Can Assassin be taken as a 2nd Career? It has 3 talent slots, is there a rule somewhere that makes this rank 3 or beyond?

No official rule which prevents someone from taking Assassin as the second career. The only rule is that you can not start with an advanced career. If I am not mistaken.

I, and several other GMs here, house rule that there is a rank requirement on careers.

Basic = 1

Intermediate = 2

Advanced = 3

...and so on...

There is nothing official stating this yet, but it makes a lot of sense to do it this way.

yeah, I agree

some careers have pre recs. if you look on the back of the card for example you can go from "initiate" and go strait to "priest" you must go thru "disciple" 1st 2nd example to be a" witch hunter" you must 1st get an" insanity" so make sure you look at the back of the career sheet

I disagree with the house rule, but I can see how people would interpret it that way.

The only difference between intermediate and advanced is that they are different terms, meaning they cost more when leveling to the next one. Some are more prohibitive by the terms (such as wizard and priest careers), but in general, this is not the case. Other than the extra cost, they are identical and neither can be taken as a basic career.

In general, non magic, intermediate and advanced careers are really no more powerful than their neighbors so I think the house rule is pointlessly limiting, but to each their own. The key is to have fun. I generally choose not to limit my players and their imaginations and what they want out of their gaming experience. I can whoop the pointy butt of any tier two or tier three assassin if I really, really need too (as a GM and in combat or out of it). Same goes for Iron Breakers and Sword Master.

Anyway, hope that helps.

Happy gaming,

Commoner

My only problem with the assassin career is that it uses Hooded One art from Knights of the Grail.