Verb:AMBUSH

AMBUSH Type System System Combat

The AMBUSH verb is used to make attacks from hiding or invisibility and will outright fail if those conditions are not met. The ATTACK verb is similar to AMBUSH but may be used from open or hiding. Note that the AMBUSH verb is different from the Ambush skill. It is not necessary to use the AMBUSH verb in order to get the stance pushdown and critical weighting benefits provided by the Ambush skill, it is only necessary to attack from hiding.

Syntax

>help ambush
USAGE: AMBUSH [target] [location]

  [target] will default to your current TARGET, or a random creature if you have not set a target.
  [location] will default to your AIM preference if set.  You may also specify CLEAR to force an unaimed attack.

See the AIM article for more information how aiming interacts with AMBUSH.

Roundtime

Main article: Base weapon speed

Whether one is attacking from hiding or in the open, using the AMBUSH verb adds three seconds to an attacker's weapon BASE roundtime. This additional roundtime may be mitigated in the normal way via agility and dexterity bonuses down to the minimum ambush roundtime of the particular weapon used. The minimum ambush roundtime of a weapon differs from the normal minimum roundtime of that weapon as follows:

Weapon base speed	Normal Min. RT	Min. Ambush RT
1	3	4
2, 3	4	5
4+	5	6

Success and Failure (melee weapons)

The factors that influence the chance of successfully attacking the body part aimed for include:

• difficulty of the particular body part targeted (smaller and more critical parts of the body are harder to aim for)
• the difficulty modifier for the weapon used (larger weapons are harder to aim)
• difference in attacker and target level
• the attacker's Ambush skill
• the attacker's Combat Maneuvers skill (when aiming from the open, as opposed to from hiding)
• any eye or bleeding head wounds the attacker may have
• formula for aiming success: Aiming Success

Failure to hit the desired body part will result in attacking a different part of the target's body, or, at low skill levels, may result in the attacker being unable to find an opening for an attack yet still incurring roundtime.

Other Limitations

Any condition that prevents a character from attacking normally will prevent this verb from working, as will attempting to aim at a nonexistent (e.g., the legs of a worm) or already severed body part.

Size disparity can also prevent aiming at specific body parts. Large characters will not be able to aim at specific parts of small critters (e.g., a human cannot aim at specific parts of a spiked cavern urchin). Furthermore, no character can aim at a part of a creature that, because of size limitations, is out of his or her reach (e.g., a dwarf cannot aim at the head or neck of a giant that is standing up). The use of longer weapons can somewhat mitigate this.

See Also

• Ambush
• AIM
• ATTACK/KILL
• Research:Open ambushing
• Aiming Success
• Combat system
• Player System Manager - Phase 3 proposal documentation