assassins

[Death Dealer1]

anyway that the paralyzing death attack could be made to bypass freedom? that spell is so widespread on the NS4 that by the time you use your death attack some poor schmo is already buffed with it or being buffed with it and your a useless sneak attack rogue that is a pansy getting beat up.

[VagaStorm]

I have seen what that stun atack of yours can do :p something that can stun a char for 2-3 minutes should atleast have some kind of protection.... wery few chars are mad so that they can withstand 2 - 3 minutes of flatfotted beating.... :p

[Kirg]

I heard this should be fixed with the next patch. Won't be all too soon though, and freedom really shouldn't prevent a stun attack. Otoh 2-3 min.? That is quite long...

[Binkyuk]

I think the idea is that a Death Attack if pulled off correctly should mean just that.

[Yonwe]

We've been debating about what to do with Assassins for a long time now... it was the next class I started work on after I finished (first updates) Shifter a while back. Problem with Death Attack is that feats are hard-coded into the engine; we can either disable them, like Devestating Critical, or just leave them in and live with their shortcomings, like HiPS. The only way to make D/A bypass Freedom (and trust me, a few of us have argued it quite recently) would be to make a hack pack, which isn't in the cards for NS as we all know.

We've been working on modding some Assassin spells and giving them a token for poisons, as well as introducing poisons in general. They should be ready... soon!

[Maankin]

Poisons sound great
If the DC is high enough and the ability score damage significant it should give a complete new dimension to assassins.

[CrazyJ]

I miss the old BG style poison... hp damage.

[Cthulhu Drega]

Woot for poision but a question will other classes be able to use atleast some of these poisions? or strictly assassins?

[Death Dealer1]

thanks for the answers Yonwe, glad to know such a nice skill is atleast looked into for trueness capabilities.

poisons on the other hand maybe we should make poisons craftable like traps. introduce regents and herbs to combine like trap components to make vials of liquid. each regent would make a different kind of poison...all the stat draining poisons and maybe we could get a few xtra for some fun.

the more regents used would make the dc higher on the poison much like the dc/damage on traps. make a % chance of poisoning yourself when applying the poison to your blade, but the BG/assassin feat of poison makes you immune to this chance.

[Go'f]

what about if any weapon equiped by an assassin cast dispell freedom

[Death Dealer1]

is there any way to script a backdoor into a spell? say like freedom makes you immune to paralyze except if its from assassin Death attack or druid Stonehold?

[Maankin]

One can get the DC of death attach high enough to paralyze almost every PC in the game with fair certainty except for fighter type classes and monks which by default don't have access to freedom.
It's true that the paralyzation effect of death attack has a duration that's too long to have no counter. It would be ridiculous: in PVP, if you'd fail your spot/listen check (not that uncommon versus a rogue type build) you'd be paralyzed for the rest of the match.
All caster classes have trouble with the freedom spell. They loose the effect of grease, evard's black tentacles, slow, web, entangle, acid cloud, stonehold (would be way overpowerd if it didn't have a couterspell), hold person, spike growth, vine mine, and probably more spells.
Put in potent poisons (for example 2d4 strength damage dc (assassin level+10) 1 turn duration) and combined with sneak damage you have a nice advantage at the start of a fight.
Maybe remove the see invisibility and/or ultravision spell from in game items, that would also help.

[Death Dealer1]

with the assassin unable to get hips it is most unlikely to kill every build on NS4. i dont think the hide/ms of an assassin can get high enough to counter some of the spotting clerics that run rampant over the land. not to mention that in order for that to even work you have to be hiding before someone is close, which means you will lie in wait for a long time.

[MLoki]

Actually all you have to do is have a high enough initiative to guarantee the first attack of every battle to be able to use D/A effectively. Not sure if it really needs that much of a buff really.

MLoki

[Binkyuk]

Again, Death Attack -> Death. What's so ridiculous about a DEATH attack paralysing until you can kill them?
True the DC can be boosted pretty high, but it requires a large number of Assassin levels or a sky high Int, and you'll need Dex for AB ('cos if you don't hit with the D/A the DC don't matter...) The assassin's other class abilities don't exactly rock, they get average skill points and bad saves, offset by extra sneak damage and imp invis. meanwhile the closest other class gets double the skill and cool bonus feats.

I'm a little disturbed by MLoki's comments though. I was under the impression that you were considered In Combat for D/A after clicking Attack on someone, not when you first swing. In any case this only allows you to D/A non-ranged PCs 'cos anyone ranged will just shoot or cast at you while you're out of sneak range.

In any case if the Assassin is alone then it probably won't work anyway. D/A only works within 15', and if your opponent is focusing on you you won't get a Death Attack on them in the same way you won't get a Sneak, so all they have to do in practice is click on you. I guess if you're with others though you can shoot any that don't go for you specifically.

Unless of course you hide and sneak up on them, then the rules completely change.