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Note too that there is a difference between a single act of necessity and a lifestyle of killing from stealth. How many evildoers really need assassinating? The prestige class assumes regular employment of the assassins skill set.
I don't necessarily agree with this statement, on the regular use of the skillset. It can be true, yes. But I can also see it being the case where someone has gone through extensive training and preparation for such a role, without making active use of the skills on a regular basis. Such a person would likely have limited advancement in the PrC, but it doesn't have to be put to regular use in it's full array of abilities.
To toss out a couple of examples:
A group of individuals are hired to go to a location and kill everyone living there. They are told the residents are evil, go there and slaughter them. Does this make them evil?
A group of individuals are hired to retrieve an item held by someone else. They are told this item is stolen, the current owner of the item refuses to hand it over. They kill them and take the item. Is this an evil act?
In both cases, someone is essentially being hired to kill someone else. By stealth or not, it is still murder for hire and it is how many groups of adventurers make their livings.
How many times has a party of adventurers came across a sleeping enemy and killed them while they were helpless, or nearly so? A sleeping giant, ogre, dragon, etc. In this case, how often do they have undeniable proof that their victim is irredeemably evil?
Another point, though not as directly related to the issue. Many cultures, especially primitive ones, make use of poisons in some form or other. Jungle tribesmen use blowguns with either a lethal poison, or a sedative in order to hunt. By D&D terms, would this make them evil? They may not have the technology or the resources to make sophisticated weapons, they hunt their prey using what resources they have. There is no distinction between using poison on animals, vermin, or on monsters and people in the D&D universe. So by that definition, the equivalent to an exterminator putting out poison to kill the rats infesting a farmers barn is performing an inheritly evil act.
Just a few things to ponder. Pardon my spelling, it's past my bedtime and all that fun stuff. (YAY for night shift work)
It strikes me as a little odd that it is more acceptable and 'good' to assault the fortress of an evil lord, kill virtually everyone living there in order to remove the threat of said lord. Whereas a single person (Or small group) using stealth to gain entry, slip past the guards and servants and remove the evil lord without harming or killing anyone else (Or perhaps a very small number of people) is the more 'evil' of these two acts. Makes for an interesting take on morality in my opinion.