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In RPG’s, DnD specifically but most of them, there is typically no way to do the classic “Sentry Takedown” (referred to hereafter as STD because it’s funny.  Unless you have one and then you have my sympathy but not empathy).  You know the scene, the hero sneaks up to some roving watcher, grabs him by the mouth and plunges a knife in the liver/kidneys or just a deep cut across the neck dragging it over the carotid artery and boom the sentry goes down dead in seconds without a chance to alert his friends.

In DnD that’s nigh impossible.  In 4th edition it pretty much is impossible unless it’s a striker and they unleash a good daily attack and get a critcal hit with some kind of ‘debuff’ effect that at the least stuns the target.  Or unless the sentry is a minion of course but if you make all the sentries minions then technically the hero can just bean them with a rock and they’ll die.  Not very epic.

Let’s take a look at the Coup De Grace rule – Make an attack against an adjacent helpless target if you hit you score a critical hit.  If you deal the targets bloodied value or greater you insta-gib them.  That’s just pretty hard to do.  And it precludes any ability of an archer taking out a watchmen.

So with that said I thought, what the hell, let’s see if we can make a ‘pseudo’ skill challenge out of a non-minion sentry take down.

So to avoid player ‘sploiting we’re going to set up some ground rules that have to be in place for this to work and of course it’s always going to be up to DM Fiat/Caveat.

1. The target must be unaware of the Hero OR be unknown to be hostile.
2. The target must not be ‘in combat’.

This means the Hero has to typically use some ability suited for the environment to get close enough to the target and that the target can’t be fighting or expecting to be attacked.  Again in any grey areas this is going to be the DM’s call.

Once the Hero gets close enough to attack they need to actually hit the target.  A miss is a miss regardless.  If they do hit the target they’ll hit for double their critical value.  If this value is greater than the target’s bloodied value they’re insta-gibbed much like a CdG and if its less then the target is stunned until the end of its next turn.  This means that this kind of sentry take out is best left to the damage dealers aka Strikers and they’d best use at least an encounter power of some kind.  As an easy alternative you could simply say that if the player gets within range to perform a  STD ( /juvenile chuckle ) and succeeds that you give it to them.  Personally I would lean toward the later since it falls into the rule of a) It’s Cool, b) players would enjoy it and c) it would only be of any real benefit where the DM set it up. It also means if you don’t kill it you have one move to get close enough to do a CDG.  So a double move/run + AP could work if you’re within that range.  Otherwise it’s going to start yelling for help or at least saying OUCH really damn loudly.

Now we’ll also have to define what is close enough to attack.  Obviously melee range is good.  Anything farther away and we quickly reach a point where it’s just not ‘fair’ to be able to one shot someone.  So do we decrease the range that it can be done or just apply an assload of penalties?  I think an assload of penalties fits my playstyle better.  So what about -4 at short range and -8 at long range?

So we have the basis of an idea of a system to allow the Heroes to take down a bad guy in one shot.  Now let’s work on the specifics.

To get into position the player is going to need to make some skill checks.  A good starting point for primary skill checks to allow someone to get within range might be something like this -

Urban environment – Stealth
Crowded environment – Thievery, Diplomacy
Natural environment -  Nature, Stealth

Since I like the three ‘phase’ skill challenge system, let’s break it down that way.

Phase 1: Approach unseen/unnoticed.

Phase 2: Make the attack.  This is a skill check using a standard attack roll.

Phase 3: Perform the Coup De Grace if needed.

So now we have a three phase skill challenge of sorts.  Phase 1 could require multiple skill checks depending on the circumstances or just one. Phase 2 is typically one ‘skill check’ aka attack roll.  Phase three is the finish up phase and could require more skill checks or be a ‘gimmie’.

So while it’s not a skill challenge per se, it does allow a way for the players to potentially perform a single shot take down.

Anyway it’s a start of an idea that may grow into something.  I’ll keep you posted if I come back to it.

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[Of course if you want it simple then temporarily turn your sentries into Minions.  If the take down attack hits they're dead.  If it doesn't then you can flip them back to standards, elites etc. for the ensuing battle.]