Wizard Assassin tactics

[JW86]

Hi,

My previous character met an unfortunate demise, and now it's time to reroll.

My new character concept is a Wizard who specialises in theft and assassination. Whilst having all of the power of a Wizard and being able to generally contribute, he would only resort to overt use of power when forced or threatened to. His modus operandi would be to get whatever mission done he needs to, in the most efficient and least traceable way possible.

We play in 3.5 with allowance on all sources (Dragon Mag/anything cheesy to be run by the DM). I'll be playing a 3.5 Human with the Dark Template, probably going Rogue 1/Wizard 5/Unseen Seer 10. LA buyoff, and starting at Level 4.

I'm looking for the following advice and creative suggestions:

Advice on schools banned, specialisations, etc
Advice on feats
Tactics, strategies and spells conducive to espionage and assassination at various levels of gameplay (Starting at Level 4)


Aside from casting Invisiblity, and stacking Orbs with Sneak Attack, I'm a bit low on inspiration as to how best fulfill this concept, so I appreciate your suggestions! And yes, Scry-and-die at high levels is something the others in the group including DM are okay with.

Thanks in advance.

[Eldariel]

Note, you can go Rogue 1/Wizard 4/Unseen Seer just fine; only take Wizard 5 if you want Spontaneous Divination. Otherwise go with the extra skills.

Unseen Seer allows grabbing Divine Insight [Spell Compendium] for a random +Big Insight-bonus on skill checks. Makes it a wash to succeed in whatever you need to do. You could also learn Guidance of the Avatar, but that's better Wanded I find - you can then learn Hunter's Eye [PHBII] for a massive buff to your Sneak Attack dice and perhaps Choose Destiny as a 9th level spell if the game ever goes that far.

Far as schools banned, you can make do without Evocation and Necromancy generally - Conjuration has some of the better damage spells anyways for use with Sneak Attack (and you can always fire volleys with Telekinesis later). Necromancy loses you False Life, Magic Jar, Animate Dead and company but you can potentially survive without just fine. Evocation loses Wall of Force, Forcecage, Contingency and few others but you always have Shadow Evocation line to come close and Contingency is the only essential loss, which can be recouped in 4 levels. The third option is Enchantment, which has serious problems in the face of the "Protection from Alignment"/"Magic Circle against Alignment" spells and later Mind Blank, but for this kind of a character Charm and Dominate type effects not to mention stuff like Modify Memory, Mind Rape and company could pay off big.


Feats:
Practiced Spellcaster [Complete Arcane] - You lose one caster level to Rogue and 3 to Divination Spell Power. This gives you 4 caster levels back. Yeah, you want it.
Nymph's Kiss [Book of Exalted Deeds] - Bonus to Charisma-based skills and checks, and extra skill point per level. Really nice if you can afford it.
Keen Intellect [Dragon Magazine #318] - Derives almost all your Wis-based skills off Int. As this includes stuff like Spot and Sense Motive that are quite useful to you, this is rather natural given your amazing Int (also, a vast boost to your Will-saves, which never hurts).
Darkstalker [Lords of Madness] - If you're serious about sneaking, you need this to avoid all the special senses so many creatures have like Scent, Tremorsense, Blindsense, Blindsight.

Persistent Spell [Complete Arcane] - Once you get 7th level slots, being able to Persist all the Guided Shot/Sniper's Shot/Golem Strike/Hunter's Eye/etc. spells removes almost all limitations from Sneak Attack at once for the whole day. Alternatively, if you take levels in Spelldancer [Magic of Faerun] or Incantatrix [Player's Guide to Faerun] later, you can persist them off the 1st level slots much earlier. Either way, this is a huge improvement in the reliability of your spells.


Things to do:
- Obviously sneak. Yeah, stealth is very good and combined with magic it's even better. Sleight of Hand can be combined with Explosive Runes or Sepia Snake Sigil to hilarious effect. Slip stuff to enemies and when they go "WTF" and try to figure out what they are looking at, boom.
- Charm people. Diplomancy them. Bluff them. Use magic to improve your checks. This allows you to sell almost any story and make friends and fabricate your own truth. Use spells like Suggestion, Modify Memory, Detect Thoughts and company to added effect.
- Disable Device can disable more than just traps. You can rig caravans to collapse down the line, you can toy with gate opening mechanisms of castles, etc. Be creative. Add some Grease, Shrink Item and company to the mix as desired.
- Conjure some poisons with Minor Creation + Craft: Poisonmaking, shoot poisoned arrows at people or douse enemies in cans of poison or whatever, create traps, etc.
- Alter Self, Fly, Benign Transposition, etc. allow you to be basically anyone anywhere at any time. Make use of your masquerade skills and get a flying familiar to Benign Transposition with.
- Pick Abrupt Jaunt [PHBII] instead of a familiar and use the feat "Obtain Familiar" [Complete Arcane] to get it back. This gives you early immediate action teleports many times per day. Defensively great (teleport to a hiding spot, teleport to avoid line of charge, teleport to avoid spell areas, etc.) but it also gives you early action to swift action teleport to enter places through small holes, windows, etc. and to scale tall walls or such while not making a ruckus.
- Your familiar has all the skill ranks you do and you can affect it with your buffs through Share Spells. It can skill monkey just as well, it can assume different forms and at worst it can always successfully Aid Another you with whatever you're doing. Raven is nice since it can talk and down the line, Improved Familiar (e.g. Pseudodragon for the Telepathy, Imp or Quasit for the weekly Communes or such) is great. Note, they treat Alter Self as their type so normal familiar gets Magical Beast form while Outsiders get Outsider forms and Pseudodragon gets Dragon forms. All of which offer considerable alternatives.
- Shapeshifting magic gives you lots of natural attacks, buff yourself to make enemies flat-footed (Greater Invisibility, Blink or such) and you can sneak attack them physically quite well. If your Str is low (as is probable), this waits until Polymorph when you can magic yourself some decent Str scores. A 12-Headed Hydra form applying Sneak Attack to every head for instance and being able to both move and full attack... I needn't go on, I trust?
- Summons (Wand of Summon Monster I for instance) and Dispel Magic can overcome many traps where disabling them would be risky. Search careful, ascertain whether you can safely disarm and the function of the trap and if you can't, either bypass it or use magic to try and disarm it. Don't forget Divine Insight and Guidance of the Avatar.
- Stuff like Abrupt Jaunt and Blink allows slipping through walls fairly early. Polymorph too a bit later. Make use of this to get to places you shouldn't be able to get to.

[Jack_Simth]

Note that even a single level of Unseen Seer qualifies you for Arcane Trickster with that build. Unless you're sold on Guarded Mind, Advanced Learning, Divination Spell Power, or the skill points (or some combination thereof), I'd generally suggest using Unseen Seer as a Caster Progression saving stepping stone to Arcane Trickster rather than the target PrC.

[Eldariel]

Note that even a single level of Unseen Seer qualifies you for Arcane Trickster with that build. Unless you're sold on Guarded Mind, Advanced Learning, Divination Spell Power, or the skill points (or some combination thereof), I'd generally suggest using Unseen Seer as a Caster Progression saving stepping stone to Arcane Trickster rather than the target PrC.

I'd say Unseen Seer is the stronger of the two by a significant margin. All it loses over Arcane Trickster are 1d6 SA over 10 levels (and Divination Spell Power gives it back through Hunter's Eye anyways) and some cool but minor dailies and in exchange you get 2 + Hunter's Eye non-Wizard Divinations, Divination caster level buffs, 2 extra skill points per level and some minor stuff. Arcane Trickster is an elegant means to finish off the last 5 levels though.

[Doctor Despair]

Take the God Blooded of Vecna template to become immune to a lot of divination. If you aren't attached to having friends or family (or a party), reapply it every day to regularly remove all knowledge of you from the world for maximum effectiveness.

Consort with Xorvintaal dragons and coordinate your plans with theirs such that your future decisions and actions become unpredictable by any means.

[JW86]

Thank you for the useful replies, everybody, and for the mass of good suggestions Eldariel.

Rogue 1 / Wizard 4 (or 5, to grab a bonus feat)/ Unseen Seer 10 / Arcane Trickster X sounds good.

What source is the "God Blooded of Vecna" from?

[ATHATH]

Thank you for the useful replies, everybody, and for the mass of good suggestions Eldariel.

Rogue 1 / Wizard 4 (or 5, to grab a bonus feat the Spontaneous Divination ACF)/ Unseen Seer 10 / Arcane Trickster X sounds good.

What source is the "God Blooded of Vecna" from?
FTFY

IIRC, you don't even have to specialize in the Divination school to be able to take the Spontaneous Divination ACF. There's a handbook to it as well, IIRC.

And yes, I realize that I just used "IIRC" twice over the course of two sentences.

[flappeercraft]

There is an alternate curse for Bestow Curse in a dragon magazine, I don't remember which. What the curse does is make everyone except the caster forget that person, if someone gets to know that person after the curse, they forget the person every morning. That way you can assassinate anyone without repercussions and the person won't be resurrected as you can't resurrect a person you don't even remember.

[ExLibrisMortis]

The Weekly Optimization Showcase builds have lots of comments on the builds presented, so it's easy to grab just a few parts out of a whole build. Have a look at this one (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471334-Weekly-Optimization-Showcase-Wizsassin-(Tempest_Stormwind)) and this one (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?471560-Weekly(-)-Optimization-Showcase-Something-for-Everyone-(Tempest_Stormwind)). They're both SA-heavy spellcasters, though with different approaches.

[Doctor Despair]

What source is the "God Blooded of Vecna" from?

It's from the Monster Manual V

[noce]

Tactics, strategies and spells conducive to espionage and assassination at various levels of gameplay (Starting at Level 4)

When you will have 3rd level spells.

Let's say you have to kill a guy, and you know where it goes to sleep at night.
1. Cast Fly (and invisibility).
2. Go where he sleeps, outside.
3. Fly as high as your medium range spells allow you.
4. Remember that, when someone sleeps, he is considered willing.
5. Cast benign transposition on that guy.
6. He will suffer from 15 to 20d6 falling damage, depending on your level. No save, no SR.
7. You will be teleported in his home, in his bed, and still be invisible, because causing harm indirectly is not an attack and invisibility won't broke (you didn't attack).
8. Guards, if any, will go outside where they heard the guy fall from the sky, so you can pillage undisturbed in the house if you need, then fly away while still invisible.
9. If the guy was awake at the time of casting, and unwilling, benign transposition simply fails.

[JW86]

More fantastic suggestions, please keep them coming. I love the Benign Transposition assassination.


There is an alternate curse for Bestow Curse in a dragon magazine, I don't remember which. What the curse does is make everyone except the caster forget that person, if someone gets to know that person after the curse, they forget the person every morning. That way you can assassinate anyone without repercussions and the person won't be resurrected as you can't resurrect a person you don't even remember.

Does anybody know which Dragon Mag this can be found in? I'd love to use this. Playing with people's memories sounds like something I'd really enjoy.

EDIT: Found it, it is from Dragon Mag #348. http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=12840375&postcount=19 Here is a list of various uses for the Bestow Curse spell. I'll definitely be having fun with these.

[Zaq]

When you will have 3rd level spells.

Let's say you have to kill a guy, and you know where it goes to sleep at night.
1. Cast Fly (and invisibility).
2. Go where he sleeps, outside.
3. Fly as high as your medium range spells allow you.
4. Remember that, when someone sleeps, he is considered willing.
5. Cast benign transposition on that guy.
6. He will suffer from 15 to 20d6 falling damage, depending on your level. No save, no SR.
7. You will be teleported in his home, in his bed, and still be invisible, because causing harm indirectly is not an attack and invisibility won't broke (you didn't attack).
8. Guards, if any, will go outside where they heard the guy fall from the sky, so you can pillage undisturbed in the house if you need, then fly away while still invisible.
9. If the guy was awake at the time of casting, and unwilling, benign transposition simply fails.

If he sleeps indoors, it'll be nontrivial to get line of effect to him while you're at maximum Medium range above him. I don't feel like this plan is likely to be practical very often.

[noce]

If he sleeps indoors, it'll be nontrivial to get line of effect to him while you're at maximum Medium range above him. I don't feel like this plan is likely to be practical very often.

You do not need line of effect, but you must be able to see the target, so line of sight.
Well, there are many ways to do this, one of them being windows.