Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Is Assassin playable now? If yes: How?

I kinda want to start a run again. Last time i played, Assassin suffered from some serious problems https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=878290
In short: Most of the Assassin Features didnt work.

Assassins Ambush couldnt trigger because Surprised was added after Initiative was rolled, which means that Enemies were never surprised outside of active Combat.
Without Turn based mode, it wasnt added at all, so you had to initiate combat while in turn based mode, which means you needed to know where and when to expect an encounter.
Infiltration Expertise didnt work as a disguise and enemies always knew it was you. Murder someone in disguise and then change back? nope!

So...is it possible to play an assassin with all its features now, or is Gloom Stalker still the better Assassin?
Or is there a way to make the Assassin work?

I'm not too sure if they fixed Assassin's Ambush. Last time I tried it wouldn't trigger on the first attack and would only apply after starting combat (I know it used to work in older versions of the game so I don't know if this interaction was unintended or not)

Assassin is still playable and you can do some silly things with Durge to get the Deathstalker Mantle and utilize the invisibility after killing something to reset encounters and constantly re-engage, as even without that initial guaranteed crit you can still get a free attack in then have your action refreshed by Assassin's Alacrity so you still get a full round of attacks against the now surprised enemy.

Though, Gloom Stalker and Thief tend to be better Assassins sadly (Thief because you can abuse the Cloak of Cunning Brume with the double bonus action, allowing you to disengage to make a fog cloud and then stealth because no-one can see you again allowing for encounter reset cheese. You can also fog on someone and take them out when you have the Eversight Ring)

Had to drop a playthrough because of this.

That's how I've managed to ambush guards:
1. Attack a guard with any other character and enter the crime dialogue.
2. Switch to assassin.
3. Attack from stealth.

You'll get your actions back and all enemies are consistently surprised. However, the initial attack will not crit and I think there's currently no solution to it.

And it seems to be working with any class and any weapon or magic. And with any dialogue also I assume, not only the crime one.

Gloom Stalker, has Umbral shroud (Class invsibility once per short rest). You get it at level 3. Then you keep playing gloom stalker until Level 5. Then you switch over to Assassin at level 5, 7, 8. Umbral shroud gives you at will invisibility. (You just need to find a lightly or heavily obscured spot). Invisbility allows you to get by any enemies, and always 100% attack with advantage and it will trigger a surprise round (The only enemy that can see you is a scrying eye so just becareful with those, and get rid of them from outside line of sight). Duegar get at will invisbility at level 5 (So you can play assassin with them).

These are the only creatures that can see invisibility.

https://bg3.wiki/wiki/See_Invisibility_(Condition)

(Steel Watchers can but they need to use a a bonus action in combat to trigger it and start tracking invisible targets)

Assassin is both playable and reliable, but is wholly dependant on you knowing how to trigger surprise rounds. This in itself is less obvious.

There are a lot of guides to triggering surprise, and unfortunately most of the tips give mixed results. I've found one method that works 100% for me, so much that's it's the key to my solo honor runs. To trigger surprise, ensure you're sneaking out of enemy cone of sight. Then switch to turn-based mode (default on PC is shift+space, although the input is sometimes poor so I bind capslock to getting into turn-based). Simply attack from unseen in turn-based mode to trigger combat, and you will enter a surprise round. If you have a party, this gets a bit more finicky, but apply similar rules to the whole party (you have to enter combat 1-by-1 with each member if they're all sneaking)

Hope that helps.