How does the Assassin's ability work when fighting monsters?

Some of my friends say it works anytime, whether the monsters has been drawn or is already on the space the Assassin landed on. Some say it only works on those already on the space, not when drawn.

"Assassin
Q1: Can the Assassin assassinate any creature, regardless
of whether or not it is drawn from the Adventure deck or
already faceup on the space when he encounters it?

A: Yes." (FAQ, p. 2)

Thanks. That makes the assassin very quick to level up.

Yeah, IMO RAW Assassin makes Patrice from AH look like she is under-powered.

The whole attack vs attacked in Talisman has always been an issue of facing other characters; it has never been applied to Enemies or creatures... though it should have been... and many of us do play it that way, pulling the Assassinate (and similar abilities) under control. In other words, an Enemy just drawn is always on the attack (house rule). The RAW Assassin (when played that way) tends to get pounded and turned into a spell magnet real fast in our games.

Dam said:

Perhaps you fear the RAW Assassin because you never gave him a try.

He's just going to win almost every battle in the game, but this doesn't make him totally overpowered. I've seen many games with the Assassin unable to get Strength Points above a very limited level, or getting killed by Craft 1 Spirits.

Considering what abilities the other Character have, I won't like playing the Assassin if he could assassinate only face-up Enemies. Landing on face-up Enemies is not that easy.

You are correct about landing on placed enemies, but I have played him myself with the standard contradiction of having to be on attack against other characters but never being "attacked" by Enemies. It wasn't that hard to jump ahead the pack, especially when objects, magic objects, and followers began to flow.

I agree with The_Warlock.

Using the face-up only ability makes him more boring than he already is.

The Assassin is powerful in battles, but it's his only ability.

When i once play with the Assassin, he was almost killed earlier in the game, because of his evil alignment.

I've played only one game where the Assassin was used, but he seems like an unfairly strong character. He's practically unbeatable in battles, and I think that if I ever play against him again, my first goal will be to kill him off. That might be fun, too, though...

When we first saw the FAQ answer we thought the Assassin was a bit over powered as well, but he has been played several times now and the player who favours the Assassin has learned the hard way.. Craft hurts and don't piss off the spell casters - Ribbit....

-Salute

Well, if we blow off this as "the only power he has" as it's just a nuisance ability, why even bother about combat at all any more? Once the assassin has raised his strength by a couple of points he is pretty much invulnerable to any combat, IMHO. No, this is so over the top of a special power. Having said that, anyone is free to set their rules they way they want.

Clearly this is one of these powers that is unbalancing the game tremendously in my opinion. The fact that everybody can gang up on the assassin to "compensate" here doesn't change that, but even shifts the game balance even more.

WOuld like to hear official rationale for this. IS Talisman saying an assassin never encounters an enemy straight up, unless it is another character?? THis is scilly, IMHO.

I have a very simple rule, we don`t play whit the assasin anymore. He has been the winner every time he is in the game, so after 4-5 times with him in the game we ruled him out. We should have used his "old" abilities, onley make him use it when he lands on enemies ect ect.

I do not find the assassin to be overpowered. I had one game where I was playing as the troll and I pounded on the assassin every time we met and I ended up killing him at the crown of command (well at the crown of command the assassin doesn't really stand a chance against the troll because the assassins only ability doesn't work). But even without my dice in attacks i was still whooping on the assassin with the troll

Hi

Well we have played with the assasin both with the rule that he can only assasinate when landing on enemys and also the original rule that he can assasinate even when he draws the enemy. What can be said is that he is too weak using the on-landing rule and to strong using the original rule. The reason he get's too strong using the original rule is that with dungeon and highland and all the other expansions there are so many more enemies in the decks, therefore easier for him to stat up, plus he doesn't need any items either he can pretty much live with the pure stats he get's from killing enemies.

The rule we play with right now is that he can assisnate when he draws but then he looses 1turn like the highlanders skill. This has balanced things out pretty well slowing his levling if he chooses to assasinate everytime.

Just wanted to share how me and my friends play him.

Regards
Pers

Assassin is always played as written with our gaming group. He is not overpowered at all. He has no other abilities other than assassinate and he cannot use his power when he is attacked by a character or in psychic combat. If he does assassinate a character he cannot of course take an item either!

Ell.

Every time I play a new character, I think to myself, "This guy is too powerful", and then get my ass handed to me when the rolls of the dice and the draws of the cards don't allow me to use his power to its full extent. There's just too much random in Talisman to predict what abilities are going to be useful or net you a win. Strategy is not really the forte of the game, which is delightful. I've played the Gladiator several times without finding a single follower, for example; ditto the Magus. Even the Elf could be 'overpowered' if you just teleport back and forth in the woodsy areas, powering up...but the wrong draw of cards could get you killed right quick. Sure it sucks to consistently roll ones, or to wait the whole game for the kind of card your character shines with - but it's fun too when the cards fall right for someone's character. There's so much luck involved, I usually find myself cheering for the player whose karma has him on a winning streak: and if he suddenly falls from grace, that's also a good story. It's been really rare in my experience to have a runaway winner early on whose luck doesn't eventually run out. Even when they win, it's never a cakewalk: it's still usually down to the wire with the Command spell fizzling and guy number two making it all the way there, after being lost in the mines twice, only to die facing the winner in the centre square. The game seems pretty balanced overall: in the old second ed., there were characters you'd never want to play, but I wouldn't turn down any character I drew randomly in fourth ed. (although I've never drawn the minstrel, and so far nobody has picked him...)

Zozimus said:

Yeah I know what you mean. After reading the Dread Knight I thought he'd be amazing until I played him (3 times) and he' s died everytime. I am interested in playing the Elf next game as I hear him bashed so often, I have a soft spot for the underdogs.

Oh and don't count the Minstrel down and out. Our table is pretty convinced he's awesome. I won my first game with him (or almost did, we had to end early but we could see the outcome coming a mile away). The Reaper was a great expansion for him since it introduced the Mammoth and the Giant Spider to the game, the first Animal cards whose creatures had a Strength 5 rating (before that the serpent was the highest strength animal with a 4).

I just want to share with you guys how we deal with the assassin in my gaming group.

There is always two things that holds people of from taking the assassin:

1. The claim that he is overpowered.
2. He is boring to play because of his only one ability.

Well here is a redevised version of the Assassin that works very balanced and more fun in our opinion.

He can be downloaded in high quality here

So, can he only Evade a character that attacks in battle or is it meant to include psychic combat and special ability encounters with other characters as well?

Dam said:

He can only evade a battle. He is still vulnerable to psyhic attacks. We avoid to explians why he cannot evade a psychic attack, but one explanation could be that psychic could be considred more like a "sixth sense like ability" that is harder to sneak away from.

Mr. B's assasin is pretty much the way my group plays it... even back in the 2E days. The evade is an additive over what we do, and I like it.