AD&D - The Assassin: Too Evil for Your Table?

The Assassin in AD&D First Edition was never a popular choice. Not because it was weak. Not because it was boring. Because it made people uncomfortable.

This class was built for murder. It could disguise itself, sneak around unnoticed, and deliver a death strike if it had enough time to study its target. It could use poison, infiltrate cities, and work inside guilds to eliminate political enemies. That is not your average dungeon crawler.

To play an Assassin, you had to be Lawful Evil. No exceptions. You followed orders, kept to your code, and carried out the job without hesitation. That worked fine on paper. At the table, it caused problems. Most groups were a mix of alignments, with at least one player trying to be the hero. Dropping a cold-blooded killer into that mix rarely ended well.

The Assassin was also one of the few classes tied directly to the world. You had to be part of a guild. You had to take missions. You advanced by killing key targets, not just by looting dungeons or slaying orcs. That kind of structure felt more like a solo game than a party class.

Still, the Assassin brought something unique. It was precise. It had rules. It rewarded planning. And in the right kind of campaign, it could be deadly and effective.

But for most groups, it just didn’t fit.

Maybe it was too evil. Maybe it required too much focus. Or maybe the game just wasn’t ready for characters who worked best in the shadows.

Whatever the reason, the Assassin remains one of the least used classes in AD&D.

And maybe that’s exactly how it likes it.

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