Exploit Weakness (Assassin 2) adds bonus damage based on cunning, if you go rogue/assassin/bard, song of courage (bard 3) adds cunning-based bonus to attack/damage/crit chance. Dex improves chance to hit, but even with max difficulty you will always hit with dex 36 due to flanking bonus (+20 which is requirement for backstab, anyway).īut what really makes cunning far better than dexterity is its influence on talents.

Add the bonus to armor penetration on top. Only Archery doesn't get a direct damage bonus from cunning. For sword+dagger or dual sword, you get 100%cun(str) to damage. A cunning value is only needed for disabling traps, performing stealth, and skills - none of which I feel is crucial for an assassin archetype.įor a melee rogue/assassin, cunning is straight up better than dexterity after meeting requirements.įor dual daggers (with lethality) each point of cunning provides the same damage bonus as dexterity: Daggers get 50%dex/50%cun(str) to damage. However, for all combat skills a combat-focused rogue will desire, you'll need a minimum of 36 dexterity (dual-weapon mastery is the most restrictive).

There are no minimum values for either attribute to become an assassin you simply have to speak to the right person. One kind of neutral point to make here is that Cunning will give you some mental resistance while Dexterity will give you physical resistance - but you probably shouldn't make super crucial decisions based on that information. The armor penetration bonus gained by cunning will be overshadowed by the sheer damage boost from a dexterity-heavy build.

but that seems to be a different character archetype altogether. Dexterity will greatly benefit assassins in sheer damage output of daggers (unless you're some kind of weird sword-wielding assassin) as well as providing nice defense.Ĭunning will help more with stealing/stealth etc.

Dragon age origins daggers