Are Assassins just bad or is there something I'm not seeing?

[Knight]

They only gain two unique benefits. The first gives them a great turn one in the battle, allowing them to guarantee a crit, they make for fantastic sneak attack experts at the start of combat. Then after that initial moment they lose all value that any other class could bring to the table. They can shred a couple units early late game, but you'll begin to see the declining benefits of this abilitiy when there's a mob of 20 units attacking you, or when you're up against an unsurprised boss.

The second bonus they get at level 9 is an appearance change!? The disguise spell is free for me in this game because I get Fane's hat. Or I could buy/use spells/potions. The value of this ability looks awful.

[Ackranome]

Rogue is better.

[Metrod125]

I think the main deal with Assassin is to take out high-threat targets (outside of bosses) like spell casters (or gnolls that shoot you with 3 attacks every round at level 4)

[Don Cool]

Originally posted by Metrod125:

I think the main deal with Assassin is to take out high-threat targets (outside of bosses) like spell casters (or gnolls that shoot you with 3 attacks every round at level 4)

And it doesn´t seem to work when initiating combat, it has to be in the first turn, tried the assassin to see if I could get some sneaky crits by initiating ... that didn´t work.

So, the thief can just equip a second hand crossbow and pretty much get the same results by having an extra off hand attack, especially when initiating and retreating without getting caught.

[victorvnv]

On its own, a purse assassin sucks.

But assassin 5/ gloom stalker 5/ warrior 2 let’s you have a monster turn one beating bake to make 7 attacks , all of which with advantage and all of which crits if you surprise the enemy . You get your opener stealth attack which doesn’t cost action if you open, then dread ambusher , then 2 normal attacks, then 2 more from action surge and one bonus if you have 2 crossbows .

That plus the naturally high initiative allows you to assassinate several opponents or even a major boss.

But yea it peaks at lvl 4-5 and you don’t get much more really good stuff after so best to multiclass it

[Hex]

Thief is way better, You get 2 bonus actions so you can bonus action dash and bonus action stealth every turn and get sneak attacks from range with large to-hit bonuses because you're hiding every turn.

[EnemigoDeLaMafia]

I found it underwhelming and went with ranger. i couldn't make it work. He doesn't get double attack, so then he losses the dps race. At least ranger does get double attack.

[Don Cool]

Originally posted by Disciple.:

I found it underwhelming and went with ranger. i couldn't make it work. He doesn't get double attack, so then he losses the dps race. At least ranger does get double attack.

You can always deep the ranger into thief 4 for the extra bonus action (+ feat) which allows to both dash and hide in the same turn ... or fire with bonus actions. The ranger doomstalker also gets that sweet first turn attack ... with double hand crossbows he can make 5 attacks in one round by level 8 with no help from potions or other spells/abilities. That´s with 3 thief and 5 ranger.

[Mirri]

I like my assassin but I do agree that it drops off in later levels. I stopped at 8 so I got the feat and then switched to ranger. I also found the level 9 benefit to be meh.

[VladK02]

Yeah its not really good by itself. Multiclass it into gloomstalker/fighter as mentioned above.

That said - most fights, you arent fighting 20 dudes. You are fighting 4-6 enemies. Assasin kills 1-2, guaranteed, at the start, using special arrow. Its all about that first hit, so you stack it up, and assasin kills the most dangerous enemy on the field. Job done.

That said. Most dangerous enemies on the field in act 3 are bane casters/monks, who have Unstoppable 5. So your 1st shot, and the subsequent 4 shots, go down the drain. Which is bullcrap by the way.

So, assasin is a bit of a wasted class.

You can build one as a hireling, and take him out for a spin for the one specific fight you need him. I cant think of any act 3 fights where turn 1 burst damage would matter, but in theory, hireling.

I do the same for stealing thief. i have a hireling rogue/bard (for cats grace and other self buffs), and i take him out when i need to rob merchants. Then back into the closet he goes. So you can do the same with assasin.

But....rogue is better. Extra action is OP.

[Tingly]

I suppose the idea with assassin is that you're attacking enemies first from outside of battle, which seems like it isn't an option in some cases and is dis-incentivized in others. I prefer Thief's bonus action for being a more robust benefit.

[GeminiEclipse]

You aren't missing anything. They are stronger early on compared to later when you can really make use of thief bonus action with multiclass.

[wendigo211]

Assassin's good to maybe level 6? After that the HP bloat limits it and Thief is better.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

the abilities are bugged too - thief is by far the best rogue subclass

[Zackerie]

what you want from leveling up assassin is sneak attack dice, that is it. the rest of the goodies you get, you get right away. Goes good with a gloomstalker ranger as others have mentioned. of course sneak attack dice come with all rogue classes. it seems people love hand crossbows and thief but I'm meh on it. I definitely play in such as way I want the assassin goodies rather than an extra bonus action. but the play is gloomstalker first, until you get extra attack, and then assassin 7 for level 7 sneak attack dice. (or you can do thief and hand crossbow instead of heavy crossbow)

[DontMisunderstand]

There's one majorly important thing you're missing about the Assassin. Normally if you initiate combat from stealthy via an attack, that character loses their action for the 1st round of combat. The assassin restores that lost action. So, the "optimal" way to use the assassin is for the free attack to start combat and then another on their turn. This, to my understanding, also triggers a surprise round. So your entire party gets a free attack on the enemy during this round too. So effectively the assassin gets 2 free turns and the rest of your party gets a free turn as well. Though, being fair, doing this method with a Thief instead of an assassin means the rest of your party gets that free turn, and your thief still gets 1 extra bonus action on that one turn to make up for it.