Assassin effectiveness

[KroolDeath]

Hey guys,

Are Assassins effective right out of the gate or do they need magic items to be effective? In this case it was a Marignon Assassin against an Indy commander and when I went and viewed battle he just ran off the side of the screen without doing anything as if his Morale broke (and he is subsequently gone.

Note that I did not set any combat orders because I didn't realize it went into "combat mode".

[PvK]

Depends on what you want to assassinate, and with which assassins. It's just like a fight with two people plus 5-10 bodyguards for the defender, and no retreating.

Unequipped assassins will usually kill most priests, sages, weak mages and such, but may have a harder time against commanders, mages with tricks, or people with bodyguards assigned.

PvK

[Pickles]

It is easy to practice this in SP. The Machaka ones are pretty good out of the box & difficult to improve isn the short term. The others have mixed success

Pickles

[quantum_mechani]

C'tis ones are pretty awesome. Give them a nature gem and a skullstaff, and they are match for almost any normal commander.

[Taqwus]

Your regular "poison dagger and leather armor" assassin isn't too good... but they're cheap, and have all the usual equipment slots if you must.
Abysian Slayers are a touch nastier, IIRC; C'tis Empoisoners are mage-assassins; R'lyeh Star Children can mind bLast and have Astral-1; Machakan Bane Spiders are very well-equipped and trained.

[Endoperez]

Assasins should be equipped, but some cheap items come a long way. Especially if they summon friends. You do not need Bottle of Living Water, though, simple Skull Talisman is often enough. It might work even against priests as Banishment is not very precise...