Yagura:SRD:Assassin

Assassin

An assassin is a master of the art of killing, a vicious weapon honed by experience and inclination to learn the myriad ways to end a life. Unlike common warriors or rogues, an Assassin does not study various fighting arts or muddle his training with martial dirty tricks, he instead studies the anatomy of the various creatures of wildly different anatomies and forms of existence, and he uses this knowledge to place his blows in areas vital for biological or mystical reasons. Stealth and sudden violence are his hallmarks, and various exotic tools and killing methods become his tools.

While most societies consider assassination to be a vile art, or at best a dishonorable or unvalorous one, the reasons that drive these killers vary. Cold-hearted mercenaries share a skill set with dedicated demon-hunters, differing only in the application of their skills. Only the most naïve student of ethics believes that all killing is evil, or that nobility cannot be found in a mercifully quick death.

Making an Assassin

The most obvious strength of the Assassin is their ability to hand out incredible amounts of damage. BUT. They may only use Death Attack, at most, every other round and their Medium BAB makes it a little uncertain about whether or not the attack will hit. Their spellcasting can be very useful and interesting--Color Spray is a good spell to have at very low levels, because it can remove an enemy from a fight in one action. The various Image illusion spells can be put to creative use, and Invisibility and Greater Invisibility can be used to let the Assassin get a Death Attack off every other round.

Abilities: Intelligence and Dexterity.

Races: Any

Starting Gold: 6d4 x 10 gp (150 gp)

Starting Age: As Rogue

Table: The Assassin Hit Die: d6

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special	Spells per Day
		Fort	Ref	Will		1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
1st	+0	+2	+2	+0	Poison Use, Death Attack +3d6, Personal Immunity, Spellcasting	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+3	+3	+0	Uncanny Dodge, Death Attack +4d6	0	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	+3	+3	+1	Hide in Plain Sight, Death Attack +5d6	1	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+3	+4	+4	+1	Cloak of Discretion, Death Attack +6d6	2	0	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	+4	+4	+1	Trapfinding, Trapmaking, Personal Immunity, Death Attack +7d6	3	1	—	—	—	—
6th	+4	+5	+5	+2	Palm Weapon, Death Attack +8d6	3	2	—	—	—	—
7th	+5	+5	+5	+2	Full Death Attack, Personal Immunity, Death Attack +9d6	3	2	0	—	—	—
8th	+6/+1	+6	+6	+2	Nerve of the Killer, Death Attack +10d6	3	3	1	—	—	—
9th	+6/+1	+6	+6	+3	Improved Uncanny Dodge, Personal Immunity, Death Attack +11d6	3	3	2	—	—	—
10th	+7/+2	+7	+7	+3	Skill Mastery, Death Attack +12d6	3	3	2	0	—	—
11th	+8/+3	+7	+7	+3	Poisonmaster, Personal Immunity, Death Attack +13d6	3	3	3	1	—	—
12th	+9/+4	+8	+8	+4	Positioner, Death Attack +14d6	3	3	3	2	—	—
13th	+9/+4	+8	+8	+4	Exotic Method, Death Attack +15d6	3	3	3	2	0	—
14th	+10/+5	+9	+9	+4	Positioner, Death Attack +16d6	3	3	3	3	1	—
15th	+11/+6/+6	+9	+9	+5	Killer's Proof, Death Attack +17d6	3	3	3	3	2	—
16th	+12/+7/+7	+10	+10	+5	Exotic Method, Death Attack +18d6	3	3	3	3	2	0
17th	+12/+7/+7	+10	+10	+5	Death by a Thousand Cuts, Death Attack +19d6	3	3	3	3	3	1
18th	+13/+8/+8	+11	+11	+6	Mind Blank, Death Attack +20d6	3	3	3	3	3	2
19th	+14/+9/+9	+11	+11	+6	Exotic Method, Death Attack +21d6	3	3	3	3	3	3
20th	+15/+10/+10	+12	+12	+6	Killing Strike, Death Attack +22d6	3	3	3	3	3	3
Class Skills Class Features As an assassin, all of the following are class features. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: You are proficient with all simple weapons, light martial weapons, repeating crossbows, and hand crossbows. At first level, you gain proficiency with one Exotic Weapon of your choice. You are proficient with Light Armor but not with shields. Spells: Table: Assassin Spells Known Level Spells Known 0   1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 1st 4 — — — — — — 2nd 5 2 — — — — — 3rd 6 3 — — — — — 4th 6 3 2 — — — — 5th 6 4 3 — — — — 6th 6 4 3 — — — — 7th 6 4 4 2 — — — 8th 6 4 4 3 — — — 9th 6 4 4 3 — — — 10th 6 4 4 4 2 — — 11th 6 4 4 4 3 — — 12th 6 4 4 4 3 — — 13th 6 4 4 4 4 2 — 14th 6 4 4 4 4 3 — 15th 6 4 4 4 4 3 — 16th 6 4 4 4 4 4 2 17th 6 4 4 4 4 4 3 18th 6 4 4 4 4 4 3 19th 6 4 4 4 4 4 4 20th 6 4 4 4 4 4 4 Spellcasting You are an Arcane Spellcaster with the same spells per day and spells known progression as a Bard, except that you gain no more than three spell slots per level. Your spells known may be chosen from the Sorcerer/Wizard list, and must be from the schools of Divination, Illusion, or Necromancy. To cast an assassin spell, you must have an Intelligence at least equal to 10 + the Spell level. The DC of your spells is Intelligence based and the bonus spells are Intelligence based. Poison Use (Ex): You may prepare, apply, and use poison without any chance of poisoning yourself. Death Attack (Ex): You may spend a full-round action to study an opponent who would be denied a Dexterity bonus if you instead attacked that target. While studying the target your Initiative improves by +2. After studying, your next attack against the studied target is a Death Attack if made within 1 round. A Death Attack inflicts a number of extra dice of damage equal to your assassin level plus two dice, but only if the target is denied a Dexterity Bonus to AC against that attack. A target with a Dexterity score of 0 or less is always considered to be denied their Dexterity bonus for the purposes of qualifying for a Death Attack study round or attack. Special attacks such as a coup de grace may be a Death Attack. Assassins are well trained in eliminating magical or distant opponents, and do not have to meet the stringent requirements of a sneak attack, though if you have both sneak attack and death attack, they stack if you meet the requirements of both. As long as the victim is denied a Dexterity bonus against attacks from you during the study action and the attack itself, it counts as a death attack. You may load a crossbow simultaneously with your action to study your target if you have a Base Attack Bonus of +1 or more. Personal Immunity (Ex): At levels 1, 5, 7, and 9 you choose 4 poisons to which you are totally immune, regardless of the strength of the poison. At level 11 you become immune to all poisons. Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 2nd level you can react to danger before your senses would normally allow you to do so. You retain your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if you are caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, you still lose your Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): At 3rd level you can hide in unusual locations, and may hide in areas without cover or concealment without penalty. You may even hide while being observed. This ability does not remove the -10 penalty for moving at full speed, or the -20 penalty for running or fighting. Cloak of Discretion (Su): At 4th level you are protected by a constant Nondetection effect, with a caster level equal to your character level. Trapfinding (Ex): At 5th level you can use the Search skill to locate traps when the task has a Difficulty Class higher than 20. Finding a non-magical trap has a DC of at least 20, or higher if it is well hidden. Finding a magic trap has a DC of 25 + the level of the spell used to create it. You can use the Disable Device skill to disarm magic traps. A magic trap generally has a DC of 25 + the level of the spell used to create it. If you beat a trap’s DC by 10 or more with a Disable Device check you can study a trap, figure out how it works, and bypass it (with your party) without disarming it. Trapmaking (Ex): At 5th level you learn to build simple mechanical traps in out of common materials. As long as you have access to ropes, flexible material like green wood, and weapon-grade materials like sharpened wooden sticks or steel weapons, you can build an improvised trap in 10 minutes. You can build any non-magical trap on the "CR 1" trap list that doesn’t involve a pit. These traps have a Search DC equal to 20 + your character level, have a BAB equal to your own, and are always single-use traps. You may add poison to these traps, if you have access to it, but it will dry out in an hour. Palm Weapon (Ex): At 6th level you learn to conceal weapons with supernatural skill. Any weapon successfully concealed with Sleight of Hand cannot be found with divination magic. Full Death Attack (Ex): At 7th level if you study an opponent to perform a Death Attack, you can make a full attack during the next round where every attack inflicts Death Attack damage as long as the target was denied a Dexterity bonus to AC against the first attack in the full attack action. Nerve of the Killer (Su): At 8th level you gain a limited immunity to compulsion and charm effects. While studying a target for a Death Attack, and for one round afterward, you gain a +2 resistance bonus to all saves and spell resistance equal to 10 + your character level. Additionally, this effect blocks any attempt to possess or to exercise mental control over you (including enchantment (charm) effects and enchantment (compulsion) effects that grant the caster ongoing control over the subject, such as dominate person). The protection does not prevent such effects from targeting you, but it suppresses the effect for the duration of the this ability. If this ability ends before the effect granting mental control does, mental control again becomes possible. Likewise, this ability keeps out a possessing life force but does not expel one if it is in place before the spell is cast. Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 9th level you can no longer be flanked. This defense denies another character the ability to sneak attack by flanking you, unless the attacker has at least four more levels in a class that provides sneak attack than your character level. Skill Mastery (Ex): At 10th level you become so certain in the use of certain skills that you can use them reliably even under adverse conditions. When making a skill check with Climb, Disable Device, Hide, Move Silently, Search, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device, Use Rope, or Swim, you may take 10 even if stress and distractions would normally prevent you from doing so. Poisonmaster (Ex): At 11th level you learn alchemic secrets for creating short-term poisons. By expending an entire healer’s kit worth of materials and an hour of time, you can synthesize one dose of any poison. This poison degrades to uselessness in one week. Exotic Method: At 13th, 16th, and 19th level you learn an exotic method of killing from the list below. Once chosen, this method does not change. The same method can be selected multiple times, increasing the number of times per day it can be used. Carrier (Sp): Three times per day, you can cast contagion as a swift action spell-like ability. Poison of the Cockatrice (Sp): Twice per day, you can cast flesh to stone as a swift action spell-like ability. Killer Faerie Arts (Sp): Twice per day, you can cast polymorph other as a swift action spell-like ability. Proxy Assassin (Sp): Twice per day, you can cast summon monster vii as a spell-like ability. This effect lasts 10 minutes. Death By Plane (Sp): Once per day, you can cast plane shift as a spell-like ability. Dimesional Rip (Sp): Once per day, you can cast implosion as a spell-like ability. The duration of this effect is three rounds. New School: you may now choose spells known from a new school of magic, or from the cleric or druid spell list but limited to the schools of magic to which you already have access. Positioner (Su): At 12th and 14th level you gain an ability that should aid you in positioning yourself for a more difficult kill. At each level choose one of the following abilities, which can be used at will. Inner Breath: You may hold your breath an additional number of minutes equal to your assassin level. Light Stride: You may walk on water for up to 1 round/level per day. Shift: By spending a full round concentrating, you may transport yourself up to 5 feet in any direction, completely bypassing any intervening obstructions. The distance transported increases by 5 feet for every additional round spent concentrating, up to 1 round per 3 levels. Shifting Visage: You may cast disguise self as a 0-level spell, however at this lower level the duration lasts 5 minutes. Shadowed: You may cast darkness as a 0-level spell, however at this lower level the duration lasts 5 minutes. Killer’s Proof (Su): At 15th level you learn to steal the souls of those you kill. If you are holding an onyx worth at least 100 GP when you kill an enemy, you may place their soul (if any) within the gem as if you have cast soul bind on the target at the moment of death. Death by a Thousand Cuts (Ex): At 17th level you have learned to kill even the hardiest of foes by reducing their physical form to shambles. Every successful Death Attack inflicts a cumulative -2 Dexterity penalty to the victim. These penalties last one day. Mind Blank (Su): At 18th level you are protected by a constant mind blank effect. Killing Strike (Su): At 20th level your Death Attacks bypass your victim’s DR and hardness. Additionally, rolls of a 6 on your Death Attack damage dice explode infinitely, and every Death Attack that threatens a critical hit automatically confirms and grants an additional +2d6 Death Attack damage dice.