Thief vs assassin

[6h0$t942]

Gloomstalker ranger 5/ "rogue" 3. I can always change it up but right now im leaning toward thief. Extra off hand attack vs advantage on enemies that havent attacked yet. Its an interesting choice. The "regain your action at start of combat" seems rather pointless as if you enter combat in turn based mode you get it back anyway. Assassin would be far more thematic. Any dialogue option differences?

The hand crossbow barrage is absolutely nuts, and the +to hit roll on the darkness shortbow is also really good.
Thoughts?

[Moffin Bovin]

if you start a combat by doing an attack then when that character gets its turn, it doesn't have an action.

the assassin gets its action back. Its like having 2 actions in the first turn. its a good class if you have played the game before and know which combats you are going to get into.

But if you walk up to every group and talk to them to see what they have to say then its not so great value.

[Kryldost]

I used to prefer thief cuz I could get 6 lightning charge on the first turn but seems like the boots activate only once per turn despite being no mention of it :( I like assassin since I can sneak attack from the start. But the full action from entering combat outside of it is quite handy. I had to attack 3 times ez.

[Empukris]

Assasin require you to know that you have a battle coming. Many encounter in this game is either after conversation or ambush. So unless you savescum you hardly ever use the benefit. Thief overall just much more simpler and better.

[AvivLobel]

i will grab 4 assassin if he is ur battle opener . for extra feat .
the crit on surprise + extra attack from ranger and extra extra attack from gloom and insane
also assassin have high initiative so u allways go first.
try DW hand crossbow and GG

at this point u can basically solo the game if u keep attack then hide.
i know i clear the gith temple only with this build solo.

[Goilveig]

Originally posted by 6h0$t942:

The "regain your action at start of combat" seems rather pointless as if you enter combat in turn based mode you get it back anyway.

It means you can Sneak Attack from outside of combat, trigger a surprise round, and act in that surprise round even though technically you used your action for the round already.

Astarion is my Doom Stalker / Assassin, and I find that Assassin synergizes nicely with Doom Stalker's extra opening attack - stacking that extra attack along with two Sneak Attacks on round 1 is great. The second* is even a guaranteed crit if it hits, which it is likely to since you are attacking with advantage.

* Technically the first hit, which begins combat, doesn't count as "surprise" because the creature gains the condition after the fight begins. TBH I think both should crit, but them's the breaks,

[Muffanzo]

Originally posted by Moffin Bovin:

if you start a combat by doing an attack then when that character gets its turn, it doesn't have an action.

enter turnbased mode before attacking, it fixes this, also if you have extra attack you get that extra attack before starting your "next action"

thief is just the better one overall in terms of utility.

[HozzMidnight]

I think Thief, late act 2 when you can get the 2 good hand crossbows, is better until you get the good act 3 longbow. The dead shot longbow you can buy is great and then assassin I think out plays thief. Can't really go wrong with either.

[Greenegg]

how I see it is it's thief if you plan to DW, assassin if you plan to use bows/2h crossbows

I've heard thief with 2 hand crossbows is nuts with gloomstalker and sharpshooter feat, that said my assassin/gloomstalker can kill a high priority target before they even get a turn and still have 2 attacks left over.

[Moffin Bovin]

I don't know if it was the last patch or the patch before but now everyone is getting all their actions back in the first round of combat. You don't need to enter turn based or anything its just automatically happening.

One of the assassins main features is now redundant. You still get auto crit's on surprised creatures and advantage on anything that hasn't taken a turn yet. but still.

The class is just really mid now.

[solaris32]

Thief all the way.