Assassin guy

[Melcar]

Hello scribes…

I’m am in the business of creating an assassin, who works for a king much like CIA Special Operations Group (Jason Bourne) type thing. I need someone who can hold his own deep in enemy territory, in both non-permissive and denied territory, and who can hold his own in a straight fight.

I’m looking for a build that enables the possibility of handling assassinations of more than just humans. Preferably in more ways than just coup de grass’ing the sleeping target. I need someone who can get in to a highly protected bedchamber and who can secretly kill at high society social event.

The assassin needs to be human, level 20 and no, to very little, spellcasting/psionics. All official content is allowed. As this is an NPC, it will follow the standard rules for WBL for a level 20. Since this is someone who works for a good aligned Kingdom, the assassin needs to be of good or neutral alignment. So no evil dudes. Lastly the character must fit the concept of an assassin/ secret agent kind of guy, so please, no invisible pounce barbarians or super long range snipers (event though I understand they are very effective and sniping is an assassination method).

Level of optimization is practical optimizations, so no infinite loops or massive abuse of anything. I understand that practical optimization differs from table to table, but this is supposed to be a playable character (although still an NPC). The game edition is D&D 3.5.

I would appreciate any suggestions on classes, feats, items etc. Feel free to comment in any way.

[A.A.King]

Is the Tome of Battle okay? You said no to magic and Psionics which very quickly moves you towards Tome of Battle for some Assassin necessities (like Teleportation and Invisibility). Also, how much magic would you say is little? I mean the class that is named after the concept you want (the Assassin) gets up to 4th level spells. And finally: How item dependant do you want this Assassin character to be. You said to give him full WBL of a 20th level character, so it okay if the Assassin can only really do his work if he certain items with him?

[Melcar]

Is the Tome of Battle okay? You said no to magic and Psionics which very quickly moves you towards Tome of Battle for some Assassin necessities (like Teleportation and Invisibility). Also, how much magic would you say is little? I mean the class that is named after the concept you want (the Assassin) gets up to 4th level spells. And finally: How item dependant do you want this Assassin character to be. You said to give him full WBL of a 20th level character, so it okay if the Assassin can only really do his work if he certain items with him?

Yes tome of battle is ok. It’s not my favourite, but this post, was to see and hear your suggestions, not just a repeat of my own ideas so far. So please bring forth your ideas including ToB.

I would say, that up to level 4 is little, However I do not want the character or his/hers abilities to be dependent on spells. The “assassin” must be able to do his job equally well inside a dead-magic zone or without using spells at all. So the few spells or spell-like abilities should be purely a bonus and not a dependent tool for the ability to kill the target.

Again, with the items, they should be a facilitator and enabler of his innate skill/educations of how to successfully kill a target. It’s a given, that with out a weapon to slit a throat it might be difficult to function, but his ability to get close to the target should preferably lie in his class abilities, feats and skills, and not in a ring of invisibility or a scroll of shapechange.

[Emperor Tippy]

Invisible Fist Decisive Strike Martial Monk 2/ Factotum 8/ Ninja 8/ Swordsage 2.

For feats you want Darkstalker and all of the Font of Inspiration that you can fit in.

Factotum 8 gets you Cunning Surge for extra standard actions, and you really want this. Decisive Strike can be used in conjunction with Cunning Surge to double the damage of all of your attacks for the round.

Ninja in in the build solely for Ghost Strike because that lets you strike a target on the Material Plane while you are on the Ethereal Plane, and is about the only way to do that. This lets you bypass all kinds of defenses and methods of detection. For example, you can go to the Ethereal Plane and then Teleport to right next to where your target is without regard for any anti-teleport measures that are in place (such as a Weirdstone) and then strike the target.

[Melcar]

Thanks for all the may great responces. Please keep them coming!

[Kelb_Panthera]

Since this is someone who works for a good aligned Kingdom, the assassin needs to be of good or neutral alignment.

This restriction strikes me as... odd.

Governing bodies that expect to survive in the long-term -must- understand that unsavory doings are sometimes necessary and that it's difficult to find people willing to do those things that are not also, themselves, unsavory.

Even ignoring that, an assassin worthy of the title knows that it is of utmost importance that he avoid magical scans of all kinds, including alignment scans.

Are you -sure- that restriction is necessary?

[Twurps]

I don't have a complete build, but things to consider:

Vecna blooded (+1 La template, MM5) for immunity to divination. (And some other cool stuff I never seem to remember, but I think it includes something that makes people forget all about you.)
Telflammar Shadowlord (PrC, UE): prereq's are brutal, but has some nice 'cloak and dagger' abilities such as shadow walk and shadow jump. At level 6 you get a death attack like the assassin.

seconding both the 2 level dip in monk (for decisive strike and invisible fist ACF's) and the 2 level dip in swordsage. (for shadow hand maneuvers such as shadow jaunt and cloak of deception and the save replacing maneuvers)

[Melcar]

This restriction strikes me as... odd.

Governing bodies that expect to survive in the long-term -must- understand that unsavory doings are sometimes necessary and that it's difficult to find people willing to do those things that are not also, themselves, unsavory.

Even ignoring that, an assassin worthy of the title knows that it is of utmost importance that he avoid magical scans of all kinds, including alignment scans.

Are you -sure- that restriction is necessary?

I indeed see your point, but the "problem" is that the assassin is actually a follower of a lawful good paladin. However our DM has tweaked the rules so that instead of haven 100k+ followers, the King has higher level ones to mirror our epic level game. So unless a Lawful Good Paladin of Lathander would attract an evil followers... What I'm saying is that the assassin has to be a follower... :smallsmile:

The reason why I'm doing the designing is that I play/control the highest ranking officer (Chief of Defense), as an NPC. Therefore I have the responsibility of making sure his military has the needed units. I am currently outfitting a Special Operations Command, which conducts several covert and clandestine missions, such as direct action, special reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, foreign internal defense, unconventional warfare, psychological warfare, civil affairs, and counter-narcotics operations as well as Human Intelligence operations.

So when foreign intelligence service identifies a high value target, the assassins go take it out.

[barakaka]

Seconding Factotum. Take all your feats in Font of Inspiration. Late game you have boatloads of standard or move actions, every combat. Also, Factotum has All skills. That means Iaijutsu Focus. It's like sneak attack, but based on your rank in that skill, which is easy to optimize to adequate levels. It also functions against things that precision damage doesn't, like constructs... and doors. Heck, multiclass and combine it with sneak attack or sudden strike. You act faster than most others even register the situation. You kill people before they respond with your immense skill. Factotum.

Also Jungle Veteran is a sick feat. It's in one of the Eberron books and lets you spend action points to act in a surprise round.

Hop into the Sneak Attack variant Fighter class and pick up the Craven feat for stupid high damage along with Iaijutsu Focus.

Getting into Ninja is acceptable, although Rokugan Ninja would probably be a better way to get poison use.

You need Hide in Plain Sight as well as Darkstalker feats.