PDA

View Full Version : [3.5][ToB] Sublime Assassin (PEACH)



Hawkflight
2011-09-26, 11:48 AM
TABLE 1-3: The Sublime Assassin (Hit Die: d8)
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Maneuvers Known|Maneuvers Readied|Stances Known|AC Bonus

1st|+0|
0|
2|
0|Sneak Attack +1d6, Weapon Finesse|
5|
4|
1|
+0

2nd|+1|
0|
3|
0|Trapfinding, AC Bonus|
6|
4|
2|
+0

3rd|+2|
1|
3|
1|Assassin's Blade|
7|
5|
2|
+0

4th|+3|
1|
4|
1|Sneak Attack +2d6, Acrobatics|
8|
5|
2|
+1

5th|+3|
1|
4|
1|Poison Use|
8|
6|
3|
+1

6th|+4|
2|
5|
2|Detect Magic|
9|
6|
3|
+1

7th|+5|
2|
5|
2|Sneak Attack +3d6|
10|
7|
3|
+1

8th|+6/+1|
2|
6|
2|Hide In Plain Sight|
11|
7|
3|
+2

9th|+6/+1|
3|
6|
3|Evasion|
11|
8|
4|
+2

10th|+7/+2|
3|
7|
3|Sneak Attack +4d6|
12|
8|
4|
+2

11th|+8/+3|
3|
7|
3|Improved Acrobatics|
13|
9|
4|
+2

12th|+9/+4|
4|
8|
4||
14|
9|
4|
+3

13th|+9/+4|
4|
8|
4|Sneak Attack +5d6|
14|
10|
5|
+3

14th|+10/+5|
4|
9|
4| |
15|
10|
5|
+3

15th|+11/+6/+1|
5|
9|
5||
16|
11|
5|
+3

16th|+12/+7/+2|
5|
10|
5|Sneak Attack +6d6|
17|
11|
5|
+4

17th|+12/+7/+2|
5|
10|
5|Improved Evasion|
17|
12|
6|
+4

18th|+13/+8/+3|
6|
11|
6||
18|
12|
6|
+4

19th|+14/+9/+4|
6|
11|
6|Sneak Attack +7d6|
19|
13|
6|
+4

20th|+15/+10/+5|
6|
12|
6|Stance Mastery|
20|
13|
6|
+5

[/table]
Class Skills (6 + Int modifier per level, x4 at 1st level): Autohypnosis (Wis), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disable Device (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Martial Lore (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Rope (Dex), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

MAKING A SUBLIME ASSASSIN
A sublime assassin is a striker who relies on stealth and guile, using his skills and precision damage to contribute offensively to an encounter. Defensively, his low hit dice and lack of heavy armor make him a relatively soft target, but are balanced with class features that raise his AC and help him avoid other debilitating effects. His large number of skills also make him among the most effective martial adepts out of combat. It is highly recommended to max out his known skill tricks.
Abilities: The most important ability score for a mercenary is his Dexterity as it provides both his defense and, in almost all cases, his attack and damage bonuses. His next priority is Charisma, which is vital to several of his class abilities, including his AC bonus. Constitution is necessary for him as it is for all characters, moreso given his low hit dice, and Intelligence is important as it grants him more skill points. Strength is necessary only if he chooses to use wield non-finessable weapons which do not benefit from Assassin's Blade and Weapon Finesse. Wisdom mainly serves only to improve his skills based on this scores and improve his Will save.
Alignment: Any. The most common alignment is Lawful Neutral, a mercenary who lives by their own code, unconcerned with the moral judgements of others, though the other eight possible alignments are also well-represented.
Starting Gold: As Rogue.
Starting Age: As Rogue.

CLASS FEATURES
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Sublime Assassin’s weapon training focuses on several exotic blade weapons, suitable for stealth and sneak attacks. Sublime Assassins are proficient with all simple weapons plus the hidden blade, jitte, katana, ninja-to, rapier, sai, and short sword. Sublime Assassins are proficient with light armor, but not with shields.
Maneuvers: You begin your career with knowledge of five martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to you are Black Lotus (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19526550/Base_Class_Sublime_Assassin__Black_Lotus_Disciplin e_PEACH_please), Circling Vulture, Life's Blood (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=183826#post10181128), Setting Sun, Shadow Hand, and Tiger Claw. Once you know a maneuver, you must ready it before you can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). A maneuver usable by a sublime assassin is considered an extraordinary ability unless otherwise noted in its description. Your maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance, and you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you initiate one. Upon reaching 4th level and every even-numbered mercenary level thereafter, you can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one you already know. You can choose a new maneuver of any level you like, as long as you observe your restriction on the highest-level maneuvers you know; you need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level.
Maneuvers Readied: You can ready four of your five maneuvers known at 1st level, and as you advance in level and learn more maneuvers, you are able to ready more, but you must still choose which maneuvers to ready. You may recover an expended maneuver as a move action which must be followed by a melee attack, a standard action to do nothing, or another move action to recover a maneuver. If you have total concealment or total cover from all enemies, you may instead recover three maneuvers as a full round action. You cannot initiate a maneuver or change your stance in the same round that you recover a maneuver, but any active stance you had remains active.
Stances Known: You begin play with knowledge of one 1st-level stance from any discipline open to you. At 2nd, 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level, you can choose additional stances. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended, and you do not have to ready them. All the stances you know are available to you at all times, and you can change the stance you are currently using as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description.
Sneak Attack: This is exactly like the rogue ability of the same name. The extra damage dealt increases by +1d6 every three levels (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, and so forth). If a sublime assassin gets a sneak attack bonus from another source the bonuses on damage stack.
Weapon Finesse: While brute strength is sometimes called for, a sublime assassin often prefers more subtle and precise means. An assassin gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat at first level, even if she does not meet the prerequisites.
Trapfinding: Beginning at 2nd level, assassins, like rogues, can use the Search skill to locate traps when the task has a Difficulty Class higher than 20 and use the Disable Device skill to disarm magic traps. An assassin who beats a trap’s DC by 10 or more with a Disable Device check can study a trap, figure out how it works, and bypass it (with his party) without disarming it.
AC Bonus: Starting at 2nd level, you can add your one-quarter of your sublime assassin level (rounded down) plus your Charisma modifier as a bonus to Armor Class, so long as you wear light armor, are unencumbered, and do not use a shield. This bonus to AC applies even against touch attacks or when you are flat-footed. However, you lose this bonus when you are immobilized or helpless.
Assassin's Blade (Ex): A sublime assassin adds her Charisma bonus to damage rolls made with finessable melee weapons as well as ranged and thrown weapons, up to a maximum of her initiator level. However, this is precision damage and so creatures immune to sneak attack or critical hits do not take this damage.
Acrobatics (Ex): At 4th level, you gain your Charisma bonus as a modifier on Balance, Climb, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Swim, and Tumble checks.
Poison Use: Assassins are trained in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying poison to a blade.
Detect Magic (Ex): Beginning at 6th level, a sublime assassin can use Detect Magic at will as a spell-like ability.
Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): An assassin can use the Hide skill even while being observed. As long as she is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, an assassin can hide herself from view in the open without anything to actually hide behind. She cannot, however, hide in her own shadow.
Evasion (Ex): At 9th level, you can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If you make a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals damage on a successful save, you instead take no damage. Evasion can be used only if you are wearing light armor or no armor. If you are helpless, you do not gain the benefit of evasion.
Improved Acrobatics (Ex): At 8th level, you gain twice your Charisma bonus as a modifier on Balance, Climb, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Swim, and Tumble checks. This ability does not stack with Skill Boost.
Improved Evasion (Ex): This ability works like evasion, except that while the assassin still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks henceforth she henceforth takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless assassin does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Stance Mastery (Ex): At 20th level, you can have two stances active simultaneously. When you use a swift action to initiate or change your stance, you can initiate or change one or both stances.

gkathellar
2011-09-26, 01:21 PM
Where do you want this to fall in terms of balance? Because as is, this is mostly just a more powerful swordsage. The only areas it really falls behind in are Will save and Maneuvers known — and even then, 20 is more than enough.

Hawkflight
2011-09-26, 01:48 PM
I was aiming for somewhere round tier 2 or tier 3.

gkathellar
2011-09-26, 02:06 PM
Well, you've nailed it — it's high Tier 3, probably better than any of the ToB classes. (It's not and cannot possibly be Tier 2, since martial adepts don't have explicit game-breaking potential.)

Hazzardevil
2011-09-26, 02:15 PM
Knock off sense magic, it's something that was swordsage only, even though it was terrible.

Hawkflight
2011-09-26, 02:19 PM
Knock off sense magic, it's something that was swordsage only, even though it was terrible.

Actually, a couple of other classes have it too. But actually, my bad, it was supposed to be Detect Magic, not Sense Magic.