Threaten Addition: Adding more Roleplay w Backstab

[LindseyBalboa]

Add backstab to threaten. It's a critical hit from any direction, so if I'm threatening someone with my body language, I should be able to launch that critical strike. There is no mention of surprise, no mention of not stating your intent to critically strike, and nothing that would preclude it from being used via threaten, in 'help backstab.'

The only thing this would do is offer a chance for more role-play before backstabbing someone, as a player could approach another, 'threaten (victim) backstab' them, and then proceed to offer some sinister threatening role-play. As opposed to "sneak east, backstab (victim)" and then emote if you have a chance. If anything, it's making it harder for the aggressor who wants to choose more role-play, as they will have to succeed at threaten and succeed at backstabbing.

Honestly it's a trade I'd make a lot of the time, and it would be a nice option to have.

For reference, 'help backstab:'

'   This skill is a generic term for 'critical strikes' against an opponent, be it an animal or a
humanoid. The victim of a backstab is not necessarily 'stabbed in the back'-- the attack could be
from any direction. If your character successfully backstabs someone, the target has been 'hit in a
vital location,' and will be badly injured, the severity of the injury depending on your character's
backstab skill level.'

[Brokkr]

There are a number of skills we considered to add to Threaten.

You will note that those with a delay before the skill happens were not added.  This is not an oversight, but that you threaten --> target does something --> you get skill delay --> your skill goes off . . . seemed sort of clunky.

[najdorf]

Backstab / sap makes zero sense with threaten. It is a stealth attack. The person you threaten is very much aware of you.

[LindseyBalboa]

Backstab / sap makes zero sense with threaten. It is a stealth attack. The person you threaten is very much aware of you.

Sap is mostly a stealth command, in that to knock someone unconscious, it's best if they aren't aware of you. However you can achieve the same effect by getting someone to overextend themself, and knocking them in the jaw. The only requirement of a quick knockout is that one isn't prepared or aware of the strike that's coming in, and that can be done many ways.

However. I only included backstab, which via the help file, is just stabbing someone in the vitals from any direction, without any mention of stealth or awareness, because sap is iffy in this instance as a non-stealth command.

There are a number of skills we considered to add to Threaten.

You will note that those with a delay before the skill happens were not added.  This is not an oversight, but that you threaten --> target does something --> you get skill delay --> your skill goes off . . . seemed sort of clunky.

Oh yeah that makes total sense, that would be awkward. In this instance not having a timer would have to be exchanged for having to succeed two skill checks for a successful backstab. I think it's a good trade off for being able to emote more freely with someone and give a longer scene, but I understand it's not as cut and dry as I was thinking.

[Brokkr]

We already decided we were not going to let threaten bypass timers before the skill goes off, for a variety of reasons.

[MeTekillot]

perhaps the skill timer in the backstab or sap skill check can happen before the player is actively threatened. and if the skill check fails, then it behaves as if you attempted to backstab them and failed.

[Brokkr]

That was discussed and no.