Backstab · Game Mechanic Compendium

Definition

A backstab is an attack whose damage is multiplied, increased by added dice, or replaced by a kill when the target is turned away, unaware of the attacker, or caught in a defensive lapse. The trigger is a state of the target relative to the attacker, not chance, which separates it from critical hits, a random band of the attack roll, though games often score one as the other. Stealth and detection decides whether the attacker is unseen, and invisibility hides the user; the backstab is the payoff both unlock. An execute keys its bonus to low remaining health rather than to position. A takedown that knocks the target unconscious, such as the Thief: The Dark Project blackjack, belongs with stun.

Behaviour

The attacker closes to contact range, or in some rules a short ranged distance, while the condition holds. Tabletop rules leave “behind” to the referee or define it by conditions; video games test facing, the target’s awareness state, or a stealth mode. Counterplay is denial of the condition: turning to face, staying alert, keeping allies close, or immunity by creature type.

Variations

Level-scaled multiplier (Greyhawk, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Baldur’s Gate): damage doubles and rises to four or five times with level.
Added dice on a defensive lapse, including flanking (Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition and 2024 edition, Gloomhaven): extra d6s when the target is flanked or denied Dexterity, or an ally stands within 5 feet; the Scoundrel’s Backstab card reportedly gains damage when an ally is adjacent to the target. Flanking that only adds to hit stays outside the archetype.
Stealth opener (World of Warcraft Ambush and Garrote, Baldur’s Gate): usable only from stealth, which it ends.
Assassination (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons assassin, Dishonored, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla): the payoff is a kill; Valhalla’s preview grades it back to damage against stronger enemies.
Critical-animation backstab (Dark Souls): a locked, invincible animation scored as a critical.

Gating

Across media the ability is rarely metered; the opportunity is. Tabletop role-playing from 1975 spends nothing and gates the backstab on position, later codified as conditions and, in the 2024 rules, a once-per-turn cap. Baldur’s Gate moves the gate to a stealth mode entered by a hide check and re-entered only out of line of sight. World of Warcraft adds an energy cost alongside facing. Dark Souls, Dishonored and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla spend nothing, leaving the limit with the enemy’s awareness. Card and board games print it as a one-shot card: Arkham Horror: The Card Game charges resources and discards it, and Gloomhaven’s Backstab is a loss card.

History and provenance

The earliest documented use cited is Greyhawk (1975), whose thief strikes silently from behind for +4 to hit and double damage. A June 1974 newsletter thief is reported, with a transcription giving added dice instead of a multiplier; no copy is cited, so priority is unconfirmed. Chainmail’s rear attacks are an antecedent. The earliest cited use of the term “back stabbing” is the 1978 Players Handbook, which also adds the assassin’s kill on surprise. Baldur’s Gate carried the multiplier into video games through stealth, and Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition renamed it Sneak Attack, a name the Arkham Horror card game shares. Earlier licensed computer role-playing games remain unsurveyed.

Notable examples

Notable examples, in chronological order. Notes describe how the ability behaves in each game; gating is what limits its use there; the latest reference is a widely played game from 2020 or later.
Game	Year	Medium	Gating	How the ability behaves
Dungeons & Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk Gary Gygax and Robert Kuntz (TSR)	1975	Tabletop RPG	At will	A thief who strikes silently from behind gains +4 to hit (20 percent) and does double damage, rising with level to three times at 5th to 8th level and four times at 9th to 12th. Nothing is spent; the referee decides whether the thief is behind the target unnoticed.
Baldur's Gate BioWare (Interplay)	1998	Video	At will	Stealth mode, combining hide in shadows and move silently, makes the thief nigh-invisible, and the next successful attack is a backstab for two, three or four times damage by level. Attacking ends stealth, and the thief must be out of the enemy's direct line of sight to hide again.
Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd edition Wizards of the Coast	2000	Tabletop RPG	At will	In the 3.5 revision text (2003), Sneak Attack adds 1d6 at 1st level and 1d6 more every two rogue levels when the target is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC or is flanked; ranged attacks qualify within 30 feet. The dice are not multiplied on a critical, and undead, constructs, oozes and creatures immune to criticals are immune.
World of Warcraft Blizzard Entertainment	2004	Video	Mana	Backstab costs 60 energy, needs a dagger in the main hand, deals 150 percent weapon damage plus a flat amount and awards a combo point, with the condition "Must be behind the target". Ambush, at 60 energy and 250 percent weapon damage, must also be used from Stealth. The Cold Blood talent can make either a guaranteed critical.
Dark Souls FromSoftware	2011	Video	At will	A light attack from directly behind a mostly humanoid target at close range triggers a locked backstab animation, during which the attacker is invincible, that counts as a critical attack scaled by the weapon's critical modifier, higher on daggers. It works against other players as well.
Dishonored Arkane Studios (Bethesda Softworks)	2012	Video	At will	Next to an enemy that has not spotted the player, one button press performs a lethal assassination, and dropping onto an enemy from height does the same. Holding the key directly behind an unaware enemy chokes it unconscious instead. The Shadow Kill power turns assassinated bodies to ash.
Dota 2 Valve	2013	Video	At will	Riki's Backstab, an innate passive in 2026 data, adds bonus damage equal to 0.55 times his Agility to every attack that strikes an enemy from behind, with a backstab angle of 105 in the files, and costs nothing. Cloak and Dagger keeps him invisible until he attacks, so concealment and facing set up the hit together.
Arkham Horror: The Card Game Fantasy Flight Games	c. 2016	Board & card	Mana, Consumable	Sneak Attack is a Rogue event card costing 2 resources that reads "Deal 2 damage to an exhausted enemy at your location" and is discarded when played, so the defensive lapse is a state flag on the enemy card rather than a facing on a map.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Latest Ubisoft Montreal (Ubisoft)	2020	Video	At will	In the July 2020 preview build, hidden-blade stealth attacks usually killed in one hit, while stronger enemies shrugged off the blade and took extra damage instead if the player made a timed button press during the attack. A setting in the released game reportedly restores guaranteed one-hit assassinations.

Provenance

Earliest documented use: Dungeons & Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975), tabletop rpg. Confidence: medium. Greyhawk's thief can "strike silently from behind" for +4 to hit and double damage that rises with level. The thief class is reported to have appeared first in the Great Plains Game Players Newsletter, issue 9, June 1974, after Gary Switzer described the idea to Gygax by telephone; a 2025 blog quotes a transcription of an original typewritten thief that gives "two dice of damage for every four levels" from behind with +4 to hit, but does not tie it to the newsletter, and no copy of the newsletter is cited. A June 1974 form in added dice is plausible and unconfirmed. The word does not appear in Greyhawk: the earliest use cited is "back stabbing" in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook (1978), and fanzine use between 1975 and 1978 remains unsurveyed. Chainmail's rear attacks (1972 text) are an antecedent: positional advantage without multiplied damage, and not an ability of a figure type.

Established form: Dungeons & Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975), tabletop rpg. The earliest documented use also set the form. Confidence: low. The level-scaled multiplier from behind runs through the Dungeons & Dragons line: the 1978 Players Handbook names it back stabbing at two to five times damage, the licensed Baldur's Gate (1998) keeps two to four times by level, and the 3rd edition renames it Sneak Attack, which Wikipedia's rogue article glosses as backstab in earlier editions. That video games outside the licence, such as World of Warcraft or Dark Souls, took the form from this line is undocumented.

Sources

Gary Gygax and Robert Kuntz. (1975). Dungeons & Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk. TSR. Rulebook Character classes: Thieves, pp. 4-5. Accessed 2026-10-24. "Strike silently from behind" among the thief's abilities, with +4 to hit and double damage rising every four levels.
Gary Gygax. (1978). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Players Handbook. TSR. Rulebook Character Classes: Thief, p. 27 (back stabbing); Assassin, p. 28 (assassination table). Accessed 2026-10-24. The earliest use of the term cited, damage two to five times normal by level, and the assassin's roughly 50 percent chance to kill on surprise.
Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. (1972). Chainmail: Rules for Medieval Miniatures, 2nd edition. Guidon Games. Rulebook Flank Attack and Rear Attack, p. 13; Man-to-Man Combat, rear attacks, c. p. 21. Accessed 2026-10-24. Rear and flank attacks that add to the die roll and deny a counter-attack, an antecedent without multiplied damage.
Wizards of the Coast. (2003). Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 System Reference Document. Rulebook Classes II: Rogue, Sneak Attack. Accessed 2026-10-24. Sneak attack dice, the flanked or denied-Dexterity triggers, the 30-foot ranged limit, immunities, and no multiplication on a critical; the 3.5 revision, not the 2000 text.
Wizards of the Coast. (2025). System Reference Document 5.2.1. Rulebook Rogue: Level 1, Sneak Attack; Rogue Features table, pp. 61-62. Accessed 2026-10-24. The 2024 rule, once per turn with Advantage or an ally within 5 feet of the target, and Cunning Strike.
Michael Lummis and Danielle Vanderlip. (2005). World of Warcraft: Official Strategy Guide. BradyGames. Book Rogue chapter: Combat (Backstab), Subtlety (Ambush, Garrote), talents (Cold Blood, Improved Ambush); Druid chapter: Shred and Ravage. Accessed 2026-10-24. Energy costs, facing, dagger and stealth requirements, and weapon-damage percentages.
BioWare. (1998). Baldur's Gate manual. Interplay. Rulebook Modes: Stealth, p. 16; Thieves: Stealth and Backstab, p. 95. Accessed 2026-10-24. The backstab from stealth mode for two to four times damage, and the line-of-sight condition for hiding again.
Arkane Studios. (2012). Dishonored PC Game Manual. Bethesda Softworks. Rulebook Stealth; Assassination; Powers: Shadow Kill. Accessed 2026-10-24. One-press assassination of unaware enemies, drop assassinations, the nonlethal choke, and Shadow Kill.
Looking Glass Studios. (1998). Thief: The Dark Project manual. Rulebook Combat; The Blackjack, pp. 14-16. Accessed 2026-10-24. The blackjack knockout, usable only from right behind an enemy and not on alerted, armed foes.
Ben Reeves. (2020). Over Five Hours With Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Game Informer. Article Accessed 2026-10-24. A pre-release preview; stealth attacks usually kill in one hit, and a timed press adds damage against stronger enemies.
Smoldering Wizard. (2025). Musings on the original thief class. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Quotes a transcription of the 1974 typewritten thief, two dice of damage per four levels from behind; the transcription's provenance is not stated.
My Kind of Meeple. Scoundrel Guide: Single Target Poison Build. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. The Gloomhaven Scoundrel's Backstab card, a loss card at initiative 6, and its damage with an ally adjacent; the card wording is not quoted.
Wikipedia contributors. (2024). Wikipedia. Wiki Rogue (Dungeons & Dragons). The thief's reported first publication in the Great Plains Game Players Newsletter, June 1974, and Gary Switzer's telephone call to Gygax; sneak attack as the later name of the earlier editions' backstab. (bibliography)
Fextralife. Dark Souls Wiki, Combat. Wiki Backstab conditions, critical scaling by weapon, and invincibility during the animation.
ArkhamDB, Sneak Attack (Core Set 52). Wiki The card text and resource cost.
Valve. Dota 2 hero data, Riki. Website Backstab; Cloak and Dagger. Accessed 2026-10-25. The innate Backstab, its Agility multiplier and backstab angle, and Cloak and Dagger's invisibility until Riki attacks, in current data.

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West, James, Jr. (2026). "Backstab." Game Mechanic Compendium, updated 2026-10-27. http://localhost:4321/abilities/backstab

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