Imagine assassin, who is literally so nice and so kind so fucking cheerful that you think he is either a bard monk or some sort of cleric and then it turns out he’s actually a rogue assassin in my mind, played right
Personally I took the Faceless Background and my public face was the motley wearing entertainer with a cloak of many colors that reversed into the conventional night stalking black. Kind and friendly in the streets, precise and deadly in the shadows. XD
That is how I play them. Charisma being the highest stat, expertese in deception and insight. (The stealth-perception of the social situations). Of course, in the apropriate campaign. Wouldn't work that well in constant dungeon delving.
@@cyruslupercal9493 what if it wasn’t deception what if it was persuasion? What if you never tell a lie technically speaking, I know eventually you’ll get caught depending on who’s asking the specific questions but I think that would be a fun addition to this assassin character besides them being really friendly they are completely 100% honest lol
I've always felt that Surprised condition can also be the victim has no idea your assassin is a threat. The best assassin players aren't super edgy but blend in to whatever environment so well they can come & go as they please without raising suspicion. (looking at you historically accurate ninja types)
Here's how to play a good assassin while in a party of not rogues. It's actually pretty simple, and kinda ironic. Be a loner. I don't mean never talk to the party or shit like that, I mean when you're going into a situation where you know there's gonna be a fight, fuck off on your own, use your busted stealth check, and hide somewhere nearby until the fight starts, or is just about to start. Get your assassinate attack in, and start the fight with a plus. This works even when your party is trying to be sneaky. The assassin separates a bit from the party, either going ahead in tighter quarters, but with far superior sneakiness, or literally separating like watching from afar, depending on environment. Now if your party gets caught, and they will because the Paladin can be heard for miles, you won't be caught and the enemies will believe they've caught the whole group, meaning when a knife or arrow takes them in the back, they'd be quite surprised. This is actually really useful, because your group can infiltrate somewhere and then BE LOUD to draw attention and you the rogue can stay hidden to do the job you needed to do much easier while they pull aggro. Too many people think in order to do a heist you need the whole party to be very quiet, or once someone is caught you have to just go loud. This isn't true at all, so long as ONE person can stay sneaky, it does not matter how many other people aren't sneaky. So long as everyone's working towards the goal, you only need one person who remains unseen. If your party is going into a situation where they're gonna try to talk but it MIGHT turn into a brawl, the rogue isn't the face of the party, so always break off from the group and hide nearby, then be ready to start the fight if your teammates can't navigate the encounter peacefully. If they CAN defuse the situation, awesome, you just come out of hiding when appropriate. If they can't, you get to deal major damage right away. Assassin rogues especially should always prefer to go into a maybe peace maybe fighting situation unseen. You can interact with the party and other characters plenty, but the iffy situations you should always err on the side of silence. If your DM decides it doesn't count as a surprise attack if ANYONE in your party has been seen even if you're completely hidden in a totally different part of the room, apply pressure to the wound, call an ambulance, and renegotiate that ruling on the way to the emergency room.
Another options for being an assassin in a party of non rouges is to go high charisma. Be talkative and charming to get the target to welcome you into their home. *cheerful blond weclomes the group with fresh baked cookies* Cleric: "There are an assassin? But they are so nice." Thief rouge who knows the assassin: "How do you think she got so close to her targets? She killed (insert high profile dead noble) with a plate of poisoned snicker doodles." Rest of the party: *looks worried and spits out the cookies they were chewing*
Surprised isn’t them being surprised of you but a condition, the moment anyone in the party is caught the only feature of assassinate that works is the advantage on attack not the auto crit.
...if you're fighting in the dark. 2014 Assassin needs so much to go their way or is so hyperspecific that 95% of the time, you essentially have no subclass.
Rogue Assassin 3 Whisper Bard 6 Gloomstalker Ranger 5 and 4 more levels into Bard makes you a great combat class, with expertise in a lot of skills and some great utility spells via Magical Secrets (such as Haste), grab a Longbow for your weapon of choice and snipe your enemies from the dark, then use your Whisper Bard ability to make their face yours. I would grab a variant human for eldritch adept and get the Sweet Talker invocation (for lore issues) or half elf for two extra skills
@renedamasio I feel like you shouldn't have to mukticlass that much to make a character work. maybe if you're a serious min/maxxer but for a game focused on roleplay, you should be able to play as any class or subclass and enjoy the fantasy of inhabiting that role
@@fallingupwards7974 Bro, but my character Idea can only be achieved with these multiclasses lol. I get a ton of expertise and a lot of useful and cool abilities which can't be achieved with a single class and c'mon most of these classes have bad abilities alone and If my archetype is a character like Leliana from Dragon Age (which that's the Idea behind the build) but with a ton of Magic (from both Bard and ranger) that's the best, fun and cool way to make It work for me (i have a lot of exploration and social skills, on top of cool Magic and combat abilities cruz extra attack, archery, 20 DEX and Sharpshooter)... For a pure roleplay table there's no need to have a whole system for it, nor any or most any dice to roll... And a rp/social campaign you could be like eloquence Bard and almost never fail a Persuasion check lol
yeah honestly Assassins have the same problem as the Whispers bard, if to a far lesser degree, they are made to be covert agents type who can just spend a week planning how they are going to sneak into the King's bed room and end him in on strike before leaving without a trace.......in a game with other players.....who all are following the "it counts as stealth if we leave no witnesses alive right?" method.
Assassin is and Whispers are both single-player subclasses in a multiplayer game. 2024 Assassin fixes a LOT of the problems with the 2014 version, but it's still nowhere near as good as Soulknife (amazing skill monkey build with solid damage and utility) or Arcane Trickster (AT was the best in 2014 and got a massive buff with not being locked to Illusion/Enchantment spells).
my first rogue was an assasin rogue who was a news journalist who snuck into places and got the best news he could... sometimes he may had to 'accidientally' run into crime scenes to make news on
I think the false identity stuff should take varying amounts of time to work based on what you're trying to disguise yourself as. Just trying to be a common worker should only take an hour or so but if you want to pose as a noble/big merchant then seven days makes more sense to me
Perhaps a mechanic based around the income or status of the impersonation, with their social access counted as their status if higher. A nobles servants may be not upper class, but because they mix with them they are still more difficult than the identity of a shopkeeper. So the higher the rating, the more time it takes, maybe one day per status? And money is required per status/difficulty of the impersonation, with extra money spent as a multiplier to cut down the time needed. So a status two backstory cost twice as much and takes two days... but if you spend an extra 2x on top of that (so 4x base cost) you can do it in one day. And certain professions may have an additional difficulty multiplier on top of that. An indetity as a police investigator should be harder than that of a travelling merchant.
My issues with Assassin is that its a solo subclass in a group game and half its features are really janky. Its 3lvl feature has the usual issues with DM running surprise but also that after the first round of combat, the rogue doesnt have a subclass. The next 2 class features are out done with a 2 lvl dip in Warlock for Mask of Many Faces and the Actor feat. Death Strike is really fucking cool tho
Arcane Trickster can take Alter Self as one of their 2nd level spells to do the same thing without needing a dip...and they have invisible Mage Hand plus all the other Arcane Trickster spells available.
A Rogue Assassin 3 and some Whisper Bard lvl make a great stealth and social chameleon tyoe character. You could even get some Gloomstalker level if you want to be more offensive. Unfortunately both whisper and assassin have some great concept abilities, but these downtime to make it works makes kinda harsh to stick only in one of the classes but multiclassing both makes the abilities they gain to have a great synergy :) i would easily make something like Assassin 3 Whisper 3 or 6 and the rest of Gloomstalker. I'll get some great skills to expertise (deception, stealth, insight, perception and persuasion or even intimidation) on top of the offensive characteristics of the gloomstalker, maybe end with 2 or 3 lvls of Fighter for action surge and battlemaster maneuvers or some paladin to be like a spy/assassin for the nobles of my kingdom (i think oath of the Crown would make sense)...
Hold on: Vax'ildan was the GUY?! 😱 Seriously though, great content as usual! I'm now officially conflicted between this and the Swashbuckler for a new character. I hope you're proud of yourself, YMBA. 🤣
Personally I take the surprise as a stealth check, even when staring at their target in the face, because you are stealthiing you action. I have had plenty of relatives that surprise people while being in plain view. Also somewhat a quality of life upgrade for assassin's.
Why would an Assassin look like a stereotypical assassin? Make them colourful, flamboyant and charismatic so they can convince people they're NOT the killer.
Assassins based on charisma are prety good in campaigns where there is a lot of socialising. Instead of stealth vs perception it's deception/persuation/performance vs insight. In fact, only take assassin if it's a social campaign. A dex based assassin is just a base rogue most of the time.
My current assassin rogue is a princess from a distant country, I am an op killing machine having a 20 in dex and if you get the alert feat you’ll likely be getting assassinate each combat encounter.
I think a good way to play an Assassin would be the Sniper from TF2, or at least, the version from his Meet The Sniper trailer. He doesn't hold any animosity for his targets. This is just a job. Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
One thing I’ve added to assassinate is that the creature must be “surprised or unaware of your presence” in other words if you yourself have successfully hidden or gone invisible somehow before the enemy notices the party you can still trigger assassinate on one enemy before the rest of the enemies have noticed you.
Hey YMBA! I'd love to see you build characters out up to a certain level from movies, gaming, or literature. An example may be Anhelo, the Painter from Magic the Gathering. Love your channel regardless!
Netflix Punisher had 2 seasons, just like Luke Cage did. The only Netflix series that had one season was Defenders, which let's be honest was as much of a disaster as Iron Fist. I was really hoping in season 2 of Iron Fist they would kill off Danny Rand & past the torch to Colleen Wing, but apparently they didn't run with my idea.
Really an assassin isn’t a hero that would do anything slightest bit heroic. So an assassin is a very restrictive but also specific and just won’t work in a lot of things without changes to do so like the assassin had epiphany to be better or gets paid. So maybe what could make the role more malleable for broad campaigns is if you had a favoured enemy like mechanic so you could have an assassin that specialised in specific targets when they joined the party.
Blaines assassin rogue in the groteth campaign in Tales from the Stinky Dragon was a fun twist on the role, he's a happily married (to another assassin) man who retired, came out of retirement because his wife went missing. Definitely better than the edgelord murder hobo
Nowadays I think of The Ballad of Buster Skruggs, or a medieval Michael Keaton in Falling Down when I think of an assassin. Surprise can (and should) be established standing right in front of your mark, and they would never think in a million years that it's already too late. Getting older can be fun, you can do more and more weird sh!t and everyone just goes along with it. As long a you giv3 Maximum Effort (tm)
9:12 totally agree. The parts where dnd randomly goes "realistic" are so jarring given the genre of the game. Just let people do the dang thing. Like even rituals taking 10 minutes is needlessly long. Make it 1 minute and it's still balanced for combat without making everyone go "okay, I guess we wait here" lol
The best assassin in fiction is Yor from Spy Family imo. She’s got some edgy parts but it’s not her entire character. She just really really really good at killing, so she’s an assassin.
Back in the day assassins got better armor and weapons than a rogue/thief so they could pass as a fighter, ranger, bard, or dual/multi fighter/thief. But they are old rules just an example of how an assassin can establish thenselves as another class
You spec into assassin to be masters of precise death and edge I spec into assassin purely for the initiative and suprise advantage for some rootin tootin cowboy quickdraw fun We are not the same
2024: Also, at 1st level, rogues get 2 weapon masteries. Pick up a dagger with Nick and Short sword with Vex to give yourself advantage on a 2nd chance to do a sneak attack or pick up a short bow with Vex to get advantage every turn.
my assassin does not kill unless theres a job along with it. so when not going in a dungeons or being told to do something where we dont know combat will happen it can be an issue
I’m guessing YMBA isn’t gonna be using the 2024 PHB. Personally, 2014 Assassin is such a pain to deal with. Unless the DM is ready to mold the entire campaign around the Rogue player the entire campaign becomes messy. Relying on Surprise (which now also works different) is also really aggravating. Both for the Rogue and their party members.
2014 Assassin is barely a subclass in this multiplayer game (especially once the first round of combat is over). 2024 is better but still not great (Arcane Trickster and Soulknife are just so much better it isn't even funny).
@@Kylora2112 It doesn’t have to be better than the other subclasses. It just has to not break or ruin the game. You’re right, it was a single player subclass in a multiplayer game. Now that’s different, it’s better. If someone likes the fantasy of being an assassin then it doesn’t matter than another subclass is better. Not everyone is a meta gamer, touch some grass.
@@James-kv3ll I mean, half the problem is that you're just not getting to use your subclass features, and most of the features are easily replicated by an Arcane Trickster (Alter Self exists...not as bullet proof, but yeah...). It's not meta gaming to just say "all the stuff you think is cool just isn't going to come up in any typical game of D&D."
It’s kinda funny that nearly all of the Assassin art has them using daggers. But why use a d4 for your damage when you can use a d6 or a d8. The only reason to use a dagger is the thrown property, which is rarely a better choice than just using a short bow. 1 Level in Monk can fix that, which is really dumb.
My main issue with assassin is that it’s kind of lackluster as a subclass until damn near level 20 that doesn’t really hold its own very well and basically begs for multiclassing
Fantastic video as usual! This is only my opinion, but I come here to get away from all the divisive, outrage driven media and while I appreciate what you are trying to do with your final word, its still kinda depressing to mix irl outrage bs with d&d....even when it's a positive message. (And its incredibly tricky to avoid using words that may not mean what you or i think they mean. For example equity is the opposite of equality and the word "melting pot" can be seen by some as accepting all people & cultures as they are.....but to others it means forcing newcomer cultures to assimilate into the existing culture)
2014 Assassin is barely a subclass. Surprise rounds aren't always a given, and everything else is so hyperspecific it might as well be nothing (a week to make a fake identity will only come up in political intrigue campaigns...hell, even if it took 1 hour, it's still be mega-niche). And if you don't get surprise or roll bad for initiative, you might as well not even have a subclass. The 2024 PHB fixes most of the issues...advantage on initiative, better poisons (use 1d6 of Sneak Attack for 2d6 poison that ignores resistances) for theming, Masterful Mimicry is excellent (an hour studying to master someone's voice and/or handwriting), and Steady Aim doesn't cost movement.
It is a good subclass for social campaigns where there is a lot of in town skullduggery. Your best stat is charisma, you don't sneak, you talk (deception/persuasion/performance). Sleight of hand is good too to hide the blade or to slip it into your hand without notice.
Imagine assassin, who is literally so nice and so kind so fucking cheerful that you think he is either a bard monk or some sort of cleric and then it turns out he’s actually a rogue assassin in my mind, played right
Personally I took the Faceless Background and my public face was the motley wearing entertainer with a cloak of many colors that reversed into the conventional night stalking black. Kind and friendly in the streets, precise and deadly in the shadows. XD
@@LupineShadowOmega that’s cool
That is how I play them. Charisma being the highest stat, expertese in deception and insight. (The stealth-perception of the social situations).
Of course, in the apropriate campaign. Wouldn't work that well in constant dungeon delving.
@@cyruslupercal9493 what if it wasn’t deception what if it was persuasion? What if you never tell a lie technically speaking, I know eventually you’ll get caught depending on who’s asking the specific questions but I think that would be a fun addition to this assassin character besides them being really friendly they are completely 100% honest lol
Literally Leliana and Zevran from Dragon Age series xD
"Real gold is not afraid of a melting pot" is an amazing saying.
I'm stealing that, some day 😊
This has to be one of the greatest DnD channels there is, funny, cool and informative. Keep up the good job my g.
I like the idea of a aggressively, nice, optimistic and cheery assassin honest to God, Ned Flanders and or Mr. Rogers
I've always felt that Surprised condition can also be the victim has no idea your assassin is a threat. The best assassin players aren't super edgy but blend in to whatever environment so well they can come & go as they please without raising suspicion. (looking at you historically accurate ninja types)
I agree. A dexeption check to get the suprised condition is valid.
Here's how to play a good assassin while in a party of not rogues. It's actually pretty simple, and kinda ironic.
Be a loner.
I don't mean never talk to the party or shit like that, I mean when you're going into a situation where you know there's gonna be a fight, fuck off on your own, use your busted stealth check, and hide somewhere nearby until the fight starts, or is just about to start. Get your assassinate attack in, and start the fight with a plus.
This works even when your party is trying to be sneaky. The assassin separates a bit from the party, either going ahead in tighter quarters, but with far superior sneakiness, or literally separating like watching from afar, depending on environment. Now if your party gets caught, and they will because the Paladin can be heard for miles, you won't be caught and the enemies will believe they've caught the whole group, meaning when a knife or arrow takes them in the back, they'd be quite surprised. This is actually really useful, because your group can infiltrate somewhere and then BE LOUD to draw attention and you the rogue can stay hidden to do the job you needed to do much easier while they pull aggro. Too many people think in order to do a heist you need the whole party to be very quiet, or once someone is caught you have to just go loud. This isn't true at all, so long as ONE person can stay sneaky, it does not matter how many other people aren't sneaky. So long as everyone's working towards the goal, you only need one person who remains unseen.
If your party is going into a situation where they're gonna try to talk but it MIGHT turn into a brawl, the rogue isn't the face of the party, so always break off from the group and hide nearby, then be ready to start the fight if your teammates can't navigate the encounter peacefully. If they CAN defuse the situation, awesome, you just come out of hiding when appropriate. If they can't, you get to deal major damage right away.
Assassin rogues especially should always prefer to go into a maybe peace maybe fighting situation unseen. You can interact with the party and other characters plenty, but the iffy situations you should always err on the side of silence.
If your DM decides it doesn't count as a surprise attack if ANYONE in your party has been seen even if you're completely hidden in a totally different part of the room, apply pressure to the wound, call an ambulance, and renegotiate that ruling on the way to the emergency room.
Another options for being an assassin in a party of non rouges is to go high charisma. Be talkative and charming to get the target to welcome you into their home.
*cheerful blond weclomes the group with fresh baked cookies*
Cleric: "There are an assassin? But they are so nice."
Thief rouge who knows the assassin: "How do you think she got so close to her targets? She killed (insert high profile dead noble) with a plate of poisoned snicker doodles."
Rest of the party: *looks worried and spits out the cookies they were chewing*
Surprised isn’t them being surprised of you but a condition, the moment anyone in the party is caught the only feature of assassinate that works is the advantage on attack not the auto crit.
A few levels of Assassin go well with Gloom Stalker since your invisibility to Darkvision in darkness should, in theory, guarantee a Surprise round.
...if you're fighting in the dark. 2014 Assassin needs so much to go their way or is so hyperspecific that 95% of the time, you essentially have no subclass.
Rogue Assassin 3 Whisper Bard 6 Gloomstalker Ranger 5 and 4 more levels into Bard makes you a great combat class, with expertise in a lot of skills and some great utility spells via Magical Secrets (such as Haste), grab a Longbow for your weapon of choice and snipe your enemies from the dark, then use your Whisper Bard ability to make their face yours. I would grab a variant human for eldritch adept and get the Sweet Talker invocation (for lore issues) or half elf for two extra skills
@renedamasio I feel like you shouldn't have to mukticlass that much to make a character work. maybe if you're a serious min/maxxer but for a game focused on roleplay, you should be able to play as any class or subclass and enjoy the fantasy of inhabiting that role
@@fallingupwards7974 Bro, but my character Idea can only be achieved with these multiclasses lol. I get a ton of expertise and a lot of useful and cool abilities which can't be achieved with a single class and c'mon most of these classes have bad abilities alone and If my archetype is a character like Leliana from Dragon Age (which that's the Idea behind the build) but with a ton of Magic (from both Bard and ranger) that's the best, fun and cool way to make It work for me (i have a lot of exploration and social skills, on top of cool Magic and combat abilities cruz extra attack, archery, 20 DEX and Sharpshooter)... For a pure roleplay table there's no need to have a whole system for it, nor any or most any dice to roll... And a rp/social campaign you could be like eloquence Bard and almost never fail a Persuasion check lol
yeah honestly Assassins have the same problem as the Whispers bard, if to a far lesser degree, they are made to be covert agents type who can just spend a week planning how they are going to sneak into the King's bed room and end him in on strike before leaving without a trace.......in a game with other players.....who all are following the "it counts as stealth if we leave no witnesses alive right?" method.
Assassin is and Whispers are both single-player subclasses in a multiplayer game. 2024 Assassin fixes a LOT of the problems with the 2014 version, but it's still nowhere near as good as Soulknife (amazing skill monkey build with solid damage and utility) or Arcane Trickster (AT was the best in 2014 and got a massive buff with not being locked to Illusion/Enchantment spells).
Not even 4 seconds in and I burst out laughing new record
Love the outro. Good dude doing great content.
My group is blessed with two rogues: a tortle assassin and a harengon swashbuckler. We love them, and we call them Team Aesop.
Yeah now I gotta roll me up a rogue assassin. I just need to play it once just to see how well it all works
my first rogue was an assasin rogue who was a news journalist who snuck into places and got the best news he could... sometimes he may had to 'accidientally' run into crime scenes to make news on
I think the false identity stuff should take varying amounts of time to work based on what you're trying to disguise yourself as. Just trying to be a common worker should only take an hour or so but if you want to pose as a noble/big merchant then seven days makes more sense to me
Perhaps a mechanic based around the income or status of the impersonation, with their social access counted as their status if higher.
A nobles servants may be not upper class, but because they mix with them they are still more difficult than the identity of a shopkeeper.
So the higher the rating, the more time it takes, maybe one day per status?
And money is required per status/difficulty of the impersonation, with extra money spent as a multiplier to cut down the time needed.
So a status two backstory cost twice as much and takes two days... but if you spend an extra 2x on top of that (so 4x base cost) you can do it in one day.
And certain professions may have an additional difficulty multiplier on top of that.
An indetity as a police investigator should be harder than that of a travelling merchant.
Always know when I hear "Hey", it is about to be a good video.
Like an assassin, going first in turn order for that bonus!
My issues with Assassin is that its a solo subclass in a group game and half its features are really janky. Its 3lvl feature has the usual issues with DM running surprise but also that after the first round of combat, the rogue doesnt have a subclass.
The next 2 class features are out done with a 2 lvl dip in Warlock for Mask of Many Faces and the Actor feat.
Death Strike is really fucking cool tho
Arcane Trickster can take Alter Self as one of their 2nd level spells to do the same thing without needing a dip...and they have invisible Mage Hand plus all the other Arcane Trickster spells available.
This video reminded me of my Kobold Assasin who was trained by Cloud Giants. I think is pretty cool, and now really want a chance to play him.
A Rogue Assassin 3 and some Whisper Bard lvl make a great stealth and social chameleon tyoe character. You could even get some Gloomstalker level if you want to be more offensive. Unfortunately both whisper and assassin have some great concept abilities, but these downtime to make it works makes kinda harsh to stick only in one of the classes but multiclassing both makes the abilities they gain to have a great synergy :) i would easily make something like Assassin 3 Whisper 3 or 6 and the rest of Gloomstalker. I'll get some great skills to expertise (deception, stealth, insight, perception and persuasion or even intimidation) on top of the offensive characteristics of the gloomstalker, maybe end with 2 or 3 lvls of Fighter for action surge and battlemaster maneuvers or some paladin to be like a spy/assassin for the nobles of my kingdom (i think oath of the Crown would make sense)...
please next Tief
Ive been waiting for another rogue subclass
Hold on: Vax'ildan was the GUY?! 😱
Seriously though, great content as usual!
I'm now officially conflicted between this and the Swashbuckler for a new character.
I hope you're proud of yourself, YMBA. 🤣
40 seconds and im already in, it sure is a great day
Legendary video! Legendary closing message. Legendary YMBA❤️🔥🙌
Every D&D party I have been in has a rouge who becomes a phantom then switches to an assassin, or an assassin switching to a phantom.
Personally I take the surprise as a stealth check, even when staring at their target in the face, because you are stealthiing you action. I have had plenty of relatives that surprise people while being in plain view. Also somewhat a quality of life upgrade for assassin's.
Why would an Assassin look like a stereotypical assassin? Make them colourful, flamboyant and charismatic so they can convince people they're NOT the killer.
☝This. Assassin is charisma based, not dexterity based.
Assassins based on charisma are prety good in campaigns where there is a lot of socialising.
Instead of stealth vs perception it's deception/persuation/performance vs insight.
In fact, only take assassin if it's a social campaign. A dex based assassin is just a base rogue most of the time.
My current assassin rogue is a princess from a distant country, I am an op killing machine having a 20 in dex and if you get the alert feat you’ll likely be getting assassinate each combat encounter.
I think a good way to play an Assassin would be the Sniper from TF2, or at least, the version from his Meet The Sniper trailer. He doesn't hold any animosity for his targets. This is just a job. Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
One thing I’ve added to assassinate is that the creature must be “surprised or unaware of your presence” in other words if you yourself have successfully hidden or gone invisible somehow before the enemy notices the party you can still trigger assassinate on one enemy before the rest of the enemies have noticed you.
Hey YMBA! I'd love to see you build characters out up to a certain level from movies, gaming, or literature. An example may be Anhelo, the Painter from Magic the Gathering. Love your channel regardless!
Commenting for your excellent taste in the Master of Disguise movie
I'm glad people are finally recognizing that Chillchuck is the most iconic traditional rogue in recent media.
Netflix Punisher had 2 seasons, just like Luke Cage did. The only Netflix series that had one season was Defenders, which let's be honest was as much of a disaster as Iron Fist. I was really hoping in season 2 of Iron Fist they would kill off Danny Rand & past the torch to Colleen Wing, but apparently they didn't run with my idea.
I think an assassin rogue and a whispers bard would work well in a party together.
Back in the day, you were just able to make aliases and throw it on your sheet
"Bob Ross of Body Bags"
I thought we were assassins, not crazed gunmen.
Does anyone else love the gloom, stalker assassin mix?
Really an assassin isn’t a hero that would do anything slightest bit heroic. So an assassin is a very restrictive but also specific and just won’t work in a lot of things without changes to do so like the assassin had epiphany to be better or gets paid. So maybe what could make the role more malleable for broad campaigns is if you had a favoured enemy like mechanic so you could have an assassin that specialised in specific targets when they joined the party.
That would just make you a Ranger without spell casting and therefore be the worst subclass in the game.
Blaines assassin rogue in the groteth campaign in Tales from the Stinky Dragon was a fun twist on the role, he's a happily married (to another assassin) man who retired, came out of retirement because his wife went missing. Definitely better than the edgelord murder hobo
I love you used a "killer workout" aka arobicide clip in the video
Nowadays I think of The Ballad of Buster Skruggs, or a medieval Michael Keaton in Falling Down when I think of an assassin. Surprise can (and should) be established standing right in front of your mark, and they would never think in a million years that it's already too late. Getting older can be fun, you can do more and more weird sh!t and everyone just goes along with it. As long a you giv3 Maximum Effort (tm)
I'm going to homebrew a stealth kill feature for rogues in my game and I'm making it better for assassins.
9:12 totally agree. The parts where dnd randomly goes "realistic" are so jarring given the genre of the game. Just let people do the dang thing. Like even rituals taking 10 minutes is needlessly long. Make it 1 minute and it's still balanced for combat without making everyone go "okay, I guess we wait here" lol
Fun fact: More often that not, I make sure that Astarion's subclass is assassin because it fits his backstory.
The only other form of edge is to play hexblade and challenge riku kingdom hearts for your DPS (Darkness per spoken line)
The idea of a half orc assassin thats all strength based and is just Jason Vorhees
The best DND Assassin has GOT to be Chip Haney from Tales From the Stinky Dragon.
The best assassin in fiction is Yor from Spy Family imo.
She’s got some edgy parts but it’s not her entire character. She just really really really good at killing, so she’s an assassin.
Can you do oathbreaker paladin
Back in the day assassins got better armor and weapons than a rogue/thief so they could pass as a fighter, ranger, bard, or dual/multi fighter/thief. But they are old rules just an example of how an assassin can establish thenselves as another class
You spec into assassin to be masters of precise death and edge
I spec into assassin purely for the initiative and suprise advantage for some rootin tootin cowboy quickdraw fun
We are not the same
2024: Also, at 1st level, rogues get 2 weapon masteries. Pick up a dagger with Nick and Short sword with Vex to give yourself advantage on a 2nd chance to do a sneak attack or pick up a short bow with Vex to get advantage every turn.
Why use a dagger at all if you can use a scimitar instead? 1 level in Fighter gets you more damage and medium armor or more AC.
I have an assassin character whose covered job is he makes toys
my assassin does not kill unless theres a job along with it. so when not going in a dungeons or being told to do something where we dont know combat will happen it can be an issue
Brother PLEASE do inquisitive
Surprised you didn't add in the new features from 2024
The book *just* shipped (I got mine in yesterday [9/13/24]) and he might not have gotten it, or access to it, before this started production.
@@Kylora2112, I would say early access already but to be fair my fiancee doesn't have it due to dnd beyond being shit
I’m guessing YMBA isn’t gonna be using the 2024 PHB.
Personally, 2014 Assassin is such a pain to deal with. Unless the DM is ready to mold the entire campaign around the Rogue player the entire campaign becomes messy.
Relying on Surprise (which now also works different) is also really aggravating. Both for the Rogue and their party members.
2014 Assassin is barely a subclass in this multiplayer game (especially once the first round of combat is over). 2024 is better but still not great (Arcane Trickster and Soulknife are just so much better it isn't even funny).
@@Kylora2112 It doesn’t have to be better than the other subclasses. It just has to not break or ruin the game. You’re right, it was a single player subclass in a multiplayer game. Now that’s different, it’s better.
If someone likes the fantasy of being an assassin then it doesn’t matter than another subclass is better. Not everyone is a meta gamer, touch some grass.
@@James-kv3ll I mean, half the problem is that you're just not getting to use your subclass features, and most of the features are easily replicated by an Arcane Trickster (Alter Self exists...not as bullet proof, but yeah...). It's not meta gaming to just say "all the stuff you think is cool just isn't going to come up in any typical game of D&D."
What cheesy movie is the footage from 4:38 from?
Have you done the mastermind yet?
is the Agent class next?
"isn't afraid of a melting pot"
The new metaphor being pushed is salad, but glad to hear it.
Oathbreaker Paladin pls
You might be a lv3 assassin because that's all you want
I still hve an Assassin I wanna play sometime. One devined by a single question.
"What's the difference between an Assassin and a merc?"
can you do one for arcane archer (yes ik it sucks, maybe on how to revamp it?)
Fun fact: Turtle club was shot on 9/11
What's the song played at the beginning
It’s kinda funny that nearly all of the Assassin art has them using daggers.
But why use a d4 for your damage when you can use a d6 or a d8. The only reason to use a dagger is the thrown property, which is rarely a better choice than just using a short bow.
1 Level in Monk can fix that, which is really dumb.
for me in d&d the assasin is a less side of the rogue i think the thief is better
Are you going to cover 5.5e classes?
yep!
@@youmightbeadnd !!!!!!
Hell yeah
You should label this guy as the 2014 assassin, it will confuse people
Slap samurai fighter and ur good
Finally
Minute for me
Its sad that this subclass is just subclass less rogue after first round
What, no sponsor this time?
I've come to the conclusion that wotc hates stealth based characters
My main issue with assassin is that it’s kind of lackluster as a subclass until damn near level 20 that doesn’t really hold its own very well and basically begs for multiclassing
I disagree with you
@@marquisepixley684that’s nice that’s why I said MY main issue
@@mihawk508 I don't find the subclass lackluster
Guaranteed crit at level 3 isn't likely to be lacklustre.
@Sun-Tzu- Guaranteed Crit if you get a surprise round and against 1 enemy then you no longer have a subclass and are just a lvl 3 rogue.
Sup
Fantastic video as usual!
This is only my opinion, but I come here to get away from all the divisive, outrage driven media and while I
appreciate what you are trying to do with your final word, its still kinda depressing to mix irl outrage bs with d&d....even when it's a positive message.
(And its incredibly tricky to avoid using words that may not mean what you or i think they mean. For example equity is the opposite of equality and the word "melting pot" can be seen by some as accepting all people & cultures as they are.....but to others it means forcing newcomer cultures to assimilate into the existing culture)
All I'm saying is, "be nice."
2014 Assassin is barely a subclass. Surprise rounds aren't always a given, and everything else is so hyperspecific it might as well be nothing (a week to make a fake identity will only come up in political intrigue campaigns...hell, even if it took 1 hour, it's still be mega-niche). And if you don't get surprise or roll bad for initiative, you might as well not even have a subclass. The 2024 PHB fixes most of the issues...advantage on initiative, better poisons (use 1d6 of Sneak Attack for 2d6 poison that ignores resistances) for theming, Masterful Mimicry is excellent (an hour studying to master someone's voice and/or handwriting), and Steady Aim doesn't cost movement.
It is a good subclass for social campaigns where there is a lot of in town skullduggery. Your best stat is charisma, you don't sneak, you talk (deception/persuasion/performance).
Sleight of hand is good too to hide the blade or to slip it into your hand without notice.
Obligatory comment