Dagger called shot

[Glorelendil]

Except for the last bit (one-shotting enemies, even weak ones) I like this. The spider and troll examples are great.

I might have to agree with you there, I have only had them facing Loremaster Characters that they try to tackle normally, it's just when an elf or a hobbit resorts to shanking an orc from behind and instead of saying "I want to attack X orc near Y party member with my dagger" I like rewarding the player that states "I want to make a called strike here and stick my dagger in the back of his neck right by his spine" then they go ahead and succeed with a tengwar, I feel it's only fair that the orc go down like a sack of rocks, as opposed to trying to push the encounter further with a dagger protruding from the orc's spine.

But yea, it's not likely that my party will be hopping around Arda with a "rusty dagger of shanksabunch" taking out all that vexes them

Read my advice in the thread about "advice for newbies" (or something like that). I.e., roll the dice then let the player narrate the results, don't narrate then make up rules to accommodate.

So in the scenario you describe, I would say that if the player does in fact sneak up the orc (Ambush rules) and succeeds on their preliminary roll (Battle) and they want to use their extra dice on their opening attack, and if that opening attack is enough to kill the orc (either because of a Pierce and a failed protection test, or because of getting an extraordinary success and adding 2xBody to the damage) then they should feel free to narrate how they slid their dagger into the back of the orc's neck, killing it instantly.

[HotSnow50]

Hmmmm, that's pretty good! I like it

[Falenthal]

if the player ... succeeds on their preliminary roll (Battle) and they want to use their extra dice on their ... attack... then they should feel free to narrate how they slid their dagger into the back of the orc's neck, killing it instantly.

I think that's one of the many thing TOR is different from most other RPGs. One of the first questions that arouse in my first read of the rules was: "What if a player attacks from behind? Where are the modifiers to hit and damage?" It wasn't until later and a few re-reads that I realized that Extra Success Battle rolls are used for that.

As a player, and during a battle, you don't say: "I roll Stealth to hide and approach from behind. What are my modifiers to the attack?". You say: "I use a Battle dice for this attack. Drogo manages to crouch behind a bush and wait for the biggest orc to attack my comrades. Unnoticed to him, I try to hit him from behind..." Now the player rolls the dice and narrates the outcome: if a failure, you can be noticed by the orc, who eludes your attack just in time. If a success, Drogo gets to hit the orc from behind, as he wanted.