The Alchemist Assassin

"There is a location between the second and third lumbar that, if breached with even the tiniest of weapons, will result in a catastrophic failure of the body. The vessels in this location cannot be repaired by anything short of a miracle, and the subject will bleed out in mere moments. This location has been found in every humanoid subject that has been strapped to my table thus far, making it a best-practices priority target.

"The greatest advantage this target offers is that it is nearly-painless, so there is often no show of suffering (such as screaming) before one dies. Lastly, if the area is merely bruised or concussed, leaving the vessels intact, this will result in a stutter of blood supply, and an effective, temporary paralysis, should such a result be more desirable."

- From the Journal of Professor Andres Levarnick, Master of The Black Circle

Knowing Truly Is Half The Battle

The assassin is one of the iconic prestige classes, primarily for its ability to deal a death attack, but secondarily due to being one of the first that required an Evil alignment to play. However, one of the stumbling blocks faced by so many folks is that the save DC for an assassin's death attack is based on their Intelligence... and while playing a high-Intelligence rogue (the class most obviously paired with the assassin) is possible, it's not something a lot of players automatically gravitate to.

However, if you want a character who can truly kill with their mind before their hands, it might be a good idea to look for a different base class... notably at the Vivisectionist archetype for the alchemist.

This archeytpe keeps most of the alchemist's class features, but it replaces bombs with sneak attack, using it the same as a rogue of their level. This allows you to gain the precision damage used by the assassin, and to increase your sneak attack damage as you level up in the prestige class. Not only that, but a high Intelligence for an alchemist also affects your Extracts, as well as your mutagens... or a cognotogen, a Discovery option that allows you to increase your mental stats at the cost of your physical ones, rather than the other way around. This can be a phenomenal way to boost your Intelligence score even higher, ensuring that when you land a blow on your target that they will not make the save against it.

Thematically it's also worth asking how your character came to these particular studies. Are they a scientist of death, studying how life and the body works so that intimate knowledge can be applied to ending it? Were they a healer's apprentice whose fascination with death led them down a dark path? Or are they a part of a particular tradition of assassins who combine the alchemical arts and in-depth knowledge of a target's biology to end their life in the most effective way possible?

The choices are yours to make, but the thematic and story decisions are almost as interesting as the mechanical ones you can make!

While we're on the subject of assassins, check out this tale of the killers who follow the tradition of The Hungry Wind, one of the groups laid out in 100 Monastic Orders!

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That's all for this week's Unusual Character Concepts post!

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