Back Stab: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Found usually in [[RPG|RPGs]] and [[Stealth Based Game|Stealth Based Games]]. A type of attack that gives you a chance to use stealth and surprise your victim, dealing [[For Massive Damage|massive]], often [[One-Hit Kill|lethal]] damage with a single hit.

== Card Games ==

* ''[[Munchkin]]'' has 'stab your buddy' as one of its taglines (the other two being 'kill monsters' and 'take their stuff'), and characters with the rogue class can do just that by discarding a card to give someone else a -2 bonus to their current combat. Amusingly enough, they ''can't'' backstab monsters, only other players.

** Munchkin Epic Rules adds a similar power to Epic Elves (although they can use their power against monsters as well), and Munchkin Bites has the Power "Evil Eye" that allows the player to discard N cards for a -N bonus to any other player currently in combat.

** There's also an attack enhancement that causes it to suddenly appear behind the target.

** GURPS Dungeon Fantasy (an homage to classic dungeon crawling) lets sneaky characters make a difficult skill roll at the start of a fight to ''appear'' behind the closest enemy, in perfect position to shank them. Explained as you being so sneaky you were there all along...

* An "unexpected attack" in ''[[Exalted]]'' cannot be defended against, which is a '''huge''' deal because the combat system is balanced on the assumption that every attack that gets through will be dulled at least a bit by defense. There are several Charms specifically designed to let the user make an unexpected attack. On the other hand, some Charms will also permit the user to defend against unexpected attacks.

* Sneak Attack is one of the standard abilities in ''[[Mage Knight]]'' miniatures. Since MK minis have defined 'front' and 'back' areas, all that's required is to be adjacent to the target's back area. It doubles the attacker's damage.

** That's underselling it. Attack Bonus is one of the most expensive items to buy in character creation, so most players prefer to buffer it with combat-speciality feats. Sneak Attack is one of the many useful, cheaper ways to hit your caps with regularity.

* ''[[Paranoia]]'' encourages PCs to wait till their enemies already have their hands full with something else before trying to blast them. "Ideally, he should [[Make It Look Like an Accident|not be sure he's being attacked at all]], or at least not be sure who's attacking him."

== Video Games ==

* In ''[[Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick Obscura]]'' there's a Backstab skill that gives you a good damage bonus if you attack an enemy from behind, and a HUGE damage bonus if you attack from behind and the enemy is also unaware of your presence.

* The ''Battlefield'' Series. Getting knifed in the back is a humiliating way to go in multiplayer.

** Varies by the game. In ''2142'' and the ''Bad Company'' series, every hit with a knife is lethal. Aside from ''Bad Company'' 1, however, the time it takes to draw and use your knife is generally longer than how quickly an enemy can just shoot you, it's generally only safe to utilizing it as a [[Back Stab]].

** ''Battlefield 3'' actually rewards you with a special animation if you manage to pull off this move off, involving your guy stabbing the enemy and removing their dogtags in a single stroke.

** And the Assassin class appears in the second game as a Thief kit (subclass, basically). Along with a couple other benefits, their backstab multiplier tops out at x7 (at level 21) instead of x5 (at level 13) for other Thief classes. Someone on Bioware's forums twinked out an assassin as much as the game's rules would allow and got 1064 damage out of ''one backstab''--easily more than enough to [[One-Hit Kill|one-shot]] anything not immune to backstabs.

*** ...Which would be basically everything it would be really useful to backstab, rendering said multiplier a nice case of [[Awesome but Impractical]] since it only appears about halfway through the expansion pack, at which point everything you'd really like to one-shot this way can't be, and everything else dies within two rounds of making melee contact anyway.

* Similar to the flanking maneuver in ''D&D'', ''[[Battle for Wesnoth]]'' gives some attacks the "backstab" trait, which causes double damage when flanking a target.

** More precisely, some units have the weapon special "backstab", which causes double damage to the target if the attack that's got the weapon special is used and there's a unit hostile to the target behind it.

* ''Blood Omen 2: Legacy of Kain'' has almost the same implementation of the idea as ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'', but did it first.

* In the original ''[[Castle Wolfenstein]]'', you did double damage to opponents if you attacked them from behind. In the sequel, your character could backstab and kill any Nazi soldier in one hit if you had the dagger equipped.

** The instant-kill dagger backstab was brought back for ''RtCW''.

* In ''Chrono Trigger'', sneaking up behind a guard during the prison break-out scene allows you to 1-hit them to make them 'Pass out' without an actual fight scene.

* In ''[[City of Villains]]'', the "Assassin's Strike" and "Hide" abilities are the entire ''point'' of the Stalker class, which is otherwise a somewhat weaker version of ''[[City of Heroes]]''' Scrapper.

** ''Were''. The Assassin's Strike itself was changed so it lands a To Hit Debuff on everything within 30 feet and has a 25% chance of making everything within 30 feet quake in fear. Furthermore, their overall damage was raised, and they now possess a chance to land critical hits outside of Hidden status, a higher chance than that of Scrappers! In addition to this, each teammate within a certain distance of them grants a + 3% addition to their critical hit chance. On a tightly grouped team, a Stalker can have up to 31% chance to land a critical! Scrappers are still better head on combatants, but Stalkers hold their own in a fight.

*** A Stalker attack always has a chance to crit. If performed from stealth, it's a 100% chance to crit, thanks to their class ability "Assassination". Using the special "assassin's strike" attack allows them to Backstab the opponent [[For Massive Damage]]. Toss Placate in, and they can get a free crit or even another Backstab in ''while in the middle of a fight''. The Arachnos Epic Archetypes also possess this ability (with the sole exception of the Crab Spider).

** It does: zapping someone who isn't aware of you knocks them out instantly, while attacking them from the front might take a couple of zaps.

* Heavily used by certain builds in [[Dungeon Crawl]], where it ''multiplies'' damage according to your Stabbing skill.

** If your sneak is high enough, you can even hit the enemy with another sneak attack, and then another, and another, and so on and so forth.

** This is also possible in ''[[Morrowind]]'', if you train your sneak, strength, and skill in what ever your choice of weapon is. At night, one can literally walk straight past a guards line of sight and punch him in the face. If one is so inclined.

** ''[[Skyrim]]'' has a perk in the Sneak skill that causes sneak attacks with dagger type weapons to do 15x normal damage. Realistically this can only be done when behind an enemy. Often triggers a brief execution cinematic, depending on the weapon used and the type of enemy.

*** On top of that, there are gloves you can find that give "double back-stab damage" allowing daggers to do 30x normal damage and one-shot just about anything in the game, including some Dragons. There's also a [[Our Demons Are Different|daedric]] artifact dagger you can get that ''also'' doubles back-stab damage, along with giving a small chance of simply killing the enemy. Combined with the gloves and the perk, you do 60x normal damage, and if that wasn't enough to kill them they might get killed by the 1% chance of instant death ''anyways''. Of course, if you screw it up, they probably eat your face.

** Earlier titles have the Silent Death perk, which grants double damage for melee attacks from behind while sneaking.

* ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' had this as Rogues' signature attack, until it got [[Nerf|nerfed]] to hell and back.

* In ''[[Jagged Alliance|Jagged Alliance 2]]'', a successful hit with a throwing knife is a [[One-Hit Kill]], unless the target has spotted the thrower (in which case it does a pitiful amount of damage instead).

* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' has an achievement for killing Infected in a single shove, and backstabbing is the way to go.

** In ''[[Twilight Princess]]'', the Back Slice involves jumping all the way around the enemy du jour and slicing into their back.

** One of these, with the sword, is actually called "Backstabber" (the others are "Spinecrusher" for the unarmed melee move, and "Tracheotomy" for the knive-to-the-throat).

* The ''[[Mario]]'' [[RPG|RPGs]] (although its usually a pre-emptive attack rather than starting the battle from behind).

** In ''Metal Gear Solid 4'', when the player does this they can now execute a 'body search' feature, which will usually make for gaining better items then found normally from enemies.

** In ''Solid 3'' onwards, it's difficult to perform the CQC Grab (and follow up with a chokehold or throat slit) unless you approach your target from behind.

** Somewhat awesomely, Duster the thief has the ability to potentially make the enemy's preemptive attack effort blow up in their faces by either hitting them with a spinning back kick, still getting the first attack in the round, or by jumping behind them, where the battle begins as if * you* were the one to sneak up on them.

* In ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' (3rd edition ''[[Dungeons and Dragons|D&D]]'') the assassin has a chance to not only do massive damage but also paralyze an opponent on a successful "death attack" as long as the opponent is unaware of their presence (stealth mode). This is partially subverted by the primarily fighter based feat "devastating critical" where a noisy, clanking, plate mail wearing powerhouse actually does a one shot critical hit kill without any sneaking or flat-footing of the foe.

* ''[[Prince of Persia]] : The Two Thrones'' gave the Prince the ability to do something called "[[Quick Time Event|Speed Kills]]" where if the enemy didn't know you were there you could basically jump on their back and kill them instantly.

** These become pretty important late in the game, when failing to use Speed Kills will result in being outnumbered in the ensuing battle very quickly. Against enemies that ''love'' to counter your every attack. And those Quicktime Events were the ONLY way to finish off certain bosses. If you kept failing the speed kill, the boss just would not die.

** Inverted in the trailer, which had a move not in the game where blades came out of Mercer's back into a guy who had grabbed him from behind.

* The "Mortal Rising" skill that Dhan assassins get in the MMORPG ''Rohan Online'' allows a chance for a crit on the first attack that you make out of stealth mode, which goes up to 100% when maxed-out (pretty much guaranteeing a crit on the first attack), and is especially nasty when used with "Deadly Blow," a buff which increases your crit damage based on how much Agility you have. "Sudden Attack" is another skill that allows you to attack for high damage while still in stealth mode before coming out of it for combat.

* Flece from ''[[Summoner]]'' had a backstab ability that could get completely of hand. Not only could a number of items giving stackable bonuses to backstab raise it to absurd levels about half way through the game, but Flece had a bunch of abilities that could knock an enemy prone in the heat of combat (virtually unopposed with a chain attack.) Since you get huge bonuses when attacking prone enemies, this means Flece could repeatedly deal well over 3000HP of damage in a couple of attacks, vastly outclassing the rest of the party.

** Sangaril has the same ability in the sequel. If the enemy doesn't realize she's there, it deals such heavy damage that in most cases it's a one-hit KO. Once she learns Paralyze, you're pretty much set. It's no use on Bosses or monsters who are resistant to Piercing, though.

** The Pyro has a weapon suited for this tactic, the Backburner, which, while not a guaranteed instant kill, triples the already high flamethrower damage when used from behind (and even if the enemy gets away, there is a good chance that he'll die from the burn damage). The problem is, the Knife registers a backstab from 80 degrees to each side of the enemy's back... axis, and the Backburner, only 45 degrees. In addition, if the target turns around after being fired at, the triple damage stops rolling in and the Pyro is quickly blasted in the face. Spies never get that - the Knife deals damage equal to six times the enemy's current HP on a backstab. Hence the fandom name "BADburner"...

** There are a handful of counters for the Spy's instant-kill backstab in Team Fortress 2: A Medic's Uber-charge (active) makes him invulnerable, the Sniper's Razorback shield (passive) blocks one backstab attempt and momentarily freezes the spy, a scout with bonk atomic punch active which makes him invulnerable, and the Spy's Dead Ringer watch (active) fakes death. The Dead Ringer's effect makes the Spy somewhat useful for pushing carts (if disguised as his own team), as it isn't immediately obvious that the person was a Dead-Ringer Spy.

** He can also kill most unalerted enemies with a single blow from his weapon (a short sword in ''Dark Project'' and ''Metal Age''; a dagger in ''Deadly Shadows''), or (versus human enemies) with a broadhead arrow to the head. However, the resultant noise and blood stains, and mission requirements that discourage or even ban killing on higher difficulty levels, make blackjacking the more practical method of enemy elimination. ''Thief: Deadly Shadows'' plays this trope the straightest, as you must be directly behind the target to score a blackjack or backstab.

* The ''Thunder Dome II'' and ''Thunder Dome X'' [[MUD|MUDs]] have the greatest variety of sneak attacks. Rogues could backstab to initiate combat and later circle to get multiple backstabs in the same combat. Assassins could also disembowel, a surprise attack to the guts. Spies could interdict for massive damage at the start of a fight, and attempt again in midfight. A ninja could neck-break, often an instant kill performed barehanded. Pirates could throat-stab. Barbarians and wrestlers could suicide roll, grappling an enemy from behind and spinning backward, smashing the enemy's head into the ground.

* In ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'', you can Sneak behind most anthropomorphic enemies (i.e. humans and vampires but not monsters) and perform a "stealth kill".<br /><br />To elaborate, the "stealth kills" include:

** [[Neck Snap]] with your bare hands (also the default animation if you carry a ranged weapon).

** [[Slashed Throat]] with a knife.

** Swinging your [[Drop the Hammer|sledgehammer]] above your head and smashing your enemy's head into tiny little pieces. No kidding.

** Swinging a bush hook into the victim's neck at high speed, both impaling ''and'' breaking the neck at the same time.

* ''[[Dragon Age]]'' Rogue class are capable of the same thing. Park Leliana or Zevran behind an enemy [[For Massive Damage]].

** Anyone can take advantage of flanking bonuses in ''[[Dragon Age Origins]]'' and ''[[Dragon Age II]]''. Rogues can develop more expert skill at this, with wider flanking angles, increase critical chance and danage, and completely penetrate defenses. DA2 gives them this as an active attack, which allows them to [[Flash Step]] directly to the rear.

* If you attack an enemy from behind in ''Demon´s Souls'' this is what will happen. Especially useful for the Thief class and pretty much any dagger user because daggers are the only weapon that get an extra bonus (even more than others weapons) doing so, and fatal daggers pretty much do Massive Damage in these situations.

* In the free MMORPG ''[[Lunia]]'', Tia has the backstab attack, whose damage is tripled if she uses it against the enemy's back.

* In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', the [[DLC]] character [[Classy Cat Burglar|Kasumi Goto]]'s signature ability is Shadow Strike. She cloaks herself, making her invisible to everyone (including you), runs up to an enemy, and stabs them, at which point she turns visible again. It's notable mainly for being one of only ''two'' melee abilities in the ''entire game'' (the other is [[Magic Knight|Vanguard]] Shepard's Charge).

** Playing as an Infiltrator class can also give you a damage bonus if you attack while invisible.

* ''[[Dawn of Sorrow|Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow]]'' has the Dead Pirate soul - you can attack enemies from behind normally, but this soul allows Soma to do double damage to an enemy attacked from behind. Combine it with a strong soul or weapon, and the damage output can be rather high!

* Evelynn the [[Dhampyr]] assassin in ''[[League of Legends]]'' has a skill called Ravage (not so much a stab as a vicious rending with her talons) which decreases the target's armour and magic resistance if she hits them in the back with it. Combined with her stealth abilities and high spike damage, she can appear out of nowhere and inflict monstrous damage in a matter of seconds. It's notable for being one of only a few skills in the game which take facing into account.

* The thief class in the ''[[Quest for Glory]]'' series could sometimes do this. In the fifth game, the thief could sneak up behind certain enemies and knock them out with a blackjack to the back of the head. In the [[Fan Remake]] of the second game, the thief could sneak up on random enemies in the desert and throw a dagger in their back [[For Massive Damage]]. (if your strength and throwing were high enough, this would usually drop the lesser monsters in one hit)

* Thieves and Assassins in [[Discworld MUD]] get this command. All players can learn the similar Ambush command.

* ''[[Oni]]'' has the Backbreaker move, which can only be performed when behind a target but can [[One-Hit Kill]] most enemies.

* You can even do this in ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' if you come up behind someone with the throwing knife out. And yes, it's very awesome.

* In the game [[The Saboteur]] Sean can upgrade his perks to allow him to stab someone from behind, who will stay standing a few seconds before falling over dead. Giving Sean plenty of time to run away before someone notices.

* In [[Runes of Magic]], the Rogue class has two abilities that require you be behind the target, and a skill that instantly warps you behind your target. Backstabs, however, are not the main focus of the class.

* Sneaking behind someone in ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'' gives you the option of a back stab or a nonlethal takedown with a button prompt. Both cause the victim to go down for the count silently, but the killing one is slightly faster.

* The next gen ''[[Ninja Gaiden]] 3'' allows you to use these on occasions. Seeing [[Highly-Visible Ninja|Ryu Hayabusa]] using stealth sure is at odds with the rest of the series.

* ''[[The Old Republic]]'''s Scoundrel class has the Backblast ability, which is a backstab ''with a shotgun''.

* In ''[[Xenoblade Chronicles]]'', Shulk, Fiora, and Riki all have arts that cause a significantly greater amount of damage when hitting from behind. There's also a gem that boosts the damage of all attacks that strike from behind by a large degree (Including the aforementioned arts), which can effectively make ''everything'' into a backstab.

* Seeing as he's based on the standard [[Final Fantasy]] class, it should surprise no one that Thief of ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' favours this tactic, typically resorting to this move first if he's forced into a fight. Of course, [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|he'll back stab you in more ways than one.]]

* ''[[Nerf Now]]'' gives [http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/444 this] advice.

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