A red cannot attack you in town (protected zone) without guards being called on them to strike them down. However, if you attack them first, they are free to do as they please with no consequence. If you are being attacked near a town, your best bet is to run into town and say "guards." If they are foolish enough to follow you in, they will be guardwhacked.
It's a common misconception that you are safe from PKs inside of your home. Spells like Earthquake can travel through the walls of your home and kill you from outside, up to a certain distance. It is advised to create a custom macro to say "I ban thee" so that if they make it inside your house, you can ban them forever.
You're minding your own business, mining/logging/taming out in the wild, and a red shows up looking for an easy kill. It's not great. But you needn't lay down and be taken to the netherworld- you CAN survive a PK attack or even fight back! Let's start with a checklist of things you should do:
- Carry several pouches in your pack. Cast the Magic Trap spell on each of them. If the Paralyze spell is cast on you, double click one of these pouches and you will be freed, taking 1 damage.
- Complete the Lord's Boon quest at Britain castle to get an item that allows an uninterruptable recall back to town, as long as you aren't paralyzed (see #1). This is the best defense.
- Carry Greater Cure/Heal potions with you, and use them on the run to stay alive
- Use an Invisibility potion to instantly go invisible, and if they cast reveal ("Wis Quas") start running! If you see a red countdown on them, they're preparing an explosion potion… also run!
- Drink a Camouflage potion to prevent reds from tracking you.
- Set an escape rune (home or town) as your default rune in your runebook (click the star next to the rune). Right click on your runebook, select Change Hotbar Action until the chat window shows Recall (or Recall: Charge for those without Magery), then drag the runebook to your hotbar. You should now have a hotbar action to use a recall charge to your default rune. Make sure to have recall charges in the book! Recall away if you're able to, though the PK will attempt to interrupt your cast.
- If you're a mage:
- Cast Bless, Arch Protection, and one of the following defensive spells on yourself: Reactive Armor, Magic Reflect. Bless and Arch Protection will need to be renewed regularly. This will give you crucial extra seconds when an attack begins.
- Bless gives you a stat buff, giving you more HP, Mana, and Stamina
- Arch Protection adds extra armor rating to you, making you a bit more durable for physical attacks
- Reactive Armor negates physical damage for a certain amount of damage
- Magic Reflect reflects spells back on the attacker, allowing you to get a running head start
- Have common spells on your hotbar - Paralyze, Energy Bolt, Poison, Teleport, Invisibility, Recall, etc...
- If you're a dexxer:
- Keep your weapons handy by dragging them onto your hotbar for easy equipping
- Any time you get low on health, or expect big damage, run away in a straight line while bandaging. Mages have to stop to cast, giving you even more distance
- Try to get a “maim” attack (in the Tactics skill in the spellbook) to trigger on the PK. It'll slow them down, giving you time to get off screen and recall
Do as many of these as you're able and your survival chances increase dramatically.
BANK OFTEN This is the number one rule of Ultima Online. If you'd be sad to die and lose what you have on you, you already should have banked. It often takes less than a minute to recall out, store your loot, and recall back to where you were.
You must decide based on your build and how advanced your skills are whether or not you should fight or run like the wind. A crafter should probably just run for the hills. A mage or dexxer has a better fighting chance. Your approach may be a combination of both- get the PK hurting or paralyzed and distracted, then run as fast as you can toward town, until you're able to recall to safety or you reach town, or recall away if you're able. The biggest mistake you can make is simply doing nothing - even a non-combat build can run away from a PK encounter with a cool enough head and a little luck.
PKs will search for a kill at common areas where people congregate. Favored mines or taming areas are absolute kill zones. If you can avoid these areas and gather/train/etc in less conspicuous places, you'll be less likely to run into trouble.