Our favorite martial mustelid has a very good point:

I'm someone's favorite! I feel special!

Also - Firefly reference. I most verily approve .

I felt confident someone on this site would get that one.

I'm not saying it's not useful for other things. I've found it very useful (if not a bit unreliable at times on one FD without wanting to take Dark pips). My point was that it kinda sucks as a combat power when you're starting fresh and don't have higher than a Force Rating of 1. There are better ways to spend your xp than on turning invisible to stab people.

Oh I know that's not all you meant, I just wanted to point out that there are tons of applications for that power that nobody had addressed in the thread yet. Personally I think it's a super useful power even at Force Rating 1. But yeah it does have the same problem every other power has at FR 1, which is inconsistent usage if you are avoiding DS pips. Well every power except the ones that allow you to commit that die.

If you're picking up Misdirect to do a number of things then it's a nice power to have. If you're picking the power so that you can knife people from stealth mode then you're better off going with a different Force Power and a different tactic. I don't think the player will be happy with the proposed use in the long run.

I've never actually looked at this for combat purposes, but what would the result be of a simple stealth check in combat for this very purpose? I mean, that would honestly be the easier thing, what with having skill ranks, multiple dice, not worrying about having enough pips, or having to take Conflict to do so.

How do you guys generally handle this in combat. The "I want to roll stealth to hide and then sneak up behind him and stab him while he shoots at my friends!" tactic. Which to me, seems way more viable for this kind of combat, at least low XP wise anyway. You could likely get the exact same results functionally, without having to try and use a Force power with only 1 die.

Yes and no. I wouldn't allow someone to do a stealth check if they're right in front of the enemy and within plain eyesight. You can't stealth out of that no matter how good you are, unless you have a smoke bomb or something, and even so, if it's an open area with nothing to hide behind, you still can't do it, unless you're a zerg from Starcraft and you can burrow into the ground. But the Force... To the Force nothing is impossible. ;-)

I have to disagree with giving out mutliple boost die to the player using misdirect, this is what talents like quick strike are all about, giving people a boost when attacking someone who has yet to attack in combat.

Taking advantage of things like this allows characters to get the drop on their opponent, for example I might not allow the oppoent to use reactive talents like side step, dodge etc while unaware of their opponent in this instance, or being able to make use of defensive or defelction quality on items. Defense would be down to basic armor alone. I dont see the need for house ruling. Remeber the character could also take advantage of the aim rules to line up the shot or hit as well.

Remember the system is narrative and one roll can also cover more than that initial hit.

This is where talents like quick strike and specializations like the executioner come into their own and really get a chance to shine.

I would have thought Quick Strike would be additional to any bonus from this. I think the Conflict gained by this action is enough of a deterrent to prevent abuse of a very potent combination. But I can understand your point and with any of this it's a game by game decision.

Im not sure if you read my updatd post the real benefit of attscking from behind for everybody would be the ability to aim with imppunity and the opponent not being ablt to react to it, however I would still call for a vigilance(defender)/cool(attacker) initiative roll, and if the attacker got to go first they would notice and get to act first, because its not a guarantee at that point that the attacker is still unnoticed.

There really is no need to house rule surprise in the game.

Oh sorry, yes if we take the use of Misdirect out of the equation then I agree that surprise attacks are unnecessary with the Cool/Vigilance skill comb. But Misdirect renders the user entirely undetectable to the target, no sight, no sound, nothing, so in that case I think it's unique. The up side is IMHO lots of boost dice to the attack, the downside is it's definitely taking the violent easy way out, so roughly 5 conflict in addition to any from Dark Side pips used to activate the power.

Now a Light Side user is going to see this as a way to AVOID conflict, moving silently past a guard to rescue a prisoner for example.

Remember though that unless you benefit from a bonus action in some way by the time you make the attack misdirect is no longer working, meaning that you are no longer "unperceivable" and just hidden, thus puts you under standard combat rules at that stage, anyone wanting to take advantage of situations that misdirect can put you in would need talents like quick strike. Stacking lots of boost die on the attack is not really necessary , if the attacker gains the initiative, they can easily get 2 boost from aim. The call to not allow defensive talents is fair game in my book (perhaps excepting dodge if you want to go rules totally as written). This should be enough advantage for any would be assassin.

In other words if you want to make the build closest to the rogue's back stab from dnd, get specs with quick strike. Perhaps give one additional situational boost, but beyond that it would be down to the player's training to take further advantage of it. Remember even without talents they would be rocking 3 boost die(from the single situational boost and Aim maneuvers) at this point and only have to worry about adversary (and perhaps upgraded sense) from the defender(which to me is a good representstion of being xaught flatfooted) .

Absolutely true, I think I had gone beyond the basic power though, I was talking about the "What if they have the Duration upgrade as well?" scenario, attacking completely without warning. Now I believe there should be an opposed roll in this instance to activate the power, at least for Rivals and definitely Nemesis

In the case where someone suddenly appears and is attacking I agree totally with you that the benefit you gained was in being able to engage your target without risk, from that point on its your planing vs their reactions.