Making an Assassin without making an Assassin? (RP & Optimization)

[Oramac]

I'm not a fan of the Assassin archetype, but I like the idea of an "Assassin gone good" or something like that. I have an idea how I would do it, but I want to hear everyone else's thoughts. So I'm asking GITP: how would you make an assassin character without using the assassin archetype? Bonus points if it's a Dwarf.

[hymer]

I'm not a fan of the Assassin archetype, but I like the idea of an "Assassin gone good" or something like that. I have an idea how I would do it, but I want to hear everyone else's thoughts. So I'm asking GITP: how would you make an assassin character without using the assassin archetype? Bonus points if it's a Dwarf.

Religious schooling and training in slaying heretics could be one way. Part of the assassin's skills could be accounted for by being a hunter, sneaking in and shooting the prey with one arrow/bolt. The rest could be a smuggler's skills, and the two can go quite well together.

[JellyPooga]

Class: Rogue (Arcane Trickster)

Feats: Sharpshooter, Skulker

Expertise: Athletics, Perception, Insight +1 other

Spells Known: True Strike, Feather Fall

Modus Operandi: Climb building, shoot target, jump down, run away.

[Specter]

Forget weapons: Go Sorcerer with Subtle Spell.

A subtle sorc can Fireball an entire tavern just passing in front of it, all the while looking surprised at all the magic events. Or Dominate your enemy and make it jump out from a building. Or Phantasmal Force them into fighting an imaginary dragon and dying. Or Blight. Or Finger of Death. Or Power Word Kill without the word! So many opportunities.

[Mandragola]

Any class or race, with the criminal background and your own fluff. Those stats suggest making a character with a decent dex and cha score.

I thought about making a drow draconic sorceror with this background. The idea being he got thrown out of drow assassin school as his impure draconic heritage became apparent (or maybe he accidentally burned the place down) so he's trying to survive on the surface.

A bard or maybe a dex-based paladin could also be a good option. The first might work for someone who realised they didn't actually like the idea of murdering people for money - the second for someone who'd decided to turn things around and smite the hell out of his former paymasters.

[ES Curse]

-Done right, a Bard can be anything you want
-Longbow Fighter (Sniper?)
-Open Hand/Shadow/Long Death Monk
-Hunter Ranger (broaden your definition of "hunt")
-Bladesinger Wizard w/ Stealth skill

As for the full build... You want a dwarf right? Well, I'd imagine a Dwarven assassin might have a skill set best suited to operations in traditionally "dwarfy" domains, so perhaps a Dwarven Ranger specializing in the killing of Dwarves and Gnomes (replace at your needs) with Underdark as a favored terrain? You would likely want a STR build, as playing at range only highlights your worse speed and lack of a DEX bonus.

[MrStabby]

Shadowmonk - Death Cleric?

Get the ability to pass without trace and silence your killing. Death cleric for RP, utility and some quite nice spells?

[BW022]

I'm not a fan of the Assassin archetype, but I like the idea of an "Assassin gone good" or something like that. I have an idea how I would do it, but I want to hear everyone else's thoughts. So I'm asking GITP: how would you make an assassin character without using the assassin archetype? Bonus points if it's a Dwarf.

Sure. Dwarf... easy.

Dwarves have massive poison resistances and an historical crafting bend to them. They also have a lot of "stereotypes" which make them hide/disguise well. Fairly easy to work that into an assassin.

Nature cleric (taking poison spray as druid cantrip). Take the guild background and get poison makers, trapmaking, and/or herbalism kits. Heavy armor and weapons make "disguising" yourself as a fighter, paladin, etc. fairly easy. Poison the heck out of your weapons, put poison in drinks, etc.

Trickery cleric. Similar thing, but aim more into charisma and using stealth and/or disguise (via spells). Use trapmaking and ambushes.

Mountain dwarf wizard (illusionist). Start with a level of rogue or the criminal background, but dress in medium armor and carry some nasty looking axe or something, but use a short sword. Use your familiar for scouting and max out poison type spells (poison spray, ray of , stinking cloud, etc.) and illusions to aid in stealth and disguise.

Bard. Lots of skills and bards have a way of getting welcomed into places. Guild background for poison or trapmaking also works as does criminal. Lots of spells for disguise, invisibility, and such.

Ranger/rogue. Take a couple of levels of ranger and specialize in say a crossbow. You get humans as a favorite enemy, which helps in tracking plus archery style. Ask your DM if you can take "urban" as a terrain. Use athletics for climbing and maybe an urchin or criminal background. Hunter's mark and consider sniping from roof tops. Take additional levels in rogue and take arcane trickster. Lots of low-level spell choices. Darkness is your friend. Or go strength and use TWF and thrown weapons.

[Oramac]

Great ideas everyone! It never occurred to me to use a spellcaster as an assassin, though it would work quite well.

Lots of good ideas here. I'm going to have to think about how to best do this. Though I'm leaning towards the Bladesinger idea at the moment.

[Boci]

An assassin needs 3 things (okay, technically 2, but the third one is nice in general and mandatory for PCs)

1. A way to approach their target
2. A way to kill their target (high damage in a short amount of time
3. A way to escape

The second is rather easy, many classes can pull it off, especially since it only needs to be 1/long rest. For the other two however, you're either going to have to use skill or magic, so if you don't want magic, its hard to pass up expertise, which means rogue or bard (or a house rule that allows skill stacking from backgrounds and class or race to turn into expertise, only heard of it once though).

This is ofcourse assuming you want to be assassinating characters who level. In a system like D&D, if your targets don't (i.e. the DM runs the game so that even the kind adviser is still only a CR 0.5 human with 12 HP), then after a certain level any character can be an assassin.

[Tanarii]

Any class or race, with the criminal background and your own fluff. Those stats suggest making a character with a decent dex and cha score.I second this right here. In fact, Deception can work okay even if you start with a Cha 10 or 12. Just don't try to deceive any priests or mystics sitting on a pole ... they'll see right through you. :smallwink:

The only class that may be a little tricky is Paladin. Or not, depending on how your DM interprets the Oath of Vengeance. In some ways, it's almost perfect for a bunch of LE Hashish-smoking desert-fortress-living religious cultists.

[Talionis]

Warlock could be a good way to build it. Disguise Self and later Alter Self at will will allow you to get close to targets. They have at will Silent Image spell which also can help a lot. Take the Chuthulu Pact to allow you the Thrall ability. Take the Actor Feat to mimic voices. Charm plus looking like someone else should easily allow you to get someone into dangerous situation like high up in a tower and then push them off the tower with your repelling blast. When they fall to their death it will look like an accident.

[RickAllison]

Druid is one of my favorite classes for this. Pass Without Trace for massive Stealth, various animal forms to infiltrate without suspicion and exfiltrate, and various spells for... creative disposal methods. Crack a target's skull open with a hammer and Conjure or otherwise obtain some hogs, they will eat everything including the bones. Only the most powerful of reviving magic works when the target's remains have already been digested. Crabs can work too, but they are less reliable since they don't do a good job of clearing out the bones.

Dip that with Monk as a base for some very potent magic. Shadow Monks can be a teleporting chipmunk with just a 1-level dip, and either interpretation of how Martial Arts scale with size are good for an assassin. If the martial arts die is constant (so it is 1dX no matter the size of the attacker), you can deliver just as brutal an assault as an innocuous spider or an insect as you do when in your regular form. If it does scale with size, go big!

EDIT: Druid 2/Shadow Monk X/Rogue 2. Awesome Druid base, Shadow Monk 6 to get Extra Attack and teleportation, Rogue 2 for Cunning Action and Stealth Expertise (bonus action Hide with Expertise and PWT effectively means you can kill someone from inside their pants with the ruling that Martial Arts doesn't change with size), then continue with Shadow Monk for more ki. Takes a while to reach its full danger, but it is fairly viable every step of the way.