[Cerek]

The assassin's ability to Poison Weapon" should not be overlooked. It is one of the more powerful abilities in the game because one hit will disrupt spellcasting for the next couple of rounds.

My solo assassin is still running around the Chateau. I've managed to clear most of the dungeon and am now trying to pick off Illyich and his crew (took out the Glabrezu with 4 traps ). I've also killed at least a dozen or more of those duergar. The fighters are easy - I just run from them, HiS, and Backstab until they are dead. It is a little tricky when I have 3 chasing me, but it can be done.

The mages are bit more challenging because they don't normally chase me AND they have stoneskin, so my backstabs are ineffective. I usually just ignore them until several game hours after they spawn. By then, even their stoneskins eventually wear off. The toughest fight I had so far was when I had to face two duergar mages at one time. I used Vampiric Touch on one and killed him instantly, but his buddy started casting a spell. I poisoned my sword and managed to hit him before he finished his spell, then the poison prevented him from casting another spell at me. My hit triggered his Contingency, which brought up another stoneskin, but I had a 2nd Vampiric Touch from my Bhaalspawn abilities and I killed mage #2 just as easily as mage #1. But if I hadn't been able to poison him and prevent that extra round of spellcasting, I probably would have been hit with confusion or hold person - then the mage could have blasted me with spells until I died.