Assassins

[Marcethus]

I am sure that this has been brought up before but I was just wondering how others handle Assassins. Both as PC's and GMs just wondering.

[Borast]

With rubber gloves to avoid leaving prints...


Anyway. Sure. Go for it. Just remember though, do NOT screw the guild...or any OTHER A-Guild!

[Veknironth]

Well, there are no special rules or exceptions we use. It's just another character.

-Vek
"What did you mean?"

[Entiago]

As a GM, I like the assassin in a single player, or 2 player group. When in a larger group it is harder to cater to the assassin, but it is possible. At times I will take the assassin player on a single one-on-one session to do some dirty work, one that the other PC's would attest to.
But I'll tell you the best assassin is the Gosai assassin. that man is dangerous.

[Dustin Fireblade]

I am sure that this has been brought up before but I was just wondering how others handle Assassins. Both as PC's and GMs just wondering.

A PC assasin will usually not advertise himself as such, and will often work alone. (We've had several players do solo missions when this OCC was selected)
By building a small network of informants and associates though he can really help the group.

As a GM though I normally prefer to use bounty hunters, and will taylor the NPC's to properly challenge a party. Assasins would be limited in use.

[Marcethus]

thanks for the info so far and to clarify what I meant is how do you as Players play your assassins and GMs how do you handle assassins when you have them in your player group or as an NPC directed against the PC's

Me Personally I love the Assassin OCC if the group is predominately evil and the game a "Assassin's Game" (I Have been in one of these it died before it really got off the ground) I play it as well an Assassin selling his services for whatever reward he can get depending on the job. Now for the groups where it isn't such a good idea to advertise that you are a Killer for Hire I play them as they are out in the world to gain strength and knowledge for later use amongst their guild or start their own guild. Sometimes I play them as Enforcers/Bodyguards.

[Killer Cyborg]

what I meant is how do you as Players play your assassins and GMs how do you handle assassins when you have them in your player group

Sometimes they are just openly assassins, but it depends on the player. One player insisted that he wanted his character to look just like the guy in the picture. He pretty much went around saying "I'm a deadly assassin!"

On the other hand, my only Palladium Assassin character was Elias Golden, an elf who posed as an assassin. He acted noble and, for all intents and purposes, just like the epitome of Paladinhood. Unless he got hired to kill somebody, then he's poison their soup when they weren't looking or use other backhanded means.
Nobody ever suspected him.

or as an NPC directed against the PC's

I ran a bunch of Palladium pre-written adventures for my Rifts Group. I downgraded their MDC to SDC, but that's the only conversion changes I made.
The party got ahold of the Eternity Sword, which is cursed. The original owner of the blade, The Hunter (an assassin), tracks and kills anybody who bonds with the blade, then he returns it to the Old Ones' Lair where it belongs.
In this case, the sword was taken from the Old Ones' Lair by the party Air Warlock, then traded to Stormin' Norman Patton (former Special Forces, former Juicer, and currently an Elf due to a long story).
The Hunter is a 10th level Assassin, 4th Level Healer, with 70 hp, +5 strike/parry/dodge, and hard leather armor. He has no magical gear, but does start with some poisons.
He stalked the party for some time, realizing that they were too powerful to take head on. Eventually, he ambushed and killed the party air warlock in town and looted the body. He took the rune sword Lytesong off the body and traded it for a LOT of magical gear and a permanently warded Shadow Meld spell. After that, it was a lot of hit and run ambushes for a while. He shot Norman in the head with a poisoned crossbow bolt, but Norman was really tough and immune to poison. Norman posed a challenge because he was very tough, and his 6th Sense protected him from most ambushes.
The Hunter changed strategies and started approaching the party in various disguises. He traveled with them several times in a number of disguises, even fighting at their side from time to time, and they STILL don't know which NPCs were him and which weren't. He learned more about the party and their weaknesses (which were very few). Finally, The Hunter confronted Norman in the middle of a battlefield. Norman waded through the fighting throngs of people, making his way to The Hunter and got hit a number of times along the way. They fought, and The Hunter won, killing Norman. Unfortunately for him, a witch named Crusia Kittarn then released the demon Aggan-Wind from the Ultimax Deathstone Crystal, and the demon sucked the air out of the lungs of everybody within a mile. This killed everybody on the battlefield, including The Hunter.
Unfortunately for the party, they managed to ressurect everbody on the battlefield, including Norman and The Hunter. The Hunter was raised first (unrecongnized), and he swiped the Eternity Sword and returned it back to the Old Ones' Lair, leaving a note for Norman warning him not to take it again.
Norman, of course, took the sword again and The Hunter is back on his trail.

[Marcethus]

That's exacly the sort of thing I am looking for.

[Veknironth]

Well, we had a guy who was an assassin in the group and he joined the guild in Old Timiro. We just happened to be in that city for an extended period. He did that to avoid being persecuted by the guild if he operated within their area of influence. That's an issue to consider. IF a PC is running around collecting marks in a guild's territory, there will be problems. That guild will probably make a visit to the PC and tell him to stop.

That happened in our campaign, although with a theives guild. There was a duo who had an inventive way to steal from people. The local guild figured it out and told these guys to stop. They didn't the guild put a price on their heads. One guy sold the other out, but he escaped. The price went up and the assassin who had recently joined the guild joined our group to kill the mark. Eventually he did. I wrote a little story about it. Well, it and some other things that happened at the time. REad it if you have a few minutes to kill.

http://www.geocities.com/veknironth/Timiro.htm
-Vek
"That was fun."

[Entiago]

Most assassins have a several cover "jobs" to blend in with society.

An apprentice in almost any field can go alot more places than a person who only has "Assassin" on his reasume.

I allow those players who want to play assassins more skills (but at little or no progression) just to be able to talk the talk, if they get questioned.

This is a good point. If you have a PC playing an Assassin...it's probably not a good idea to announce you're an assassin, or cover your face in broad daylight and walk around in black saying melodramatically, "My business...is my own". Too many players want to do those sorts of dramatics.

Yeah, in real life it is the unexpeded whom are the assasins. If they went around saying about their business then eventually someone would bump them off. You don't declare publicly that you are an assassin and expect to get away with murder..... Think if there was a nobal assassinated and Joe Shmoe says while walking in the market "I am an assassin, I'll kill whoever for whatever." That or he looks like an assassin. Then the local enforcement agency will grab him and accuse him of the murder.

One assassin that was played used different costumes for different cities. The greatest murder....when he was dressed as a priest of Light.

[Killer Cyborg]

I highly suggest picking up the Assassin's Apprentice books by Robin Hobb. It details out the life of a fantasy world assassin pretty darn well. Most of his work is poisoning people subtly, but he sometimes has to use an axe as well.
Really, I also reccomend this series for anybody who likes good fantasy literature.

[Killer Cyborg]

One of my characters considers himself an assassin, and works as one, but his OCC is Longbowman. Assassins are like mercenaries, you don't have to be one to work as one.

[Marcethus]

I agree KC that any class is suitable for assassins work

[Marcethus]

Yea I seem to always play my assassins as aberrant

[The Plague]

Well, we had a guy who was an assassin in the group and he joined the guild in Old Timiro. We just happened to be in that city for an extended period. He did that to avoid being persecuted by the guild if he operated within their area of influence. That's an issue to consider. IF a PC is running around collecting marks in a guild's territory, there will be problems. That guild will probably make a visit to the PC and tell him to stop.

That happened in our campaign, although with a theives guild. There was a duo who had an inventive way to steal from people. The local guild figured it out and told these guys to stop. They didn't the guild put a price on their heads. One guy sold the other out, but he escaped. The price went up and the assassin who had recently joined the guild joined our group to kill the mark. Eventually he did. I wrote a little story about it. Well, it and some other things that happened at the time. REad it if you have a few minutes to kill.

http://www.geocities.com/veknironth/Timiro.htm
-Vek
"That was fun."

Liked the story allot . I'll read the rest someday soon. I just wondered, is Iriel an assasin? Dialen Veknironth is a mage, Sovalium a mindmage, Xakatis a palladin and I'm not sure about Al’don Garimor, an elven Noble/Knight/Palladin?

[Killer Cyborg]

Arilyn Moonblade, from Forgotten Realms Harpers books, was labeled an assassin by many, simply because anyone who fought her died.

That, and the fact that she'd sneak into their rooms at night and challenge them to a duel...

[Killer Cyborg]

Arilyn Moonblade, from Forgotten Realms Harpers books, was labeled an assassin by many, simply because anyone who fought her died.

That, and the fact that she'd sneak into their rooms at night and challenge them to a duel...

That's a minor technicality!

She's a cool character, though...
The AD&D novels had a number of characters that were cool because of game mechanics. Arilyn was a Lawful Good assassin. Olive Ruskettle couldn't be a bard because the rules forbid halflings to be bards, so she was a thief who played a musical instrument and who was a bard in reputation only.
This is the sort of thing that I love to see in novel adaptations of games; places where the author uses the rules of the game to make the book better.
The Magic: The Gathering novels were all crap, party due to the fact that they ignored the rules constantly.

[Son of Khoron]

Played an Assassin once in PFRPG.
Treated her like a regular hired warrior-type as everyone else did, her alignment was anarchist but she remained cool on her attitude so she could remain in the group. Eventually she changed to diabolical.

Under threat of death and blackmail, she worked for a regent as a intelligence agent behind-the-scenes...she did the dirty and wet works.

Was able to, under 2 DMs approval, obtain certain benefits that will never happen ever again:
1. second OCC as a Necromancer; and
2. create munchkin poisons from common household items.

With necromantic magic, she could interrogate prisoners quite easily: torture him/her until info given; or
kill him/her and ask same questions to their undead body.

Eventually, she managed to escape the regent, joined a secret assassin group, currently plotting to kill the group's headmaster.

One of the best characters I played.

[Marcethus]

Vek Great story I will have to read the others when I have time.

Kdaini interesting Idea.

[Sir Blayse]

Oops... Wrong room. Quietly make my way out.
Too many bad guys...

[Marcethus]

*laughs evilly and plots on how to use the Cyber Knight for all sorts of evil purposes*

[Sir Blayse]

I've been through the deserts of Hell... Not so much fun.

[Borast]

Played an Assassin once in PFRPG.
Treated her like a regular hired warrior-type as everyone else did, her alignment was anarchist but she remained cool on her attitude so she could remain in the group. Eventually she changed to diabolical.

Under threat of death and blackmail, she worked for a regent as a intelligence agent behind-the-scenes...she did the dirty and wet works.

Was able to, under 2 DMs approval, obtain certain benefits that will never happen ever again:
1. second OCC as a Necromancer; and
2. create munchkin poisons from common household items.

With necromantic magic, she could interrogate prisoners quite easily: torture him/her until info given; or
kill him/her and ask same questions to their undead body.

Eventually, she managed to escape the regent, joined a secret assassin group, currently plotting to kill the group's headmaster.

One of the best characters I played.

Another option would be diabolist...you can do LOTS of fun stuff with an anarchist (or "worse") diabolist...

As for creating "munchkin poisons" from houshold items...most of the items FOUND in a mideival home were toxic, from the lady's make-ups to cleaning chemicals. Plus the typical soap used is lye based, and is capable of causing extreme tissue damage and death, then there is many of the medicines found in a medeival medicine cabinet were HIGHLY toxic. Hell, many of the medicines used TODAY will kill if the doseage is even slightly off! (Especially most of the cancer medicines!)

[Killer Cyborg]

Another option would be diabolist...you can do LOTS of fun stuff with an anarchist (or "worse") diabolist...

Good point.
They're the kings of booby-traps.

As for creating "munchkin poisons" from houshold items...most of the items FOUND in a mideival home were toxic, from the lady's make-ups to cleaning chemicals. Plus the typical soap used is lye based, and is capable of causing extreme tissue damage and death, then there is many of the medicines found in a medeival medicine cabinet were HIGHLY toxic. Hell, many of the medicines used TODAY will kill if the doseage is even slightly off! (Especially most of the cancer medicines!)

Yeah.
One area that most RPGs really fall apart on is poisons, probably because they don't like "save or die" situations.
But there are so many poisons that are so lethal, that I don't think that "save or take some damage" really covers it.
AD&D3's rules where poisons damage attributes work better, but still not that satisfying.
There should be more poisons where, once you get it, you are just going to die (barring magical treatment), whether it takes days, weeks, or even months.

[Borast]

Another option would be diabolist...you can do LOTS of fun stuff with an anarchist (or "worse") diabolist...

Good point.
They're the kings of booby-traps.

Actually, the diabolist can torture simply by tracing a SINGLE ward on the body of his victim (ie: burning agony). The diabolist can even limit the damage to a single point, although all the other effects are present (pain, skill penalties, etc)

As for creating "munchkin poisons" from houshold items...most of the items FOUND in a mideival home were toxic, from the lady's make-ups to cleaning chemicals. Plus the typical soap used is lye based, and is capable of causing extreme tissue damage and death, then there is many of the medicines found in a medeival medicine cabinet were HIGHLY toxic. Hell, many of the medicines used TODAY will kill if the doseage is even slightly off! (Especially most of the cancer medicines!)

Yeah.
One area that most RPGs really fall apart on is poisons, probably because they don't like "save or die" situations.
But there are so many poisons that are so lethal, that I don't think that "save or take some damage" really covers it.
AD&D3's rules where poisons damage attributes work better, but still not that satisfying.
There should be more poisons where, once you get it, you are just going to die (barring magical treatment), whether it takes days, weeks, or even months.

Download the netbook of poisons, the netbook of herbs, etc...

They are primarily for AD&D...but still, easily adaptable.

Simple modifications... Lethal poisons do damage direct to HP. Non-Lethal that do damage do it to SDC first.

As for attribute damage, I think I've seen that for Palladium. For these toxins, make the attribute damage (or part/most) permanent. After all, a neurotoxin damages nerves, and that is damage that can not be healed, routed around, sometimes, but not repaired.

Problem is, most people don't run poisons properly...a poison with a 3 day onset generally "does damage immediately" in most campaigns. That, and something hits/bites you and the GM tells you to make a save, the player's first reaction is "crap, poison...someone hit me with a Neutralise Poison (or equivalent)!"

Suggestion to GMs: Have all your players give you a list of die rolls (20-30 or so) that you can use for their saves when you do NOT want them realising right away what is going on! Then all you have to do is some quick research on symptoms and damage done to the body, and lay it on them step by step until they realise that they've been poisoned! (Or, in an assassination situation, use either multi-stage poisons [food+drink+lit specially treated candle=dead] or miniscule doses so there is no trace they can detect! In this last case, each save simply means that the poison has not yet reached lethal/debilitating levels! )

[Son of Khoron]

Played an Assassin once in PFRPG.
Treated her like a regular hired warrior-type as everyone else did, her alignment was anarchist but she remained cool on her attitude so she could remain in the group. Eventually she changed to diabolical.

Under threat of death and blackmail, she worked for a regent as a intelligence agent behind-the-scenes...she did the dirty and wet works.

Was able to, under 2 DMs approval, obtain certain benefits that will never happen ever again:
1. second OCC as a Necromancer; and
2. create munchkin poisons from common household items.

With necromantic magic, she could interrogate prisoners quite easily: torture him/her until info given; or
kill him/her and ask same questions to their undead body.

Eventually, she managed to escape the regent, joined a secret assassin group, currently plotting to kill the group's headmaster.

One of the best characters I played.

Another option would be diabolist...you can do LOTS of fun stuff with an anarchist (or "worse") diabolist...

As for creating "munchkin poisons" from houshold items...most of the items FOUND in a mideival home were toxic, from the lady's make-ups to cleaning chemicals. Plus the typical soap used is lye based, and is capable of causing extreme tissue damage and death, then there is many of the medicines found in a medeival medicine cabinet were HIGHLY toxic. Hell, many of the medicines used TODAY will kill if the doseage is even slightly off! (Especially most of the cancer medicines!)

The munchkin poisons themselves were a product of two GMS who had a spat at one point in the game....GM #1 decided to give poison recipes but the details were to be told on next session.
The next session, GM #2 took over because GM #1 wanted to be solely a player. GM #1 still didnt have the poison recipes yet, GM #2 made up his own recipes. GM#1 stated he will not allow it in his game, despite he hasnt GM since.

1. save or all actions are at -6 penalty for 6 rounds
2. save or be paralyzed
3. save or fall asleep
4. save or die

My assassin would hit the opponent with poison #1 then sic the other poison types.