Seidren Ladrith, Arcane Assassin
Male elf rog 3/wiz 6/arcane trickster 10/archmage 1: CR 20: Medium humanoid; Hit Dice 3d6 plus 17d4; 50 hp; Init +10; Spd 30 ft. (6 squares); AC 25 (20 touch, 19 flat-footed); BAB/Grapple +10/+9; Atk +17 melee (1d6+1/18-20 plus 1 Con, +1 wounding adamantine rapier), or +17 melee (1d4+1/19-20, +1 cold iron dagger), or +17 melee (1d6, +1 alchemical silver light mace), or +16 melee (by spell), or +16 ranged (by spell); Full atk +17/+12 melee (1d6+1/18-20 plus 1 Con, +1 wounding adamantine rapier), or +17/+12 melee (1d4+1/19-20, +1 cold iron dagger), or +17/+12 melee (1d6, +1 alchemical silver light mace), or +16/+11 melee (by spell), or +16/+11 ranged (by spell); SA spells, sneak attack +7d6; SQ +2 racial bonus to saves vs. enchantment spells and effects, +2 racial bonus to Listen, Search, and Spot checks, archmage high arcana (arcane reach), evasion, immunity to magical sleep effects, impromptu sneak attack 2/day, low-light vision, portal sense, ranged legerdemain 3/day, summon familiar, trap sense +1, trapfinding, weapon proficiency with composite longbow, composite shortbow, longsword, longbow, rapier, and shortbow; AL LE; SV Fort +5, Reflex +14, Will +14; Abilities Str 10, Dex 22, Con 10, Int 29, Wis 10, Cha 10.
Skills and Feats: Bluff +13, Concentration +20, Decipher Script +16, Diplomacy +2, Disable Device +29, Disguise +9 (+2 when acting), Escape Artist +19, Forgery +10, Hide +24, Intimidate +2, Knowledge (arcana) +29, Knowledge (architecture and engineering) +14, Listen +10, Move Silently +24, Open Lock +30, Search +27 (+2 to find hidden doors and compartments), Sleight of Hand +16, Speak Language (Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Sylvan), Spellcraft +37 (+2 dealing with scrolls), Spot +10; Improved Initiative, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Silent Spell, Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Spell Focus (Enchantment), Spell Focus (Necromancy), Still Spell, Weapon Finesse.
Typical Wizard Spells Prepared: 0th—detect magic, mage hand, prestidigitation, ray of frost; 1st—chill touch (DC 21), grease (DC 20), shield, shocking grasp, true strike, unseen servant; 2nd—mirror image, scorching ray (x2), touch of idiocy (x2), silent chill touch (DC 21); 3rd—arcane sight, haste, fly (x2), silent scorching ray, vampiric touch; 4th—dimensional anchor, enervation, greater invisibility (x2), quickened acid splash, quickened ray of frost; 5th—hold monster (DC 25), seeming (DC 24), silent dimension door (x2), silent still vampiric touch, telekinesis (DC 24); 6th—disintegrate (DC 25), greater dispel magic (x2), quickened scorching ray, true seeing; 7th—ethereal jaunt, greater teleport, mass hold person (DC 27); 8th—greater prying eyes, mind blank, quickened enervation; 9th—energy drain (DC 29), shapechange.
Wizard Spellbook Contents: 0th—all spells from the sor/wiz cantrip list in the Player’s Handbook v. 3.5; 1st—chill touch, expeditious retreat, feather fall, grease, hold portal, shield, shocking grasp, true strike, unseen servant; 2nd—knock, mirror image, scorching ray, touch of idiocy; 3rd—arcane sight, haste, fly, vampiric touch; 4th—dimension door, dimensional anchor, enervation, greater invisibility; 5th—dominate person, hold monster, seeming, telekinesis; 6th—analyze dweomer, disintegrate, greater dispel magic, true seeing; 7th—ethereal jaunt, greater teleport, mass hold person, simulacrum; 8th—discern location, greater prying eyes, mind blank, Otto’s irresistible dance; 9th—energy drain, shapechange.
Possessions: 40 gp, +1 alchemical silver light mace, +1 cold iron dagger, +1 wounding adamantine rapier, bracers of armor +5, 5 flasks of acid, 5 flasks of alchemist’s fire, gloves of dexterity +6, headband of intellect +6, Heward’s handy haversack, jade circlet (focus for shapechange spell, value 1500 gp), masterwork thieves’ tools, minor cloak of displacement, necklace of adaptation, 4 doses of ointment for true seeing spell (250 gp value each), potion of cure light wounds (CL 1st), potion of cure moderate wounds, ring of protection +4, ruby lens in golden loop (focus for analyze dweomer spell, value 1500 gp), spyglass, 5 sunrods, 4 tanglefoot bags, vest of escape, wizard spellbook (185.5 pages, 18,550 gp market value).

Personality and History: Most assassins use poison, the garrote, or a dagger to ply their trade. They excel at moving stealthily through hostile territory to find their victims, and then dispatching them quickly and quietly before stealing away again, or else they are highly competent infiltrators who establish an identity, gain the trust of the victim, and then strike at an opportune moment. Seidren Ladrith can do both, and do them well.

Ladrith is a renegade elf who began his life as an outcast among his own kind, marked by greed, selfishness, and a tyrannical desire for power over others. Seidren’s youth was ill-spent, as he skulked around his home village learning how to see without being seen, and to find entry to places where he was not welcome. His antics, initially dismissed as youthful mischief, soon gained him a poor reputation, and caused him to be refused when he petitioned to be instructed in the art of wizardry. He was quickly turned out of his home community once he reached adulthood.

For himself, Seidren felt that it was about time, and he hasn’t looked back. His first act, upon finding his way out of the elven forests of his youth and into the bustling world of humans, was to seek out a poor hedge-wizard and apprentice himself to the human mage. Only a short while later, he had mastered all his master could teach him, and slew the old man for his spellbook and few pieces of arcane paraphernalia.

Having amassed both mundane stealth and cunning and arcane mastery, Seidren soon began to combine the two, pursuing the disciplines of the arcane trickster after he moved to a small human city and joined the local thieves’ guild. He soon found a place near the top of the guild hierarchy, as their most successful killer. Soon after that, he left the guild to work as a freelance killer once he grew tired of affording his business associates a cut of the profits from a string of political assassinations. After he dispatched the pair of killers sent after him without leaving a mark on their bodies to indicate how they’d died, the guild lost interest in him.

Since that time, Seidren has displayed a terrifying knack for murder. He’s quite wealthy, and can now afford to pose as a wealthy nobleman in a city far from where he plies his trade; most of his contract killings are undertaken on behalf of wealthy merchant princes who could be dispatched by far lesser assassins. Seidren’s wealth is the product of his ability to kill without leaving signs of a struggle, or to kill and escape before it’s possible to identify him. In his spare time, Seidren enjoys wine, women, and art, and he whiles away the hours enjoying all three in pleasant combination.

If Seidren is ever caught in the act of assassination, he is, furthermore, more than capable of butchering entire platoons of mundane guards. Even against powerful adventurers the renegade elf is a formidable threat, since his archmage high arcana abilities allow him to convert a large number of prepared low-level touch spells into ranged touch attacks. Combined with his considerable natural agility and his ability to make an impromptu sneak attack, Seidren can inflict staggering amounts of damage with very little effort, and with terrifying speed—and he can do it in complete silence, making him especially fearsome when he uses hit-and-run or ambush tactics.