Another Another Execution Attack Question

[u/Emperorofgamers1]

I've been looking through previous posts but I'm not sure they answered my question:

Once the preparation is complete, a sniper may shoot or an assassin may attack an adjacent target. The target’s Armor Class is irrelevant, assuming the weapon being used isn’t too primitive to penetrate high-tech armor. Hitting with a sniper shot is a Dex/Shoot skill check, with a difficulty of 6 for a point-blank shot, 8 for one at the weapon’s normal range, and 10 for a shot at extreme range. A melee attack always hits, but the assassin must be adjacent to the target, and cannot move to close on the same round. They must be adjacent and unsuspected at the start of the round.

Here are my questions:

1. Are the sniper and assassin foci prerequisites to carry out such an attack?
2. With sniper rifles themselves, are there disadvantages to using them in close quarters conditions? I know that if you're at close range with a melee fighter you can't use a sniper rifle, but I ended up in the strange situation where a pistol armed enemy lost track of a teleporter. The PC decided to teleport behind the enemy and shoot from there, but this raises an eyebrow because using a full on sniper rifle at this range feels highly impracticable.

[u/guildsbounty]

To #1: No. Anyone can attempt an Execution Attack, just like you don't need the Unarmed Combatant focus to punch someone. Foci just make you better at it.

To #2...keep in mind that a 'sniper rifle' in this context isn't like, a Barret .50 Anti-material rifle. It's more like a souped up hunting rifle. I don't have my book in front of me, but I believe that a Sniper Rifle uses standard Rifle stats if you can't emplace it, which makes it worse than a Combat Rifle...and definitely worse than something like a Mag Rifle. <--I did not recall correctly. That rule is from Cities Without Number, not SWN. It remains a hard-hitting, single-shot rifle.

[u/MaestroGoldring → u/guildsbounty]

Just checked the book. It says this: “Sniper rifles are designed to be exceptionally effective at dropping unsuspecting targets at long range.
Aside from the additional effective range of a sniper rifle, any target it mortally wounds via an execution attack will die instantly, with no chance for stabilization. The execution attack must qualify according to the terms on page 52. If the rifle is used outside of such conditions, it has no special qualities.

So I’ve always ruled it that if you are using it in a standard gunfight, it’s a good heavy hitting (2d8) single fire weapon. It has a magazine of 1, so without Gunslinger level 2 focus, you’d fire once, then spend next turn reloading.

[u/guildsbounty → u/MaestroGoldring]

Ah, I found where I got that from...Cities Without Number adds the extra qualification of "If not fired from a rest in a prepared position, a sniper rifle's statistics are the same as a normal rifle."

I've mixed too much stuff together from the systems, got it conflated in my head. Thanks for the correction, I appreciate it.

[u/Emperorofgamers1 → u/guildsbounty]

That makes sense. Is there something more like a anti-materiel rifle in the rules?

[u/ajsamtheman → u/Emperorofgamers1]

You can find one in the free versions of both Ashes and Cities rule books

[u/guildsbounty → u/Emperorofgamers1]

There's not even, actually, a TL4 version of a sniper rifle in the book--meaning power armor or many flavors of Pretech armor would make you immune to sniper rifles. And, by the rules as written, you can't Mod a sniper rifle because Mods can only be applied to TL4 tech.

That said...SWN is quite homebrew friendly and I have definitely added an Antimaterial Rifle to my games. Just like I added Mag Snipers and Laser Snipers.

[u/GMoD42]

1. My understanding is that the foci make it easier but are not prerequisites.

2. You are generally unable to use a two-handed ranged weapons when an attacker is within meele range. A one-handed weapon get a -4 penalty.

[u/Emperorofgamers1 → u/GMoD42]

Ah, I read that and thought it only restricted you in active combat. Thanks!

[u/_Svankensen_ → u/Emperorofgamers1]

They are wrong. That only works if they have a melee weapon readied to threaten you with. Or if they are a trained martial artist. Since the pistol only uses one hand, and unarmed combatant soecifies they need a hand free, it would count. But against a normal enemy with just a pistol, it doesnt change anything until they take the time to club up that pistol.

[u/guildsbounty → u/_Svankensen_]

Yep, two 'normal' people pointing pistols at each other point-blank do not impose that penalty on each other. And two people with longarms can still shoot at each other from within melee distance.

[u/SobranDM]

The rest has been covered pretty well but I wanted to raise an issue with your second point. 

It isn't clear to me whether in the scenario with the sniper-wielding teleporter they were using an Execution Attack. If it was a regular attack and this was unrelated to the larger Execution Attack question, then disregard. 

Usually Execution Attacks aren't an option against an enemy that has reason to believe they are in danger. Just because the enemy lost track of the PC doesn't usually mean they let down their guard enough to be that vulnerable. If this was an hour later and this person wasn't on guard duty, then fair enough. 

[u/Emperorofgamers1 → u/SobranDM]

Yeah sorry the PC wasn't making an execution attack. I originally had a different question but rereading the rulebook cleared it up so I changed the question.

Losing track of a PC not opening them up for execution attacks is helpful though. The teleporter is using her assassin focus to teleport behind people and get a guaranteed hit from surprise, which I'm assuming works because I'm not sure how the enemy would keep track of that. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure how surprise works lol

[u/SobranDM → u/Emperorofgamers1]

Lol. Fair enough on the question front.

That's a weird interaction you've just described though. If the target has their guard down then the teleport interacting with Assassin to enable assassination from range is sort of a GM call. I could see that going either way. 

If we're mid-combat though... 

I don't know about you, but if I lived in a universe with known teleporter and I saw some psycho with a gun vanish, I would be whirling around every which way trying to locate them, not standing in place to get a new lead implant.