Mage Killing Assassin Build. Is such a thing even doable?

[ConBrio]

If I get a feycraft gnomish quizkrazor, isn't my damage output going to be pathetically low?

At level 5 for example:

Lets say my rank in IF is 16 (4 from katana, 2 from Balance synergy, 8 ranks in the skill, 2 charisma) and I roll a 10 on my check: 26 = +4d6

I hit and roll a 1d3 for damage: My max damage is 27. Isn't that really kind of low? If my goal is to assassinate my target in one shot (so they are flat-footed) how can I accomplish that? I guess if I soak the blade in Sassone leaf residue and they fail the DC they could take an additional 24, but this is pretty luck dependent.

Lets assume I get average on all the damage dice: 14 + 12 = 26 damage.

Yeah.... am I missing something?

And what do I do when they aren't flat footed?

[radionausea]

If you're going Factotum then pick up the Lucid Dreaming skill from Manual of The Planes.  Kill the mage in their sleep. 

Your DM may be, erm, disapproving of it though...

[ConBrio]

If you're going Factotum then pick up the Lucid Dreaming skill from Manual of The Planes.  Kill the mage in their sleep. 

Your DM may be, erm, disapproving of it though...

Yeah my DM would probably say no to that.

[Halinn]

If I get a feycraft gnomish quizkrazor, isn't my damage output going to be pathetically low?

At level 5 for example:

Lets say my rank in IF is 16 (4 from katana, 2 from Balance synergy, 8 ranks in the skill, 2 charisma) and I roll a 10 on my check: 26 = +4d6

I hit and roll a 1d3 for damage: My max damage is 27. Isn't that really kind of low? If my goal is to assassinate my target in one shot (so they are flat-footed) how can I accomplish that? I guess if I soak the blade in Sassone leaf residue and they fail the DC they could take an additional 24, but this is pretty luck dependent.

Lets assume I get average on all the damage dice: 14 + 12 = 26 damage.

Yeah.... am I missing something?

You can sneak attack (1d6 per inspiration point), and add your int modifier to damage (once per hit, for 1 inspiration point). At level 8, your full attack is two attacks and you can spend inspiration points for more attacks.

[ConBrio]

I actually found a really cool build that isn't Factotum, or a straight assassin, but does pretty much what I want to do.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8207298&postcount=174

[Halinn]

I actually found a really cool build that isn't Factotum, or a straight assassin, but does pretty much what I want to do.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8207298&postcount=174

A few things from that post I'd like to point out:

It's not a high damage build (though 12d6+60 or so at 20th is quite respectable!

An average of 102 damage at level 20 is far from respectable.

Death attack: You have Death Attack from assassin - especially effective on creatures who are unconscious or helpless from Sleep, Color Spray, Deep Slumber, Hold Person, and other spells on your list. You can make and use poisons: Drow Poison is only 30g to make and can knock a target unconscious. You also have Suggestion at will from Psibond (I suggest you take a little nap) and later Dominate. With a little planning, you can kill quite a lot of people quite easily.

With the setup assumed in that (color spray and sleep will be nearing uselessness by the time you hit level 7 and get death attack, btw), a coup de grace would be a better way to spend time than a death attack.

I will admit that the build is okay-ish at stuff not involving combat, but if it comes to combat, it is not very good, to say the least.

[ConBrio]

I actually found a really cool build that isn't Factotum, or a straight assassin, but does pretty much what I want to do.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8207298&postcount=174

A few things from that post I'd like to point out:

It's not a high damage build (though 12d6+60 or so at 20th is quite respectable!

An average of 102 damage at level 20 is far from respectable.

Death attack: You have Death Attack from assassin - especially effective on creatures who are unconscious or helpless from Sleep, Color Spray, Deep Slumber, Hold Person, and other spells on your list. You can make and use poisons: Drow Poison is only 30g to make and can knock a target unconscious. You also have Suggestion at will from Psibond (I suggest you take a little nap) and later Dominate. With a little planning, you can kill quite a lot of people quite easily.

With the setup assumed in that (color spray and sleep will be nearing uselessness by the time you hit level 7 and get death attack, btw), a coup de grace would be a better way to spend time than a death attack.

I will admit that the build is okay-ish at stuff not involving combat, but if it comes to combat, it is not very good, to say the least.

In combat it is more about control than actually contributing damage. At least that is the way I see it with that build.

My assassin character is mostly meant for out of combat shenanigans, and this build seems to do it pretty well.

While in combat I'll just throw some spells around and let the rest of my party do the work.  Or use poison as the build is kind of meant to do.

Do you think this build is better? http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8209686&postcount=187

edit: I should also note my group is pretty low OP. So even if my build isn't super powerful it should be fine. We do have tier 1s in the party, but they pretty much stick in core.