Hey everyone,
The Shadow Assassin core class, written by Owen K.C. Stephens is now up on the Paizo store:
http://paizo.com/store/downloads/otherWorldCreations/v5748btpy8bns
The Shadow Assassin is a stealth-oriented class, with an emphasis on fighting effectively with light or exotic weapons, powers designed to strike down a single foe, and mystic control of shadows that greatly increases the character's power in dim lighting and total darkness.
Let us know what you think!
Hyrum.
The Shadow Assassin is a stealth-oriented class, with an emphasis on fighting effectively with light or exotic weapons, powers designed to strike down a single foe, and mystic control of shadows that greatly increases the character's power in dim lighting and total darkness.
Page count?
From the description alone, it almost sounds like a duskblade/rogue hybrid with the shadow foci?
Page count?
From the description alone, it almost sounds like a duskblade/rogue hybrid with the shadow foci?
It's 9 pages, with 8 pages of class info and an additional page for credits and OGL info.
It's not really a duskblade/rogue combo. Shadow Assassins don't get access to spells unless you decide to choose a shadow style that uses spells, and even then you don't get many. What they do is pick a target and make sure it's dead, dead, dead.
Hyrum.
well, if its as good as the Shaman, I may have to get this
well, if its as good as the Shaman, I may have to get this
It's better! :D
In all seriousness, it's a pretty cool class. If I was playing in a Pathfinder game (I'm running our game right now) I'd definitely play a Shadow Assassin. Right now I'm building one to throw at my players either this session or the next.
Hyrum.
that may be the best fit for this class. Bad Guy!
I don't know if I would it, but after your Shaman class, I just may have to get for the read even if I never intend to play it
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My group pretty well obsessively analyzes assassins, due to the playing styles of some of our members. From the excellent Wolfgang Baur Assassin's Handbook class to the Freeport Companion version to Mongoose Games' Power Classes version all the way to the more obscure Fantasy Flight Games Cityworks assassin, we've seen it all and playtested most of it. That said, this is a SPECTACULAR class, probably the best attempt at magicking an assassin since Baur's. I can see this getting used lots. Worse, I can see this getting multiclassed a lot, which is even scarier. Great work!
My group pretty well obsessively analyzes assassins, due to the playing styles of some of our members. From the excellent Wolfgang Baur Assassin's Handbook class to the Freeport Companion version to Mongoose Games' Power Classes version all the way to the more obscure Fantasy Flight Games Cityworks assassin, we've seen it all and playtested most of it. That said, this is a SPECTACULAR class, probably the best attempt at magicking an assassin since Baur's. I can see this getting used lots. Worse, I can see this getting multiclassed a lot, which is even scarier. Great work!
Thanks Stark!!
(Mind writing a review for it here on the Paizo site? :D )
Hyrum.
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That said, this is a SPECTACULAR class, probably the best attempt at magicking an assassin since Baur's. I can see this getting used lots. Worse, I can see this getting multiclassed a lot, which is even scarier. Great work!
Thanks!!
It's also a lot of fun to use as a core class to build toward assassin or shadow dancer PrCs, if either of those interest a player. But so far the most fun I've had, and seen others have, is with a shadow assassin sticking with the class at every level.
But however you use it, I'm glad you like it!
I've checked it out and written a brief review on it. My main problem is that the Shadow Assassin seems like more of a solo character than a team player. Therefore I view it as more of a NPC villain type class.
No sneak attack progression, rogue BAB, and no trapfinding abilities make things rather difficult in the early levels.
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I've checked it out and written a brief review on it. My main problem is that the Shadow Assassin seems like more of a solo character than a team player. Therefore I view it as more of a NPC villain type class.
No sneak attack progression, rogue BAB, and no trapfinding abilities make things rather difficult in the early levels.
We wanted the shadow assassin to be able to play in the same group as the rogue, so giving it sneak attack or trapfinding would have been too much overlap for our design goals. And you can certainly -use- a shadow assassin as an NPC, the class is built to be able to act as a full PC, and we even included some thoughts on how to do that.
While you have to be careful at 1st level (lacking 1d6 damage the rogue can do with a sneak attack, in return for improved stealth), by 2nd level the shadow assassin has deadly focus, which gives him his own unique offensive options.
I just got a hold of this and I have to say I really like the class. I gotta figure out when I am going to play it. It has certain issues with being a pc class, like shadowmeld being based around dim illumination is a problem since most parties will do as much as possible to avoid having dim illumination around. But I am ok with some of the powers being circumstantial, and I think from level 2 on its a great class. Level 1 is probably going to be difficult for the player to realy enjoy, and level 1 Shadow assasin NPC's are not much of a threat to anyone or anything. After level 1 however it seems the class is made of win and awesome. I have never seen a base class that fit the concept of a ninja better.
I have just one question, if the target of your deadly focus is slain by someone else, are you still able to regain your focus? Or do you as the shadow assasin have to be the one to deliver the final blow?
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I just got a hold of this and I have to say I really like the class. I gotta figure out when I am going to play it.
Glad you like it! And, thanks for the feedback!
I have just one question, if the target of your deadly focus is slain by someone else, are you still able to regain your focus? Or do you as the shadow assasin have to be the one to deliver the final blow?
eh. I may have caused confusion by an instinctive drive to avoid passive voice writing.
Despite the text saying the shadow assassin gets to regain deadly focus if he slays his target, the rule should be applied to any time the target is killed. Simply consider any death of the target as part of the shadow assassin's long-range plans, which include death-by-getting-someone-else-to-do-it.
I just got a hold of this and I have to say I really like the class. I gotta figure out when I am going to play it.Glad you like it! And, thanks for the feedback!
You are most welcome, and if you guys keep this up I may actually never play the same class twice for the life of PFRPG.
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You are most welcome, and if you guys keep this up I may actually never play the same class twice for the life of PFRPG.
We'd be fine with that. :D
We'll be officially upodating the shadow assassin text to make my comment on deadly focus clear. That may have to wait for a bit (though it will happen, and everyone who bought the old version should get the new update free with an automatica notice).
However, so you don't have to wait, here's the new 2nd paragraph of deadly focus:
If the target of a shadow assassin's deadly focus dies, the shadow
assassin may clear his mind and regain the use of his deadly focus.
Such focus requires fifteen minutes of rest and quiet contemplation.
Such refocusing ends his deadly focus bonus against any previous
target, even if that target should somehow be restored to life and
attack on the same day. If the target of a shadow assassin's deadly
focus does not die, the shadow assassin cannot regain the use of this
ability until he rests and regains all his daily abilities.
Yay thread necromancy!
If you can recall, what were some ways that Shadow Assassins assured the dim-light requirement? Rite Publishing just made an item that gave 30' radius of one-step-darker-than-usual, so I'm thinking of seeing if a DM would allow that, but I'm curious as to how they did before level 12 with their abilities.
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Yay thread necromancy!
If you can recall, what were some ways that Shadow Assassins assured the dim-light requirement? Rite Publishing just made an item that gave 30' radius of one-step-darker-than-usual, so I'm thinking of seeing if a DM would allow that, but I'm curious as to how they did before level 12 with their abilities.
Mostly they made sure light sources were noted, then tracked and created shadows from cover. Memorably in one case, by throwing bodies of slain brigands on the campfire until they made shadows.
Feedback: I think Shadow Styles need to come more often. Consider a character that uses shurikens and would like to summon his own. Let's also assume there's a feat called Extra Shadow Talent, a la Extra Rage Power and Extra Rogue Talent.
For this fairly simple character concept, you would need to be level 11 and a human before this even came together. You'd need Exotic Weapon Style and Shuriken Style, as well as taking Shadowblade three times.
I guess the issue is that the class seems to push you towards using ranged weaponry like the shuriken and bolas. Indeed, many of their abilities explicitly work with those two weapons. However, it takes three shadow styles to be able to use all of your iteratives, and that's ignoring shuriken style completely. Compare this to just needing one Shadow Style to be able to get all of your iteratives with a melee weapon.
Yes, you could just use "real" weapons, and that's a valid counterpoint. However, being able to summon your own weapons is one of the coolest things a SA can do (in my opinion of course), and it seems really strange that the class almost punishes those who want to use Shadowblade and ranged weapons, despite the whole point of Shadowblade's third tier being for ranged weapons.
Another solution, of course, is to let users with Shuriken Style summon their own shurikens.
Just some thoughts.
To clarify, I guess my concern isn't how fast you get Shadow Styles, but rather that a shadow assassin focusing on summoning his own shurikens doesn't really come together until level 15. That's assuming you take the Shadow Talent that gives an extra style. You could make out Shuriken Style and use your own, but that errs less on the side of awesome as opposed to summoning your own.
I've been thinking about shuriken style a lot lately, since it really does seem the best way to make a combat effective character. It seems like the only reliable way to do extra damage, like the other 3/4ths BAB martial classes have.
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I've been thinking about shuriken style a lot lately, since it really does seem the best way to make a combat effective character. It seems like the only reliable way to do extra damage, like the other 3/4ths BAB martial classes have.
The main power of the shadow assassin to deal extra damage is from deadly focus. That only works on one target per encounter, but that is supposed to help focus the "assassin" function of the class.
And obviously if you're willing to carry and throw your own shuriken, taking shuriken style goes a long way to making them effective, even though you can't summon them out of nothingness yet. But a thrown shuriken with shuriken style and deadly focus (available by 2nd level) deals 1d2+1d6+Str+Wis damage.
If a fix is needed, really it ought to be to alter shadowblade style to allow for any light or thrown weapon with which the shadow assassin is proficient. Then you could take shuriken style at 2nd , and shadowblade style at 6th, and get 1 shadow shuriken each round. Since you don't have multiple attacks yet, that's not bad.