Of Course I'm Not Assassinating You. Why Do You Ask? [PrC]

Dreaming Lotus Assassin

No one would be so foolish to believe that there is a secret society of assassins that has managed to escape all notice for hundreds of years, silently executing their targets without ever drawing any notice. Such a thing would be impossible. Even if the assassins had mastered powerful martial techniques and secret arts of stealth that would allow them to kill a man in plain sight without ever revealing themselves, surely they could not have vanished from all notice forever. And certainly, these assassins do not take up residence in taverns and ale houses, waiting to come across a suitable student and secretly initiate them into the society. Such would be nonsense.

Hit Dice
d8

Requirements
If one were to be recruited by the Dreaming Lotus Society, which certainly does not exist, they would have to meet all of the following criteria to become a Dreaming Lotus Assassin, although of course, there is no such thing.
Alignment: Any non-good
BAB: +7
Feats: Combat Expertise, Improved Feint
Skills: Hide 13 ranks, Bluff 6 ranks, Sleight of Hand 6 ranks
Martial Maneuvers: Must know at least one 5th-level maneuver of the Shadow Hand discipline.

Class Skills
The Dreaming Lotus Assassin’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Local) (Int), Listen (Wis), Martial Lore (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points per Level
6 + Int modifier.

{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Maneuvers[br]Known|Maneuvers[br]Readied|Stances[br]Known

1st|

+0

|

+0

|

+2

|

+2

|Memory of Long Knives, Joyous Bloodshed Stance|

1

|

0

|

0

2nd|

+1

|

+0

|

+3

|

+3

|Dream of Steel, Inneffable Presence Prana|

2

|

0

|

0

3rd|

+2

|

+1

|

+3

|

+3

|Stance of Forgotten Shadows|

2

|

1

|

0

4th|

+3

|

+1

|

+4

|

+4

|Art of Guaranteed Extermination|

3

|

1

|

0

5th|

+3

|

+1

|

+4

|

+4

|Heart-Rending Nightmare Strike|

4

|

2

|

1

[/table]

Class Features
All the following are class features of the Dreaming Lotus Assassin prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
You gain no additional weapon or armor proficiencies.

Maneuvers
At each level except 3rd, you gain one new maneuver known from the Diamond Mind, Oncoming Storm, or Shadow Hand disciplines. You must meet a maneuver’s prerequisites to learn it. You add your full Dreaming Lotus Assassin level to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and the highest level of maneuver you can learn. If you have levels in an initiator class that allows you to exchange out maneuvers at certain levels, your Dreaming Lotus Assassin levels stack with your levels in that class for determining when you may exchange maneuvers. At 3rd, you gain an additional maneuver readied each day.

Stances
At 5th level, you gain a new martial stance known from the Diamond Mind, Oncoming Storm, or Shadow Hand disciplines. You must meet a stance’s prerequisites to learn it.

Memory of Long Knives (Ex)
At 1st level, you can draw a weapon that you have concealed on your body using the Sleight of Hand skill as a free action.

Joyous Bloodshed Stance (Ex)
Even in the midst of battle, you seen as calm and nonchalant as a reveler in a tavern, severing limbs and gouging out eyes with a peaceful smile. While you are in a stance of the Diamond Mind, Oncoming Storm, or Shadow Hand disciplines, your calm and peaceful stance throws off your enemies. You gain a circumstance bonus on attack rolls against flatfooted or flanked creatures equal to half your class level, rounded up, and a circumstance bonus on damage rolls against flatfooted or flanked creatures equal to your initiator level.

Dream of Steel (Ex)
At 2nd level, you can use misdirection and subterfuge to prevent your foes from even noticing your attacks. Whenever you hit a flatfooted or flanked opponent in melee with a light weapon, you may choose to not have them notice that they have been hit until the next round. Instead, they believe that your attack missed.

Alternatively, you may make a Sleight of Hand check, opposed by that creature’s Spot check. If you succeed, then that creature does not notice your attack at all. However, if you fail, then it realizes it has been hit.

Ineffable Presence Prana (Su)
At 2nd level, a set of mysterious meditations and pranas has trained your mind to fully disbelieve in your own existence, allowing you to willfully negate your own self. You gain spell resistance 12 + your initiator level, although this only applies against divination spells or similar effects. In addition, you gain a bonus on saves against divinations and similar effects equal to your class level.

Stance of Forgotten Shadows (Su)
At 3rd level, you have mastered the art of ineffable presence to such a degree that you can remove your presence from the memory of others with the stance of forgotten shadows. While you are in a martial stance, you may, as a swift action, forgo its normal benefit to gain the effects of the Stance of Forgotten Shadows. You can also end the Stance of Forgotten Shadows and resume the normal benefit of the stance you were in as a swift action.

Any action you take while in the stance is forgotten by all who witnessed it five minutes after it actually happens, erased as by the modify memory spell. All creatures whose memories are erased are allowed a Will save, DC 10 + 1/2 your initiator level + your Wisdom modifier. If the succeed, they are able to remember the last round of action you took while in this stance. For every 1 they beat the DC by, they remember an additional round. This does not prevent them from actually seeing you as you perform the action, only from remembering it afterward. You may only use this stance for a number of rounds per day equal to 10 times your Wisdom modifier, divided up as you choose.

Art of Guaranteed Extermination (Ex)
At 4th level, your killing blows are devastating, almost impossible to heal. Magical healing does not automatically cause a creature that has been reduced to -1 or less hp by one of your attacks to stabilize. In addition, whenever a character tries to heal a creature reduced to -1 or less hp by one of your attacks with a spell, they must make a caster level check, DC 10 + your initiator level + your Wisdom modifier. If they fail, the healing cannot raise the target’s hp above 0.

Heart-Rending Nightmare Strike (Su)
At 5th level, you learn the most subtle of all assassination strikes, allowing you to make a killing blow that is not felt until you are long gone. Once per day, when you attack a flatfooted or flanked opponent, you may use the heart-rending nightmare strike. If the attack hits, the character hit must make a Fortitude save, DC 10 + 1/2 your initiator level + your Wisdom modifier. If they fail the save, the heart-rending nightmare strike succeeds, leaving a subtle, unfelt wound. Once it succeeds, you may determine the length of time before the strike is felt, from a minimum of one minute to a maximum of one week. At the end of that time period, the character struck must make another Fortitude save or be reduced to -1 hp, minus an additional amount of hp equal to your Wisdom modifier, to a minimum of -9. Even if they succeed, they take 1d6 damage per initiator level, maximum 20d6, though this cannot reduce the victim to less than -1 hp. If you choose to have the time before the strike is delivered be greater than a day, then you cannot use this ability again until the strike is felt by your victim.

Adaptation
The Dreaming Lotus Assassin can easily be changed to remove the reliance on martial maneuvers. To do so, remove the martial maneuver prerequisite from the class prerequisites, by add the requirement "Special: Must have sneak attack or sudden strike +5d6." The altered class does not grant any maneuvers or stances, and does not gain the Joyous Bloodshed Stance ability. At 1st, 3rd, or 5th level, the Dreaming Lotus Assassin gains +1d6 sneak attack or sudden strike damage.

Should they exist, they would be a fun NPC group indeed! It's too bad they don't... :smallwink:

I love the flavor, and the abilities are quite varied... I'm no judge on class balance though...

very nice. i am imagining a killer that has completed both this prc progression and the angel of death prc by blackleaf. would be fairly potent--to say the least.

nice stuff. very cinematic in a lot of aspects.

Now, if I were to bump this thread, I might mention that I have added an adaptation section to allow non-initiators to be Dreaming Lotus Assassins, if that prestige class existed. However, since this post clearly does not exist, I shall not.

Nicely camp. I'm tired of assassins always being brooding, tragic figures that spend their time on rooftops during darkly stormy nights. Obviously, I need to check out the Krimm PrC mentioned above, if it's more of the same.

Not quite as good as your Evil Overlord PrC, but then, what is?

Reasonable concept. Could use more fluff maybe.

Failing the Fort save can actually be deadlier for the capstone ability... you might want to do something about that...

Mmmm...this is quite pretty. Rare indeed is the very concept that would see me play a non-magus, but I'll be damned if this isn't it.

Wowzers, I really like this one. Mind if I steals it? :smallbiggrin:

That's pretty excellent, not least for the way a swordsage can pretty much fall in to it at a cost of two not-totally-worthless feats. Comes off as a bit Discworld-ish...

If such beings existed, which of course they do not, I'd think they'd have some variation (either as a spell-like or supernatural ability) of the Fairy Tale power.

If an edit function existed on this form, I might have added in two new abilities, Ineffable Presence Prana and Stance of Forgotten Shadows, that would give the Dreaming Lotus Assassin some sort of ability to modify memories, if it existed.

If there ever was an illustration of the Dreaming Lotus Assassin, which do not exist, I would be wondering where it went. Doubly so because if there were any nasty rumors about this non-existent assassin, I would very much like to know where she is.

Also, if the you had added two new abilities lately, I would really enjoy their flavor, as well as their mechanical effects. I would also question whether the stance that you may or may not have added allows some sort of save.

If there existed a PrC called "The Dreaming Lotus Assasin" then I would most definitely love it. I would also want to steal it and use it for its awesomeness. Sadly no such thing exists so that is beyond my grasp. However, were it to exist I might express some doubts as to the balance of stance of forgotten shadows. If such an ability theoretically existed a character could potentially do whatever they wanted without fear of retribution.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SilentNight

If there existed a PrC called "The Dreaming Lotus Assasin" then I would most definitely love it. I would also want to steal it and use it for its awesomeness. Sadly no such thing exists so that is beyond my grasp. However, were it to exist I might express some doubts as to the balance of stance of forgotten shadows. If such an ability theoretically existed a character could potentially do whatever they wanted without fear of retribution.

---

However, given that the theoretical ability does not come into effect for five minutes, giving anyone watching a chance to act, and that the amount of time he can use the stance, I believe it is balanced. That is, it would be, if it existed. I could be wrong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The Demented One

However, given that the theoretical ability does not come into effect for five minutes, giving anyone watching a chance to act, and that the amount of time he can use the stance, I believe it is balanced. That is, it would be, if it existed. I could be wrong.

---

Well if the ability were in theory to exist, thereby allowing you to make such a statement, I would be skeptical but possibly inclined to agree with you. However, if it existed I might allow a will save. However, since there is no conceiveable way it could possibly exist, it is a waste of time to even consider a course of action like that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SilentNight

Well if the ability were in theory to exist, thereby allowing you to make such a statement, I would be skeptical but possibly inclined to agree with you. However, if it existed I might allow a will save. However, since there is no conceiveable way it could possibly exist, it is a waste of time to even consider a course of action like that.

---

Perhaps a limited will save, allowing the recall of a certain number of rounds, might balance this ability, if it were to exist.

i would agree with the will save idea. it is very cool, and reminds me of the arcane ability from mage: the ascension, an ability that i made liberal use of when i played.