Break this feat : Sniper Shot

[Huw]

Hi everyone,

I've an idea for a feat on which I want opinions:

Sniper Shot: As a full round action, watch a particular target and then make a single attack roll. After seeing the roll, but before finding out if it is a hit, you can decide not to make the attack.

Possible uses:

• Attack effectively from concealment without giving yourself away.
• Avoid wasting a one-shot weapon.
• Perform an execution.

As I see it, it is too weak, but potentially abusable. What do you think?

 

[Crothian]

Is this for 4e or 3e or Pathfinder or what game? And what options from that game do you allow?

 

[tomBitonti]

Is this for 4e or 3e or Pathfinder or what game? And what options from that game do you allow?

How do you prevent players from waiting for a critical threat?

Maybe it would be better as a sustained "ready", where the DM made a roll for you each round, and let you know when you achieved a hit.

However, there are two problems:

1) It breaks the abstract notion of hit points. A single "hit" is more an erosion of your ability to "probably" avoid a hit. In many cases, a "hit" can be viewed as exactly your character waiting for the right moment to strike, just as you want for the sniper.

2) There should be some chance that the shot goes astray and reveals the sniper, even though the shot looked perfect as a setup. A stray gust of wind; a chance obstruction; the target moved suddenly and unexpectedly out of the shot.

Maybe you could have a "held shot" concealment roll: On a roll that missed, the sniper could make an opposed roll to remain hiding, that indicating that the miss was a shot simply not taken.

Still, at higher levels, the game abstraction breaks down for this sort of scenario, which really isn't handled very well. In theory, a sniper should be able to accumulate "damage" from several hits, and reveal it all at once with the single devastating shot. Say, a lethal or near lethal head shot. The mechanics just don't fit that scenario.

Edit: Actually, the assassin mechanic fits this scenario. The sniper / assassin carefully watches the target, waiting for a clear kill shot. In game terms, that is three study rounds. The sniper / assassin then takes their shot, which is handled as a death attack.

That actually makes me rethink the Evil limitation on assassins, since this seems very reasonable for a sniper, without requiring an evil sniper.

Thx!

TomB

 

[Krensky]

Frankly, what you have there is a weaker version of Check Fire/Zen Archery from Spycraft 2.0.

Try this, combining those feats and the one shot trick from the same game:

Sniper Shot
Whenever you roll a ranged attack and miss by 4 or less, you may cancel the attack. The attack causes no reactions and expends no ammo.
Furthermore, every time you make a ranged attack against one target and hit you may choose to cancel the attack, rolling and setting aside 1d6. You may save a number of dice equal to your Wisdom modifier. Whenever you successfully attack the same target with the same ranged attack you may choose to expend any number of these dice, adding them to the damage roll. All saved dice are lost at the end of combat, you attack another target, your stunned, etc.

Now, the feats in the original game also let you re-roll a 1 once per combat as a separate attack.