Backstab

[Vargrahim]

A situation I think is funny is when you know it is very likely someone will attempt to backstab you, but there is no way to avoid it. I mean, backstab is a surprise attack which requires someone to sneak behind your back and drive a dagger down your spine. In certain situations I think it would be quite realistic if it was possible to go into an "alert" mode where you are extra attentive, efficiently protecting you from backstabs (or actually, the sneak-behind). Such a mode should of course only last for perhaps 5 minutes since it would also be unrealistic if one could have it on all the time. The downside should perhaps also be that it drains mana while used, or/and that you get extra vulnerable to backstabs after the 5-minute period is over since you relax and let your guard down.

[isengoo]

You can know oocly that "someone" is going to try to backstab you, maybe, but your character shouldn't. If the backstabber is hidden well enough to backstab and sneaks up behind them, your character would have no idea they are there until it is too late. If your awareness is high enough, you should be able to see said backstabber before they do their dastardly deeds anyways. That's my understanding of it

[gen]

dealing a good backstab isn`t that easy if your enemy if your enemy is good in awareness.
At first you have to manage to hide dealing a backstab if you ain`t hidden is next to impossible.
than you have to manage to backstab your enemy if he noticed you while you try it he just need to type kill gen and ... no backstab happens to you.
and the third problem is you have to deal damage.
Gen is very skilled in hide sneak and backstab but he fails his backstab quite often as well. Especialy you can`t use backstab when you are surprised. And if you fight a team they all have a chance to notice you and attack you to prevent your backstab. Yeah it can deal quite some damage but impale/gore can do that as well and impale/gore can instantly kill you backstab can`t it can`t even break or nub anything. You can`t aktivly protect against impale as well even though you know your enemy will try it. the game will do it for you by either calculating your awareness against his hide sneak backstab... or your parry defence and what ever against an impale.
You realy want to implement a counter for every special? So you have to guess what your enemy is doing when. I think that would combat very hard so let the game do it for you thats fine.
As i said in my last player fight against crusaders I didn`t managed my
backstab as i got imedetly attacked. I think alamar managed his so it was 50% 50% one failed one hit
po Gen someone who realy needs his backstab to deal damage

[Vargrahim]

You can know oocly that "someone" is going to try to backstab you, maybe, but your character shouldn't.

I do not understand this really. If someone tells my character he is going to backstab him, how could not he have understood it?

As for the countering an "impale" or anything similiar: Well, the difference is that there is difficulty in avoiding an impale, even if you know it will happen. Avoiding a backstab is not difficult if you know someone will try.

[chara]

If you notice IC someone is going to backstab you, it's through awareness, and then he can't backstab you.

Avoiding a backstab can be very difficult, if you have no idea of where the person is. If you know where the person is, it's because you noticed him with your awareness.

[Delia]

I agree, backstabbing should not be made any harder than it is right now.
Like Gen observed, dealing a successful and meaningful backstab requires a whole lot from the backstabber, while the hapless victim can take some common sense precautions in order to make the backstabbing process more unlikely.

[Abharsair]

Awareness determines what your character sees. And even if you know IC there's someone hidden somewhere, that doesn't mean you know exactly where. So unless you constantly turn around your own axis, trying to watch every angle at the same time, resulting in looking extremely silly until you eventually fall over dizzy, someone always has the chance to sneak up on you from behind.

[Dantari]

A situation I think is funny is when you know it is very likely someone will attempt to backstab you, but there is no way to avoid it. I mean, backstab is a surprise attack which requires someone to sneak behind your back and drive a dagger down your spine. In certain situations I think it would be quite realistic if it was possible to go into an "alert" mode where you are extra attentive, efficiently protecting you from backstabs (or actually, the sneak-behind).

Hi, actually, in IC, not being able to guard against backstab is a fair notion.

This is akin to knowing that you will get backstab in the next min but you just do not have the training or skills or flairs or luck to avoid it.

Its like boxing, you know the guys gonna punch you on the head. But, being able to avoid it or not is a totally different matter because the attacker will not execute his attack in a linear manner. And looking all over the place only tells the seasoned attacker how you're losing your cool and this may favour his plans further. Dynamics based on environment, timing and opportunity are involved.

Perhaps, it might be interesting to allow heavy armours to have a better chance of bouncing off a backstab attack. But, the joints (or parts where limbs can bend) of the armour should be very susceptible...