Surprise and sneak attacks

A blow from the dark lands harder than one in plain sight, and whoever takes it is caught off guard. The rule works both ways: a creature can catch you unawares exactly as you can catch it.

The game never shows the check, the dice, or the odds. It only tells you what came of them. The numbers are below.

Unaware

• A creature is unaware of you while its eyes do not see you and it is not hunting anyone it has seen. A sleeper is always unaware, and so is a mimic still in disguise. A creature still searching for someone it lost sight of is not unaware.
• You are unaware of a creature you do not see now and have not seen for a while. The table below says how long you stay aware of one. An attack that catches you unawares counts as seeing its attacker. So a creature you cannot see surprises you with its first blow only, until you have forgotten it again. A creature struck from the dark, on the other hand, stays unaware of whoever struck it, so each shot from the dark catches it unawares again.
• Invisible: a creature’s eyes do not see you while you are Invisible, unless it is Seeing or eyeless (When you are invisible).
• Slipping past: in the dark, a creature that would see you only by its darkvision may miss you altogether. Your Dexterity and Stealth are tested against its Willpower and Spot. While you have slipped past it, it is unaware of you. The odds, and what ends it, are under Slipping past.

Nothing tells you which creatures have not noticed you, unless you have Stalker’s eye (the ranger’s, from level 2). With it, look mode says “unaware of you”, and such creatures are drawn with a slow, faint shimmer.

After you attack, though, the attack’s own message tells you how it found a target you see (see What the attack says).

Caught unawares

An attack that finds its target unaware surprises it. That covers a blow, a shot, a throw, or a spell that rolls to hit. A hidden trap also surprises whoever it springs under: you, if you had not found it, or a creature, since creatures never know where traps are. A trap springing beside you does not.

• The attack itself is struck flat-footed: the target’s Dexterity and its Dodge count for nothing in its Defence.
• Then comes the initiative check. The target rolls 2d12 plus its Dexterity modifier, plus what Wary and the Initiative skill add. It must reach 13 plus the attacker’s craft. Craft is what the attacker’s Sneak attack skill adds, plus 2 for the thief’s Sneak attack talent. A trap has no craft. A sleeper or a mimic in disguise makes no check: it is always surprised.
• Made: “You keep your wits about you.” (or “The kobold whirls to face you.”). Nothing more happens. With Hair trigger, if the attacker is a hostile beside you, you strike it at once, before its attack is rolled.
• Failed: “You are taken by surprise!” (or, for your attack, “You hit the unsuspecting kobold.”). The target is Surprised until it next acts (after a feint, for one action more). While Surprised:
  • it stays flat-footed, with no Dexterity and no Dodge in its Defence;
  • it makes no free blow: no riposte, no blow at a foe stepping up or away, no Point-blank shot;
  • its next action takes half as long again. The Initiative skill saves part of that extra time, and Cool head saves all of it. That action ends the surprise: “You recover your wits.”

Your edge is your Dexterity modifier plus what Wary and Initiative add. The columns are the attacker’s craft and the difficulty it makes. A roll of 2 always fails, and a roll of 24 always succeeds.

Stunned

The ascetic’s Stunning strike leaves a foe it wounds Stunned until it next acts. Stunned is flat-footed just like Surprised: no Dexterity and no Dodge in Defence, no free blow, and sneak dice land on it. Its next action also takes half as long again, but neither Initiative nor Cool head saves any of that time. They help against surprise, not against a blow to the head.

What the attack says

Your own attack that rolls to hit (a blow, a shot, a throw, or a spell) names its target by how it caught it, in the attack’s own line, hit or miss:

These are exactly the times your sneak dice can land, except one: an unaware target that makes its check whirls to face you (“The kobold whirls to face you.”), and that line is all you are told, though the attack was still struck flat-footed. Nothing is said of a target you do not see, and never a number. A creature’s attack on you says nothing of the kind: “You are taken by surprise!” already tells it.

Sneak attacks

If you have sneak dice, you add them to a hit on a target that is unaware of you, Surprised, or Stunned. The dice come from the Sneak attack skill (1d6 once you are trained at all) and from talents: Ambusher and the thief’s Improved sneak attack. They are added after Protection, and a critical never doubles them. Master thief makes such a hit a critical threat 2 sooner.

• A blow counts at any reach. A shot, a throw, or an attack spell counts only within a few cells (see the table below; Long reach adds to it).
• Usually only the first blow of a fight finds the foe unaware. A foe that failed its check is still Surprised for your next blow. One that made it is not.
• The thief’s Lurk waits in ambush: a hostile that steps up beside you takes your blow at once, caught unawares unless it was already hunting you.
• Exploit is a sneak attack whatever the foe knows, but it does not surprise the foe.
• Vanishing act leaves you light on your feet after a sneak attack that kills.
• Every sneak attack that hits gives the thief an opening, if it is on their mark or they have none.
• Two weapon abilities trigger on a sneak attack that hits: Knife in the dark and Hunter’s shot.

The skills

This table shows what Sneak attack, Initiative, and Stealth’s slipping past give at each value. A thief starts with Sneak attack (2d6+10), and a drow may too, whatever their class. Warriors, rangers, ascetics, berserkers, bards, and thieves train Initiative (see Which skills you start with).

No vitals

Some things have no vitals to find. Sneak attack dice never land on them, and a critical is never confirmed on them. Vital strike and a master thief’s sure critical are a plain blow against them (“It has no vital spot.”). They can still be surprised like anyone, and still be struck flat-footed. The fleshy undead (draugr, ghouls, the drowned, vampires, mummies) do have vitals.

Creatures

Some creatures are good at surprise too. They may have sneak dice, a craft that makes your check harder, an Initiative of their own, or a sharp eye against your slipping past.

A few creatures lurk. One that sees you waits where it stands instead of coming at you, and attacks once you come beside it. If it can shoot or cast, it does that from where it stands. Once it is hurt, it hunts like any other.

See also: the thief, Openings, and Hearing.