Understanding the Assasin class

[Gentry]

To be clear, am I hearing that people are ruling that the Assassin, via his free Ambush, can effectively re-start a fight with a new surprise round? So a couple rounds in, bang goes the assassin, new Init, new surprise round, and then on as normal?

[Krensky]

No new initiative, but otherwise, yes.

[Sletchman]

To be clear, am I hearing that people are ruling that the Assassin, via his free Ambush, can effectively re-start a fight with a new surprise round? So a couple rounds in, bang goes the assassin, new Init, new surprise round, and then on as normal?

Like Krensky - Yes, but (normally) no new initiative.  I say normally because I'm sure there's circumstances where a new Init would make sense (I just can't think of any off the top of my head).

[Desertpuma]

Now that's a neat trick...

[ludomastro]

I've always thought about that in terms of shows like Leverage, where something completely unexpected happens and afterwards, the audience gets to see what the setup was.

[Takeru]

Hnmh. That is...interesting. Would you be able to free action feint after the first "hit" of a Blade Flurry, thus granting the second one Sneak Attack since The Powers That Be rule them as separate attacks?

[Blankbeard]

Hnmh. That is...interesting. Would you be able to free action feint after the first "hit" of a Blade Flurry, thus granting the second one Sneak Attack since The Powers That Be rule them as separate attacks?

No, multiple hits but the same attack.  Since you can attack twice in a round you can use blade flurry on a flatfooted opponent  and get sneak attack on the first hit.  Then after resolving the rest of the hits, feint him and attack using blade flurry again.