Re: Digest Number 211

From: Richard Melvin <rmelvin_at_...>
Date: Sat, 5 Aug 2000 14:54:14 +0100

>
>3) A person who's played nothing but D&D assassins wants to play a D&D
>assassin in Hero Wars. He presumes that his assassin is excellent at
>sneaking up on people and killing them instantly by slicing their
>throats. He is hired to discreetly kill a local Lunar official and
>successfully positions him behind the official, knife drawn, and ready
>to slice the poor bureaucrat's throat.

Without any specialist assassination magic or skills, I would run this as:

Use an extended contest with stealth (getting behind them with them being unaware) or social skills (gaining them to drop their guard) to get to the point where they have less AP then you.

Make a bid, with close combat skill, equal to their remaining AP. Win and they are down, and can be finished with a coup de grace. Lose and proceed to a normal fight.

An assassination skill would be similar, but would not need the coup de grace (specialist knowledge of how to kill in a single blow). A feat, like Soul Stealing Blow, would still be needed to prevent resurrection on an influential target, unless the assassin was in a position to hang around and dismember the body.

Hero wars could have been designed for running assassinations - it is really a good match for the way the system works.

Richard