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Apologies if a question like this has been posted before, but I am looking for some advice on how to build using the Assassin subclass. Also, I have never posted here before or really any online forum, so sorry if I do not format something correctly. I have played through POE2 a couple of times on POTD, and I am just starting another one. I am trying to decide between Single Class Assassin, Spellblade (no subclass) Assassin, and Bleak Walker Assassin. In classic fashion I have started a play-through with all three and have completed Maje Island, but I am not sure which one to proceed with for the rest of the game. From what I understand, single class is usually built around gambit which seems really cool, but doesn't come until much later. I also have concerns about guile management early game, and what to do when I run out of smoke bombs. Spellblade seems to focus more on casting from invisibility, which seems powerful, but I feel like I might miss out on RP of an assassin backstabbing people with a weapon. Finally, Bleak Walker Assassin early game has been super powerful, but does't seem to have much variety beyond FOD from stealth. I also am not really sure what the damage ceiling is for this particular combination. I am planning on playing with a full party, as I am not super interested in soloing. I would apreciate any advice from those who have played any of these. Mostly I am looking for 3 things 1. How powerful does it get in both regular fights and against bosses (not mega bosses) 2. How fun is it to play in terms of variety, strategy, etc. 3. How well does it play in a full party Thanks!

There's nothing, then a glimmer... Then you're dead! Build Name : The Glimmer Man Class : Swashbuckler (Fighter/Rogue) Subclasses : Tactician/Assassin Introduction : Pure sniper build using the interraction between invisibility and Brilliant Tactician. Firearms ensure that you can use Smoke Veil instantly and avoid any damage. If you don't play with Berath's challenge activated then Smoke Veil will just end the fight - use it at max range, run out of the enemy's sight, then restealth and come back to finish the target. The build starts working as soon as you get Smoke Veil. Game Version : 5.0 Difficulty : PotD Solo : Yes (or keep your party out of the fights) Race : Island Aumaua Culture : The Living Lands Background : Scientist Attributes : 21Mig/3Con/15Dex/18Per/18Int/3Res Skills : max Arcana (for Spearcaster - required for Dorudugan) Equipment : weapon - Dragon's Dowry (Eccea's Arcane Blaster vs pierce immunes), helmet - Acina's Tricorn, necklace - Charm of Bones, armor - High Harbinger's Robes, cloak - Ajamuut's Stalking Cloak, gloves - Woedica's Strangling Grasp/Gloves of the Dungeon Warden/Killer's Gloves, Ring1 - Ring of the Marksman, Ring2 - Ring of Focused Flame, Belt - Sash of Judgment, Boots - Footprints of Ahu Taka Abilities (required) : Disciplined Barrage - Disciplined Strikes+Escape, Backstab, Smoke Veil, Dirty Fighting, Fighter Stances - Conquerer Stances, Penetrating Strike, Fast Runner, Arms Bearer, Confident Aim, Two-Handed Style, One-Handed Style, Weapon Specialization, Quick Switch, Fearless, Armored Grace, Uncanny Luck, Tough, Improved Critical, Unbreakable, Weapon Mastery Temporary Bonuses : Sharksoup, Nature's Resolve, Alchemic Brawn, Alchemic Guile, Alchemic Wits, Adratic Glow, Rabyuna's Boon Other Recommended Abilities : Gift of the Machine, Effigy's Resentment: Sagani, Savage Cunning, Infamous Captain, Cauldron Brew - Might Pet : Harley (10%dmg/3acc ranged) How it works : Invisibility + Brilliant Tactician Observations : Persistent Distraction doesn't work with ranged. Deep Wounds (and all dots) will keep you in combat preventing Brilliant Tactician from triggering. Deathblows could work in theory (use sparcrackers) but in practice is not worth the effort. Belt of Magran's Chosen is good too, but the blight it summons can prevent Brilliant Tactician from triggering, making you waste more time. Sometimes enemies get stuck in a loop preventing the combat from ending - staying out of their sight and becoming invisible again will usually fix it.

[CLASS BUILD] The Soul Sniper - Mindstalker - Solo PotD Full Playthrough with Megabosses Class: Assassin/Cipher (no subclass) Concept: Ranged glass cannon (ab)using stealth mechanics and highly synergistic skills, weapons and items to deliver high burst damage and DoT while staying in the safety of the shadows. Game Version: Works with latest updates and DLCs as of v5.0.00040. I recommend the Full Community Patch and the No Forced Rests mod (otherwise just metagame around them, it’s fully viable but just a bit annoying). POTD Solo: Yes. Base Game, All DLCs, All 4 Megabosses completed. Some strategies below. Companion: Nope (really meant to play solo by definition) Important Opening Notes: 1) This build originated from playing Kaylon’s excellent Glimmer Man Tactician/Assassin build. I reused a lot of his findings here, and other thoughts from Boeroer, Thelee and others. 2) This build will NOT work with Berath’s Challenge. 3) I would not recommend this build for a first playthrough in the Deadfire. It relies upon a niche type of gameplay that you will most enjoy if you are a returning player with some understanding of the combat mechanics of Deadfire. 4) This is a long post… bear with me, I hope it will be worth the read! -----INTRO------ The idea of this build came to life while trying out Kaylon’s Glimmer Man build. I was really interested in a solo PotD capable ranged Assassin and Kaylon’s build was extremely appealing. As I played it up to lvl 20, I got really impressed by its potential and it turned out to be a lot more versatile than I thought. I also realized a few things along the way: - Brilliant Tactician was very nice but maybe not that crucial, even for a full playthrough. - Some of the drawbacks of Tactician were not optimal (lower PEN and ACC mostly) - There were lots of synergistic Fighter skills, but some not as much (e.g. the +ACC bonus of Stances doesn't stack with Arquebus modal, Constant Recovery doesn’t do much for this build). - Most importantly, this weapon user, high damage build could really benefit from having all 4 mythical adra stones, but Hauani o Whe can’t be reliably dealt with as Kaylon pointed out. I decided to try something different, and the Mindstalker made sense because of class synergies (Biting Whip, Hammering Thoughts and Disintegration cost 3 skill points and are on their own very incremental/transformational to the Assassin), plus you can easily take Hauani (Disintegration + Marux Amanth), and it has a nice thematic fit. From there, I decided upon vanilla Cipher because of the lack of drawbacks and because it brought the best Whip ability for weapon damage. It’s probably debatable, but since you mostly attack with Rogue skills, you don’t consistently generate focus so you have a permanent 20% DMG increase and a 20% Raw Lash on top. Nice. From then, the big questions was: can you complete the game, the Megabosses and the DLCs solo on PotD with a resource-intensive toon that mostly doesn’t have resource regeneration? The answer is yes. From the heights of Vilario’s Rest down to the rectum of Wael’s Titan body, this toon performed far above my expectations. As I’ll explain in a bit, it is one of the most synergistic build I’ve played, in the sense that every skill point invested or item equipped brings something specific to the build. Nothing is wasted, even if certain skills aren’t used that often. The build can basically trivialize 95% of the game including Megabosses. It slows down a little bit in the last 5% which are the DLC fights where the game suddenly puts you in a small enclosed space with lots of respawning enemies and no way to reset the fight. Even then, you just have to slightly adapt your build and you basically turn on God Mode again. The key then is to keep your Guile for stealth and to have high Arcana to nuke everybody with AoE Scrolls (which will benefit from your bonii of attacking from stealth). I’ll detail everything below after a quick rundown of the skills and items specs. -----SPECS------ Race: Wood Elf (optimal, doesn’t matter too much) Background: The White that Wends – Hunter (doesn’t matter much) FINAL STATS WITH ALL PERMABUFFS AND NO-REST BUFFS AS OF 5.0 (without combat buffs): MIG 25 (18 Base +2 Berath +1 Gift from Machine +2 Alchemic Brawn +2 Hot Razor Skewers) CON 9 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Brawn +2 Konstanten Boon) DEX 22 (15 Base +1 Elf +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Guile +2 Amira’s Blessing(?? To be investigated, apparently it has to do with the Neketaka burning house event. Never got the bonus before although getting the event 100% of time. This time I didn’t pursue the arsonists…) PER 29 (18 Base +1 Elf +1 White that Wends +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +1 Effigy: Sagani +2 Alchemic Guile +1 Savage Cunning +1 Cauldron Brew +1 Ajamuut) INT 25 (18 Base +2 Berath +1 Konstanten Boon +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Charm of Bones) RES 11 (3 Base +2 Berath +2 Alchemic Wits +2 Nature’s Resolve +2 Rikuhu’s Blessing) ADDITIONAL PERMABUFFS: Food: Hot Razor Skewers Adratic Glow All Trainings Dawnstar Blessing Luminous Adra Potion Nature’s Resolve (Accuracy) Savage Cunning (Survival) Galawain’s Gift x3 (Acc. against beasts) BERATH BLESSINGS: I am not ashamed of investing all 105 points. BUT none is required to win with this build. SKILLS: I like to roll Diplomacy, Survival, Athletics, and Mechanics (and a bit of Stealth of course) over the course of the game as they enable important stat checks early on. After level 20 and once I’m in the thick of the DLC’s, a stronger focus on Arcana is very helpful and mandatory for the biggest cheesy fights. ----- ABILITIES ------ ASSASSIN Core to the build: Crippling Strike, Fast Runner, Arms Bearer, Smoke Veil, Blinding Strike, Dirty Fighting, Two Handed, Debilitating (or Arterial) Strike, Gouging Strike, Finishing Blow, Deep Pockets, Withering Strike, Devastating Blow, Tough, Uncanny Luck, Deep Wounds, Toxic Strike, Improved Critical, Deathblows. CIPHER Core to the build: Whisper of Treason (just to make Krovix of the Deep your pet), Biting Whip, Hammering Thought, Disintegration. Situational Skills: Borrowed Instinct, Empty Soul (both for Hauani), Farcasting, Rapid Casting (for end-game, Arcana heavy build). Caution: NEVER Take Echoing Horror, it will make you come out of Stealth/Invisibility! A Couple of Notes: -You don’t need the Shadowing Beyond tree. Smoke Veil and the occasional Potion of Invisibility or Scroll of Withdraw are all you need in stealth. For extra mobility, you can consider the Bounding Boots with Boeroer’s tricks. Not required at all, but fun if you’re really into Arterial Strike. I prefer Debilitating Strike because I have already a lot in the DoT department, and because it enables Deathblows which can synergize with Thunderous Report. -Backstab doesn’t fit the playtstyle of this build and is in my experience buggy with Arquebus. -I really don’t spread much into the Cipher’s skill tree, but what I take is incredibly helpful, and then it allows me to invest heavily in the Assassin skill-intensive tree. This is synergy! -----GEAR------ Weapon Set 1: Dragon’s Dowry, Mythic, Volatile Runelock, Serpent’s Rage. Weapon Set 2: The Red Hand, Mythic, Double Tap, Unburdened Soul (trust me on the long run Unburdened Soul is the better choice. See notes below). Weapon Set 3: Main Hand Fire in the Hole, Mythic, Chain Shot and Off-Hand Kitchen Stove, Mythic, Thunderous Report, Everything and Anything. Also keep handy: Marux Amanth. And True Lover’s Kiss if you want. Acina’s Tricorn Charm of Bones Devil of Caroc: whatever enchantments. With permabuffs, it gives us 12 Guile/Encounter. Ajamuut’s Stalking Cloak: amazing! Killer’s Gloves (keep Burglar’s Gloves and Firethrower’s gloves handy) Ring of Focused Flames (synergizes with Dragon’s Dowry and Thunderous Report) Ring of the Marksman (keep Kuaru’s prize handy) Slippers of the Assassin (free stealth once per encounter when you kill your first enemy: this item is amazing!) Sash of Judgment Harley Dog (keep Eviee handy) Potions and Scrolls: Invisibility, Withdraw, high level elemental and physical damage scrolls, anything that can also paralyze/ petrify. A couple of notes: -On the Red Hand, I initially went with Guilty Conscience. Even if it fits the idea of the build, +40% damage taken still sucks. The Red Hand doesn’t need the extra-extra 20% DMG to be awesome. Also, Guilty Conscience will make the (very) optional fight in SSS where you are turned into an Ironclad impossible to win. -Double Tap and especially Thunderous Report are some of the most powerful, transformational weapon effects in the game. Worthy Sacrifice also, but just for one fight. -Overall, just keep unique stuff you come across to have options, especially if you haven’t played PotD a lot. If you come across items with immunities/resistance, hold on to them. You will have more than enough money anyway. -----GENERAL STRATEGIES------ Our Defense is dismal, and we will take a lot of damage because of our passives. Our only option is to stay hidden in the shadows, and to strike hard. Luckily we have a pretty serious and flexible offensive potential: long range single target, short range AoE, both able to apply Burst or DoT, plus afflictions that enable more damage. Lots of combos in perspective. Our ACC will routinely reach 200+ and our PEN is always above 20. So you will always crit and so you will always overpenetrate etc. Thunderous Report is usually critting at 182 ACC with 33 PEN and 400+ DMG. The arquebuses can reach higher ACC and PEN of 36 and hit for 200-300 DMG a shot – and then you can add the DoT! All in all, this build always has the PEN mechanic working in his favor, and will crit 99% of enemies 99% of the time. BURST DAMAGE: -Debilitating Strike: Cheap, big damage, enables Deathblows. Nice opener for Burst DMG. -Devastating Blow: Very strong finisher on enemies with lots of health and closer to the end. Thunderous Report: Outstanding damage in a BIG AoE cone. -Any combination of those will obliterate most enemies. With Dragon Dowry, you can routinely do about 600 DMG on a single target with Debilitating + Devastating in a double tap. -Debilitating Strike with Fire in the Hole immediately followed by Thunderous Report from Stealth is ridiculously strong and will result in potentially 3,000+ total AoE damage depending on the size of the crowd, in less than 5sec of combat. -The Red Hand’s Double Tap will instakill all vessels… except Dorudugan, Concelhaut, the Fampyr’s in Splintered Reef, maybe a few others. But the other Ancient Fampyrs in their cave, the Ancient Liche Battlemage, the Ancient Deathguards, the Steel Ironclads, the Engwithan Titans… all instakillable. -Pierce Immunes are never a problem between double tap for vessels and the lashes/additional effects, especially if using Dragon Dowry. -Do not use Dragon Dowry on Fire immunes. All its attacks are keyworded as Fire which is on the other hand great with Ring of Focused Flames. (Also works with Thunderous Report). OVER TIME DAMAGE: -Gouging Strike: will prolong combat and work until the enemy is no more. Amazing. -Toxic Strike: will increase in potency over time, scaling to incredible damage. -Disintegration: one of the strongest single target damage spell in the game. You can apply all 3 DoTs above to the same target. It works very well at absolutely obliterating enemies that thought they could out-heal your offense, and can speed up boss fights. We are concentrating in this build some of the stronger DoTs in the game. Sure you could also have Arterial Strike, and team up with your Priest, Paladin and Ranger buddies for a crazy DoT-fest. But you have all you need there already to make any enemy a dead man standing. -Deep Wounds: always on, and pretty cool! -----MEGABOSS/HARD FIGHTS STRATEGIES------ You may argue that I use very cheap tactics against those magnificent beings. But if I can’t even abuse Gouging Strike with an Assassin, then who can? Dorudugan: Equip upright captain belt, shoot Doru in the face with Gouging Strike, Stealth and retreat to the exact South East corner of the map (right in the corner). Come back an hour later, it’s cooked. Belranga: Shoot her in the face with Gouging strike, Stealth and retreat at the beginning of the map. Once she’s done, proceed to finish the remaining spiders with Thunderous Report on the biggest cluster and stealth+snipe on the stragglers. Hauani O Whe: Shoot it in the “face?” with Gouging Strike, then retreat to the south of the beach and chill. Once it’s at Near Death, take a +ACC potion/scroll, gulp a potion of invisibility, fire Borrowed Instinct on Hauani. Restealth and use your additional +ACC to land Disintegration (Empower ok but not necessary). Restealth, walk to Hauani and make sure it’s not moving and it’s under the effect of Disintegration. Yank it with Marux Amanth for a nice instakill. Auranic: It’s actually pretty easy even with this build: you need potions of invisibility, the Eviee pet, one Empower point, and do NOT damage Auranic from the beginning. Keep her for last. First, go kill the bodyguard that can charge/stun. Stealth and Thunderous Report + maybe a normal followup attack will do. This will trigger your invisibility from the boots. Go slightly south while switching to the Red Hand. Fire on the Sigil that opened (obelisk of terror) and the remaining bodyguard both with Gouging Strike. Yes, even if obelisks are pierce DMG immune they will take the hit, triggering lashes and additional effects. Drink a potion of invisibility and retreat to the entrance to chill a bit. Now you will repeat this strategy to apply Gouging Strike to all the remaining obelisks but never attack Auranic. It’s actually really easy, walk up, Auranic opens an obelisk, shoot, stealth, run away. Use potions of invisibility and replenish 6 points of Guile out of your 12 Max when needed. Once all obelisks have the Gouging Strike, wait at the entrance for their destruction. Because Auranic is still relaxed, she won’t open the obelisks unless provoked. Once they’re gone, shoot Auranic in the face with Gouging Strike from Dragon’s Dowry and retreat to the entrance. Wait until she’s done. Of note, you can use the same strategy without using the Empower points and the True Lover’s Kiss, but it’s probably very tedious. SSS Hard Arena Fights /BoW Bridge Ablaze/FS Oratory and Oracle: Those fights might seem impossible at first but respec to max Arcana and load up with the strongest AoE scrolls with potions of invisibility and use your Guile to stay invisible or Gouging Strike key opponents. The fights will become a cakewalk. As an Assassin, you retain your bonii from striking from stealth when you use scrolls which leads to devastating AoE strikes. -----THE END------ Happy to read your thoughts and potential for improvement. Retrospectively, I may have underutilized the Cipher half of this toon, but at the same time this version is very effective!

I believe the Assassin perk is broken and not functioning with the Whisper-Quiet Muzzler. Damage does not increase when I install this mod on weapons to get them down into the range of 2.5m or less. If it is working as designed, the follow up question would be what is the point of the perk then? I've gone through stores, my storage and inventory and only could find one weapon type, the saber, that starts with a default below 2.5m. That weapon's listed damage actually did go up when I bought the perk. So, either the interaction with the mod is broken, a display bug isn't showing the new dps, or the perk is practically useless and the description needs to change to reflect it only modifies one type of weapon. Can someone confirm which one it is? Thanks

I'm close to finishing my first play-through with an Assassin/Paladin and am thinking about starting again. I almost always play rogues and want to play another assassin, but I really want to focus more on stealth, assassinate, invisibility--which has been a disappointment with my current game. I've been reading these forum and doing a lot a searches for build tips, but I think I'm missing something key. Can anyone help me with: 1. How does salvation of time create unlimited invisibility? No, I haven't play tested this, but the description say that SoT adds 10 second of beneficial effects. What am I missing here? 2. I've seen several comments about something being Brilliant. How does this create longer/better invisibility? 3. Is there some way that a solo character uses Vanishing Strike with SoT, or am I misreading some comment? What are the best ways to maximize the Assassin subclass? I especially am interested in pure Assassin or multiclassed with a Priest or Blood Mage. Thanks.

Searching for an Assassin build I stumbled upon this PL7 Fighter skill called Power Strike. It is melee only and hits for +200% damage and 4 penetration, therefore, it can deal very high damage if combined with assassinate and backstab. It sucks that I wanted to become Devoted with Arquebus. I would like to ask you for the best weapon to complement this combo, and if someone who knows console commands can test to see if, and to what extent, it works (that is, how much damage it can deal).

Hello guys, First a little intro. I'm the type of person who waits until everything is released and patched, then goes for 100% completion. I also love theorycrafting and have a tendency to reroll A LOT. Somewhat recently I finished PoE1 (PoTD with scaling, ended game with 0 knockouts all around) with a rogue. My end game party was (Eder, GM, Durance, Aloth, Hiravias) I did enjoy the build, it was single target focused and once bosses were Bloodied I could just delete them with Finishing Blow. Quite satisfying. Sure, I was rather squishy and I had to use clever positioning and pick the correct targets, but either way, it was a style I did enjoy. Now I've started PoE2 Deadfire on PoTD with only Critical Path scaling. I tried some builds (without prior planning) but I ended up dumping them all around level 9-10. So, for the past couple of days I've been doing some research on certain builds, skills and classes. Here's what I'm thinking. Class: Spellblade (Evoker/Assassin) Race: Human (just RP value) Stats: Might 18, Con 8, Dex 10, Per 16, Int 18, Res 8 My playstyle would be the following: 1. Trash mobs Buff Infuse, Mirror Image, Illengrath Safeguard, Fleet Feet or Deleterious (others like Ryngrim's or Arcane reflection are situational) Run or Escape into center of enemy Use Torrent of Flame Smoke Cloud Delay Fireball + Normal fireball I believe this should be enough to clear most mobs, and I could follow with either more nukes or going melee. 2. Bosses (and Megabosses) Buff Infuse, Mirror Image, Illengrath Safeguard, Zandethus' Draconic Fury (+ others depending) Use Toxic Strike, Gouging strike and Deep wounds to apply stacking DoTs Go invisible and nuke / melee away If it's not enough, use empower to refill and apply a new set of DoTs Use Marux Amanth as a finisher. I could use some input on this. Do you guys think it's viable in PoTD? Are the wizards buffs enough for me to act as an offtank? Is a tactic like this sound for bosses/megabosses? (have no prior experience, so i'm going by ear) Bonus: Does Combusting Wounds trigger with Toxic Strike/Gouging Strike/Deep wounds ticks ? I'm also open to new ideas, but I'm keen on a theme like this. Imagine Kassadin from League of Legends. Something like that, play and style, is what I'm after and enjoy.

Hi there. Relatively new player here (played 20 hours last year at launch), looking to create a ranged mindstalker for a Classic playthrough using the Turn-Based mode. I was hoping to get some advice re: stat priority, weapons (2h vs DW), and key abilities to really make the multi-class shine. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

I would first like to say that the stealth revamp and the vision cone in deadfire is miles ahead of what we had in PoE1. The system helps a lot in making rogues and sneaking more immersive, and backstabbing is an actual thing now unlike in the previous game where it was basically an afterthought. That said, I think rogues here have another problem - too many similar skills. Hobbling strike, Blinding strike, Strike the Bell, Finishing Blow, Withering Blow, Sap, Gambit and Vanishing Strike. That's 8 attack abilities not counting the various upgrades for most of them. I'm pretty sure most players don't need them, and some are pretty much wasted space by the time you get to them (why would you ever use sap). You might say how it gives rogues options, but not really, most of these work pretty much the same and are boring in effect, with the exception of finishing blow and vanishing strike. Gambit single-handedly trivializes any kind of choice once you unlock it. But if you nerf gambit then you're just forced to use a combination of the other strikes. If you ask me, we should drastically reduce the damage of some of the strikes (strike the bell, sap, withering blow for example) give them some sort of utilitary role, or replace them completely. Sap could stun the target but do 10% damage. Put in rogue-specific poisons that are more effective, cheap or can be used per-encounter like poison that lowers stats, armor, defenses or fighting capabilities of stricken targets. Put in skills that promote gun/sword combos. For example a Ranged or Melee attack that does not have recovery as long as you used the opposite weapon before it. I'm pretty sure I'm late to the party when it comes to these suggestions, but maybe for a bigger patch or expansion there's hope.

At first I started a Trickster/Soulblade main character, but I don't really like the trickster so now I'm thinking of starting a Devoted/Soulblade or an Assassin/Soulblade. Which one would make more sense to partner up with a swashbuckler (fighter/rogue) Edér if I'll focus on one handed style with swords and medium armor? Assassin/Soulblade and Fighter/Rogue has multiple ways to Flank enemies with smokes, blinding attacks and cipher debuffs, but a Devoted/Soulblade generally looks more viable with Disciplined B., Confident Aim and Cleaving Stance. Basically my planned attributes for both would be Might15, Con10, Dex16, Per15, Int10, Res12

Do you think that build with Sharpshooter/Assassin focusing only on arquebus or other big ( base damage ) kind of firearm will be viable? Im thinking about sth like sniper or character that can focus on single "soft and important" (like mages) target from stealth and take them out as fast as possible with as few attacks as possible.

Having played around with the Assassin, I've noticed that Assassinate only works on the first attack when dual wielding, even if activating an ability that is a full attack such as Blinding Strike. Given that Assassinate apparently applies to all projectiles from a spell, would it make sense for it to apply to the first full attack from stealth instead of only the primary attack in order to be more useful with dual-wielding than with single-handed or two-handed weapons?

It would be great if someone could shed some light on how Obsidian plans to incorporate this aspect in the game. I always roll a thief/assassin character in cRPGs and I am curious how it will turn out to be in PE. IMHO, BG2 had a very satisfying feel for the assassin - picking the right tools, items and skills, you could one-shot very hard foes before they got a chance to react. After that, you were kind of useless unless you had invisibility potions or items to do another stab, or it was running in the fog to re-stealth. The principle was very good and mostly satisfying but there were some pitfalls PE could learn from - first off, the one that most developers fail at - backstabing being based on weapon base damage / all weapons are equally good at stabbing. This must be avoided as a Staff of the Ram with huge base damage is an optimal backstabbing weapon no matter what. Instead, there should be a hefty bonus for daggers/short swords to make them the ideal weapon for such things. Dual-wielding should also amplify the backstabbing capabilities but should also have drawbacks compared to one-hand attacks. That said, a mace/sword rogue should definitely be a viable path and could have more consistent damage during combat as opposed to daggers that do a big initial burst but then perform worse as the clash stretches out. Another very important part is stealth and the mechanics surrounding it. I believe it's a consensus that the visual/audio hiding/checking should be merged into one, as no one would max one and leave the other low because that would still make sneaking impossible. Trying to go into stealth and "failing" was also mind boggling during the stages where your sneaking wasn't that good, requiring you to just sit there a couple of turns until you finally enter successful, so I think every attempt should be successful, it's just that lower levels would require you to be slower and more prone to detection. Visual cones is something that should definitely affect sneaking, as should walls and items that block vision (like in BG2). It shouldn't be too complicated though, a simple flat detection bonus should be applied if you are sneaking in front of someone as opposed to being behind them. Naturally, distance would factor in a lot as well. Anyway, I'll add more thoughts tomorrow, but feel free to add in or comment