I have played druids that are designed as scout/sneaks, which have a lot of similarities in basic skills and abilities to an assassin.
My experience has been that druids benefit greatly in this role from druid abilities like wildshape or handle animal (lots of important people have guard dogs). The issue with using these abilities is that how effective they are depends almost entirely on how the GM rules these abilities work. Wildshaping into a rat might seem like an obvious way to gain entrance into a fortress for example, but I've had some GMs who seem to come up with all sorts of reasons to disallow the druid access to areas.
If you and your GM are on the same page, then I do think that druids would in fact make very good assassins.
Even lower level druids are superb assassins, in so much as assasins work at all in this game. The problem with assasins is that they rely on one big attack to take out their target. And the abstract nature of the game makes that nearly impossible to all but very low level characters.
But in terms of what a typical assasin could do, a high level druid would be excellent. Just the wild shape ability is an insanely good tool. The stealth bonuses of turning into a mouse have to be rather rediculous. And as a poisoner they are excellent because the dont need to deal with the usually problems poison users have (getting it and applying it to weapons), they can turn INTO something with a poisonous bite.
I dont think you need to optimize much, just a druid with 3-4 wildshapes and natural spell is a really really good assasin.
1. Wildshape into a small bird - entry into targets location
2. Wildshape into small vermin - easy travel through location
3. cast summon natures ally somewhere away from the target to cause a massive distraction (Guards theres a tiger in the living room)
4. Beast shape III gets you poison - use it
5. Wildshape back into bird and get away
I wanted to build one back in 3.5. Back then the Poison Spell was just brutal. Turn into a bird. Fly up onto the Castle. Turn into a snake/rat and get to the king. Use natural spell to cast Poison. BAM. No one would be the wiser.
The only problem is the RP reason. First you would need to be Neutral Evil to even be an Assassin Druid (unless you houserule that assassins dont have to be evil). So why would a Neutral Evil Druid become an assassin for hire? Wouldn't they be out torching lumber yards, hunting Hunters, and basicly doing all they could to keep civilization out of whatever beetnick hollow they had claimed? Most assassins by virtue of their job deal in civilized lands. They kill poloticians, wealthy merchants, nobility... or you work for them killing their rivals and such. I dont see a Druid really having much use for any of that.
I could only think of maybe working for a noble/king as an assassin, and in return he promises to make sure that the woods you claim will never be touched by society.
A druid assassin is not the same thing as a multi-class druid/assassin. I could make an argument for any druid allowed alignment to become an "assassin" in the sense of a character that hunts down and kills a target. Or at least that's how I read it. Just like a druid scout is not a druid/scout.
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Why would a Druid become an assassin? He's not a mercenary killer. A Druid certainly may kill, but if he does he'll use the tools of Nature to do so.
Why would a druid become a traveling murder hobo? These things happen sometimes...
Well, the simplest thing to do would be simply to sneak in as a mouse, and then wait for them to fall asleep. Then simply turn into something more threatening, and then coup de grace. That is how you do a nice clean, druidic assassination.
wait. Do you even have to wildshape from the mouse to do the coup de grace? While turning back into a humanoid and drawing a dagger is more cinematic, is it even necessary? It would take less resources for getting away if you just used the first wild shape. I'm sure your mouse teeth are sharp enough to take out an artery.
Anyway, this option is sadly not that great for a PC. I mean, how often can you say "I get a 100 on stealth/disguise check, since no one suspects the freaking mouse, and then I sneak in and cut his throat" before it becomes boring? It is better for an NPC for the party to try to catch, especially if they do not know what is actually doing the assassinations.
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As for reasons, he or she could be an assassin FOR the forest. Like, they get their orders on who to take out from the Deku Tree or the Great Pumpkin or whatever.
I am so totally going to put the Great Pumpkin in one of my campaigns as a mid-level boss fight....
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Totally should. And his Chosen Weapon for Clerics should be a blanket.
I'll use one of those Halloween candy pumpkins for the mini....
Oh, I love those!
We had a DM in 3.5 who threw a Druid/Master of Many Forms/Assassin at us. It was high enough in MoMF to get to a tiny. He would turn into a fly land on someone and use his Death Attack. Was scary having something try to kill you that could literally be anything.
Despite what you and Koko may think adventuring parties are all about, for the most part, my characters and those of the people I play with are not "murder hobos", and would justly take offense at such an appellation.Why would a Druid become an assassin? He's not a mercenary killer. A Druid certainly may kill, but if he does he'll use the tools of Nature to do so.Why would a druid become a traveling murder hobo? These things happen sometimes...
Well I wasn't being serious, it was a joke. It was also meant to state that sometimes weird things happen in fantasy games. I didn't say every adventuring party is a bunch of traveling murder hobos or something like that, just said that sometimes it happens.
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Druids are servants of Nature in many genres but what that service means can vary.
You can easily imagine a Druid Hit Man who is sent after specific targets, wealthy merchant lords or minor nobles whose action lead them to damage nature and ruin lands for their personal goals or for financial reasons.
Enter Druid Professional whose skills and abilities lend himself well to getting into places and leaving a mauled/poisoned/baleful polymorphed corpse behind.
I had one friend who played a druid Eco-terrorist that went around killing towns, spells like control winds, control weather, contagion and others were extremely effective at town destruction.