It is, I believe. My friend Ric wrote this up and I haven’t heard from him recently. Not being as well-versed in 5e myself, I’m not sure I can answer intelligently.

How is this different from Background : Charlatan?

Excuse the Neophyte questions : I just started getting into D&D.

It varies. Anywhere from 40 – 50 depending on submissions, time, and content.

But you have it slightly wrong. A backstab and an assassinate are two separate things. If you choose to assassinate and fail you do not get a backstab modifier. PHB p29, emphasis mine, “ASSASSINATION TABLE. This gives a roughly 50% chance of immediately killing the victim; and if this fails, *normal damage* according to weapon type and strength ability modifiers still accrues to the victim.” The lead in also says they *may* choose to use the Assassination table. If the two attacks were the same there would never be any reason not to.

The assassin can backstab of course, but they must choose which method of attack they wish to pursue.

This is a game and the numbers can’t be divorced from it. People like doing cool things, so they make builds to do cool things. Some folks define cool as “doing X efficiently” or “Doing Y in a particular manner” or “avoiding death because I’m a badass by the numbers.” That IS their version of fun, and you’re attitude in this blog seems to gatekeeper that style of play. You are defining fun in a particular way and implying that anything else isn’t fun.

I’ve got a lot of criticism of the game, but your criticism seems more focused on player attitude or the fact it even IS a game.