Quote:
Originally Posted by Lovewyrm
I'd have the karateka mock and taunt the cowardly thug mercilessly until he attacks or leaves, and if he leaves, laugh, point and laugh and mock some more.
If he comes back, mock again.
If that counts as speaking/free action then you could evaluate the thug for some extra to hit chance, too.
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I think you're missing that there's nothing preventing the "cowardly" thug from attacking. He starts at Reach C (punching range) of the karateka; the karateka punches at him, and he Retreats to Reach 1. On his turn, he Steps back into Reach C, and punches the karateka (who may similarly Retreat, then come back).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rupert
The karateka can also use such unfashionable options as Evaluate and Feint (or both) to boost the chance of his attack landing.
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He's better off attacking twice than Evaluating for a mere +1 to hit and then attacking (or attacking thrice rather than Evaluating for +2, or four times rather than Evaluating for +3). Feint, given their high skill disparity, may be a different story. The average result there is going to be around a -4 to the thug's defense (actually a little more of a penalty than this, as a bad result on Feint doesn't give a bonus, but close enough), dropping it to 7 and boosting the chance to land a hit to 76% (using Deceptive Attack actually drops the overall hit chance slightly in this case, to 70.6%). If the karateka had instead just attacked both rounds, using DA (for maximum overall hit chance) would mean the thug had a 63% chance to avoid getting hit each round, or around a 40% chance to avoid both hits - a 60% chance to land at least one hit. So, in this case, Feint followed by Attack is indeed a good option.
Generally speaking, Feint is only worthwhile when you are markedly more skilled - at least with feint - than your foe but the foe still has a good chance of successfully defending. That's generally the case for foes using large shields, foes who have Retreating Dodge in excess of their Block/Parry, or foes who you need to hit in a hit location that eats up a lot of your skill, leaving little or no room for Deceptive Attack.