Hello all.
I'm trying to polish/plot out my assassin and his spell list and am wondering what everyone thinks would be good/efficient choices.
The assassin is a halfling who uses a greater tentacle rod and wears kyton armor. This allows him to engage targets without actually having to attack them himself (11 attacks other than his two ^ ^) The rod causes fatigue/Slow depending on how many tentacles connect. He carries a Nagaika whip for his two attacks and ranged trip attempts.
He uses Combat Expertise and defensive actions to boost his AC without hindering the attacks of his rod/armor and uses varied poisons and the Arterial Strike feat to cause bleeding wounds. He can also force an opponent's AC to 10 via the Deft Strike feat (spot check to nullify opponent's armor and natural armor bonuses) and feints in combat (to render opponent flat-footed). He has five attacks of opportunity with Combat reflexes and a threat range of up to 15'.
He is Lawful Evil, very calculating, and relentless. He spends days stalking a target, allowing time for him to scout the location, identify possible threats, and gauge the target. Outwardly, he is a traveling fur trader/taxidermist. We wears a large pointy wizard-esque hat and a black poncho, keeping his arms and tentacles/chains retracted and out of sight. (for flavor purposes, the tentacles on the rod are chains, but it opperates as normal)
For added flavor, he has a tiny Chain Golem familiar using the Obtain Familair feat. The familiar is written out in the Chain Golem familiar thread. He also coats it with poisons and its attacks cause bleeding wounds. ^ ^
As for his spells:
- Lv 1 (4 p/day) - Distract Assailant, Insightful Feint, Obscuring mist, and True Strike
- Lv 2 (4 p/day)Invisibility, Spider Climb, Alter Self, and Fox's Cunning
- Lv 3 (4 p/day)Deep Slumber, Deeper Darkness, Nondetecton, and ???
- Lv 4 (2 p/day)Cursed Blade, Shadow Form, and Dimension Door
Thoughts? Comments?
-Kurocyn
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Sweet mother of God! This sounds like a power gamer's wet dream! Some questions:I'm trying to polish/plot out my assassin and his spell list and am wondering what everyone thinks would be good/efficient choices.
The assassin is a halfling who uses a greater tentacle rod and wears kyton armor. This allows him to engage targets without actually having to attack them himself (11 attacks other than his two ^ ^) The rod causes fatigue/Slow depending on how many tentacles connect. He carries a Nagaika whip for his two attacks and ranged trip attempts.
- What the hell is a greater tentacle rod and where is it found?
- What are the stats for 'kyton armor' and where can I find it?
- What on earth is a Nagaika whip and where can it's stats be found?
There's a greater tentacle rod in Monte Cook's Return to the Tenmple of Elemental Evil, if I recall correctly. Haven't a clue about that whip-thingie, though. One thing that strikes me is that activating a rod is a standard action, so you can't do that and attack (with a whip or any other weapon) in the same round.
Sweet mother of God! This sounds like a power gamer's wet dream! Some questions:Once I know what all this stuff is and what it can do, I'll be able to help with the spell selection a bit.
- What the hell is a greater tentacle rod and where is it found?
- What are the stats for 'kyton armor' and where can I find it?
- What on earth is a Nagaika whip and where can it's stats be found?
Okay - greater tentacle rod is in Magic Item Compendium, kyton armor also in Magic Item Compendium. The whip - no idea.
PS - DM Tools has an index of "Stuff" - which includes weapons and magic items and the like. :P
This allows him to engage targets without actually having to attack them himself (11 attacks other than his two ^ ^)
Are you saying that the rod and armor attack on their own like an animated weapon? If that's the case then your only getting you sneak attack/death attack with your normal two attacks, right? Do they quote need to see, because if they do then Deper Darkness might not be that useful and obsuring mist would give both you and you target cover if your more than 5' apart.
Sweet mother of God!
o.o;; Umm...
I honestly didn't intend for him for power-gaming... I saw the tentacle rod and thought it was nifty, then I saw the kyton armor and thought up a character idea for it... The rest just fell into place... ^ ^;;
But yes, as noted above, the rod and armor are found in the Magic item compendium, the Nagaika whip is found in the Masters of the Wild (3.0 I know, but it's my favorite book) It's just a whip that deals 1D6 slashing damage even to armored enemies, nothing fancy.
I don't know what action is required to activate the rod... Might be a standard action. Me just don't know. I'll see if I can yoink my friend's MIC and check... But it does attack on its own. +18 to attacks, regardless of weilder.
The same is true for the armor, but the chains use the highest BAB of the wearer.
As for the spells, most of them are meant for stealth/survivability with a couple here and there to augment combat/assassinations. Deeper Darkness and Obscuring Mist are more for escape/intimidation. Still need another good Lv 3 spell though...
I'm seeing him using Cursed Blade as his calling card. If the target dies, they cannot be brought back and if the target escapes/survives, those wounds won't heal naturally, or be healed magically. (He/she needs a Remove Curse in order to do either...)
Ohh... I just thought of something! If he were to use his Arterial Strike feat and cause a bleeding wound with his Cursed Nagaika, the target couldn't heal the bleeding wound without Remove Curse. So they'd die eventually anyway, regardless of escape!
That reminds me, could such a spell be cast on his tentacle rod? It's essentially a weapon isn't it?
-Kurocyn
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Cursed Blade sounds like a pretty cool spell. I'm not sure I've seen it before, but that's pretty nasty. Is it one of the Spell Compendium things?
For your 3rd-level slot, have you considered something like haste? I don't have my book in front of me, so I don't know if it's on the assassin spell list or not, but having an extra attack never hurts, especially when combined with increased speed in case they do manage to get away from you and start running.
To the OP- no greater invisibility (very useful with sneak attacks!)?
I didn't give him greater invisibility because he keeps 3 Invisibility spells prepared. Once he engages his target, there's really no need to remain invisible imo. Plus, I wanted the above three Lv 4 spells more. *shrug* Once he levels up and can learn spells, he'll probably take it.
Perhaps the PC should make or commission a staff with cursed blade and greater invisibility? Make sure he also has Practiced Spellcaster, to improve spell duration (and make the spells harder to dispell).
Pardon my ignorance, but I don't really know what you're saying. Are staves like big wands or something? Are they re-usable? If so, how much would such a commision cost? As for Practiced Spellcaster, he's not meant to be a caster really. He just has some really handy spells due to Assassin's being able to cast.
Btw, I got the spell from Crystal Keep. Other than that, I don't know where its from...
Anywho, I nabbed my DMG and my friend's MIC and I researched the items and what-not...
The greater tentacle rod does use a standard action, but the armor only requires a swift action. So his attacks stay the same.
But having checked the books and seeing that the rod is in fact a weapon. I would think that Cursed Blade would work on it since the spell requires one touched melee weapon. So I don't see why you couldn't sneak/death attack with one.
As for if they need to see or not, both the armor and rod entries say that you must choose the target, so if you can't see the target to pick it, then they wouldn't be able to attack it...
Oh, and Haste isn't an assassin spell sadly... I would take it if it were. Might have to talk to DM about that one.
Nice! Makes me want to play an assassin.
*insert evil laugh here*
*edit* The rod causes fatigue if 3 connect, and exhaustion if 6 connect, not Slow.
-Kurocyn
He's a Lv 5 rogue/:v 8 assassin.
The staff sounds like a good idea, but he doesn't have nearly enough money for that at the moment.
Is it possible to lower the price further by increasing the charges spent by the spells? What would a staff that only had Greater Invisibility on it cost?
He already has Cursed Blade as a spell, and he only uses it for his targets, so there's really no need to have it on hand at all times. Alternativly, Greater Invisibility always has its uses.
-Kurocyn
A staff of greater invisibility would cost 24,000 market value, and take 24 days to make if commissioned. (You couldn't make one yourself unless you took Craft Staff at 15th character level.)
If you ordered it so that each use of greater invisibility cost two charges (ie. a 50-charge staff would provide 25 uses), it would cost 12,000 gp.
25 Greater Invisibility's for 12,000... Doesn't sound too bad actually.
Is this material/process covered in the DMG?
-Kurocyn
The DMG and SRD should have everything you need. Note: Craft Staff has a prerequisite of Caster Level 12. But good luck with all that! In our campaigns, if you somehow found the time to do that, the DM would get really aggravated really fast (he's REALLY not fond of power-gaming). Therefore, if you can get away with it, do it!