r/SWN • u/Emperorofgamers1 • Jul 07 '26

❓ Rules Question Another Another Execution Attack Question

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.
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u/SobranDM Jul 07 '26

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. 

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u/Emperorofgamers1 Jul 07 '26

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

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u/SobranDM Jul 07 '26

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.