> Also, the usefulness of having more than three Assassins in a party is somewhat questionable. The back three can't do very much unless they have spellcasting abilities, and even then they'd be more useful if they could wear magic-enhancing Items of Specialness.

I agree absolutely if the purpose is to play the game as intended. My party was about trawling level 10, and I wanted to do as much as possible without going home, or regenerating the level. (I started with two wizards and two sorcerers and didn't convert till they had their full set of spells. Playing for real, I'd rather convert the wizards to sorcerers.)

When your front three can close off a normal battle in two rounds, what happens at the back is just a bonus. I actually got so that I couldn't really bother to cast the spells at all, it just wasted time. My main concerns were having 4,5 and 6 that weren't vulnerable if one of the front three got paralysed and they were promoted, and that meant having characters with upwardly mobile AC. Once the front three are unparalysable, it all becomes academic.

> I guess a sufficiently experienced Assassin could take out an enemy with a single spitball, but for me that's no good reason to split experience six ways instead of three.

I was curious as to how effective a high level assassin would be with a crossbow - the answer, so far, is "not very".

Steven