RPing a "good" Assassin

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Hmmm... Here's a new concept I've been thinking about. Playing a "good" assassin. Not "good" in the traditional sense of alignment, because I just have a personal feeling that assassins should not be either "lawful" nor "good" regardless of what the game engine allows. So I'm thinking of playing a CN assassin, starting in BG1, but have the character try to do the right thing most of the time, but yet doesn't see anything wrong with poisoning people if that's what it takes to complete his objectives. Does that make any sense from a PC perspective?

As such, I'm planning on taking a mostly good aligned party. The current plan is my PC will be a CN halfling assassin, specializing in short bows and short swords initially, and then adding daggers and darts further down the line. In BG1, the party will consist of the "assumed" party of Khalid, Jaheira, Minsc, Dynaheir, and Imoen, who I will most likely dual class, as I don't see the point of having two thieves.

In SoA and ToB, I guess I'll keep Minsc and Jaheira (I feel she offers a better long-term solution as a healer than either Aerie or Anomen), take Yoshimo along early until I get enough skill points with my assassin to take over all thief duties, and then rush off to Spellhold to get Imoen ASAP. Imoen will be the only source of arcane magic, as I think I will finish the party off with Keldorn and Mazzy. So all in all, I'm looking at a fighter-heavy, and somewhat unusual party.

As for equipment, I'm thinking this:

Keldorn - Carsomyr (of course)
Minsc - FoA and later AotU (possibly dual wielding them)
Jaheira - Pitchwife (via Item Upgrade) and Belm
Mazzy - Upgraded Sword of Avoreen and Crom Faeyr
PC - Tuigan Bow, later Firetooth, and Celestial Fury (upgraded) as backstabbing option
Imoen - probably will use either Tasheron or Gesen Bow, and melee weapon will be SotM, simply because she's the only one who can use it.

Question though - does this really "work" from an RP sense?

 

Sure it does. I think it fits just fine from an RPing point of view.

 

It'll work. But be prepared to defend your ideas to others who will argue with you.

 

LG paladins strictly hate usage of poison and/or traps, but they are just bigots! If your assasin uses his nasty skills to do some greater good and punish evil, fine with me. My NG aligned cleric/mage happily casted dreadful spells like Horrid Wilting, Finger of Death etc. on evil enemies so what?

 

Out of curiosity, what possible alignments does BG2 allow for assassins. I know straight theives in BG1 couldn't be lawful.

 

Chaotic Neutral or Neutral Evil

 

Hey Aldeth, I LOVE playing thieves, especially assassins! But seriously, a thief is never normally good, and cmon, if you have the name 'assassin' in your job description, it doesn't really make you a good person does it?

Sure, you're doing your job, but your job is killing people for a living (Not that different to what you do anyway!). But still, it's a class of evil.

Perhaps it could be cause of the fact that i ALWAYS play evil (hehe! ) but still, do you really think it's possible for a hired killer to have a 'good' sense about them?

 

Actually, I don't think the PC has assasinated all that many people, especially not on a pay roll.

I think it's being very black & white saying that because you chose the class assasin you have to be a cold blodded murderer. In the end, being assasin as a subclass tells nothing more about the PC, than the fact this he's good at fighting in a particular style.. imho, anway.

 

Most bizarre... The only restriction for an assassin's alignment I have is that they can't be LG: the same as every other thief class (or multiclass, correctly patched). This has always been the case, too, irrespective of ToB installation, version number or other external patches.

And yes, I think that it's perfectly acceptable to RP a good-aligned assassin, for the reasons oli states above. You could always argue that he began life as a simple rogue, and the predisposition for poison and backstabbing is just certain elements of his heritage showing through...

 

Of course there is nothing wrong from a RP aspect with playing a good alignment for an assassin.

Take James Bond for an example, he is (in the books more than the films) frequently given the job of assassinating some enemy of his country in order to make the world a better place (at least for the people on his side).

There is no real difference between the skills that he would employ to carry out these assassinations for a "good" purpose from those employed by an "evil" assassin who was working solely for money or personnal satisfaction.

You could also have a vigilante type who focuses on asassinating evil doers. That would be a prime candidate for a NG or CG assassin.

 

The James Bond analogy is a very good one

I'm thinking a Chaotic Good Assassin would work RP-wise. Think of someone trying to infiltrate the Iron Throne and assassinate Sarevok. Sure assassination is far from Lawful (and is usually seen as Evil), but in this particular case the alternative is total war all over the Sword Coast and thousands of innocent deaths. It's quite possible to claim the moral ground and argue that in this case the assassination is Good. In fact I think CG works better than CN in this respect - I can't imagine someone as crafty, cunning and purposeful as an assassin being CN, which is the alignment of ultimate unpredictability.

 

I don't see a problem there. Maybe you should switch your alignment to CG. Since the role of a CG character is to do good deeds no matter what their actions are.

 

Ah, I must agree. I do like the vigilante aspect of it, and since the game allows it, Chaotic Good seems to be the best alignment choice. Now I need a name. Unfortunately, I'm not taking James Bond, or as the description seems to be implying up to this point, the Punisher.

 

Kreeno.
Burash.
Vasheti.
I've got more if you need them.

 

Well, Kreeno I suppose could work, but the others don't sound very halfling like.

 

Oh sorry, I missed the halfling part; I was thinking more along the lines of generic. I don't have much experience with halfling names, so how about Alora?

Vanoma, perhaps?

 

Frodo.

 

Only if he has a constant effect invisibility ring.

Seriously though: I think assassins can be lawfull. If you look at it, lawful means you have a strict code of conduct, but that doesn't nececarily mean you obey the laws of the land you're in. It could just mean you're a very disciplined person, a ninja like character or something. Just because you're a lawbreaker doesn't mean you're chaotic in my book, you'll need a lot more for that.
(Ok, I know some people who take a lawful neutral alignment and make the lawful part a law to acquire as much gold as possible. But then again, that's stupid). As long as you can justify your lawbreaking by RP arguments, being a lawful assassin is fine by me.

 

Ooo Yes. The Punisher is another good Example of a (VERY) Chaotic and yet good Assassin in some respects. He is a character wholely outside the law and working by his own rules. But Morally he's coming from a very good place to do his work and he makes sure he targets evil doers. Particularly evil doers that tend to be protected in some way by the Law.

part of the reason that the Alignment choices are the way they are is because Morally right and Lawfully Right can be two dramatically different things.

 

Surely there is nothing wrong with a good assassin, given that all of your good characters are busy killing enemies left, right, and centre - it's not really any different from what an assassin does.