The present or drawn rule is as old as Talisman itself. As far back as 2E, the Assassin could only assassinate something already present on the board. This also meant / means he could not / cannot assassinate "creatures" designated by a board space or generated by a die roll (such as on the Cave card, etc.)  Most groups find this levels out the assassination ability appropriately. There is one complication that is not often discussed.

If the Assassin lands on a multi-draw space and must draw extra cards on top of ones already there... should an Enemy be drawn that has the same Order Number as one already on the space, then those cards are all treated as just drawn.  For example, if an Enemy-Monster is on the Ruins, and the assassin does not drawn another card of the same Order Number, it may assassinate when it comes time to face that Enemy-Monster.  If it does draw another Enemy of that same order number, then the Enemy-Monster combines with the newly drawn card, and the pair cannot be assassinated. 

This is of course a house rule where 4E(R) is concerned and has nothing to do with the official rules of that edition. The rule was developed as adapation of combat encounter rules between encountering Characters. When the Assassin lands on another Character, it may assassinate; when another Character lands on (encounters it), it may not assassinate.

My group have decided to compare Assasins skill to be more like Highlanders skill. It's very powerful early game when its harder to get stats, but later on you can beat most enemies anyway so it becomes pretty avrage.

So what we have done is just to add that each time Assasin uses his skill (and yes he can do it on drawn cards) he has to miss 1 turn. This have balanced out pretty well and we have played like this for more than a year now.

Try it out if have difficulities with Assasin beeing overpowered.

In a number of groups I've observed beyond my own, characters with "miss a turn" in an ability are avoided. The race and rush focus of the game makes them undesirable to those with little patient or just focused on the fastest win.  And it still doesn't solve the problem that the ability has little to do with killing by stealth/suprise.... not that Talisman bothers much with such issues.

For all those who feel that the Assassin is overpowered, see what you think of this idea as a house rule:

Regards,

Ell.

Ps. We allow Enemies to be taken as trophies when we play, as according to the RAW rules, but still use the 2nd ability I gave him!

Seems like an interesting compromise. I would suggest one small change.  Make the "Enemies killed..." read "Enemies assassinated..." so its perfectly clear to all players that only assassination requires forfeiture of a trophy.

The third edition assassin is better balanced that the 4th edition

1: You begin the game with a sword from the purchase deck.

2: You may never have any followers.

     even creatures such as the hag, jester and poltergeist will not become your followers.

3: whenever you are engaged in a battle, you may attempt a sneak attack.

    If you do, your opponent does not roll a die in battle. Instead, you roll one die

    and if you roll a 4,5,6 you win the battle, but if you roll a 1,2,3 you lose.

( I have change the wording a bit to the talisman revised edition)

Velhart said:

The only problem with the 3rd edition one is the restriction of Followers is too high a price for the character!

Ell.

talismanamsilat said:

I think it's a good price.

If you look to the 4th edition assassin, he can assasinate and he may have all followers too.

I like the 3th edition assassin better!