.: Help for ambush

An ambush is what you get when you attack while hidden. The
combat text marks it as a surprise attack. There is no command to
type. You hide first, then attack or shoot, and your opening blow
becomes the ambush on its own.

━━━ Setting One Up ━━━

  1. Use sneak to slip out of sight.
  2. For a melee ambush, use cooldowns to check that your special
     move has come back. A shot does not need it.
  3. attack  to open in melee, or fire  to open
     from cover.

Requires the skullduggery skill, which is what hides you in the first place.

━━━ Only the First Blow ━━━

An ambush is one strike, not a whole round of them. Anything else you
swing in that round lands as ordinary fighting. The opening blow is
called out in the combat text when it lands or is turned aside. The
opener is spent even if it misses, so you get one attempt.

━━━ It Can Be Answered ━━━

An ambush is not a free hit. A ready defender may dodge, parry or block
it, just as with any other attack, and the game names what they did. An
ambushing shot can be dodged or blocked, but not parried, since there is
no blade coming for them to turn aside.

If they stop it, you lose the advantage, and what gets through is weaker
than an ordinary blow would have been. If it lands cleanly it strikes as
a critical hit, and it bites deeper the better your skullduggery. A
skilled thief does far more harm with the opening blow.

━━━ You Are Seen ━━━

Striking gives your hiding place away at once, whether you hit or miss.
You cannot fight on from the shadows, and a shot from cover at something
in your own room reveals you the same way. Plan the rest of the fight as
an open one.

━━━ Melee Ambushes Need Your Special Move ━━━

A melee ambush uses the shared special move cooldown, so it competes with
bash, trip, kick and the rest. If the cooldown has not
recovered you get no ambush, and your attack goes in as an ordinary one.
The game tells you when that happens.

Take care, because this is the expensive mistake. Closing in from hiding
gives your position away whether the ambush was ready or not. A denied
opener costs you your cover and returns nothing for it.

━━━ A Shot From Cover Always Lands ━━━

Shooting is different. If you are hidden, the shot is an ambush, and no
cooldown can take that away from you. Hide, then fire.

What limits it is the hiding itself. The shot gives your place away, and
you cannot slip out of sight again while something is fighting you, so
you get one opener per fight rather than one per recovery.

━━━ Shooting Into the Next Room ━━━

Only a shot at something in your own room can be an ambush. Firing into
an adjacent room is an ordinary shot however well hidden you are. It
gains nothing from stealth, and it leaves your cover intact.

━━━ Shooting Without Being Attacked ━━━

This is a separate matter from the ambush, and it matters just as much.
A ranged weapon is far more dangerous when nothing in the room is
attacking you. You cannot steady an aimed shot while you are fending
someone off, and the shot suffers badly for it.

That is the archer's whole problem, and the answer is always the same:
do not be the one being hit. Bring a companion or a party member to hold
their attention, or put a room between you and them and fire from there.

See Also:

  help sneak, help skullduggery,
  help fire,
  help special, help cooldowns,
  help ranged-combat, help combat