Backstab
The Backstab ability is a Thief-only ability to attack from the shadows at melee.
Weapon Choice
- Only Light Edged weapons or Medium Edged weapons may be used.
- Maximum weapon weight for backstabbing is 30 Stones.
- Light Edged weapons will do more damage and be more likely to hit than Medium Edged weapons of equivalent skill.
- Backstab damage is increased the greater the puncture value of the weapon.
Target Choice
- Target must be bipedal, meaning it has to have a back to stab.
- Backstab success is based on attacker's Backstab skill versus target's Perception skill. The higher the Perception of a creature the more difficult it is to backstab and the more experience will be gained for success.
- The backstab move targets certain vital areas, and one non-vital area. The targets are determined by the amount of success on the Backstab vs. Perception check. The head, neck, back and arms are the areas which can be struck with a successful backstab.
Successful Backstab
Alpha Strike
The first successful backstab that does damage will do an increased amount of damage, after which it will return to the standard backstab damage for 30 seconds.
Bypass Parry and Shield defenses"death from above" is not in the list (area of effect, cyclic, defense ignoring, shield ignoring, armor ignoring, armor piercing, glyph, healing, heavy offensive, instinct, ...) of allowed values for the "Ability type is" property.
A successful backstab can not be defended with the Shield skill or Parry skill, but can still be evaded. The attack uses the weapon skill of the thief against the evasion skill of the victim. This makes it possible to successfully backstab your target, but completely miss them with the attack.
Increase Confidence
Backstabbing is tied to the Thief Confidence system. A successful backstab against an appropriately skilled target will increase confidence while a failed backstab will decrease confidence. SMIRK [SELF] may be used to check confidence level.