Love Assassins Creed? Great me to and it's time to make Altair in 5e. Again this is just my take on it and is for fun so even if you don't like every choice I make here it will hopefully get your gears turning to how you would customize it for you.
Okay so Altair is apart of an order of religious like order of assassins. He utilizes a wrist blade, daggers, swords, and various weapons he grabs on the battlefield. So in this situation I think we are going to go with the on brand answer and take him down the rogue class path.
Race
So bit of a tossup here but any race with a bonus to dexterity would serve fine.I chose to go with the Human Variant for the feat, and to choose where I want the stat bumps to go. So for this build I went with the 27 point buy method. Here is what I came up with.Str: 12 Dex:15 Con: 13 Int: 10 Wis: 10 Cha: 13
With the two plus ones from human variant I bumped up Dex and Cha. Dex since most of his class abilities are based upon it, and Cha so he can effectively intimidate, deceive, and persuade. This gives final stats looking like this.
Str: 12 Dex:16 Con: 13 Int: 10 Wis: 10 Cha: 14
For the Variant feat I went with Dual Wielder. Typically you will just be making the one attack in a round, but just holding the second weapon with this feat gives you the extra 1 AC which is great for low levels. Also if you choose to use the offhand bonus attack, because your surrounded and decide you want to fight or you maybe missed the first strike and want a chance for sneak attack damage still. This feat will let you have the main hand weapon you want, and then maybe a dagger in the offhand that we can flavor as the wrist blade.
Background
In Assassins Creed Altair is apart of a religious like order of assassins, who cause chaos to try and preserve peoples freedom and choice. So to represent that I went with the Acolyte background. You get proficiency in the Insight and Religion skill. You get to learn two languages I would pick two that make sense for the campaign your playing in so I would ask your DM what they suggest for the area of the world you will be playing in. The vestments and other priestly items you get here can also help you blend in with monks and clerics in the city, an effect Altair employs quite often.Choice: Acolyte
Class
For Altair we are going Rogue, as for the archetype, surprise surprise Assassin is the choice. I will say I did briefly consider Thief for the use magic device feature, since Altair uses the Apple of Eden. However that feature doesn't come until level 13 and typically I like to do these builds with level 10 in mind, and Assassin gives us more tools and earlier to help achieve what we are trying to make.Choice: Rogue
Level 1:
Stats: Str: 12 Dex:16 Con: 13 Int: 10 Wis: 10 Cha: 14For skills we get to pick 4 on top of the two we get from our background, and the free one from the human variant race. So we are going to grab the things Altair needs for parkour, being sneaky, getting information out of people, noticing thing etc..
Skills: Rogue:Acrobatics, Deception, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth
Background: Religion & Insight
Human Variant: Perception
For the equipment we are grabbing the blades! You don't get a scimitar by default but you can always flavor the look of the sword you are using how you want. You may be thinking why now bow, although it would be useful I don't remember Altair using one that much and makes sense if hes trying to keep a low profile. So maybe a crossbow later might fit but you will be mainly sticking to daggers, and darts you pick up later for ranged attacks. An the explorers pack over the rest as Altair ends up traveling quite a bit but the tools in the burglars pack could be used to good effect as well.
Equipment: Rapier, shortsword, explorers pack, leather armor, 2 daggers, and thieves tools
Expertise: Stealth is the first obvious choice here you need to be able to sneak up on the enemy and the better stealth you have the easier that is. The 2nd choice is a little tougher we want something to get into places your not supposed to and to approach targets from unexpected ways. So Acrobatics will help you get up to rooftops and other levels, and Thieves tools will help you get into doors.
Choice: Stealth, Acrobatics or Thieves Tools
Sneak Attack: Use it whenever you can
Thieves Cant: Dont forget to use this when trying to gather information
Level 2:
Cunning Action: Remember to be using this to hide as a bonus action, I see so many players use this just for disengaging and dashing.Level 3:
As we discussed earlier we are taking the Assassin archetype here.Bonus Proficiencies: proficiency in poisoners kit and disguise kit. Take the opportunity to harvest and make poisons when you can. Also start using those priestly vestments to go undercover. Less obvious mechanical benefits here but with some thought you can get more damage from poisons, and use the disguises to get yourself surprise and advantage.
Assassinate: Make sure to pay attention to this. Take note of any time you can get the surprise drop on the enemy a free critical at the start of a fight is a big deal especially as sneak attack scales and if you can get some good poisons prepared. Also the advantage on the first round is good when you don't have time to prepare or setup.
Level 4:
Ability Score Increase: We are going to bump our Dexterity by 2 here, that will bump our mod up by +1. This +1 increase will affect our attack, dmg, AC, a bunch of skills so good value here.Level 5:
Uncanny Dodge: This ability is going to be your friend. You will want to hang to that reaction for this, however if there is a chance for your opportunity attack to get sneak attack its probably worth doing that.Level 6:
Expertise: You get to pick two more skills here, I would say go for the skills that are coming up alot in your campaign, adapt to the environment your playing in.Level 7:
Evasion: Remember that your saving for no damage instead of half! You will be probably passing alot of your Dex saves too, so this can be life saving to not forget this.Level 8:
Ability Score Increase: At this point finishing bumping the Dex score up to 20 for the +5 is the safest choice. However a feat like mobile or sentinel could also be useful.Level 9:
Infiltration Expertise: A neat concept though the situations in which you will actually get to make use of it will probably not be that often.Level 10:
Ability Score Increase: Here you get an extra ASI compared to other classes besides fighter. I would say bump a stat up to suit your play style, and same if you want to take a feat. I will list out some neat feat ideas. I personally would take Sentinel here to try and get sneak attack off multiple times a round, but depending on party composition or other factors may not fit for your campaign.Feats:
Alert: More reliably act before enemies for purposes of your assassinate abilityDefensive Duelist: Useful to be able to raise you AC for one attack but, your reaction probably better spent on uncanny dodge
Lucky: This feat is just always good no matter the class
Mage Slayer: If you find your DM throwing a lot of caster at the party could come in handy.
Martial Adept: Having maneuvers not only gives you mechanical benefit but flavors the build more as a master warrior. Feinting attack, Parry, Disarming Attack, Trip attack all useful
Mobile: Lets you easily get to the target you want to be hitting.
Multiclass:
After level 10 you can just keep going on Rogue, but a cool multi-class option is Fighter. Champion gives you the opportunity to crit more often, and Battle Master gives you a lot more of those useful maneuvers, and eventually the ability to make more attacks a round.So I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on building a character like Altair and you take and make it your own. Comment and let me know if you have any requests for future "Making" posts.
