As an assassin main, I find the so-called "assassin build" in D:OS2 hugely unsatisfying. A letdown, simply put.
I mean, when your rogue skill tree gives you no means of cloaking yourself? You'd have to put 1 point in Poly to get Chameleon Cloak. That already makes no sense. And this ability has a cooldown of 6 turns. My endgame fight lasts only 5-6 turns if I drag it out intentionally, on Tactician. Most other fights last 5 turns, tops. If you have Skin Graft, you get to use it twice, that's it. Not to mention, the fact that attacking from stealth gives you no bonus damage, the purpose of stealth is just so that you don't get focused on.
What about Sneaking? You mean the thing that costs you FOUR APs in-combat? What's the point of doing it? This gives rise to your next question: What's the point of Guerilla? It works in the case where you know there is combat ahead, so you let your other members enter combat, while you stay outside combat and enter sneak mode. Then your first hit would get some extra damage, as you enter combat at the same time. Also, Sneaking is something anyone can do; it's not something that defines you as a rogue.
As it is, by endgame, my dual-wielding bruiser does more damage than my dedicated assassin with a 2-point basic attack - 2 normal attacks vs. 2 backstabs.
So, I'd say, we need the ability to easily enter stealth. Then, stealthed attacks must give us bonus damage. But that can't be all. Now you're suggesting a 2-point cost for entering stealth, right? Well, another problem with "stealth" in D:OS2 is that, it can be easily broken. Too easily. In most cases, enemies know where you are after you enter stealth. All they need to do is to walk 2 steps to let their vision cone hit you and voila, there you are. You are also revealed whenever you take damage. So a random AOE spell will undo your stealth. Moving across damaging surface will undo your stealth. This means, even if entering stealth costs, say, 2 point, you would still need to spend points to move away from the fight to make sure that your stealth is not broken. And THEN, moving around in stealth, without getting hit by surfaces...
To solidly implement the "stealth" mechanics is not easy, though. Baldur's Gate 2 did this really well, especially with the help of certain balance mods. You'd need a whole system of anti-stealth to accompany it in order to prevent it from being op/broken. Playing an Assassin in BG2 is a hugely satisfying experience, if you care about gameplay.
So... in order to give my post a bit more value, I'm thinking, maybe we get a new ability that lets you enter stealth, which *cannot* be broken by vision. 1-AP cost. 1-turn cooldown. Lasts indefinitely or until canceled. No movement speed penalty. How likely you are revealed by taking damage depends on your Scoundrel rank. All stealthed attacks do bonus damage, regardless of angles. Then, we'd probably need some countermeasures... Like certain enemies can see through stealth... and so on. Quite a bit of work would need to go into the AI. Well I did say that it's not a simple task to implement this whole mechanics satisfyingly right?
I've always found Assassin broken in Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition. But now I'd prefer that it's broken like that in the first place, THEN we start to nerf it from there. Rather than this...
Last edited by Try2Handing; 11/10/17 10:51 PM.
