Dual class assassin: Worth it?

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I've been contemplating whether to dual my assassin over to a cleric. Without regard to the rest of the party, is this worth doing?

If so, what is the optimal level for dual-classing an assassin? Does it make a difference if you are dualling over to fighter, mage or cleric?

(For the record - This is already a well balanced party, entirely composed of custom PCs - no Bioware NPCs this time around.)

 

The answer depends mainly on the rest of your party.

Answering would require
"If the rest of your party is ... then ...", and this for each possible party combination. I'm too lazy for this.

It's easier if you just introduce the rest of your party, so one straight answer would be sufficient.

 

For my current party, it's probably not necessary:

Human Assassin
Human Arcane Archer
Human Kensai (dual to thief at level 12)
Human Wizardslayer (dual to mage [!])
Dwarf Cleric
Elf Sorcerer


There are really two questions that I'm asking:

1) Is it worth it for my party? (Answer: Probably not).

2) For the times when it is worth dualling an assassin, what is the best level to do so? And does it make a difference which class you are switching to?

 

Interesting party (I always liked the Wizard Slayer/Mage combination and at high levels the Arcane Archer is very good).

I don't think it's worthwile to wait until you get backstab x6 at level 16 since DCing would take ages. The poison gets better at level 15 though (still DCing at level 15 might be a real pain as well).

Just max the skills you want to master and Dual class as early as you can to avoid the inactive class thing (which can take ages).

Fighter would give some better backstabs thanks to weapon mastery (and extra ranged attacks with poison works wonders with minor foes). Mage would mean almost unlimited backstabs (invisibility anyone?). As for Cleric... Well the weapons allowing a backstab would be limited to staves (IMHO a Swashbuckler/Cleric is better than Assassin/Cleric).

My answer to 1) would be "NO" because losing HLAs like assassination and UAI seems to be a bad idea unless you really want some extra spellcasting or regular fighting abilities.

Regarding 2) you should check the XP needed considering the level cap in the game and whether or not you'll be able to level up in your new class to get enough HLAs. The most important thing is to avoid the Inactive class thing. It is really a pain to wait for X levels for your abilities to come back, that's why unless you're really patient you should always dual at lower levels.

 

I think if you are going to dual-class ANY class late in a party game, you are going to end up gimping that character. Level ups are slow and few so reactivating your dual-classed character's base class is hard, especially if you decide to do so really late.

My advice? Suck it up and play it out...but if you absolutely MUST, make sure you will be able to reactivate your class in time.

 

[qoute]Mage would mean almost unlimited backstabs (invisibility anyone?)[/quote]
or mislead - as many backstabs as you can before the image runs out (or gets killed)

You'd probably want to look at the experience tables for both thieves and fighters - here's a simplified list
lvl-Thief\Fighter
9-110,000
10-160,000\500,000
11-220,000\750,000
12-440,000\1,000,000
13-660,000\1,250,000
14-880,000\1,500,000
15-1,100,000\1,750,000
16-1,320,000\2,000,000
17- \2,250,000

As Thieves level faster than warriors you need a great deal more experience to get back the levels lost.
I would probably only do the change if my party was severely lacking in melee, having said that you do have a second (kensai/) thief and as such you could probably go without your assassin's thieving abilities for a bit.

 

I did an assasin mage once. It was cool enough, but as a fighter the poison is little more useful, increased thac0, more hits, better weapons. Backstabbing while misleaded is cool enough, but it gives you edge mainly over the opponents you'd win quite easily in any case. The tougher one's dispel your mislead, see through your invisibility, or are immune to your backstab. Poisoned MMM's and Energy blades are really something, but if you level up late in the game you won't be able to memorize those as many as you might want to.

It's not a bad combo, quite deadly, but it wasn't as effective as I hoped it would be considering all the levelling up to get back the assassin abilities.

There's always Lum the Mad's machine which gives you free 'n cheesy experience late in the game, but it's up to you if you want to use it or not. Packing protetion for it's adverse effects means that you don't even have to reload all the time, or at all if you're careful and rest every now and then.

edit: fixed a term

[ June 20, 2007, 18:02: Message edited by: Iku-Turso ]

 

1) I wouldn't do it.

2) Dualing to Fighter would grant 1.5 extra attacks per round, better thac0 and up to +4 extra damage because of specialisation. You'd also gain access too the fighter HLAs like greater whirlwind.
Dualing to mage would yield the longest dualing period (unless you dual very early) and grant access to the cheesy mage spells.
Dualing to cleric will yield the shortest dualing period and you can get up to +30 in the dex-dependent thieving skills by casting "DUHM" and improve the backstab damage with "DUHM" and "Holy power" considerably.
For backstabbing you are limited to clubs or staves, but the most damaging weapon is a quarterstaff anyway.

Your Kensai will start gaining thieving skills after 1,000,000 XP (probably a roleplaying choice since the gap between kensai 12 and 13 is far bigger (extra half attack) than the gap between kensai 9 and 12), so you'll have to wait at least until level 15 before dualing your assassin if you don't want to play without a thief for some time.
Level 16 will grant better traps and an extra poisoning per day, level 17 backstab x6.
So if I'd dual I'd dual at level 17.

If you plan cheesing up your XP to 8,000,000 early and just want to have the strongest possible character then, A25/C28, A25/F26 or A22/M24 is the best choice.
But since you've played the game before you probably know that most of the game is already over when you reach 3,000,000 XP near the end of SoA and you'll never reach even 7,000,000 XP per character if you play without cheese.

Even if you dual at level 15 reaching cleric level 16 will take additional 1,800,000 XP (other classes even more), so most of the game will be over when dualing is complete.

If you dual your kensai after level 9 he'll be stronger as if dualed after level 12 and you can dual your assassin earlier (level 11 or 13) without having to play a long time without thief.

 

In searching for interesting characters to play I used Shadowkeeper to make a generic archer/mage multiclass and then modified Fade to be an assassin/mage multiclass.

Im gonna duo them and enjoy the romance. The emphasis will be upon sniping and backstabbing...the mage skills will primarily be for buffing/debuffing.

If you really want to combine assassin with another class, and are willing to play in a smaller party, then multiclassing them via SK may be another option.