Homebrew Death attack fix and weapons of assassination

[Kulture]

The DM of my current PBP, the ever-busy Spriggles (who is appreciated for taking time out of his schedule when doing exams to DM for us), helped extensively with the development of a Death attack system with a respectable DC.
Essentially it's Assassin level+int mod+n (n being the number of D6 for sneakattack)+X (X being number of dice from immediate poison damage.)
this brought my DC (after other mods, but before poison) to a very respectable 34ish. In an mainly humanoid campaign like Spriggles', that should prove effective.

Another matter I'd like to run past the forum-going public is the possible addition of a few exotic weapons of the trade to the assassin's list.
These are, From Dragon compendium:
The garrote ring and spring dart boots.

These two weapons strike me as tools of the trade as far as assassination goes, particularly the former.
The Former is incredibly difficult to use outside of subterfuge and the latter's only real use is poison application, which the assassin arguably excells at.
The poison ring from the same source (as used by Kubota) will serve well, but I'm a firm believer in the smore method (fluff and crunch that compliment one another), it's ballanced somewhat by the average assassin's lack of ability to grapple (reverting the garrotte to a stylised death attack weapon) and the spring dart boots take a full round action to even use.
These weapons are tame by normal standards (especially in comparison to, for instance, a keen rapier, the mainstay assassin weapon) but, as ever, I'm forever wooed by the flavour.

So, what say you, children of the playground?

[arguskos]

Garrotes are awesome. If you go with those, I'd keep some Str boosters on hand, to UMD/cast as you can. Enlarge Person and Bull's Strength should be sufficient against most humanoids during assassination work.

The Spring Dart Boots are pretty sneaky. I've been wanting to use them plus some of the Dragon Compendium poisons to cause some havok during social events. Sounds like a good time, no?

The Poison Ring is actually a great back up weapon. Put a good defensive poison in there, like chayapa or ghoul sweat, and break it out if your mark doesn't die from the death attack or whatnot.

As for your DC, it's assassin level+Int mod+sneak attack dice+poison dice? So, a Rog 5/Assassin 10 with an Int of 26 using Black Lotus would have a DC of 10+8+8+4=30? Is that right? Also, how are you getting a DC of 34 on average?

[Melamoto]

I would also recommend reducing the time needed to concentrate for Death Attack to 2 rounds, as that is one of the more major problems with the ability.

[Kulture]

Death attack looks okay as it is, but I'm just wondering if adding those two weapons to assassin proficiency would be okay, or if it would be overpowered?

Edit: shameless bump, since I'm eager for answers

[The Glyphstone]

Agreeing with above...the Save DC for Death Attack isn't the weak point of the ability. It's the fact that you have to not attack for 3 rounds before loosing it, which basically relegates it to an out-of-combat ability (the damage you could do with 4 rounds of Sneak Attack will almost certainly kill any target who would have failed their save, and without the chance they'll pass said save).

[Kulture]

Scarily, the only medium to try and rectify this was Neverwinter nights 2, which allowed assassins a chance to paralyse on a successful sneak attack.

The elimination of studying time (or atleast reduce it to a move action, or something) would make the ability viable, but would defunct several items and a spell.
It's a question of choosing which direction to take it in.
The ability to chain death attacks, or to apply it to more then one target with a single study period (or the removal of the 3 round time limit) could also make it more viable.

Or perhaps we need to look at the ability from a new, utility based angle.

Perhaps allowing characters new and inventive ways to death attack and for pete's sake don't just link me the death-pickle scene in OoTS, I've made a mission out of fixing DA, and I'll make it en-par with casting if it kills me.

[deuxhero]

I'd make it so you can preform other actions while studying the foes, so long as the foe remains in line of sight.

[Fax Celestis]

Agreeing with above...the Save DC for Death Attack isn't the weak point of the ability. It's the fact that you have to not attack for 3 rounds before loosing it, which basically relegates it to an out-of-combat ability (the damage you could do with 4 rounds of Sneak Attack will almost certainly kill any target who would have failed their save, and without the chance they'll pass said save).

Making it a scaling shortening (like what I did with the Red Eye feat chain here) may compensate.