Openings

Every thief holds openings from level 1 (Sneak attack), starting at 0.

• Every sneak attack that hits gives one, up to 5.
• Every feint the foe falls for gives one.
• Killing your mark yourself gives one more.
• One slips away every 20 base turns (2 minutes). When empty, the pool stays with you.
• From level 1, Exploit (an ability, aimed in a direction) spends every opening you hold on one melee blow that counts as a sneak attack, whatever the foe knows. The thief’s class talents make it bigger as they come (see Exploit).

The mark

Your openings are gaps in one creature’s guard: your mark. The character screen shows whose guard they are in (“Openings 3/5, in the kobold’s guard”), and looking at the creature says “your mark”.

• Switching foes loses them. The first creature you choose to attack becomes your mark. A blow, a kick, a shield bash, an ability’s blow, a shot or a throw at its square, a spell that rolls to hit, or a feint, made or not, all count. Choose to attack a different creature while your mark lives, and every opening is lost (“Your openings on the kobold are lost.”); the new creature is your mark.
• Blows you did not choose change nothing. A free blow (a riposte, an opportunist’s blow, a lurk’s) makes its target your mark only when you have none. On anyone else, its sneak attack gives no opening. Area effects, like a fireball, never touch your mark.
• A kill carries them over. When your mark dies, by anyone’s hand, your openings stay, and the next creature you attack becomes your mark with them. If you killed it yourself (a bleeding wound you dealt counts), you get one more opening.
• Your mark is forgotten when it vanishes (a summoned creature’s time runs out), when you take the stairs to another level, and when your openings run down to 0. Your openings stay. A mark that steps out of sight is still your mark.
• Spending them on someone else is refused. Exploit at a creature other than your mark does nothing and takes no time (“Your openings are in the kobold’s guard.”).

Exploit

Exploit is the thief’s way to cash in openings, from level 1. Choose a direction, and you strike the hostile there with what you wield, in the time of a melee blow.

• It spends every opening you hold, from 1 to 5 (more with an item of Guile, see Suffixes; there is no cap). You choose how many by when you strike.
• It is a sneak attack whatever the foe knows. The sneak attack dice land if it hits. The foe is not Surprised and keeps its whole Defence.
• Each opening spent adds 1d6 damage on a hit, after the sneak dice. Like them, it comes after Protection, and a critical never doubles it.
• Its own sneak attack gives no opening. After it you hold none, and your mark is forgotten. If the blow kills your mark, that kill still gives you one.
• It is refused, taking no time and spending nothing, with no opening (“you have no opening” in the menu), with no hostile there (“There is no one there.”), at a creature other than your mark (“Your openings are in the kobold’s guard.”), and at a creature you see that has no vitals (“It has no vital spot.”: skeletons, spirits, animated things; see Criticals).
• The game tells you how deep it cuts: “You strike at the opening.” (1), “You press your openings.” (2 to 4), “You tear into every opening!” (5).

The thief’s class talents add to every exploit, per opening spent:

A stunned foe’s next action costs half again as much, and your next blow finds it flat-footed.

So at level 12 an exploit of 4 openings is +4 to hit and does the blow, the sneak dice, and 4d6 more, and the foe is stunned. At level 32 the same exploit does 8d6 more. At level 60 its critical threat is 16 lower, and 2 lower again as on any sneak attack (that step never below 3), so a weapon that threatens on 20 threatens on 3. An exploit of 5 or more is a critical whenever it hits, with no confirmation roll. The critical doubles only the weapon’s part: the sneak dice and the exploit’s dice are never doubled.

Thrown exploit

From level 18 the thief can also exploit by throwing, for a mark that stepped back, blinked away, or a foe across the room after a kill. Choose the Thrown exploit ability, then something to throw, then the target.

• It is Exploit’s blow, thrown. It spends every opening, and it is a sneak attack whatever the foe knows. Every addition in the table above applies: the dice per opening, the stun and +1 to hit per opening, the lower threat and the sure critical at 5. It uses the thrown weapon’s attack and your Thrown rank, not the weapon in your hand.
• One of what you throw leaves your hand, as any throw. It lands by the foe or breaks.
• Its reach is the weapon’s throw range, but never more than 6 cells (more with Long reach): past that the sneak dice would not land. A dagger throws 5.
• It is refused, taking no time and spending nothing, for everything Exploit refuses (no opening, no hostile you see there, a creature other than your mark, no vitals), for a flask (“You cannot exploit an opening with …”), for a target too far (“That is out of reach.”), and for a wall or a creature you see between you and the target (“Something is in the way.”).
• A creature you did not see in the way takes the throw instead, as a plain throw: no sneak dice and nothing per opening. The openings are spent all the same.

The talent on it

Patient blade (Shadow; thief, level 32): openings slip away half as fast, a point every 40 base turns instead of every 20. Killing your mark yourself gives two openings instead of one.

See also: Surprise and sneak attacks, Resources, and Abilities.