Invisibilty and Sneak Attacks

[Ricochet]

A difficult question:

When Improved Invisible, when can a rogue sneak attack?

This is for a large-scale combat on a boat, would the Rogue be able to sneak-attack all the time, or only once per opponent (as they become "aware" of her), or not at all unless flanking?

Anyway, if someone would specify what happens and when during Greater Invisibility on a rogue in combat I would be most appreciative.

 

[FANGO]

Yes, a rogue can sneak attack with every attack if improved invisible. The only effect of the rogue attacking is (and while I don't think this is specifically spelled out in the rules, I think it's either implied, or a reasonable assumption to make) that the defender will now know what square the rogue is in...but the rogue will still have 100% concealment from the defender, and still get all the offensive bonuses of being invisible.

And to head off your arguments that this is too powerful, here are ways to negate this particular combination: see invisibility, true seeing, glitterdust, faerie fire, blindsight, uncanny dodge, any concealment at all on the defender, fortified armor, or a number of other things that I'm sure are out there but that I can't think of at the moment.

 

[Ricochet]

Actually, I didn't say anything about the power-level of this effect.

Thanks for the reply, it is how I would have played it too probably, but I would really like some rules-specific quotes or something to back this up.

 

[FANGO]

I know you didn't say anything about the power level yet, that's why I mentioned that I was trying to "head off" your arguments...I had anticipated that there would be complaining about the power level, since there often is about just about everything on these boards, so I figured I would just answer beforehand. Shrug.

Anyway, read sneak attacks:
Sneak Attack: Any time the rogue's target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not).

Then invisibility:
Invisible: Visually undetectable. Invisible creatures gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls and negate Dexterity bonuses to their opponents' AC.

Then improved invisibility:
As invisibility, except the spell doesn’t end if the subject attacks.

That's about as clear as I can make it. This is all for 3e, of course (I don't do 3.5), but I can't imagine anything has changed, since this wasn't broken to begin with.

 

[Ricochet]

That cleared everything up, thanks a lot!!

 

[Hecateus]

It should also be mentioned that Invisibility otherwise counts as +40 to Hide in some circumstances; and is at +20 when running. Presumeably that would mean that fighting in close quarters while invisible would make the hide check at +20. So if there are any hostiles who get a lucky spot check, they would notice something very wrong in that empty spot where their buddy just died for no reason.