Throwing Darts

[Stroker]

I'm not sure what a typical slave sells for. But the assassin wouldn't be killing a slave with every strike, especially if he's using a blunted blade (training weapon) and is still reasonably inept at backstabbing.

Sure, it wouldn't be cheap, keeping the slave fed and occasionally buying a new one. I don't think it would be out of the realm of affordability for one person though. Maybe the slave would even survive the training process, it just gets around the natural IC outrage a sparring partner would feel when you suddenly tried to skewer his brain via an eyeball. The slave has no say in the matter.

Unless the slave is mentally ill and remains securely subdued at all times, eventually s/he will realize that their master plans on killing them and devise a means of retaliation.

Semper Pax,

Dirr

[Larrath]

Many human slaves are cheap.
However, cheap slaves usually get less-than-perfect training.  And slaves without insanely good conditioning wouldn't just stand there as you're trying to put a longknife through their kidney.

A good cost estimate for slaves with this training could be, say, around three or four thousand 'sids per one slave.  And you can't practice the exact stabbing and twisting motions with a blunt weapon, just like you can't practice archery by shooting wooden shafts with no arrowheads, as the balance would be way off.

Now, assuming you don't have access to magick, let's say you can get two successful backstabs on each slave before they die from blood loss and internal damage.  If you really suck at backstabbing but are a physician and the slave is strong, maybe three or four stabs.
Let's also say that a good practice session only requires a single slave, and that you practice rarely, say three times a week (eleven days).

This means that the minimum amount you're going to spend during a single week (RL day) of backstab training is 9,000-12,000 'sids.

In other words, you'll be paying almost 1,000 'sids per successful backstab attempt.

You're gonna need a lot of money if you want to use slaves to get your backstab skill anywhere decent.  In fact, you'd be much better off using only a fifth of the money (let's say that's around 15,000 'sid) to hire the best damned assassin in the entire world of Zalanthan and have them personally teach you how to do a backstab.

[Cuusardo]

If you are a commoner, and not a member of a merchant family, you can pretty much forget about buying a slave, let alone a number of slaves.

[Salt Merchant]

And you can't practice the exact stabbing and twisting motions with a blunt weapon (...)

So you can practise warrior-style killing maneuvers with blunted weapons but not assassin-style for some reason? Hmm.

Anyhow, I've always hated those threads that devolve into two or three people arguing back and forth, so I'll leave it at that. Maybe it would cost an arm and a leg to do, I don't know.

[Maybe42or54]

Anyone can swing a weapon and be a warrior.
Few can kill someone with a single stab, or two, or four.