Improve assassins

[Agema]

I don't know that makes much sense. A spy is a specialist at finding things out, an assassin just kills people.

[Gregstrom]

But presumably assassins would take a careful look at their potential targets? If they provided info on commanders but couldn't estimate troop numbers, that might be a balance.

[Aapeli]

Originally Posted by capnq

..and then turned and attacked the Soulless behind him rather than the target mage in front of him.

I would be quite happy if asassins could target commanders. Its just logical that they target their real target, the one they have came to kill and not any inimportant militia that happens to stand next to him. Im also for the idea of giving the first turn to the asassin.

[Gandalf Parker]

The message saying it succeeded or not would be nice. Reporting their province in the message would be nice also. I hate having to watch the fade-in and try to figure out where it occured.

[Agema]

Assassins getting the first turn would make them enormously powerful. Think of scenarios like having flying boots for two immediate dagger attacks on the target, a bow of war for umpteen arrows and so on. We're talking potential instant kill in many circumstances with very cheap and early Construction requirements.

Selecting a target also makes them incredibly powerful. I'm sure someone prepared to put a bit of effort into equipping their assassin properly could quite easily find and kill a humanoid pretender God (although maybe not a titan or monster.) Particularly if they get first move as well. Also I think Blood has access to an artefact (Dark Heart?) that gives characters the assassinate skill: a thug/SC with that could select and pick off the lynchpin commanders and mages of an opponent.

[Taqwus]

Right now, their utter randomness in picking targets and the fact that a province has to choose between hiring an assassin (whose odds of accomplishing anything are fairly low -- even independent priests fairly frequently survive, due to guards) or hiring a commander that will probably have far greater returns over time.

I could see an assassin having some control over *whom* to target among commanders in a province. This does not mean that they should deterministically be given an opportunity to try against that commander; i.e. it is entirely reasonable that one have to wait around for quite some months avoiding patrols before finding a opportune time (depending on the patrol value in the province, for instance... and the target being in a castle should probably add a penalty as well).

Second, it doesn't mean that they should have a good chance of survival if they've pulled off the assassination -- it should, minimally, have a large penalty to the assassin's stealth for a while (possibly permanent). Think, say, Jing Ke; he had a plan that gave a shot at getting close to the Qin leader, but no plan that would have caused the courtiers from disseminating his identity and having patrols looking specifically for him even if he'd been able to get away. The odds that an assassin has 'blown cover' by trying should be rather high, even if the target and personal guards are all killed.

[Illuminated One]

That's a good point.
What would be even more better if the assasin would get something from idly sitting around in the province where he strikes. Like having a higher chance to pick a good target (or make a popup list like GoR has where you can select an enemy commander. The list would grow over time from 1 entry at the first turn to all the commanders in the province after n turns) or a better starting position in the assassination battle.

Ah, but that's just wishful thinking.

[Ironhawk]

If you had to pick one stat or ability that would make assassins as they currently are more useful, what would it be?

[Gandalf Parker]

Personally I would say their Stealth.
I can adjust most other stats by equipment. But I hate to invest in equipment then have him spotted forcing him to fight an army with no way to retreat.

[Ironhawk]

Stealth would be handy, yeah. What do others think?