Description: Masters of combining stealth, spellcasting, and slaughter. An Arcane Assassin is a terror to the public, but none is more frightened of him than any spellcaster to catch his ire.
Class Skills: An Arcane Assassin gains Knowledge (Arcana) and Spellcraft as class skills, but does not gain Heal, Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Ride, and Survival as class skills.
Saving Throws: An Arcane Assassin’s Fortitude Saving Throw is equal to ⅓ of his Slayer level and his Will Saving Throw is equal to 2 + ½ of his slayer level.
Armour Proficiency: An Arcane Assassin gains proficiency in light armour only. An Arcane Assassin can cast spells without incurring the normal arcane spell failure chance while wearing light armour. This does not affect the arcane spell failure chance for arcane spells received from other classes. Like other arcane spellcasters, an Arcane Assassin wearing Medium or Heavy armour or wielding a shield incurs a chance of arcane spell failure if the spell in question has somatic components.
This replaces the Slayer’s Armour Proficiency
Focused Target: Arcane Assassins’ studies focus on disabling a single target at a time with magic or weaponry. An Arcane Assassin gains the studied combat bonus on Spellcraft checks against that opponent and items carried by them instead of Survival checks. The DC increase applies both to an Arcane Assassin’s own spells (except spells gained from other classes), and spells cast from items wielded by him. However, he cannot study targets as an immediate action after dealing sneak attack damage, nor does he increase the maximum number of studied targets he can have at a time normally attained at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels, but his bonuses still increase at those levels.
At 7th level, instead of gaining the ability to study an opponent as a swift action, an Arcane Assassin can study an opponent as an immediate action upon witnessing them cast a spell or spell-like ability.
This ability alters Studied Target
Mage Sense (Ex): At 1st level, an Arcane Assassin can sense the effects of magic at a mere touch. An Arcane Assassin can detect and identify magic effects and items on objects or creatures touched as if they were studied for 3 rounds with detect magic.
In addition, an Arcane Assassin begins play with an empty spellbook. He can copy spells to his spellbook as a Wizard can but does not gain 2 free spells per level until he reaches level 4.
This ability replaces Track.
Eldritch Talent: An Arcane Assassin’s training in the Arcane limits his study on other aspects. Arcane Assassins gain slayer talents at 2nd level, 6th level, and every 4 levels thereafter. In addition, an Arcane Assassin cannot choose the Ranger Combat Style talent.
Starting 6th level, an Arcane Assassin can forego choosing a slayer talent to instead increase the amount of sneak attack damage dealt by 1d6. He can do this up to 3 times.
This ability alters Slayer Talent and Advanced Talents.
Anti-Mage’s Resistance (Ex): At 3rd level, an Arcane Assassin gains a +1 bonus on saving throws against spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities. This bonus increases by 1 at 9th level and 15 level.
This ability replaces Sneak Attack Progression at 3rd, 9th, and 15th levels.
Spells: Beginning at 4th level, an Arcane Assassin gains the ability to cast a small number of arcane spells, drawn from the Sorcerer/Wizard list using his Arcane Assassin level as his caster level. An Arcane Assassin must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time. He learns, prepares, and casts spells exactly as a Wizard does, including adding new spells to his spellbook and gaining two additional spells known (of any level he can cast) each time he gains a slayer level. An Arcane Assassin can not cast 0-level spells, but instead treats them as 1st level spells.
An Arcane Assassin can only cast a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is the same as the Ranger class (Pathfinder Core Rulebook 66, Table 3-12).
An Arcane Assassin’s highest level of spells is 4th. Sorcerer/Wizard spells of 5th level and above are not considered to be on an Arcane Assassin’s class spell list, and an Arcane Assassin cannot use spell trigger and spell completion items (without making a successful Use Magic Device check) of Sorcerer/Wizard spells of 5th level or higher.
Antimagic Strike (Ex): At 7th level, an Arcane Assassin can make a touch attack as a standard action against a creature or item to suppress ongoing spell effects. If the touch attack succeeds, all magical effects on the target (such as spells like Mage Armour, weapon enhancement bonuses, or illusions but not summoned creatures) are suppressed for a number of rounds equal to the Arcane Assassin’s intelligence modifier (minimum 1).
An arcane assassin can use this ability 3+int mod times per day.
At 14th level, targets of Antimagic Strike must also succeed a saving throw (type chosen by the Arcane Assassin) DC 10+½ Arcane Assassin level + int mod or have all active effects ended as if their duration ran out (continuous/permanent spells are unaffected).
At 19th level, he can use it at will, and can substitute an attack in a full-attack action for an Antimagic Strike.
This ability replaces Stalker, Quarry, and Improved Quarry.
Armoured Assassin (Ex): At 11th level, an Arcane assassin gains Medium Armour Proficiency as a bonus feat, and can cast spells received from the Arcane Assassin archetype without incurring the arcane spell failure chance while wearing medium armour.
This ability replaces Swift Tracker