Death Attack question

[dethkruzer]

Thr forum and thread search weren't working for me for reasons unkown, so I'll just ask here. Can an assasin use his death attack on an enemy if said enemy is aware of the assasin but the assasin is under the effcts of (Greater) Invisibility?

Thanks in advance.

[Diarmuid]

I guess it depends what "is aware of" means in this case. Can the target see invisible, or does he/she simply know the assassin is around somewhere?

I'm not sure what a RaW meaning of "target does not detect the assassin" would accurately be.

[dethkruzer]

In this case I mean, could the assasin first attack the taret (with a failed death attack perhaps), then casts either invisibility or greater invisibility, could he then wait and use the death attack again?

[Cog]

'Detecting' an invisible creature is discussed more thoroughly here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#invisibility), and from the context it's easy to tell they mean to simply be aware of.

Basically, if the target can reasonably expect an attack from you, Death Attack won't trigger.

[dethkruzer]

But sneak attacks coul still be used, right?

[The_Jackal]

Reading the rule, it seems pretty cut and dry: You have to study your target while he's unaware of your or your murderous intentions, for three rounds. If he detects you while you're invisible (say, hearing your trip over a skateboard while lurking in his bedroom), then no, merely remaining invisible afterward does NOT count toward those three rounds. Of course, once you've got your three rounds, you've got 3 rounds of doing whatever to launch a death attack, regardless of whether he's aware of you or not. Of course, the normal sneak attack rules still apply to your death attack.

And yes, if your target is aware of your early, you can still sneak attack him in the normal fashion.

[Diarmuid]

So hearing any noise that you cant identify counts as being aware than an assassin is trying to study you for the purposes of Death Attacking you? That seems a little meta to me.

Now in the OP's example, no way would you be able to Death Attack after simply going invisible after a failed attempt. The only way I could even think of having that work would be to somehow get the target to think you teleported away or something similar.

[dethkruzer]

So say... Run away, turn invisible after getting some distance nd then return to stalking?

[Tyndmyr]

So say... Run away, turn invisible after getting some distance nd then return to stalking?

Once they are no longer aware you are around...like after they've gone to sleep, sure.

That said, death attacking is not relevant except as an opener anyhow. You don't miss three rounds of combat to use it...you miss three rounds of non-combat to use it.

So, once detected, you generally end up in combat anyhow, and death attack should probably be thrown out the window at this point.