I got to thinking how overall inconsequential nerve is, especially since you can't target the stat you want to maladict. Not to say that it's useless, it's fine for long fights, but if you're fighting a mage or communer mob or an a/b/s'd mage, they will ignore nerve.

Also poisondarts isn't used because it largely gives away your presence and element of surprise for a minimal gain, most folks would rather assassinate.

So what if we change the purpose of these two skills? Nerve's pressure points would have more of an effect than they currently do.

So if you do a syntax for nerve <skill spell commune move> and the basic idea is the assassin steps out of hiding and jabs the opponent in a certain spot with his fingers or otherwise nicks a pressure point. In the thigh for movement, temple for spell and commune, and the middle of the chest for a skill. It can only be used to start combat.

The idea is that when an opponent is nerved like this, for one tick (the same period of time as dirt kick) their next action in the appropriate category may/will fail with a two round lag. This is different from trip or throw in that it has a chance of giving the assassin the first action, in combat.

I.e. bash spammer on eastern. Nerve skill. Two rounds on you. He bashes, staggers. Two rounds on him. You now have the first command at the risk of two rounds of combat.

Nerve spell a sleep spammer. Their sleep spell will fail. Say you think he might flee to try and sleep you again. Rather than make his next spell fail, nerve move. Now his next flee (or directional command) will fail with a two round lag. Or maybe he does flee anyway but has a two round lag.

Nerve commune a paladin. Now at hero they probably already have counterstrike so this skill is entirely moot. But if it does work, you just stopped him from wording himself out of combat, wrathing you, curing a maladiction, etc. Nerve skill to stop from eating a strike of faith right when you start combat.

Nerve skill to prevent that mob from bashing or dirt kicking you. (Probably only skill is the one that would work on mobs since things that prevent from casting spells never work anyway, so keep things consistent.)

Nerve move to garuntee you can get a throw off when someone is flying, or a MSK.

Of course you need to make it so that this skill cannot land on someone who is in mid-combat as they're moving too much for the pressure to land fully.

Essentially since assassin skills aren't that hot (if your opponent is prepared your options are limited to the nigh useless strangle, murder, your opponent is probably already flying, and they will flee instantly if blindness dust lands.) this skill would replace skills that usually go mostly unused except on mobs and give essentially a 'feint' on a skill performed on you. It's a versatile skill and they do lose the ability to slow an opponent before combat or what have you as well as tiny random stat maladictions.

It's NOT the same as trip or throw, nor is it intended to be the same, because the intent here is to give a good combat starter, negate a command that could be potentially lethal to you or prevent an opponent from being a complete coward. Trip and throw are intended to hold someone in place and deny commands, this skill is not (largely due to the fact that the victim will be able to know what type of skill was negated by their body part that was hit. And of course this skill should do a scratch in damage so that it can't be used on sleeping people to 'prep' them without waking them up.)

I think this is pretty neat idea, though it doesn't make sense to me that you would be able to nerve spells or communes, as they aren't physical actions. Also, tigerclaw covers casting/singing anyway.

The other thing is, my understanding is that nerve is supposed to be a weak skill. It's like kick for warriors. Not that great but you might occasionally want it. Poisondarts likewise, but with the added feature that it makes strangle a slightly more attractive option despite its unreliability.

Overall sounds cool to me though.

I like it.

You can nerve spells/communes with a strike to the temple. The intention is to disrupt the concentration necessary to channel those energies briefly. It's not in the nature of deafen, nor tiger claw, nor worldbind.

Also tiger claw is infinitely more useful than nerve spell/commune in that it can negate spellcasting fully for a couple of ticks (but not communes at all.)

Basically your intermediate players would probably be using nerve move almost constantly. Beginner players would be using nerve skill almost exclusively. Advanced players would know when to simply assassinate or nerve to prevent someone from wording, or blinding them, or provide a new and better option other than 'murder' to attack a flying foe without dramatically changing the dynamics of being protected.

Plus it would probably not be a sure-fire failure, rather a 25% chance of success from normal as a first check before anything else. Of course this command wouldn't affect wimpy, and there are other problems with this skill that would ensure that it isn't a good opening for gangs, and if there aren't enough there more could be created i.e. if in a group, the assassin can't concentrate enough to perform the maneuver.