What did the hand say to the face?

[werk]

-removed- (don't post late after seeing 300 at IMAX)

 

[hong]

I say Bluff vs Sense Motive. If Bluff wins, surprise round. If Sense Motive wins, roll init.

 

[Krafen]

I think there is some confusion here between the game term suprise and the english word suprise.

If, in game, a person you are aware of suddenly attacks you, your character is likely to feel suprise, but the situation does not warrent a suprise round. Whether you are able to react before they connect depends on the initiative roll.

 

[Stormrunner]

If you could catch others by surprise if you walked up to them innocently and then attacked them, all the assassins would not bother with all that sneaking business, they'd just walk up on people and front stab them.

Actually, a fairly common technique for real-world assassins. Walk through a crowd, as you pass the target do a quickdraw-and-stab, keep walking. By the time the target goes "Urk!" and falls down you're six feet away, by the time the bystanders start going "OMG! WTF? He's been stabbed!" you're fifteen feet away. Just keep walking calmly and "innocently" away and you'll probably be well out of sight by the time police arrive. Only the closest bystanders would be likely to even notice the actual attack, and the chance they will remember the assassin's face is small (they're busy thinking about their own concerns, not obsessively memorizing the faces of everyone who passes by), so the most they can tell the cops is something like "it was a tall guy in a dark jacket".

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Actually, a fairly common technique for real-world assassins.

Because they have decent disguise and bluff modifiers so they can make that opposed check.

Against a normal guy, this is quite likely to work. Against the more alert kind of D&D character with lots of ranks in stuff like spot and sense motive, it's not so sure.

Here is where things get sticky. Does the PC realize that the NPC is an opponent? I would say no, especially if the PC has been drinking (unless they happen to be a Drunken Master PrC).

I say that there's a roll involved. Being drunk (if the character is drunk, that is) will give him some penalties.

 

[The Thayan Menace]

Reprise!

I say Bluff vs Sense Motive. If Bluff wins, surprise round. If Sense Motive wins, roll init.

I agree. Hong, as always, your D&D acumen is a hell of a drug.

-Samir

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I agree. Hong, as always, your D&D acumen is a hell of a drug.

-Samir

Yeah, his ability to parrot what most of us have been saying all over this thread is phenomenal.

 

[Nail]

An opposed Bluff check to get a surprise round is supported.

Wow, it took until message #10 to get this?

Although the joke can be played out, in the game this would be a Bluff/Sense Motive check. If you win the bluff, the target is surprised.

Of course, that's not as funny:

"What did the hand say to the face?"

"Roll a Sense Motive check?"

 

[James McMurray]

Wow, it took until message #10 to get this?

Not quite. I said it in post #2.

 

[hong]

Yeah, his ability to parrot what most of us have been saying all over this thread is phenomenal.