Need some suggestions...

[Dark Dork]

I'm a DM running a high-level campaign (lvl 15+) with 4 PCs:

A Celestial Cleric
A Barbarian Minotaur
A Human Wizard
A Human Assassin/rogue (a True Neutral one btw, I hate alinement restrictions)

Its the assassin i'm having trouble with.

He seems a little underpowered despite having the same level as the rest of the group.

Although he's probably the most creative and informed player in the group, he's kind of had to pick up the slack for the rest of them to fill the four basic areas of an adventuring group: fighter, divine spellcaster, arcane spellcaster, expert.

He's gone the "climbing rooftops under the cover of darkness" route as opposed to the "door maintainance guy" in terms of his rogue abilities so its not all bad for him but in combat he feels left out because the battle is usually resolved faster than the time it takes for him to get to a vantage point and charge up his death attack. Coupled with the fact that the campaign is mostly based around fighting outsiders, most of whom have large damage reduction and are immune to critical hits.

There are two obvious solutions:

-Drop the whole outsider thing and use humanoids as the main enemy,

-Remove from the campaign all instances where a rogue is required, allowing him to modify his character to something he prefers.

But both of these involve interfering with the plot and continuity: "Let's say you were never an assassin, but a paladin all the way through instead."

I was thinking one you geniuses (or is it genii?) would be able to point me in the direction of a particular prestige class or set of rules that could make him useful in combat but keep the general essence of his character intact, (i.e. A grim, sneaky, [but not lawful evil] assassin)

Thank you for your time.:smallredface:

[Machete]

Well, you can always throw magic items at it.

Chime of Opening(if doors are really such a big problem) and the "Quickness" armor enhancement - Races of the Wild page 168.

Crossbow, Grapple-Firing - Song and Silence pages 51 + 52


All that should help him with moving into position.


Try throwing in some outsiders who are body snatchers(by being in a certain part of the host body and making them vulnerable when "riding" riding in a body(no longer immune to critical hits), give them some high hp bodies to snatch.

[Dark Dork]

I don't have those books but i see what you're getting at.

That body snatching idea might just work...
<grins sinisterly, drums fingers together>

Thanks!

[Roderick_BR]

Well, Assassin is the kind of class that works better for NPCs, since they tend to work alone.
He could have picked up some class like ninja or something, with more combat options. Try to find books like "Sword and Fist" and "Song and Silence". It has good options for more combatant types, and for rogue variants.

Btw, alignment restrictions are what gives the characters flavors, or we'll have monks that never stop to meditate, paladins that butcher innocents, and assassins that "deep down are good guys", despite giving one-hit kills, and poisoning people :smalltongue:

[Fax Celestis]

Sword and Fist and Song and Silence are 3.0 books. Try Complete Adventurer/Arcane/Divine/Warrior/Mage/Scoundrel instead.

[Roderick_BR]

I keep forgetting that. I'll have to check the shops for the newest books.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

a simple solution to that is there. I've played that character as an NPC. Basically all he ahs to do is cast invisibility on himself, stand back somewhere with a cross bow and shoot at them. Now his normal damage won't be much at all, but his sneak attack damage should be substancial. I suggest not to just start throwing magic items at characters as machete suggests. That is one of the easiest ways for things to get out of hand and broken...at low levels. It's even worse at the level your party is at.

[Dark Dork]

a simple solution to that is there. I've played that character as an NPC.

That's an excellent idea! Exactly as Roderick says, the assassin spent at least half an hour last session sneaking around the sewers while the rest of the party were stuck baby-sitting an untrustworthy alchemist NPC.

It would be best if they merely hired an assassin out as a cohort or a contact as and when they needed him so that the PC can partake in a much more fruitfful role in the group.

Thanks for all your help, everyone! :smallsmile:

[Last_resort_33]

Although he's probably the most creative and informed player in the group,
Awww you like me:smallbiggrin:

I LIKE my character, a lot, but I do see what you mean... it's either me or them....


And the character is basically an alright person... she only slits people's throats if she thinks that they deserve it... and of course if she has been told to by her superiors, unless of course she disagees with them. She is often a little chaotic, but will only kill for the greater good and is about, in general about as Neutral aligned as you can get.... Paladins get to kill people... I just do it without being found out!

Seriously though, I'm only underpowered in group combat... as long as I use my brains then I am as powerful as they are... I can do it better, they just do it quicker and don't think about it so hard.:smallwink:

[Em]

His character is so NOT an "alright person"... Mine's pushing it with CG, but his with TN? "Hello, you're not my friend - death attack."

The alignment restriction for assassins is silly, though - fighters! Trained to kill! Just because assassins are more clever about it and more stylish... (I'm sure this debate has been had somewhere). :smallsmile:

DD, I'd suggest not posting any awfully secretive secrets on these boards, for obvious reasons...
(He has a big DM folder, on which is written KEEP OUT THAT MEANS YOU EMILY :smallfrown:)

[Dark Dork]

I don't mind the resitrictions on the Paladin, Barbarian etc. It is specifically the restriction on Assassins that I don't understand (contrary to what I said eariler.)

But I digress.

LR33, would it be alright with you to demote your character to a cohort and instead roll up a more preferable character?


DD, I'd suggest not posting any awfully secretive secrets on these boards, for obvious reasons...

Duly noted.