Assassin's Death Strike

[Jenosky]

Quote:

The death attack fails if the target detects the assassin or recognizes the assassin as an enemy (although the attack might still be a sneak attack if the target is denied his Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class or is flanked).

I have a simply question:

- Assassin, during a combat, is in sight of his target and the target knows that the assassin is an enemy
- the assassin hide himself (with invisibility for example)
- then he study his target for 3 rounds and the target can't detect him
- then, at 4th round, he hit his target.
Is it a death strike?

[cwslyclgh]

That's an interesting question, I am unsure how it should work by the RAW, how I would likely handle it in my home game would be:

If the target had reason to think that the assassin is still lurking around invisibly waiting for a chance to strike, then it would just be a sneak attack. If the target had no idea that the assassin was still present and posed a threat, then I would allow the death strike.

[LoreKeeper]

It would be a death strike, the requirements do not need the victim to be unsuspecting. The assassin isn't seen (invisibility) until he makes the attack (unless the target has godlike Perception), in other words the target does not detect the assassin. The "or recognizes the assassin as an enemy" is an alternate condition, not an additional condition, and applies when the assassin is for example a spectator in an audience waiting to death strike the circus manager.

[Jenosky]

Thank you LoreKeeper. I think exactly like you ^_^

[LoreKeeper]

Of course, the victim would do well to not sit around idly after the assassin turns invisible. The victim, if he has a reasonable amount of smarts, should try to get out of wherever he is, or make effort to render the assassin visible.

[Christopher Rowe 151]

I like Lorekeeper's interpretation here. the "or" in the statement is describing two different situations. The first is obviously that the intended target fails to percieve the assassin (ie the invisibility). He can know an assassin is around but that doesn't help him if he doesn't know where the assassin is. This is clarifying that Death Strike does not work like sneak attack (ala, not when flanking, etc.; only when the assassin is not percieved). The second condition comes into play when the intended target is walking down the street. Sure, he percieves the shabby beggar walking towards him, but he fails to note that he is an enemy until the "beggar" sticks him in the belly with a hidden knife.

Well played sir, well played.

[Jenosky]

LoreKeeper wrote:

Of course, the victim would do well to not sit around idly after the assassin turns invisible. The victim, if he has a reasonable amount of smarts, should try to get out of wherever he is, or make effort to render the assassin visible.

Of course ^^

[Mal-Duroth]

Jenosky wrote:

Quote:

The death attack fails if the target detects the assassin or recognizes the assassin as an enemy (although the attack might still be a sneak attack if the target is denied his Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class or is flanked).

I have a simply question:

- Assassin, during a combat, is in sight of his target and the target knows that the assassin is an enemy
- the assassin hide himself (with invisibility for example)
- then he study his target for 3 rounds and the target can't detect him
- then, at 4th round, he hit his target.
Is it a death strike?

That assassin could have probably killed his target with three rounds of flank attacks, lol.