Ideal Assassin??

[General]

Can anyone post the ideal assassin (without cheating). Equipment, stats, weapon proficiencies, abilities, any anything else??My friend wants to size his up but he's grounded from the net.

[Sojourner]

Assassin is one of my favorite classes. My ideal assassin is either a halfling, for the thieving bonuses, or the elf, for the THACO bonuses with sword and bow.

Starting Stats:
STR: min 17
DEX: 19
CON: 16
INT: min 10
WIS: min 10
CHA: min 14

To start, put around 50% in lockpicking and trap-finding, and divide the rest evenly between Move Silently and Hide in Shadows. I usually choose choose short sword or katanna, quarterstaff, short bow, and single-weapon style, to start, then add two-handed weapon style when I can.

Ideal equipment (when available):

• Green Ioun Stone until I get the Thieves' Hood
• Necklace of Missiles -> Amulet of the Seldarine -> Amulet of the Master Harper
• Shadow Dragon Armor -> Studded Leather of Thorns
• Gauntlets of Weapon Skill/Expertise
• Ring of Gaxx and Mercykiller Ring
• Girdle of Giant Strength
• Cloak of Non-Detection and Boots of Speed

Weapons: SoA - Celestial Fury or Cutthroat, Staff of Striking, and Tuigan and Gesen Bows
ToB: Short Sword of the Mask, Hindo's Doom or Angurvadal, Staff of the Ram, and Tuigan and Gesen Bows

[ 08-09-2001: Message edited by: Sojourner ]

[General]

He wants to know if it's viable to solo an assassin, and also wants to know why put points in move silently if you are going to get the cloak of non-detection

[Falanen]

I believe that Move Silently and Hide in Shadows both only contribute to the Stealth percentage, so that neglecting one will not yield as high a Stealth as spreading them evenly.

The Cloak of Non-Detection just adds the non-detectable status, I do not think any amount of Move Silently will add this.

[General]

I was told move silently was just so that enemy mages wouldn't hear you and cast true sight, which doesn't affect people with cloak of non-d

[Falanen]

Hmmm...the mages always cast True Sight, even if I have the Cloak of Non-Detection on, but that might be the reason (I don't play with sound...).

Anyways...how can a mage know when to cast True Sight when they cannot see invisible? They would never cast it until they were attacked/you reveal yourself, but they somehow know when you show up.

[General]

Apparently they cast true site if they hear you, but my friend thinks that the cloak renders true sight useless (you stay hidden). but if move silently is high, they won't hear you so they won't bother casting it

[Falanen]

Ahhh...I see. Can anyone verify this? I always just divide Move Silently and Hide in Shadows evenly...maybe I should reconsider.

[General]

The cloak says it prevents detectiong from magical means, so I don't know what else it could be

[Sojourner]

You need the points in both Hide in Shadows and Move Silently to successfully use stealth. The Cloak is to prevent those annoying mages from spotting your stealthed thief with True Sight.

It is possible, albeit challenging, to solo an assassin. Stealth becomes even more important, because you'll use it to scout what's ahead, so you can form a strategy for dealing with it.

Irenicus's dungeon: 50% in lock-picking and trap-finding is adequate to handle most problems, so use the remaining points to boost stealth, which is critical here. You can choose to avoid most of the fights, but I didn't - I backstabbed the mephits and Otyugh, drew the goblins and the dwarves out so I could deal with them one by one, and shot the cambion full of poisoned arrows. It took some work, but I cleared the dungeon with my solo assassin.

[Falanen]

Hmm...okay. Sojourner, do you have any idea how enemy mages know when to cast True Sight when they can't see invisible? It just doesn't make sense. I can understand why they would cast it if the mage could see, but his/her buddies couldn't, but this isn't the case.

[Sojourner]

More on the assassin: Since an assassin is so heavily penalised on the thieving skills, you have to be selective on where you put your points.

I recommend putting ~50% in trap-finding & lock-picking to start, then eventually boosting both to 90%. Carry a potion or one of those nifty thieving rings to deal with situations that give you trouble.

If you boost both Move Silently and Hide in Shadows to 120 with the help of equipment, you'll very rarely experience stealth failure.

Pick-pocketing - Forget it. If you want to do it, use potions and the gloves.

Detect Illusions & Trap-Setting: I favor trap-setting, since high-level traps are capable of killing the tougher golems (who can't be backstabbed), and it takes too long, IMO, to make Detect Illusions effective.

[ 08-09-2001: Message edited by: Sojourner ]

[Sojourner]

Originally posted by Falanen:
<STRONG>Hmm...okay. Sojourner, do you have any idea how enemy mages know when to cast True Sight when they can't see invisible? It just doesn't make sense. I can understand why they would cast it if the mage could see, but his/her buddies couldn't, but this isn't the case.</STRONG>

IMO, the game is cheating here. If you have ToB installed, you'll see a more dramatic example of this in the Forest of Mir area.

[MordorMan]

The ideal assasin is a human Kensai/Thief dualled at level 13. Have str = 18/00, dex = 18 and con = 18.

I started with 5 proficiency points in katana and 3 in dual wielding and put the rest in daggers (for throwing firetooth) and longswords. You will get a lot of proficiency points (from both classes) and you will be able to achieve grand mastery after you have dualled.

AC is a problem, if you truly want to solo, buy or steal lots of AC lowering potions. Get the cloak of non-detection soon.

MM

[Sojourner]

Originally posted by MordorMan:
<STRONG>The ideal assasin is a human Kensai/Thief dualled at level 13. Have str = 18/00, dex = 18 and con = 18.
</STRONG>

You may find him ideal, but he is not an assassin. I'll take my assassin any day, for his 7x backstab (9x in ToB) and poison ability over any kensai/thief.

[MordorMan]

OK, a K/T is not literally an assasin, that is obvious. But he/she does assasinate. The backstab modifier doesn't matter much I think, both Kensai/thiefs and assasins will instantaniously kill their oponents on a succesful backstab. Only, the K/T will have more chance of the backstab being succesfull. He / she will also get more thief abilities and be able to fight when discovereed.

MM

[PDF]

And what about an Assassin/mage, dualled at 13th level ?
Only thieving skills would be Hide/move silent + Trap laying, backstab is limited to x5 but when you reach Mage 14 you have a quite potent character - a "backstabbing mage" in a sense

[Sojourner]

Originally posted by MordorMan:
<STRONG>OK, a K/T is not literally an assasin, that is obvious. But he/she does assasinate. The backstab modifier doesn't matter much I think, both Kensai/thiefs and assasins will instantaniously kill their oponents on a succesful backstab. Only, the K/T will have more chance of the backstab being succesfull. He / she will also get more thief abilities and be able to fight when discovereed.

MM</STRONG>

This has already been argued to death in an earlier thread (kensai/thief vs. assassin) - as soon as I find it, I'll post the link. 'nuff said.

[Sojourner]

As promised, here is the [url="http://www.gamebanshee.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=003569"]link[/url].

[leeho730]

Assassin's poison weapon is absolutely wonderful. You can use this ability on bow as well Damn good for disrupting spell casting as well as dealing good amount of damage over short period of time (reminds me of magic missile).