I'm going to hafta give this one a try. Looks pretty fun, drops the "Evil" requirement of the standard assassin class, drops the poisons, picks up a lot of "Ninja" talents.

This product is 9 pages long.

d8, 6 skills, medium BaB, weapons and armor like a rogue.

Class abilities mostly deal with using and mastering shadows. They also get a few talents similar to rogues and a choice of fighting styles. With Daggers, bolas and shuriken they add a bonus to hit/dmg as they level (up to a +4), also deadly focus add wis mod to hit/dmg(if the assassin kills them they can reuse the power after a 15 min break, otherwise they can not use it till the next day), they can learn to by pass DR. Those are a few example abilities they get.

Closing thoughts, If you want a assassin with a mystic/supernatural bent with shadow powers then this is a very interesting class. All and all i liked the class but felt it makes a more interesting challenging NPC class than PC class. I am revisiting some of my older reviews and fix my rating system to match. With that said I am giving this a 3.5 star review.

At first glance, you can see the work that went into this PDF - it's clean, easily understood, good-looking, well-edited, and the illustrations of the "iconic" shadow assassin are eye-pleasing and evocative.

As for the mechanics - I made a 5th level elven shadow assassin, and played him in two sessions of the CotCT campaign I'm in.

I had a lot of fun making the character - so many of the class features are pick and choose, similar to the rogue's talents. You can easily customize the feel of the class via ability selection. There are some abilities that all shadow assassins get that focus on 1-on-1 fights, and the pick-and-choose abilities are based around things like mobility, stealth, minor spells, or combat.

I decided to give my PC an ability that kept him always armed, as well as one that helped him hinder spellcasters. My idea was that he'd be a scout and a support combatant. It worked out fairly well. In a fight with a "boss" spellcaster, I was able to provide consistent damage and spell disruption, and good mobility meant I could pursue the BBEG and chase him into a corner. In that kind of fight, I was right up with the tanks in combat contribution.

In non-combat encounters, I was still able to participate. I didn't have rogue trap skills or ranger tracking skills, but decent skill points and shadow-related bonuses let me do some good scouting.

The class does have a 1-on-1 combat focus, but it lacks an "instant kill" kind of ability (no death attack or sneak attack) which may disappoint some folks. It's also very dependent on context - if your GM isn't willing to provide opportunities for your PC to shine, you won't be as effective. Basically, this means including areas of darkness/shadow and at least one solo or boss enemy to fight - not that tall an order for a typical adventure.

tl;dr - A very versatile stealth-based class. An excellent supporting class. I will be playing this one again.

This is a deadly class. If I had given my "lone warrior" some help it could have been tragic. It is made for one on one fighting, and its abilities mix well with other classes if you do decide to multiclass.

I am not feeling the class as much for the purpose of being a PC because I feel like I have to multiclass to get the most out of it. It is a good fifth character however.

With that said, the abilities fit really well with its description, and the abilities don't just seem to be tacked like on, which is always a plus. I am glad I found this class. If Otherworld Creations keeps making quality material like this I will be a definite customer. I would keep writing, but my nose might turn brown.

In the grand scheme of things, I didn't quite like this one as much as the Dragonrider, even though they get the same star rating.

That having been said, I really like these guys. Pretty interesting take on the assassin, and I like how the Deadly Focus and Greater Deadly Focus reward you for picking a target to kill and work similar to a paladin's smite or a cavalier's challenge, so that the assassin has something to do as far as narrowing down a bad guy and locking him down (gods help the poor guy that has an assassin, a paladin, and a cavalier on his back at one time).

The supernatural shadowy thing is fun to play with, and the different talent trees are useful for making this fit specialized themes (i.e. ninja shiriken thrower FTW).

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this purchase, and this looks like a solid class, and a good "base" assassin.

The only real problem I think this class has is that the bonus damage from Deadly Focus does seem a little light compared to smite, sneak attack, or challenge, until Greater Deadly Focus kicks in, and it requires the assassin have a wisdom bonus that doesn't do much else for the class.

This class isn't really built to be on a team of classes other than stealth based ones.

Based on my playtests, when in a group without a rogue, you'll be relegated to party scout (with no trap detection abilities).

With a rogue, you'll probably have more fun as combat support.

In my opinion, this class excels as a solo striker. Hit from the shadows, debilitate, then hit again if necessary. No sneak attack progression means some encounters will take longer (placing you in more danger). So hit and run tactics will probably be par for the course the first few levels.

Be *very* careful when unleashing this class on unsuspecting players. The results could be devastating.

If you multiclass into rogue, assassin, or shadowdancer, ths class could work much better on a team.