Does blinking make you immume to sneak attacks?

[Joachim Pieper]

Can you sneak attack a character who is blinking?

That's all, except to say that blinking is my favourite rules-lawyer spell. It's like half a page in the phb, and it still kicks up problems practically every time...


Cheers.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Can you sneak attack a character who is blinking?

That's all, except to say that blinking is my favourite rules-lawyer spell. It's like half a page in the phb, and it still kicks up problems practically every time...

If you can see invisible, you can sneak attack, even though you still have a 20% miss chance, since it's not due to concealment.

If you can't see invisible, you can't sneak attack, since your miss chance is either completely (if you can strike ethereal creatures) or partially due to the fact that you can't see them - ie concealment.

-Hyp.

 

[Thanee]

IMHO it doesn't hinder sneak attacks at all, since blink does not grant concealment.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Hypersmurf]

IMHO it doesn't hinder sneak attacks at all, since blink does not grant concealment.

Physical attacks against you have a 50% miss chance, and the Blind-Fight feat doesn’t help opponents, since you’re ethereal and not merely invisible. If the attack is capable of striking ethereal creatures, the miss chance is only 20% (for concealment).

If the attacker can see invisible creatures, the miss chance is also only 20%. (For an attacker who can both see and strike ethereal creatures, there is no miss chance.) Likewise, your own attacks have a 20% miss chance, since you sometimes go ethereal just as you are about to strike.

The miss chance for Blinking arises from two circumstances. One, while on the ethereal plane, you're invisible. Two, while on the ethereal plane, normal attacks can't hit you.

If someone can strike ethereal creatures, they have a 20% miss chance for concealment. If they're not capable of striking ethereal creatures, they have a 50% miss chance.

If they can see invisible, it's 20%. Thus, we can see that the 50% chance is only partially due to not being able to hit ethereal creatures; the other portion is due to the same circumstance that provides the 20% miss chance to people who can strike ethereal... ie, concealment.

-Hyp.

 

[Thanee]

Hmm... yep, looks like.

Altho, I do recall, that it stacks with other spells, which grant concealment. Funny.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

You will note, however, that the concealment appears to be 20% because the character is also invisible while ethereal. Unlike Blur which represents some concealment all the time, blink represents full concealment part of the time. When he is not ethereal, he seems to be visible as usual. Thus a character who can strike but not see ethereal creatures has a 20% miss chance and a character who can see but not strike ethereal creatures has a 20% miss chance. I'd say that a rogue who manages to strike the blinking character (gets through the miss chance) obvious struck while he was material and did not have concealment.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I'd say that a rogue who manages to strike the blinking character (gets through the miss chance) obvious struck while he was material and did not have concealment.

But if he couldn't see him the moment before he struck, how could he line up the attack to perfectly target a kidney? It would seem to me that invisibility for part of the round would be good enough, as far as negating precision damage is concerned.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

But if he couldn't see him the moment before he struck, how could he line up the attack to perfectly target a kidney? It would seem to me that invisibility for part of the round would be good enough, as far as negating precision damage is concerned.

I can see it both ways. I would give the Rogue the benefit of the doubt. Blink is still a reasonably effective spell against Rogues even if you do not nix the SA>

 

[Teslacoil1138]

Yes, but if one can see a blinking character part of the time, one can infer where the blinking character will be when one attempts a SA. I would just say 20% miss chance and be done with it. If the attack hits, SA applies if possible. If it misses, it misses.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Yes, but if one can see a blinking character part of the time, one can infer where the blinking character will be when one attempts a SA.

Sure, if the blinking character is moving veeeeery sloooooowly. But in combat? Not IMO. If you lose sight of a guy for an instant, he could be somewhere else entirely. When two guys are trying to stick metal bits into each other, one second is an eternity.

Imagine yourself in a dark room with a strobe light on. Now imagine the other guy is a fencer trying to stab you. Trying to poke him in the kidney is going to be difficult, above and beyond the chance that you stab at him when the light goes off.