A Little Help?

[Dervon]

Thanks for all the help, guys. Once we get started, I'll let you know how things go. You've all been a great help. I don't know his house rules on multiclassing, but considering that he mentioned that his next move would be to take a level in fighter (he tried to explain why, but I didn't quite get it all), so I'd say that he's fairly easy on it.

Probably splashed a level in Fighter to get the bonus feats. Any class that wants to go toe-to-toe in melee benefits from the first two levels of Fighter, and if DMs don't enforce MC-ing XP penalties, it pays off nicely.

Combat flair + limited spellcasting? Assassin, if you can convince the DM that alignment limitations are lame (hurrr, gotta' be evul to kill peple! Not like adventurers ever need to kill stuff, amirite?). You get a nifty set of spells, and your assassinate ability is awesome.

Well, I'm Chaotic Neutral anyway, so I shouldn't have many problems with regard to killing people anyway. And I know that he doesn't mind at all when he plays himself. I know for a fact that he once nearly came to blows with his GM after his True Neutral Rogue killed an obviously plot-important, but ungodly annoying NPC.

MrRigger

Cool. Alignment is meant to be more of a philosophical outlook then another line in your ID. Too bad 95% of all players/DMs fail to understand this.

But yeah, Assassin is supposed to be a "Evil Only"-class, and I think this makes no sense. Wait, gimme a sec...

Ahh, here we go (spoilered for length; BTW it is part of the SRD free-package, and thus can be reposted online):

Spoiler: show

REQUIREMENTS

* Alignment: Any evil.

DURR HURR, EVUL ONLY

* Skills: Disguise 4 ranks, Hide 8 ranks, Move Silently 8 ranks.

Pfff, cake-walk if you come in from Rogue

* Special: The character must kill someone for no other reason than to join the assassins.

lul wut? *sigh* I hope the DM makes the above optional, if you don't plan on going evil. Given that this PC doesn't tie in with any organization this requirement feels tacked-on and pointless.

...

CLASS FEATURES:

Sneak Attack - You keep getting SA dice at a rate of one ever other level, starting level 1 in this PC. Sweet, it keeps the combat capabilities of the rogue and enhances them.

Death Attack - "If an assassin studies his victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (assassin’s choice). While studying the victim, the assassin can undertake other actions so long as his attention stays focused on the target and the target does not detect the assassin or recognize the assassin as an enemy. If the victim of such an attack fails a Fortitude save (DC 10 + the assassin’s class level + the assassin’s Int modifier) against the kill effect, she dies. If the saving throw fails against the paralysis effect, the victim is rendered helpless and unable to act for 1d6 rounds plus 1 round per level of the assassin. If the victim’s saving throw succeeds, the attack is just a normal sneak attack. Once the assassin has completed the 3 rounds of study, he must make the death attack within the next 3 rounds. " < F- YEAH! Another reason to have a high INT mod. I love this ability. I love it to pieces. Combo it with poison and a high amount of Sneak Attack die and your enemy will, well, die! :D

Poison Use - "Assassins are trained in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying poison to a blade." < Mores the reason to use 'em!

Spells - A small grab-bag of spells. Of note: Truestrike (Add +20 to the next attack, perfect for landing a Death Attack!); Greater Invisibility (FFFFFF- YEAH! Even after you hit someone, you still get a 50% miss-chance on yourself that lasts for a bit!); and a whole bunch of awesome assassin-y spells!

Save Against Poison/Uncanny Dodge/ Improved Uncanny Dodge - The low-point of the class, especially since the last two over-lap with the EXACT SAME ABILITIES you gain as a rogue. Still, at least you are gaining spell-slots/spells at the same time, so no "dead"-levels.

Hide in Plain Sight - "At 8th level, an assassin can use the Hide skill even while being observed. As long as he is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, an assassin can hide himself from view in the open without having anything to actually hide behind.

He cannot, however, hide in his own shadow. " < The icing on the Assassin cake. Get high Hide, get magic that boosts it further, get magic items that send it even HIGHER and then watch your reputation as a walking-shadowy-death emerge.

...

I love this PC so much. :D

[Jasruv]

Probably splashed a level in Fighter to get the bonus feats. Any class that wants to go toe-to-toe in melee benefits from the first two levels of Fighter, and if DMs don't enforce MC-ing XP penalties, it pays off nicely.

I don't know about that, even if the GM does enforce the penalties the benefits are pretty good, especially for the less physically capable casters.

D10 hit dice - extra hp are hardly ever a bad thing to have.
Weapon and Armor proficiencies - Being able to use most weapons without penalty is good thing. Being able to sneak attack with a bastard sword or great axe is awesome.
The armor is a bit of a wash for casters but if you've exhausted your spells, being able to put on serious armor increases your chances of surviving. For rogues, being able to strap on plate armor if you get stuck in a full on battle or war situation where sneaking isn't an option is also helpful.
+1 to BAB per level - milage may vary on this one but it will help on the various ray spells and any spell that requires you to roll to hit (Example: Fireball if you want to send it through an arrowslit or something).
Bonus Fighter Feats - increases your combat skills and leaves your general feats for non-combat stuff if needed.

The XP penalty shouldn't present a serious problem. So your character might be a little behind in their primary skill set. The coolness of having a rogue who uses a katana (exotic weapon prof. - Bastard Sword) in one hand and a short sword in the other (Two weapon fighting) makes up for it in my opinion.
Or better yet a sorcerer or wizard that does the same thing.

But, your milage may vary.

[Dervon]

Probably splashed a level in Fighter to get the bonus feats. Any class that wants to go toe-to-toe in melee benefits from the first two levels of Fighter, and if DMs don't enforce MC-ing XP penalties, it pays off nicely.

I don't know about that, even if the GM does enforce the penalties the benefits are pretty good, especially for the less physically capable casters.

D10 hit dice - extra hp are hardly ever a bad thing to have.
Weapon and Armor proficiencies - Being able to use most weapons without penalty is good thing. Being able to sneak attack with a bastard sword or great axe is awesome.
The armor is a bit of a wash for casters but if you've exhausted your spells, being able to put on serious armor increases your chances of surviving. For rogues, being able to strap on plate armor if you get stuck in a full on battle or war situation where sneaking isn't an option is also helpful.
+1 to BAB per level - milage may vary on this one but it will help on the various ray spells and any spell that requires you to roll to hit (Example: Fireball if you want to send it through an arrowslit or something).
Bonus Fighter Feats - increases your combat skills and leaves your general feats for non-combat stuff if needed.

The XP penalty shouldn't present a serious problem. So your character might be a little behind in their primary skill set. The coolness of having a rogue who uses a katana (exotic weapon prof. - Bastard Sword) in one hand and a short sword in the other (Two weapon fighting) makes up for it in my opinion.
Or better yet a sorcerer or wizard that does the same thing.

But, your milage may vary.

Armor: Any armor heavier then "light" shuts down all his defensive rogue abilities. Really, he is better off with his awesome DEX mod to AC and liberal use of Tumble, regardless of the situation.

XP Penalties:Errrrrr... Don't really know about it chief. You know what the penalty rules-wise is? A-hem:

"your multiclass character takes a -20% (!!!) penalty to XP for each class that is not within one level of his highest level class" Can you say "ouch"?

HOWEVER!!!

EDIT: SH!T, Gnome favored class is Bard, not rogue. So yes, splashing a level or two of Fighter would be hugely detrimental in the long run. Let's not even think of multiple penalties (Yes, the -20% stacks with itself)...

In other words, he can splash one class in and not take penalties if his favored class is rogue, and only Halflings have it in the base Players Handbook.

[MrRigger2]

Well, we've had two sessions so far, one yesterday and one today, playing in the Realms. Started out as a Level 3 Rogue working with a Level 3 Human Fighter. We went through one very short dungeon yesterday and I walked out with a little over 22,000 GP and a Bag of Holding, after selling most everything. Including a cursed necklace that my fighter companion insisted on picking up with his bare hand. Yeah, he was possessed by a ghost until I flicked it off of him with a 10 ft pole. Needless to say, I wasn't pleased with him.

Of course, it wouldn't be a dungeon without some Encounters. We ended up fighting a trio of Gnolls (CR 1), a Mummy (CR 5) and Chain Devil (CR 6). Yeah, I think my GM hates us.

Today, we were payed to go explore another dungeon, and ended up somehow being transported to Sigil as we stepped into the cave. The GM blamed Divine Intervention (and considering I had talked with what I believe to be a Trickster God just previously, I'm not doubting that). So then we end up fighting in the arena, where my companion can't make a Fortitude save to save his life (or mine, apparently), and his 6 STR modifer goes down to a mod of 0. At that point, I was doing more damage to the CR 7 creature.

Despite being kicked around and spun through dimensions, I had a fairly good time. We've convinced one of my other friends to come over tomorrow, and we'll work on rolling him up a character. Hopefully I'll be able to get him to make something with some Healing abilities or Spellcasting traits.

MrRigger

[Darkandus]

Sounds fun. I really should get back into gaming but I haven't been able to summon up the will.