Rogue - Assassin Changes

[SamaelBael]

Hello DDo community, time for me to step out of the (forum) shadows for the class and enhancement tree I love and play since 2009.

The changes to the tree mentioned in the op sound great in general, here are my thoughts to poisons:

The poison enhancements mentioned in this tree lack the impact that the poisons from the ninja have. I would like to see some similarity/balance there. Poison is poison, no matter which tree it is from. Maybe there could be some more synergies (drow/ninja/assassin)?

The tier 1 poison attack will most likely be a melee attack. I disagree with the inability of an assassin to apply poisons on ranged attacks. How about some form of Sting of the Ninja? Melee and ranged dot, if necessary, chained to Venomed Blades?

In both trees, the old and the now planned, it does not sit well with me that the poisons are attacks that must be applied manually mid-fight. Coating weapons should be done before the battle. If not Sting of the Ninja style/chained to Venomed Blades, how about some form of weapon enchantment? No spell point cost but able to coat the weapons of partymembers?

Some other questions:
Shiv: does the threat reduction stack with the TA's?
Move Silently/Hide: with 3 points in it +1 SA die (both halfling and shadar-kai get a bonus with 3rd point)?

From my point of view, Assassins should lie between Thief-Acrobat and Mechanic concerning its attack range. capable to do massive damage within the SA range of generally 15 feet. Pure single target damage.
Please do not tie the Poisons to melee attacks like the Assassinate and Execute attacks. Execute would gain a lot if it could be used in ranged combat (SA's 15 feet).

Time to slip back into the shadows,
Samael Bael