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

[Noliar]

So you should be trying to... sleep with him?

Absolutely, if he's trying to maximize skin contact that's most of his defenses set aside. Bonus points for privacy and not in his own bedroom (where he probably has defenses built in).

I think a more common tactic would be to have someone else attack the guy first.  Trigger his contingencies, dispel his buffs, and basically force the Wizard to use his action economy fighting him instead of detecting you.  Crafted Contingencies and tinfoil hats take time to re-create, giving you an opportunity to strike while the other wizard's defenses are down (unless he's a truly cowardly Wizard and teleports away).

How is your relatively low level PC getting a third party powerful enough to make a useful dent to act as his stalking horse. Also, sneaking up on a magical battle involves getting close to a magical battle. While not having all the protections that the participants have. And then attacking the winner while he's in a kill or be killed mental state.
See my earlier comments about mugs' games.
Waiting for him in his own sanctum when he staggers back with his hat still smoking might work but you would need to be an incredible burglar not just to get there alive but leave no sign of your entry that he might notice while on max paranoia mode and so take away your surprise.

Far better to offer him hors d'oevres at a party, stab him n the belly under the tray and pie him in the face with dozens of pickles on cocktail sticks then take the towel over your arm (soaked in an inhalation poison such a mordayn tea) and wrap it round his head to deny him LOS on anything.

[Halinn]

Changeling (Eberron Campaign Setting) lets you physically change your body to disguise yourself.  Certain divinations can still reveal you.  Someone already mentioned Vecna-blooded (Monster Manual IV, page 64).  You'll have to wait for Vecna-blooded, but being immune to divination won't be necessary right off.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to take something from Monster Manual. Aren't those abilities supposed to be exclusively for monsters?

And because prestige classes are in the Dungeon Master's Guide, they're exclusively for the DM.

[Lycanthromancer]

So you should be trying to... sleep with him?

Absolutely, if he's trying to maximize skin contact that's most of his defenses set aside. Bonus points for privacy and not in his own bedroom (where he probably has defenses built in).

Bonus points if 'stabbing' him is what he WANTS you to do.

[Noliar]

Craft: exploding dildo is absolutely key to this build 

[ConBrio]

Craft: exploding dildo is absolutely key to this build 

[PlzBreakMyCampaign]

Waits for trolling to begin

edit: nevermind, it has begun.

[X-Codes]

How is your relatively low level PC getting a third party powerful enough to make a useful dent to act as his stalking horse. Also, sneaking up on a magical battle involves getting close to a magical battle. While not having all the protections that the participants have. And then attacking the winner while he's in a kill or be killed mental state.

You are not an Exemplar, making a Logical Jump with a +343 skill bonus does not make me a fanatical follower.  The PC in question is not automatically incapable of everything just because he's fighting a Paranoid Wizard, as can be demonstrated by a fight between two Paranoid Wizards, which would suggest that Paranoid Wizards are automatically incapable of everything.

[Noliar]

How is your relatively low level PC getting a third party powerful enough to make a useful dent to act as his stalking horse. Also, sneaking up on a magical battle involves getting close to a magical battle. While not having all the protections that the participants have. And then attacking the winner while he's in a kill or be killed mental state.

You are not an Exemplar, making a Logical Jump with a +343 skill bonus does not make me a fanatical follower.  The PC in question is not automatically incapable of everything just because he's fighting a Paranoid Wizard, as can be demonstrated by a fight between two Paranoid Wizards, which would suggest that Paranoid Wizards are automatically incapable of everything.

Um... I'm not sure where you think I'm making a huge unwarranted logical jump here. The OP is talking about starting his assassin at level 1 (at which point even my dirty tricks are are unlikely to be possible granted but lets posit that he survives a few levels) and we are discussing ways to take down wizards sufficiently powerful that the gap between tier 1 and tier 3-4 (where you'd expect a good primarily skills based assassin to sit) is a real problem. So I don't think it's unreasonable that some of his targets also have a level advantage and thus his character is relatively low level. Such targets are the one where it's most important to get the strategy right. They are also the sort of targets that the PCs party probably don't want to take on with their usual dungeon blitz team tactics or else they'd be doing that instead of the slow and painstaking prep work of an assassination. Under such circumstances finding people willing and able to hold the targets attention and actually soften his defenses rather than having the perverse effect of hardening them because he's frantically bringing them up to combat levels because hey! he's being attacked might be difficult/expensive.

I am not saying that the character will be incapable of setting the situation up or of taking advantage in a satisfyingly lethal manner. But doing so is difficult, dangerous, chancy, spectacular and very nearly heroic. Therefore it should not be the preferred choice. Especially if the option exists to cynically take advantage of what should have been a pleasant evening out.

[X-Codes]

I'm still not convinced you're talking about anything actually relevant to anything.  It looks like a page of half-considered conjectures based on stereotypes stemming from either a gross mis-interpretation of the Tier system, a blatant mis-reading of my post, an excess of reading into my post, or some combination of the three.

• Just because the character is level 1 doesn't mean that he's going directly at his target from level 1, or that his target will necessarily be X number of levels above him, or that being X number of levels behind a given Wizard is really all that important (because frankly, it isn't, what they're going to do to try to kill you is essentially the same regardless of what tools they have at their disposal).
• Just because the party isn't going to want to take the Wizard on with the usual dungeon blitz tactics doesn't mean that they're not all going to be involved in the fight.  In fact, action economy is even more important at these levels.  What's more, most of a typical Paranoid Wizard's defenses are ablative, not absolute.  Contingencies go off once, and then they're down until the Wizard has time to re-create them.  Mirror Image stops one full attack, and then it's gone.  Once the Wizard casts spells to do combat with one enemy, they do not come back for at least 9 hours that the Wizard has spent doing nothing but recovering and studying his spellbook.
• Finally, just because the Wizard isn't in an actual battle doesn't mean he's defenseless.  Depending on the level, he has an ever-increasing list of all-day immunities, might have always-on Uncanny Dodge, might have divined your intentions to kill him, might have a defense that renders your attack obsolete, and might not even actually be where you think he is, but rather playing with an illusory double via a magical remote control.  What's more, Contingencies trigger regardless of whether or not the Wizard *thinks* he's in combat, they trigger *instantly*.  If he has a trigger that casts Wail of the Banshee when you attempt to stab him with a dagger, that trigger goes off before your attack does.

The two most powerful tools in a Wizard's arsenal are the ones that let him foresee as many situations as possible (Divination), and the ones that provide him defense against the ones he doesn't foresee (Contingency).  If you hit him hard, and hit him twice on the latter defense, there's a good chance his defenses will be breached and you can bring him down.

[ConBrio]

Ok so, should I make a different thread since I've since decided to ditch the "focuses in killing mages" aspect?

Or maybe I should just add something to the OP.

Anyway, our group is rather low optimization, so would I be able to get by mostly sticking to core classes (rogue, ranger, assassin) or should I go for something better?

[carnivore]

did you see the build I posted?

 

[ConBrio]

did you see the build I posted?

 

Oops. I had skipped over it by accident.

Anyway just a few questions about it: Why ditch track for trapfinding if I will have levels as a rogue?

Also if I no longer decide to go after mages specifically should I just make my favored enemies humanoids?

Why exactly am I giving up Sneak Attack for extra feats? Backstabbing is the time tested assassination method, right next to poisoning.

[Maat Mons]

You can trade rogue's trapfinding for poison use with an alternative class feature from Drow of the Underdark.  It's called “drow rogue,” but it explicitly has no prerequisites, so it should work with any race. 

[ConBrio]

You can trade rogue's trapfinding for poison use with an alternative class feature from Drow of the Underdark.  It's called “drow rogue,” but it explicitly has no prerequisites, so it should work with any race.

So trade trapfinding for poison use, then trade track for trapfinding?

[carnivore]

Anyway just a few questions about it: Why ditch track for trapfinding if I will have levels as a rogue?

ninjaed.... trade Rogue Trapfinding for Poison Use

Also if I no longer decide to go after mages specifically should I just make my favored enemies humanoids?

notice what Arcane hunter ACF actually does:
"ARCANE HUNTER
Rangers learn to track and hunt creatures of a certain type when choosing a favored enemy. Some rangers concern themselves less with what a creature is, and more with what it does. These rangers learn to identify signs of the arcane and make it their business to combat those who use arcane magic in opposition to their goals.
Class: Ranger.
Level: 1st.
Special Requirement: Knowledge (arcana) 1 rank.
Replaces: At 1st level, you do not select a favored enemy from Table 3-14 in the Flayer's Handbook. At 5th, 10th, 15th,and 20th level, you can choose favored enemies as normal.
Benefit: At 1st level, you gain favored enemy (arcanists). This feature works just like the favored enemy ability (PH 47). The bonuses granted apply to any character capable of casting arcane spells or using invocations (but not other spell-like abilities)."

many of the BBEGs are arcane casters... it never goes out of style

Why exactly am I giving up Sneak Attack for extra feats? Backstabbing is the time tested assassination method, right next to poisoning.

reducing thier Hit points to -10 or lower is usually the best way to kill something, unless you have a Death attack .... Extra Feats are far more useful to making a Character than Sneak Attack


 

[ConBrio]

many of the BBEGs are arcane casters... it never goes out of style

Why exactly am I giving up Sneak Attack for extra feats? Backstabbing is the time tested assassination method, right next to poisoning.

reducing thier Hit points to -10 or lower is usually the best way to kill something, unless you have a Death attack .... Extra Feats are far more useful to making a Character than Sneak Attack


 

What feats should I choose exactly when I get all those extra feats?

[carnivore]

what level Build are you looking for?

 .... the one I posted for a 6th lvl character, I reposted the level by level Feat choices

 

[ConBrio]

what level Build are you looking for?

 .... the one I posted for a 6th lvl character, I reposted the level by level Feat choices

 

Up to level 10 would be very much appreciated.

edit:

Also without Sneak Attack how exactly would I fare in normal combat?

[ConBrio]

I'm going to bump this to avoid making a thread for a simple question:

In a low OP game, would I be fine just going pure Factotum?

Changeling factotum. Gnomish quickrazor proficiency, Iajutsu focus, and Font of Inspiration.

I think it pretty much covers everything I need it to, and I only need to focus in a few stats (STR, CHA, INT). Though I'm doing dice roll so it isn't as big a deal.

[X-Codes]

Strength isn't all that important with Iaijutsu.  Neither is Charisma unless you go for Iaijutsu master, although Charisma gives bonuses to a LOT of very nice skills.  You'll want high Dex for a better Init roll.  Sure your Intelligence already applies, but getting both of them to decent levels is a better return on your point-buy investment.