there are some options, but you might also consider backporting some pathfinder classes. Inquisitor, ninja, slayer, and possibly magus have combinations of abilities that would be appropriate for this kind of solo campaign but which are complex/challenging to get in D&D 3.5--especially at 4th level.

[J-H]

Take a look at a Shadow Hand swordsage.

[Inevitability]

Stonedeath Assassin has a pseudo-death attack that can petrify enemies.