The Assassin: A new class for Arcana Rising

Assassins are those who resort to the bloodiest means to protect humanity from the unholy and the despotic. Masters of the kill, they apply their instruments to cut out any who would threaten the freedom and survival of mankind.

Assassins follow the traditions of the Lepides, an ancient order that served the Alliance during the war against the Atlanteans. Even as Atlantis fell, the Lepides swore to continue their work, passing down the skills of their order to successive generations carefully chosen. The Lepides conspire to assure that mankind can forever live free of the tyranny of the unholy and those who would use magic to control human destiny as Atlantis once did. Over the years the order's descendants have scattered and even been lost, but the ways of the blade survive and a new generation has quickly armed themselves to face the threat of magic's return to the world.

Assassins train extensively to improve their agility, perception, and combat skill to almost preternatural levels. Some say that only those who still contain a trace of the mystical bloodline of the original Lepides can truly master the techniques, and it does at times seem as if those whose destiny lies in the ways of the assassin learn as if their very instincts were already tuned to them.

High STR is a must for an assassin, as is a decent DEX score, and their WIS tends to be high as well, owing to their unique perceptive abilities.

	Melee To-Hit	Ranged To-Hit	Hit Dice	Saving Throws	Assassinate
1	+1	+0	1d8	+1 DEX	+1d6
2	+2	+1	2d8
3	+3	+1	3d8	+1 WIS	+2d6
4	+4	+2	4d8
5	+5	+2	5d8
6	+6	+3	6d8	+2 DEX	+3d6
7	+6	+3	6d8+2
8	+7	+4	6d8+4
9	+7	+4	6d8+6	+2 WIS	+4d6
10	+8	+5	6d8+8
11	+8	+5	6d8+10
12	+9	+6	6d8+12	+3 DEX	+5d6

Stat Requirement: STR 7+

Weapons: Short Blades, Long Blades, Archaic Ranged, Handguns, Long Arms

Armor: Light

Special Abilities

Freedom of Movement: The assassin is a master climber and acrobat, able to move freely across the rooftops of an urban environment as easily as running along a paved track. Assassins may forgo stat checks to climb buildings and other vertical surfaces, provided sufficient handholds, as well as to leap distances of no greater than 5 meters. Their skill even applies to safe falling: an assassin can survive a leap of up to 25m provided there is sufficient cushion to break their fall, such as water or even piles of leaves or hay.

Heightened Senses: Assassins hone their senses, the better to avoid enemies and pick their targets out in a crowd. They gain a +1 to WIS for the purpose of surprise checks and perception checks, and can mentally track enemies within 50m even if they break line-of-sight.

Assassination: The assassin is an expert killer, and given the element of surprise knows exactly where to strike with a blade to best insure an immediate death for their target. So long as the assassin remains unobserved until the moment they strike, they deal extra damage according to the table above. Regardless of damage dealt, the target must make a massive damage save against the attack. Should the assassin be observed with apparent hostile intent (ie. appear armed), the assassination attempt cannot succeed. It is for this reason that the assassins wear the secret blade (see below).

Twin-Blade Technique: Should the strike go ill, or the assassin be forced to defend themselves against those who protect their target, the assassin must be able to hold their own against multiple targets. An assassin wielding a melee weapon in each hand takes no penalty for attacking once with each weapon, and when attempting an assassination can apply the damage from both secret blades (if wearing two).

The Secret Blade

A unique weapon of the Lepides passed down for centuries, the secret blade is a spring-loaded blade concealed almost invisibly within a bracer worn about the wrist. This allows the assassin to appear visibly unarmed, the better to approach their target without suspicion before thrusting the blade home. The weapon does 1d6 damage, costs 100 Astra, and takes a day to construct. Two secret blades may be worn, one on either wrist, and when attempting to assassinate a target, both can be used at once.