Assassin (Dungeons & Dragons)

Assassin

A Dungeons & Dragons character class
Publication history
First appearance	Blackmoor
Editions	1st, 2nd (kit), 3rd (prestige class), 3.5 (prestige class), 4th
(as standard class)	1st, 3rd (prestige class), 3.5 (prestige class)
Source books	Blackmoor, Player's Handbook (1st), The Complete Thief's Handbook (2nd), Dungeon Master's Guide (3rd, 3.5), D&D Insider (4th)

The assassin is a playable character class in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It first appeared in 1975 in the Blackmoor supplement, as a thief sub-class. Assassins are killers and spies; the class is modeled on perceptions of real-world historical assassins.

Publication history

Original Dungeons & Dragons

The assassin first appeared in the Blackmoor supplement for the original Dungeons & Dragons game, as a thief sub-class. It had greater weapon options and more hit points than a thief, but fewer followers, and less skill in the thief special abilities. The class also had an ability to create a very convincing disguise. Finally, they were capable of performing "assassinations," often for an additional XP reward, although there was a chance for failure on this.

Shannon Appelcline (author of Designers & Dragons) wrote that "the biggest expansion in Blackmoor is its introduction of two new character classes [...]. Blackmoor's two new character classes were each innovative: [...] the assassin pushed even further than the thief toward the idea of evil PCs. Of all the rules in Blackmoor, these character classes survived the best into AD&D (1977-1979), but were then removed with the advent of AD&D 2e (1989)".

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition

The assassin was one of the player character classes available in the original Player's Handbook. In 1st Edition D&D, assassin was a sub-class of thief and available to characters starting at 1st level. The class included most class abilities of the thief class with an expanded weapon list and the ability to use shields. Assassins also had the "assassination" ability, offering a percentage chance to perform an assassination against a target.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition

The assassin was removed as a standard character class for the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The book Dungeons and Dragons Art and Arcana: A Visual History highlighted that "nearly ten years after the James Dallas Egbert III incident and countless attempts to soften its image, D&D still had a dangerous - even occult - connotation in some circles. [...] The newly released 2nd edition addressed these issues head-on with a strategic and deliberate softening of the content, which included the formal elimination of demons and devils, as well as the morally suspect assassin".

The Complete Thief's Handbook presented assassins as a "kit" (class variant) for the Thief class. The assassin was also reintroduced in The Scarlet Brotherhood and, thematically, in The Complete Ninja's Handbook.

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition

With the release of the third edition rules, the Assassin was reintroduced as a prestige class.

To become an assassin, the character must be of an evil alignment. He must also be skilled at disguising himself, moving silently and hiding from his targets. The final step is to prove his worth by hunting down and killing a target in cold blood, for no other reason than to prove his worthiness of the title.

The abilities of an assassin are aimed at being able to kill or incapacitate a target while reducing the risk to the individual assassin. They are skilled at dealing unexpected damage from sneak attacks and can poison their blades without the risk of accidentally poisoning themselves. With training they can deliver sneak attacks that can instantly kill their targets; alternatively, if the target is wanted alive they can merely paralyze the target, allowing time for them to be tied up, placed in manacles or otherwise restrained. At higher levels assassins can even hide themselves while in plain sight of an enemy.

Assassins gain a limited amount of magical talent, allowing them to cast arcane spells with a high enough intelligence. The spells are cast spontaneously in a similar manner to a bard or sorcerer in the 3.5 revision; in 3rd edition they cast more similarly to a wizard. The spell effects are generally those that make it easier to approach or kill a target, or those that aid the assassin's escape if discovered.

In the 3.5 revision, a psychic assassin prestige class was added to the game.

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition

In Dragon #379 (September 2009), the assassin was released as a separate class. Announced in June of that year, the assassin was the first D&D Insider exclusive class. Unlike previous editions, the assassin no longer needed an evil alignment. Chris Youngs, as editor-in-chief of Dragon, wrote "we've noticed a number of conversations about the necessity or value of the assassin class to a game that already features a strong rogue option. I've now seen the assassin first hand, and let me tell you: this is no rogue. The assassin plays, looks, and just fundamentally feels different from any other class in the game". It has the Striker role and the Shadow power source. The 4th edition version of the assassin had a variety of powers based on manipulating shadow, drawing on the power of the Shadowfell.

In Player's Option: Heroes of Shadow, the Assassin build of "heroic executioner" is presented with an altered build that focuses more on a martial version of the shadow powers, as well as an emphasis on poison use.

Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition

Assassins appear in the Player's Handbook for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, as one of the archetypes for the Rogue class. This subclass is defined by their assassinate ability which allows them to do a high amount of damage to a single target in combat.

Reception

Scott Baird, on the most broken Dungeons & Dragons classes across editions for Screen Rant, wrote "the original version of the assassin from the first edition Player's Handbook had one of the most broken abilities in the game, as they had a roughly 50% chance of instantly slaying an opponent if they managed to surprise them and hit them with a backstab. Assassins returned in The Complete Thief's Handbook, but they lost their incredible backstab and became focused on using poison in battle. Assassins became a prestige class in the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons and they did have the ability to instantly slay an opponent, but they had to observe them uninterrupted for three rounds, which made it far less useful in a fight".

Alex Lucard, in a review of the new character themes from the 4th edition Neverwinter Campaign Setting (2011) for Diehard Gamefan, highlighted two themes for the assassin class. Lucard wrote that the Renegade Red Wizard theme's "Level 1 Feature is okay if you specifically go for a ranged assassin build" but "the rest is just…not enough". On the Scion of Shadow theme, he wrote "it’s a nice build, especially for a rogue or assassin type character. Plus, anything that increases your hit point recovery is fine with me".

Jonathan Bolding, in a breakdown of the classes from the 5th edition Player's Handbook (2014) for Escapist, wrote that the rogue is defined by "abilities that make them hard to catch in addition to their classic sneak attack. Their specializations are Roguish Archetypes. [...] The Assassin has a suite of abilities based around impersonating, infiltrating, and murdering".

Glenn Carreau, for Game Rant, highlighted that, of the six 5th edition rogue archetypes, the assassin isn't the strongest build for the class. He wrote "as for the rest of the roguish archetypes, their flaw tends to be that they're strong in the one type of situation they're built for and average in every other sense. Take the assassin, for example: when the assassin can get the drop on an enemy, they deal insane amounts of damage in a hit, but once regular combat begins they don't really have anything special up their sleeve like a swashbuckler or arcane trickster might. Players can still get some great use out of them or any other rogue, but the best build award goes to the two aforementioned archetypes".

Sax Carr, in a breakdown of the 5th edition rogue archetypes for Geek & Sundry, wrote "until the introduction of Swashbucklers, the Assassin was supposed to be the more combat savvy variant, but this didn’t exactly play out. Their 'assassinate' ability is pretty impressive but can only be used once, maybe twice, each combat". He also highlighted that some of their key abilities take time and resources to use and that "these abilities really need some investment from your Dungeon Master to play into and many published adventures simply won’t provide opportunities to use it".

After the Game of Thrones episode "The Long Night", Christian Hoffer, for ComicBook, highlighted that Arya's killing blow was a classic example of a 5th edition assassin rogue. He wrote "given that Arya is an experienced assassin (training with the Faceless Men will do that), she probably would get at least 8D6 or more in bonus damage in addition to whatever damage her Valyrian Catspaw Dagger did. [...] Her actions in the episodes shouldn't be a surprise in the least. All Arya did was roll really high on her Stealth check and then score a Sneak Attack when it counted the most, to end the threat of the White Walkers once and for all".