Need suggestions - Religous Assassins

[Dargesh]

I was watching "End of Days" last weekend and part of the story line included what were in effect church assassins. While from thier own viewpoint, they were doing good by killing the woman who would be the mother of the devil, the rest of the church looked upon them as, not evil so much, but just completely wrong.

Has anyone got any suggestions on putting together this sort of character. I want to set up something similar as an NPC group, possibly allowing for a Prestige Class later on. It might make a nice alternitive to the general "evil priest/fallen paladin" route.

[EZ_Turlo]

Buy/borrow The Quintesential Rogue by Mongoose Publishing. First, its a fantastic supplement to D&D. Second, the classes you want to look at are Crusading Footpad or Shadowy Avenger.

Another alternative is getting a level in paladin or cleric.

[DarthEnder]

Unless I'm mistaken, the original assassins in RL were religious fanatic.

You know, muslim assassins. I'm not farmiliar with this area of history. But somoene more knowledgeble problably knows what I mean.

Something about the Old Man on the Mountain.

[EZ_Swipey]

In the 13th century (CE) in the Zagros Moutains of what is now Iran, there was a fortress city containing a group of fanatics who used the threat of directed political murder as a means to extort support for their sect. The Sect was led by a man known as "the Old Man of the Mountain" and the murderers sent out were often hopped up on hashish so they felt no pain during an attack. In tha arabic they were known as "Hashisheen", the users of hashish.

Now, this threat of murder only worked because of the strength of the fortress that was the seat of the Assassin's power. It was in mountainous terrain, and was heavily fortified. The rulers of the time felt that could not be stormed or battered down, and that any army sent to seige it would have its officers, as well as the ruler who sent them, murdered.

The eventual fate of the City of Assassins was to fall to the Mongols, more specifically to the chinese seige engineers employed by them. Once the defences were breached the Mongols stormed the city and left no survivors.

[Caowyth]

Thats how my current assassin works. He doesn't work for money, but for religious/political reasons.

Things are so much better when you have a clear purpose and direction in life.

Cao

[EZ_Swipey]

While he was not an assassin, one of my favorite characters was a religious theif. His order was dedicated to good works, helping the poor, the starving, the downtrodden, basically anything that hurts the heart, his order was involved in alleviating. The thieving part came in when it came to tithes. Anyone who didnt voluntarily donate was liable to have twice the value of the voluntary donation simply "disappear" from their possession.

He was a lot of fun to play, mainly because the other characters loathed his theivery, but tolerated it because they could never quite prove anything, and given his vow of poverty, he spent nearly everything he gained on good works.

[EZ_Kintire]

The Old Man of the Mountain was Hasan-i-Sabah. He founded the assassins, a heretic Islamic organisation. The connection with Hashish is dubious. 'Hashish user' was a general term for an unbalanced thug at the time. They seem to have been an ascetic sect.

Although Al-amut (the Eagle's Nest) was their main stronghold, they had others dotted about the middle east. They were in decline by the Mongol invasion, Hasan-i-Sabah was long dead, but still had a lot of influence... which is why the Mongols crushed them.

They are rumoured to have had connections with the Knights Templar. Then again, there are a lot of rumours about the connections of the Knights Templar....

[DarthEnder]

I am SO glad I didn't make all that up.

[Jhani Vandolay]

www.angelfire.com/games3/...eeker.html

www.angelfire.com/games3/...scout.html

www.angelfire.com/games3/...eeker.html

These came to mind, I'm sure I missed some suitable ones too. Not to claim the status of a "real professional" in any one endeavor has been a small price to pay for the many benefits and pleasures of trespassing. ~Leo Lionni

[Dargesh]

Thanks for the responses guys.

That was the first time I had heard the full story about the assassins. Thanks for filling in the blanks. While they are a little to "fanatical" for what I need, it's always good to know stories like that to use as filler if need be.

Turlo, I will have a look for that book next time I am at my gaming store, thanks for the tip.

Jhani, thanks for those links. I can use a couple of those as templates for what I need. Still getting used to writing up 3rd Ed stuff.

[Kelthana]

Here's a little more filler on the history behind the word.

Kali has some interesting potential for religious assassins, too.

www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/tantra/kali.htm

[EZ_Kehvrynne]

From a game perspective, I like the idea of a prestige class. This would open the doors to a wide variety of character possibilities. After all, fanatics can be found in all walks of life...

So let's go with a prestige class. It's firmly rooted in religion, so all potential candidates will need to have at least basic training as a cleric (i.e., multiclass to include 1st level cleric). I think the skill requirements given for Assassins would also apply here. Once the prestige class is taken, abilities gained would reflect both the martial and mystic. A mixture of Assassin deadly strike abilities, access to a modified spell list, and certain supernatural abilities would be appropriate. The latter may include the ability to create Darkness or Silence once or twice per day, gain Darksight/Blindsight, etc.

I'd take a look at the spell lists for evil clerics and the descriptions of Assassins, Blackguards, and Shadow Dancers for more inspiration. Kehvrynne Quickblade, Professional Damsel of Distress
No matter how subtle the wizard, a dirk between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.

[EZ_Elviscerat0r]

i played a hobgoblin rogue/assasin of cyric up to like level 8 =P

all he did was kill religious figures in rival churches and other opponents of the church of cyric EvisceratusMaximusInyour face againVeniVidi Vici