Stalking in Combat

Stalking in very hard to do successfully in combat. Any noticeable or obvious actions can give a creature away. Attacking with a weapon is obvious and will end the stance and place passive stalking to 0. Subtle weapons are only noticeable and while they will end the stance, they leave a creature with their passive stalking. Reciting of a verse is always obvious, where as the use of utility skills vary from skill to skill.

Unaware Opponents

If a creature has a high enough stalking to sneak up on a target without being detected, they can catch the target unaware. The aggressor is considered to have automatically rolled a 24 on the dice for their accuracy roll and the defender to have automatically rolled a 3 on their avoidance. The agressor must still have a weapon skill greater then 0 to make the attack. The Defender does not gain any benefit from armor skill for this attack. In addition to normal damage, the aggressor deals (Stalking skill / 6) in Vitality damage to their target. Toughness, armor mitigation and other sources can reduce physical or elemental damage, but do not protect against the Vitality damage.

The defender gets a competence roll to notice the aggressor at the last moment using their perception against a threshold equal to the striker's stalking. If noticed in this manner they are not consdiered to be 'Noticed' in terms of an Unseen Native, but rather they get seen due to the noticable or obvious action of attacking. However the defender retains all benefits of armor skill. The aggressor does not get to deal vitality damage, but rather is guaranteed an amount of phsyical damage equal to (Stalking skill / 6) even if toughness, armor mitigation and other sources would reduce the physical damage below this.

Unseen Natives

It is entirely possible and quite common for two natives to walk about and not see each other. This can create problems when trying to move from point A to B. Here we have two natives, one that is good at remaining hidden (stalker), and one that is walking about (walker). The walker cannot perceive the stalker, and the stalker in question need not be in Stalking stance to go unnoticed, but it can increase their odds of doing so. A number of effects come into play.

If our Walker attempts to pass through the Stalker's space, they get a competence check of Perception with a threshold equal to the Stalker's current stalking. If the Walker succeeds, the stalker is Noticed, if the fail them move right through the space as if it were empty having no clue there way anyone there.

If a creature is Noticed, they are considered to have taken a Noticeable action. The creature that noticed them still expends the movement that would have gotten them into the Stalker's space, but make none of the progress. They also lose 2 Knack from the surprise of someone suddenly in their path.

If a Walker attempted to stop in a Stalker's space, the Stalker may spend 1 Knack to move over into an empty space and avoid notice. The Stalker must expend move normally but my only cover 1 space. This is a reactive movement. If the Stalker is unwilling or unable to do so, the Stalker will be Noticed. It may be important to note that jumping/hanging off a ledge or climbing up to the wall can be a valid option when making a change of location at the additional Knack cost to use the appropriate skill reflexively.

The page you are viewing was last modified: 22JUN2011