CHARACTER CLASSES (ASSASSIN)An assassin character need not be a member of the Assassins Guild of thetown or city he or she dwells in, but all non-player assassin characters aremembers of such guilds. There is one such guild in most towns and cities,and each controls an area of from 10 to 100 miles radius around theheadquarters town or city. Any assassin discovered in a guild area who isnot a member of the local Assassins Guild will be invited to join, thus<strong>com</strong>ing under the authority and <strong>com</strong>mand of the Guildmoster Assassin.The assossin character need not join, but he or she will be under sentenceof death if the character performs on assassination while not a guildmember. Further discussion of Assassins' Guilds is given later.The primary function of assassins is killing. They may use poison -ingested or insinuated by weapon. Poison ingested must be put into thefood or drink, and the character performing this action must detail exactlywhen, where, and how the poisoning will be done. The DM will thenadjudicate the action. Poisoned weapons (see POISON) used run the riskof being noticed by others. All non-assassins within 10' of the baredweapon have a 10% cumulative chance each per melee round (q.v.) ofnoting the poison and attacking the poison-using assassin and/or callingfor the city watch. (There is a 20% chance for attacking the assassin, a 50%chance for calling for the watch, and a 30% chance for shouting for thewatch and then attacking the assassin.)Example: An assassin draws a dagger with a poisoned blade. The firstmelee round it can be seen by two persons. The percentile dice are rolledfor each, but unless 10 or less is rolled, they do not notice the venom. Thenext melee round the two first seeing the weapon have a 20% chance ofnoticing the poison, and any others seeing it for the first time have but a1OOh chance. If ony onlooker does see the poison, percentile dice arerolled: a score of 01 to 20 indicates attack, 21 to 70 indicates a hue and cryfor the watch, and 71-00 indicates both.Assassins attack on the same <strong>com</strong>bat tables as thieves do, including backstabbing. However, if they surprise (q.v.) a victim, they may attack on theASSASSINATION TABLE. This gives a roughly 50% chance of immediatelykilling the victim; and if this fails, normal damage according to weapontype and strength ability modifiers still accrues to the victim. Thus, if apoisoned weapon is used, the victim must also make the saving throwversus poison or die. The assassin decides which attack mode he or shewill use: assassination, back stabbing, or normal melee <strong>com</strong>bat.Primary abilities of assassins which enhance their function are those ofbeing able to speak alignment languages and being able to disguise, asfollows:1. Assassins with intelligence of 15 or more are able to learn analignment tongue (even those special languages of druids andthieves). This ability is gained at 9th level (Assassin) andwith each advance in experience level thereafter. Themoximum number of alignment languages which can bespoken by an assassin is four - one for each point ofintelligence above 14, i.e. one at 15, two at 16, three ot 17, andfour at 18 intelligence. Note: An assossin would hove to be ofCHARACTER CLASSES (ASSASSIN)12th level (Chief Assassin) and have 18 intelligence to be ableto speak four olignment languages. The assassin may selectfrom the following languages:CHAOTIC NILCHAOTIC GOODCHAOTIC NEUTRALITYLAWFUL EVILLAWFUL GOODLAWFUL NEUTRALITYNEUTRAL EVILNEUTRAL GOODNEUTRALITYDRUIDICTHIEVESCANT2. Disguise can be donned in order to gain the opportunity topoison or surprise a victim - or for other reasons. The assassincan disguise himself or herself so as to appear to be a human,semi-human, or humanoid creature of either sex. Disguise canlower height by two or three inches, or raise it by up to four orfive inches. It can make the assassin look slimmer or appearmuch heavier. Disguise can make the assassin appear to bevirtually any class of character, a simple pilgrim, a merchant,etc. There is a chance, however, that the victim, or one of hisor her henchmen or guards, will notice the disguise. There is abase chance of 2% per day of a disguised assassin beingspotted. This chance goes upwards by 2% if the assassin isposing as another class, another race, and/or the opposite sex(maximum of 8% chance). Each concerned party (victim,henchmen, bodyguards) in proximity to the assassin will bechecked for, immediately upon meeting the disguised assassinand each 24 hour period thereafter. The chance for spotting adisguised assassin goes downward by 1% for each point below24 of <strong>com</strong>bined intelligence and wisdom of the observerconcerned, i.e. a victim with an intelligence and wisdom<strong>com</strong>bined total of 20 has reduced his or her chances ofspotting the disguised assassin by 4%. The reverse is also true;intelligence and wisdom above a <strong>com</strong>bined total of 30increase the chance of detection by 1% per point. Note: Trueseeing or a wand of enemy detection will discover anassassin, as will detect evil, or know olignment in some cases.The secondary function of the assassin is spying. This mission can becoupled with the stealing of some item.Tertiary functions of assassins are the same as thieves. They have allabilities and functions of thieves; but, except for back stabbing, assassinsperform thieving at two levels below their assassin level, i.e. a 3rd levelassossin has the thieving abilities of a 1st level thief, a 4th level assassinthe abilities of a 2nd level thief, etc.Performing an assassination will gain experience points for the character-awarded for both the fee paid and the level of the victim. These awardsare determined by the referee on the basis of a formula given inADVANCED DUNGEONS I DRAGONS, DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE.Typical fees paid (in gold pieces) for assassination are:MINIMUM FEES FOR ASSASSINATIONleveloflevel of VictimAssassin 0 1.2 3.4 5-6 7-9 10.12 13-15 16+4 100 200 300 450 600 750 ...5 150 300 450 700 900 1100 1300 15006 250 500 750 lo00 1300 1600 2000 250010 1200 2400 3600 4800 6OOo 8000 loo00 1500011 1700 3500 5100 7000 9Ooo 12000 15000 2oooo'Important, popular, and/or noble victims will be considered as being above their actual level with respect to fee. for example, an elder of a town who isgenerous and just (thus popular) might be only 4th level, but for purposes of payment for assassination the character would be considered at three timesactual level.29
CHARACTER CLASSES (ASSASSIN)An assassin character cannot have any hirelings until he or she attains 4thlevel; at that time lower level assassins may be taken into service. Uponattaining 8th level, the character may also include thieves amongst his orher hirelings. Upon attaining 12th level, the character may hire any classdesired. Of course, only neutral or evil characters will serve an assassin.The total number of henchmen is that dictated by the character's charismascore. "Followers" are also possible, but these <strong>com</strong>e only at the twouppermost levels of the assassin class.In order for an assassin character to gain experience levels above the 13th(Prime Assassin), he or she must have the requisite experience paints andthen either assassinate the local Guildmaster Assassin (14th level) orchallenge him or her to a duel to the death. likewise, a 14th level playercharacter assassin can journey to the place where the Grandfather ofAssassins (15th level) has his or her headquarters and slay him or her byassassination or in a duel. Note that duplicity, trickery, ambush, and allforms of treachery are considered as fair by assassins. A higher levelcharacter can accept a challenge and then have the challenger slain byarchers, for instance.As Guildmaster (or Guildmistress) Assassin, a character will have a body ofguild members which numbers between 7-28. Upon change of leadershipit is 75% likely that each guild member will leave the area. Thus, it will benecessary far the new Guildmaster to allow new members into the guild.These new assassins will all be 1st level and must be worked up inexperience levels. The maximum number of such "followers" of the localguild will be set by your referee. They are in addition to normalhenchmen. Note that guild membersare loyal only to strength, power, andprofit.The headquarters of a guild is always within a large town or big city. Itmust not be a noticeable fortress or an ostentatious place. It is typically aworehouse or other nondescript structure, with safeguards and trapsodded. This avoids attention and unwanted notoriety. All expenses ofmaintoining the guild and its members - excluding the Guildmaster -are assumed to be fully paid for by normal guild activities. Anyimprovements, changes, the expenses of the leader, and a11 other specialcosts must be borne by the Guildmaster Assassin.The headquarters of the Grandfather of Assassins can be virtuallyanywhere and of any form - cavern, castle, monastery, palace, temple,you name it. However, if it is a large and obvious place, the headquartersmust be located well away from all <strong>com</strong>munities - such as in the midst ofa murky woods, a dismal marsh or fen, o lonely moor, o deserted island, Qremote coast, or far into forsaken hills or atop a mountain. Upon attainingthe headship of all assassins, the new Grandfather or Grandmother mustpay all remaining followers of the former head 1000 gold pieces for eachof their experience levels, destroy the old headquarters, and construct anew one somewhere else.ASSASSINS (THIEVES) TABLEexperoence Pointsexper-ioncolevel1,3,6,001-1 2,000 412.001-25.ooO 56-sideddice forAccumulatedHit Points level title4 Murderer5 Thua25;001-50:000 6 6 killer300,001425,000 10 10 Expert Assassin425,001-575.000 11 11 Senior Assassin575.001-750,OOO 12 12 Chief Assassin75O.OOl-1 ,OOO,OOO 13 13 Prime Assassin1,000,001-1,500,000 14 Guc ldmaster Assassin1,500,001 and Over 15 , Grandfather of AssassinsThe MonkThe monk is the most unusual of all characters, the hardest to qualify for,and perhaps, the mast deadly. That is why the class is given out ofalphabetical order at the end of the section pertaining to character classes.CHARACTER CLASSES (MONK)To be a monk a character must have the following minimum ability scores:strength 15, wisdom 15, dexterity 15, and constitution 1 1. Monks never gainany experience points bonuses. Dexterity gives them no armor classadjustmentMonks are monastic aesthetics who practice rigorous mental and physicaltraining and discipline in order to be<strong>com</strong>e superior. Therefore they mustalways be lawful in alignment, although they can be evil, good, or neutralwith respect to their approach to lawfulness. A monk who for any reasonlases this lawful alignment loses all monk abilities and must begin againas a first level character. Non-player character monks will be aligned asfollows: 50% lawful good, 35% lawful neutral, 15% lawful evil.A brief study of CHARACTER CLASSES TABLES I and II will reveal that themonk appears to be quite weak, even considering that at the topmost levela monk can have 18, albeit four-sided, hit dice (an average of 45 hit pointswithout constitution score additions, if any) and has a good selection ofweapons to choose from. Monks have no spell ability, cannot wear armoror use a shield, and not even flaming ail is usable by them. This seems tomake a weak character class indeed. But this impression is false, for monkshave their own special attack and defense capabilities, certain otherpowers, and most of the abilities of the thief class and some clerical-typecapabilities as well. So, while the class has drawbacks, it is very strong.With respect to <strong>com</strong>bat, monks attack on the same table as thieves.However, they add one-half of a hit point per level of experience to theamount of damage they score when they successfully attack an opponentwith a weapon. This simulates their study and knowledge of weapons andanatomy. A 1st level monk scores x + % HP of damage, where x equalsthe damage done by the weapon used and HP equals the number of hitpoints of damage. A 2nd level monk does x + 1 when he or she scores ahit, a 3rd level x + 1 %, and so on all the way to Grand Master of Flowerswho scores x + 8% HP damage. Monks of median level and aboveactually fight better without weapons, using their open hands, despite theweapon damage bonus they receive.Open hand <strong>com</strong>bat damage is shown on MONKS TABLE II below. Inaddition, the monk has a chance to stun, or even kill, an opponent. Anopponent is stunned by a monk for 1-6 (d6) melee rounds if the score ofthe monk's "to hit" die score exceeds the minimum number required for ahit by 5 or more, i.e. if 15 is required, a score of 20 would indicate o stun.The "to hit" scores rolled by the monk are never modified by any strengthability bonuses. The chance to kill is a percentage which equals the armorclass (AC) of the opponent, modified by the number of experience levelsabove seven which the monk has attained. AC -1 is a negative chance forkilling, as an example, but a monk of 9th level (two above 7th) wouldallow a 1% chance of killing. Note that 1) the monk must score o hit, and 2)the hit must stun the opponent, and 3) the percentile dice score must beequal to or less than the armor class of the stunned opponent, modified bythe monk's levels over 7th, in order to score a kill.Open hand fighting also allows the monk multiple attacks at such time asthe monk has attained the 4th or higher experience level.Monks make saving throws on the table used by thieves, but they gaincertain advantages: Non-magical missiles (arrows, bolts, bullets, throwndaggers, thrown javelins, thrown spears, etc.) which would normally hitcan be dodged ar knocked aside if the monk is able to make his or hersaving throw against petrification for each such potential hit. In otherrespects, if a monk makes his or her saving throw against an attack farm,the monk will sustain no damage from the attack, even if the attack farmwas a fireball, far instance. At 9th level (Master of the North Wind) orhigher, a monk who fails to make his or her saving throw will still sustainbut one-half the total potential damage which the attack form coulddeliver, if possible. That is, a fireball would do 50% of total damage, butthe gaze of a basilisk would still petrify the monk.At 1st level of experience, a monk is as likely to be surprised as any othercharacter, i.e. 33 1/3%. This chance goes down to 32% at 2nd level, and itthereafter goes down 2% per level, so there is only a 30% chance ofsurprising a 3rd level monk, 28% chance at 4th level, 26% chance at 5thlevel, etc.Monks have the following thief abilities which they perform at identicallevel of experience to that of a thief, i.e. a 1st level monk performs as a 1stlevel thief, a 2nd level monk as a 2nd level thief, etc. The abilities are:1. Open Locks30
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