Quote:
Originally Posted by Claudius  I usually do not micro-manage the party enough to gain surprise. You cannot possibly score paralysis unless they are unaware of an enemy. The problem with building a high DC death attack character (which might be a blackguard for the save debuff aura) is then you lose str or dex (weapon finesse) and you may have a better DC but then you may not hit even.
One thing to realize is that no matter how bad your DC if they roll a one they are toast. |
Thats right - they have to not be in combat mode.
I really don't see the appeal of the Assassin UNLESS you need a 4th class slot open. For the most part I don't buy into the extra expenditure of Dodge and Mobility - any HiPS character that actually wants to use it almost certainly should have Spring Attack ..and that of course requires Dodge and Mobility. (..and that I've tested extensively - only a very high tumble overcomes the attack of opportunity problem needed for HiPS to work properly.)
Wait.. Perhaps if you want a certain race, don't want to interleave base classes and can't put up with a 20% xp loss - then yeah, but thats a lot of conditions.
Hmm, I *want* the Assassin to work - I'm just not seeing it.
EDIT: Considering that an Assassin still needs 2d6 of sneak attack to even become an assassin - it appears that even my first condition is limited to combinations with either Blackguard or Shadow Thief of Amn.
Note that a fairly high charisma based Warlock with Hideous Blow and an appropriate paralyzing Invocation can perform a lot better than any Assassin (works on sneak attack immune characters) - and with unlimited Invisibility spells (Walk Unseen) is as good and in some cases better than a HiPS character.