The Assassin is the person the Nine hire when the contract needs to end and the body needs to stop existing. They are not soldiers; soldiers have serial numbers and pension plans. Assassins have shell companies and burner identities. The contract is verbal, the payment is staged, and the only record of either is a target who stopped filing returns. The Kadiss grid is their primary obstacle: every checkpoint scan, every biometric ping, every identity verification is a thread that can be pulled. A professional Assassin maintains at least three identities and never uses the same extraction route twice. They operate on the Edge chassis (d6 HD, 3/4 BAB, Ref good, Fort/Will poor) because their survival depends on not being where the retaliation lands. Light armour only -- heavy plate is for people who expect to be shot at. The Assassin expects the target to die before anyone knows they are in the building. The Vanish Mechanic -- the Fold-assisted blink on a kill -- is the one concession to something beyond training: the moment of death creates a dimensional flicker, and a trained Assassin learns to step through it. Whether this is gene-talent or just proximity to so many deaths is a matter of debate among the people who study such things. Prime requisites: DEX and INT.
Rules Reference
Field
Value
Armor Allowance
Light
Bab Tier
three-quarters
Base Skill Points
8
Hd
d6
Hd Sides
6
Max Level
20
Multiclass Notes
Assassins can multiclass with Operative and Infiltrator archetypes. Non-humans use simultaneous multiclassing rules.
Primary Abilities
DEX, INT
Prime Requisites
DEX, INT
Save Tiers / Fortitude
poor
Save Tiers / Reflex
good
Save Tiers / Will
poor
Weapon Allowance
Pistol, Knife, All one-handed melee weapons, Poison delivery systems
Notes
Archetype Niche: The Assassin is the single-target executioner, and its power is split across four abilities rather than stacked on one. Study Target provides the information edge (+2 across the board against a known target). Death Mark narrows the kill window (crit threat range only, no damage of its own). Precision Strike carries every point of the class's scaling precision damage, and applies whenever the target is unaware, flanked, distracted, or studied -- not only when Marked. Death Attack is the one-per-study-window coup de grace. Poisoner's Art layers delivery and immunity on top -- it adds no crafting system of its own; Vanish is the signature hit-and-disappear escape. The Assassin's niche is removing the biggest threat from the battlefield in one sequence: study, mark, position, strike, vanish.
Level Table
Cutthroat
Field
Value
bab
0
fortitude
0
level
1
reflex
2
skillPoints
32
title
Cutthroat
will
0
xp
0
Shadow Blade
Field
Value
bab
1
fortitude
0
level
2
reflex
3
skillPoints
8
title
Shadow Blade
will
0
xp
1500
Assassin
Field
Value
bab
2
fortitude
1
level
3
reflex
3
skillPoints
8
title
Assassin
will
1
xp
3000
Death Dealer
Field
Value
bab
3
fortitude
1
level
4
reflex
4
skillPoints
8
title
Death Dealer
will
1
xp
6000
Silent Killer
Field
Value
bab
3
fortitude
1
level
5
reflex
4
skillPoints
8
title
Silent Killer
will
1
xp
12000
Master Assassin
Field
Value
bab
4
fortitude
2
level
6
reflex
5
skillPoints
8
title
Master Assassin
will
2
xp
24000
Shadow Killer
Field
Value
bab
5
fortitude
2
level
7
reflex
5
skillPoints
8
title
Shadow Killer
will
2
xp
50000
Grand Assassin
Field
Value
bab
6
fortitude
2
level
8
reflex
6
skillPoints
8
title
Grand Assassin
will
2
xp
85000
Death's Hand
Field
Value
bab
6
fortitude
3
level
9
reflex
6
skillPoints
8
title
Death's Hand
will
3
xp
130000
High Death's Hand
Field
Value
bab
7
fortitude
3
level
10
reflex
7
skillPoints
8
title
High Death's Hand
will
3
xp
190000
Execution Chief
Field
Value
bab
8
fortitude
3
level
11
reflex
7
skillPoints
8
title
Execution Chief
will
3
xp
250000
High Execution Chief
Field
Value
bab
9
fortitude
4
level
12
reflex
8
skillPoints
8
title
High Execution Chief
will
4
xp
310000
Void Reaper
Field
Value
bab
9
fortitude
4
level
13
reflex
8
skillPoints
8
title
Void Reaper
will
4
xp
370000
High Void Reaper
Field
Value
bab
10
fortitude
4
level
14
reflex
9
skillPoints
8
title
High Void Reaper
will
4
xp
430000
Death Incarnate
Field
Value
bab
11
fortitude
5
level
15
reflex
9
skillPoints
8
title
Death Incarnate
will
5
xp
490000
High Death Incarnate
Field
Value
bab
12
fortitude
5
level
16
reflex
10
skillPoints
8
title
High Death Incarnate
will
5
xp
550000
The Unseen Blade
Field
Value
bab
12
fortitude
5
level
17
reflex
10
skillPoints
8
title
The Unseen Blade
will
5
xp
610000
High Unseen Blade
Field
Value
bab
13
fortitude
6
level
18
reflex
11
skillPoints
8
title
High Unseen Blade
will
6
xp
670000
Lethal Specialist
Field
Value
bab
14
fortitude
6
level
19
reflex
11
skillPoints
8
title
Lethal Specialist
will
6
xp
730000
Supreme Assassin
Field
Value
bab
15
fortitude
6
level
20
reflex
12
skillPoints
8
title
Supreme Assassin
will
6
xp
790000
Special Abilities
Study Target
Field
Value
level
1
name
Study Target
description: As a focused hour of unobserved study (surveillance footage or a scope counts; a photograph and a dossier do not), the Assassin learns one specific target's habits, routes, body language, and tells. The target is studied for 24 hours, granting a +2 bonus to all attack rolls, damage rolls, Stealth checks, and skill checks made against them. Does not stack with itself -- multiple studies of the same target do not add bonuses, the highest applies. If the kill is not made within 24 hours, the study expires and a fresh hour is required. The Assassin's first lesson: knowledge is the weapon.
Death Mark
Field
Value
level
1
name
Death Mark
description: As a full-round action, the Assassin marks one target within line of sight -- the gait, the body-armour seam, the habitual hand position, the micro-expression that gives away where the target expects the attack to come from. The Marked target lasts for 1 hour: against it, the Assassin's critical threat range expands by 2 (e.g., 20 becomes 18-20). Only one target may be Marked at a time; marking a new target removes the previous Mark. Death Mark carries no damage of its own -- it adds no precision dice and no flat bonus to the hit, only widening the window a killing blow has to land in. All of the Assassin's precision damage comes from Precision Strike (level 3), not from the Mark.
Kit Selection
Field
Value
level
1
name
Kit Selection
description: At level 1, the Assassin chooses a Kit -- a chassis package of bonus class skills, a bonus feat, a gear allowance, and a narrative anchor that colours how the Assassin operates without replacing the base class. Options: Poisoner (Pharmaceutical Knowledge; Medicine, Survival, Xenology), Sniper-Killer (Sharpshooter; Gunnery, Survival, Tracking), Infiltrator-Blade (Shadow Operative; Security/Locks, Athletics, Perception), Faceman/Honeypot (Fast Talk; Deception, Persuasion, Streetwise, Sense Motive), Cyber-Killer (Cybernetic Adaptation; Mechanics, Engineering, Hacking), and Corp-Sanctioned Executioner (Skill Focus [Bureaucracy or Intimidation]; Bureaucracy, Intimidation, Streetwise). Each Kit also grants a signature tactical edge tied to its working style.
Poisoner's Art
Field
Value
level
3
name
Poisoner's Art
description: The Assassin gains proficiency with all poison delivery systems (applicators, coated edges, aerosols, dosed drinkware, injector rounds) and never risks self-poisoning when handling, applying, or carrying a toxin -- a botched batch may be weak or tagged, but it is never what kills the Assassin. The Assassin can carry doses equal to INT modifier + half level. At level 7, poisons the Assassin applies have their onset reduced by one step (1 minute becomes 1 round, 1 round becomes immediate). At level 13, the Assassin's poisons affect targets normally immune to poison (constructs, sealed xeno-physiologies) at half the poison's Save DC -- the Assassin has learned to target the joints, the sensor ports, the bio-integration seams that even synthetic bodies cannot fully seal. A poison's Save DC is the poison's own, from the reference table: it is a property of the chemical, not of the person who applied it. Poisoner's Art grants NO special crafting rate -- crafting a known poison uses HB-ASSASSIN section 3 'Crafting Poisons' (Medicine check, DC 15 + tier, tier-scaled time, materials at half market price), and DESIGNING a poison that does not yet exist is Chemist work under HB-CHEMIST section 5.5. One system per job: the Chemist invents, anyone with the feat crafts, the Assassin delivers.
Precision Strike
Field
Value
level
3
name
Precision Strike
description: The Sneak Attack progression the Assassin shares with the Operative chassis, tuned to assassination work: +1d6 precision damage at level 3, +2d6 at 7, +3d6 at 11, +4d6 at 15, +5d6 at 19. Applies when the target is unaware (surprised, hidden, asleep, restrained), flanked, distracted by combat with another attacker, or studied within the last 24 hours (Study Target). Precision damage is not multiplied on a critical hit; it stacks once with the critical hit's doubled base dice and does not affect creatures immune to critical hits or precision damage. Precision Strike is the Assassin's daily bread and the sole source of the class's precision damage -- Death Mark widens the crit window, Precision Strike is what lands in it.
Vanish
Field
Value
level
5
name
Vanish
description: After making an attack against a Marked target (whether the attack hits or misses), the Assassin may immediately make a Stealth check to hide as a free action, even if observed. The Stealth check gains +5 if the attack was a critical hit. If the attack drops the Marked target to 0 HP, the Assassin may teleport to any unoccupied space within 30 feet as part of the Vanish action (this is a Fold effect -- the moment of death creates a momentary dimensional flicker the Assassin has learned to step through). Whether this is gene-talent or just proximity to dying is debated; the effect is real. At level 12, Vanish may be used after any attack, not just against Marked targets. At level 18, the Assassin may Vanish as an immediate action in response to being targeted by an attack. Corp security footage of a Vanish reads like a glitch: one frame the Assassin is there, the next they are not, and the target is already falling.
Death Attack
Field
Value
level
9
name
Death Attack
description: The culmination of study, position, and strike. Once per studied target (per 24-hour study window), a precision strike delivered from surprise, concealment, or against an unaware target forces a Will save (DC = 10 + Assassin level + INT modifier). On a failed save, the target dies instantly -- no additional damage roll needed, the strike itself was the kill. On a successful save, the target instead takes normal precision strike damage plus 2d6 Constitution damage. Does not affect creatures immune to critical hits or precision damage, creatures without a discrete biology, or Fold-horrors. One-use per study window: a botched death attack (spotted, missed, target fled) burns the study for nothing.