Assassin
From HGWiki
- Assassin information on NWNWiki.
Assassins hone their weapons and fighting skills to such a degree that all but the toughest monsters fall to their Mortal Strikes.
Contents |
HG customization
Languages
- Assassins can speak Assassin's Cant. To speak it, use the command /l assassin [message] to speak a single line in Assassin's Cant, or !speak assassin to speak it until you !speak another language or opt to !speak common.
- While they add flavour and are probably useful for RolePlaying, languages are currently not used in the game, except for the occasional monster shouting a battlecry.
Feat conversion
- Characters with at least 14 levels of Assassin may exchange Epic Reflexes feats for Epic Great Strength feats, by using the PC Scry. A character who converts feats in this manner can no longer delevel using the town priest.
- Upon reaching character level 42 (in legendary levels), the swap is no longer available.
- HGenhanced adds the Epic Great Strength feats to the assassin epic bonus feat list. This means you do not need to any feat conversions, if you have HGenhanced installed.
Honed weapons
- At Assassin 20, an Assassin with a base Strength or Dexterity of 30 can acquire a scabbard that lets them hone weapons. They can hone more than one weapon at a time, but Mortal Strike only works for onhand weapons. You cannot hone weapons in combat.
- Whenever a honed weapon hits, it rolls again, and if THAT roll is a hit, and is in the critical threat range, the target must roll a fortitude save vs. half the Assassin's DEX or STR modifier (whichever is higher) + a base DC.
- Only melee weapons may be honed, but an Assassin with at least 10 Monk levels may hone their gloves. Honed gloves receive a +2 to critical range.
- Penetrating strike: For characters with between 20 and 27 Assassin levels, honed weapons deliver penetrating strikes, inflicting added damage. The base strike damage added is equal to the Assassin's level, plus legendary levels if the characters control class is Assassin, plus the character's Strength modifier. Critical immune creatures hit by a penetrating strike suffer no damage if they save vs fortitude, and one quarter of the base damage if they fail. Non-critical immunes suffer one quarter of the base damage if they save vs fortitude, and one half the base damage if they fail.
- Mortal Strike: For characters with 28 or more Assassin levels, honed weapons deliver mortal strikes, inflicting added damage and potentially killing the target instantly. Targets immune to critical hits now suffer full base damage if they fail their fortitude save. Targets not immune to critical hits suffer the full base damage if they make their save, and are instantly killed if they fail.
- Example 1: an assassin with 95 AB and a threat range of 11-20 hits a target with 100 AC. Since the assassin needs only 5 or higher in order to hit, the penetrating/mortal strike chances on a successful hit are limited by the critical threat range. The second roll will need 11 or higher.
- Example 2: an assassin with 85 AB and a threat range of 11-20 hits a target with 100 AC. Since the assassin needs only 15 or higher in order to hit, the penetrating/mortal strike chances on a successful hit are limited by the assassin's AB. The second roll will need 15 or higher.
- The base DC starts at 35 and increases by 1 for every 3 Assassin levels above 29 (including legendary levels), as follows:
| Assassin Level (including LLs) | Base DC |
|---|---|
| 30 | 35 |
| 31 | 35 |
| 32 | 36 |
| 33 | 36 |
| 34 | 36 |
| 35 | 37 |
| 36 | 37 |
| 37 | 37 |
| 38 | 38 |
| 39 | 38 |
| 40 | 38 |
| 41 | 39 |
| 42 | 39 |
| 43 | 39 |
| 44 | 40 |
| 45 | 40 |
| 46 | 40 |
| 47 | 41 |
| 48 | 41 |
| 49 | 41 |
| 50 | 42 |
Spells On Higher Ground, assassins are able to cast a variety of arcane spells. Although the spells are considered arcane, assassins do not suffer from spellfailure while wearing armor or a shield. To be able to cast a spell, the assassin need to have at least 10 + [spell level] base intelligence and have the spell prepared in advance. A complete list can be found on the wiki or on the forums. Assassins can change their memorized spells using the !sb change as command.
Types of Assassins
Since Mortal Strike requires either a high strength or a high dexterity in order to maximize effectiveness, there are only two types of Assassins:
- Dexterity assassins have high AC and easily maximize their Camouflage (Improved Invisibility) concealment. These high defenses are countered by the low damage output. Many also feature rogue skills such as open locks and search.
- examples: Minja (Blackguard)
- Strength assassins typically wear full plate and a tower shield. Using Iron Silence, they can still get decent Camouflage concealment. 15d6 death attack combined with a high strength modifier and usually Devastating Critical means they are quite capable damage dealers.
- examples: Dangerously Demented Decapitator
Monk assassins are a possibility, but they aren't popular (and that's an understatement). This is because the base threat range for fists is the lowest possible. Only pure monks receive keen gloves, so even with the +2 threat range from honing, you can only reach 16-20 threat range (with both improved and devastating critical). The additional attack you get while fighting unarmored and unarmed does not make up for the loss in threat range.
Play Guide
While perfectly capable of tanking or dealing damage, the assassin's primary goal is to take out the weaker monsters that are not immune to Mortal Strike as quickly as possible. Focus on the monsters that are vulnerable to your mortal strikes first, then move on to the bigger baddies.
- Don't forget to prepare spells!
- Caustic weapon is the only weapon buff that adds acid damage. If you have enough slots, buff your teammates and monsters like Malebranches and Screelings will go down quicker.
- Clairaudience/Clairvoyance will not last very long, but if you have the slots to recast often, this spell can alleviate the need to get listen from gear.
- Expeditious Retreat will make you faster on the battlefield, decreasing the time it takes to reach and kill you next target.
- False Life is a great way to temporarily increase your hitpoints, providing an extra buffer of hitpoints for the monsters to chew at.
- Ghostly Visage is a great get-away spell if you have spell focuses in illusion.
- Improved Invisibility will be your best defensive spell. It casts a special version of Camouflage when cast on yourself, providing (25 + [hide skill]/3) % concealment.
- Iron Silence is most useful for strength assassins, as it allows them to negate their armor class penalties from armor and shield for hide, which in turn means higher Camouflage concealment.
- True Strike can be used to quickly maximize attack bonus, should other buffs (bard song, greater magic weapon) suddenly fail or expire. Being a swift action means you can cast this without having to interrupt your fighting.
- Foebane is nice for when you need to kill a monster that is immune to critical hits but not to death magic.
- Offensive spells are only marginally useful, if you choose to invest feats in spell penetration. DCs are intelligence based, but since assassins cannot focus on both dexterity/strength and intelligence, these will not be spectacular.
- If you have UMD, get some scroll stacks and wands:
- Greater Sanctuary: GS scrolls are always nice to carry around for those moments you would rather not be targeted by monsters. Sometimes needed for a party that needs to regroup.
- Mind Blank: while mind immune from items usually does the job, sometimes, a scripted immunity, such as that from mind blank, is needed to avoid effects.
- Black Blade of Disaster: always nice to have an additional meat shield to keep monsters busy. Sometimes good to use in combination with GS.
Building an Assassin
Since Mortal Strike is what defines an assassin, the highest priority is increasing the DC:
- start with 18 Str/Dex. 20 for Half-Orcs (Str), Elves (Dex) and Halflings (Dex)
- pick a subrace with high bonus to your chosen ability score: Salamander, Half-Fiend, etc.
- take all Great Str/Dex feats.
- put all regular leveling increases in the relevant stat.
- get other bonuses: XDD levels, STR or DEX artifact, (double)demigodhood.
- pick the maximum possible assassin levels, go pure.
- wear an item that gives a bonus to the DC. Note that such items are EXTREMELY rare.
With a high DC almost automatically comes high AB, but you will want this (near to) maximized:
- get all AB increasing feats: weapon focus, greater weapon focus, epic weapon focus, legendary weapon focus, epic prowess.
- put rank in craft weapon.
- pick weapon finesse if you are dexterity based.
Once your AB is high enough, critical threat range will be the limiting factor for your effectiveness:
- pick the right weapon: Assassin Dagger, Kukri, Whip, Rapier, Katana, Light-Flail*, Scimitar*, Halberd*, Falchion* are all good choices. (* for strength assassins only. Large characters may still finesse Light-Flails or Scimitars.)
- fists are hardly ever chosen because of their low base threat range, even though it is possible to use them if you have at least 10 monk levels.
- get Ki Critical (does not work for assassin dagger).
- get Overwhelming Critical (does not stack with Ki Critical). Strength assassins will find it easy to get this, but dexterity based assassins will have to get this from items (Stygian Razor, Augments of Devastating Weapon-work).
- get Improved Critical. Easy to get as a feat in pre-epic levels, it is best not to depend on an [Augmenters#Rare_Augmenters|Augment of Precision Weapon-work].
- since an actual critical hit is not required, Power Critical and Superior Critical will not increase your Mortal Strike effectiveness.
Another limited factor will be concealment:
- maximize your listen skill.
- pick up Epic Skill Focus: Listen or wear an item such as the Visor of Vigilance or a Sonar Amplifier.
- get Legendary Skill Focus: Listen, if you think you cannot reach the +50 cap with bardsong and items.
Get as many attacks as possible:
- although you can only perform a single Mortal Strike per round, having lots of attacks means the chances of hitting your target are increased, resulting in a better chance to actually get a Mortal Strike.
- you need at least 16 BAB in order to get 4 base attacks. 10 levels of assassin gets you 7 BAB, so you will need at least 9 more from the other 10 pre-epic levels. 6 levels in a 1/1 BAB class and 4 in a 3/4 BAB class or 8 / 2 will get you just that.
Also make sure you have at least 14 base intelligence so you can cast all possible assassin spells.
- get some spellfocuses in illusion so you can cast Ghostly Visage for a quick escape.
- some items may add 5th level spell slots. You will need 15 base intelligence and a meta-magic feat (such as extend spell or silent spell) in order to put them to use.
A dead character does nothing, so make sure your defenses are in order:
- maximize Hide, Discipline (pick up Bullheaded and LSA: Discipline), Tumble, Craft Armor, fit in some Concentration.
- increase your saving throws.
Increase your damage output:
- devastating Critical may seem very nice, but since most monsters that are vulnerable to critical hits should die because of Mortal Strike, this is not as useful for an assassin as for other characters.
Useful, but not necessary, skills are:
- Use Magic Device is great for assisting in the casting of scrolls or use restricted items.
- Bluff, when successful, means there's one additional monster you get to attack with flanking bonuses: +2 AB and +15d6 death attack damage. Bluffing also reduces the monster's AB, which may be nice if there's a lot of squishies in the party.
- Craft and Set Trap are currently not favored as skill choices, mostly because parties are impatient. If you have both maximized, traps can actually be quite useful.
- Search and Spot can get you secret stuff. If you do decide to get these skills, maximize them (use skill focuses if you need to).
- Open Lock and Disarm Trap in combination with Search allow you to get to the best loot in the game through the opening of loot chests. All need to be maximized if you decide you want these skills.
- Pick Pocket can be handy for quickly depleting the healing potion stack of some monsters, but it's probably not the best skill choice to make.
You can find assassin builds on the wiki or in the Assassin forum section.
