Core Rulebook, P. 86: “Surprise requires the acting character to strike the target unaware: if the target is aware of an impending attack the surprise feat is automatically countered. Thus, the complete concealment of the attack is necessary to achieve surprise. Surprise strikes may only be made in situations where the target is not prepared for and/or is not expecting an attack from the person attempting surprise. The effect ”distracted” makes a target unaware.” “ “Surprise” is defined as attacking a target who is unaware of a target’s immediate intention to strike. “Aware” is defined as having knowledge of a character’s immediate intention to strike. Awareness depends on the target’s ability to perceive that an attack is intended.” “LIVE-ACTION! A surpriser makes a surprise attack by striking a target who is unaware of the surpriser’s immediate intention to strike. A defender who is aware of an attacker’s immediate intention to strike, may cancel a surprise feat by announcing “Aware.” This means that the attacker must truly conceal their intention to attack.” “Characters are assumed to be “Aware” of attacks by any combatant in their field of vision. Thus, characters who are engaged in melee combat may not surprise each other.” “Characters are assumed to be unaware of attacks delivered from outside of their field of vision, unless they react to the attack before the blow lands with purposeful body movement (turning to look, jerking away from the blow, raising hand) before being struck…” “…Non-combatants in a character’s field of vision may still gain surprise. For example, two characters who are conversing pleasantly could potentially surprise each other. In this case, the target must not have time to react to the impending attack as described above.” By my reading of this, someone who sneaks up on another character, entirely without being noticed, can hit them with a “Surprise Strike”. Even someone sidling up to someone who is in the midst of a fight, without ever entering his target’s field of vision, or causing him to react in an “aware” way, can hit him with a “Waylay”. Likewise, someone can walk up to another character, greeting them in a friendly manner, and when they reach them, suddenly lash out with a dagger they have been holding hidden inside their cloak, or even, if they are really slick, embraces them without the target ever noticing the dagger being moved around behind their back, and legitimately announce “Assassinate!” **However**… if a character is in a melee combat, and within his line of vision, along with the character he is engaged with, another enemy character, who has attacked him earlier, or who will certainly attack him if given the opportunity, and for some reason, the character turns his back on this other enemy… … the other opponent, if physically able to, may certainly attack the viewing character’s unprotected back, even with a “Critical 3” or a “Kill Chop”, though the target may “Parry” the blow, if able. Nonetheless, this enemy to whom the character has turned his back may **not** hit him with a “Surprise Strike”, **even** if he was engaged with someone else, and thus might not be expected to be free to strike the target, **and** he was far enough away that it might seem that he would not be able to immediately strike the target, **yet** he was not so far that he was required to run up to the target, in order to strike him. The fact that the target saw him, while in combat, and is fully aware that his enemy is there, somewhere behind him, with full intent to do him harm, if he can, is enough to cancel out the fact that the would-be surpriser is outside his field of vision, at the moment. Now, I **would** say, that if the second opponent **remains** outside the target’s field of vision for some extended time like 10 seconds, a surprise feat then becomes possible. By that point, no matter how frantically the potential target is worrying about the guy behind him whom he has not been able to look for, he has lost track of him so thoroughly, that the opponent now has the potential to surprise him. Also, the surprise feat would work if someone had first hit the target with something which gave him the “distracted” effect. Of course, in that case, a surprise strike could be delivered on him even by someone who had been right in front of him, exchanging blow with him, for 10 minutes. Is my take on the surprise rules correct: you have to actually sneak up on them, or do the totally unexpected, or no surprise? If so, in a situation like the in-combat scenario, what call would you use to tell the other player that their surprise didn’t work? “Aware”? Or something like “Invalid”?
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 17:06:12 +0000
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