The Lost Art of Thievery and Assassination

...Riper writes:

So you want to know more about killing as a rogue, do you? Well, I guess I can give you a quick lesson, but my time is valuable, so don't expect it to any big question of life lad, ok?

   There are a few skills a rogue must know:

Those are absolutely neccessary to be able to perform a backstab, and that is pretty much what thieving today is all about. There are also some skills that will make your life a lot easier:

    Without sneak, it will be very hard to approach your victim. Without Dodge and Shield Parry, you will be toast if you are clumpsy enough to miss, and belive me, everybody misses every now and then, even myself! Attack is good to have, as you will be able to hit your enemy more in an open battle. When you are learned in the above subjects, you can do everyday roguestuff, as stabbing inside cities and caves and such. If you want to take out your enemies in the forest or on the plains, where you often find Trollocs and other scum, you will need some additional skills:

    None of those skills are neccessary to fight outside, but I recommend that you at least learn how to Camouflage, as it is hard to Hide in the woods without the proper training. ranger Sneak is not something I know how to perform myself, but basically you leave lesser tracks behind you if you are trained in this area. This will increase your chances against rangers who are very good at finding tracks fast, and might find your tracks before they find you! There are of course alot more stuff you might want to learn. You should learn how to mount a horse, even if you don't need to be a good rider. The Rangers can also teach you how to be observant of your environment, finding hidden doors and people, maybe other thieves waiting for you! Those skills are known as:

    Now that you know the most basic stuff, you can call yourself a rogue. But you won't get very far without a good tactic. There are some factors that you should consider when trying to stab someone.

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...Pythos writes:

So how does a guy in a cloak avoid getting his head smashed in by a big guy in armor lugging a big club or axe? The answer, though seeming a cowardly one at first, is really quite simple: run. The first thing you must worry about is that for a rogue to survive in PK, you must be able to move. All valuable rogue skills; hide, sneak, backstab, dodge,etc; are taken away or lessened while riding a horse. For this reason, any rogue intending to fight must try to find a nice assortment of equipment that adds to your moves (silver-tooled boots, most capes/cloaks, and some other valuable little trinkets) and try to keep the weight of items you are carrying to a minimum. Remember, the more equipment and gold you are carrying, the more moves you use up. And a rogue needs to conserve those moves and you try to move from room to room trying to hide and sneak up on your target (also take note that each attempted hide costs you one move). So if a certain rogue intends on keeping a wide assortment of warrior weapons and 1000 crowns in their inventory, they will quickly find themselves in the Circle of Light/Dark after a minute when their moves run dry, and becoming sitting ducks. Now that we’ve set the preparation foundations for PK, we must deal with what actually to do once engaged in a full-on-fight-to-the-death PK battle. The first thing to remember is a rogue is not a warrior. Most start off on WoTmud as a warrior or a Ranger, or at least have some PK experience with those classes. When dealing with a warrior or Ranger, one can just essentially sit there and try to overpower your opponent over time. This tactic will quickly prove fatal for any rogue which attempts it. Though some thieves are lucky enough to be blessed with hearty constitutions and very rarely with equally impressive strength, the basic nature of the rogue does not allow for a Warrior type of PK. Shortblades, while giving fairly descent offensive bonus (ob) and being used with the attack skill to double ones attacks, do not do much damage. Though you will most probably be able to dodge or parry some of your opponents blows, when your opponent does hit, its gonna be a big one. It takes quite a few tickles from a dagger to equal the power of a frag from a mattock.

Alright, now we know what not to do in PK, so what exactly do we do? A player-killing rogue will quickly learn that flee is your new best friend. Be warned, before you willingly engage in PK, you should have dodge, sneak, hide, shortblades, attack, and backstab learned fairly well (this usually only takes about 11-13 levels). So what is the basic gameplan for a rogue? For one, always have a fall back point. Have somewhere you can fall back to and hide for a while should you find yourself on the losing end of the battle and need some time to regain your moves or hit points. And, taking after thieves of legend, your main attempt is to place your dagger in the back of your opponent and try to get one fatal blow. Note that for thieves, the skill sneak does not cost any extra moves, so it should be left on at all times. Your main objective is to sneak into the room your opponent is in, attempt to hide yourself, and then attempt to take your opponent out in one swift strike. If you miss or do not do much damage, then it is time to use your new best friend. Do not feel it is necessary to stick around and try to take your victim out with regular hits with your dagger. You should always just flee and try to find another opportunity to take your opponent out. Of course, if you are fairly sure of yourself and think you have the power to take them out without trying another backstab, it is your prerogative. If a victim is fairly low in level or lacking good equipment, a Warrior type battle is also an option. Okay, so you’ve hit your backstab, but you didn’t manage to kill your opponent, but you’ve damaged them to the point where their auto-flee kicks in. What now? You could always try another backstab, but chances are your victim will be trying their hardest to run away, thus not giving you time for the backstab delay to go through. This is when a Warrior PK experience comes in handy. Now you can exploit your two attacks and try to take out the opponent in hand to hand combat.

    There are many more tactics and tricks one can use in PK (such as some ways to trap your opponent or take them out in one hit no matter how strong they are), but part of the fun of PK and playing on WoTmud is trying to find tactics to use for yourself. Experiment and get a hang for a backstab/flee type of attack. These notes are only the start, the foundation for one of the hardest, but most enjoyable, PKilling classes on WoTmud.