Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="haiiro" data-source="post: 667872" data-attributes="member: 1891">I picked up AEG's Mercenaries yesterday, and it includes a feat called Improved Sneak Attack:Improved Sneak Attack [General]You can make exceptionally precise and lethal sneak attacks.Prerequisites: BAB +2 or higher, ability to make sneak attacks.Benefit: Your bonus damage for sneak attacks increases by one die type. If your sneak attack damage is d4s, it now increases to d6s; d6s increase to d8s, and so on.This is more or less identical to the feat of the same name from Fantasy Flight's Traps & Treachery, save that the T&T version clarifies that this boost is retroactive -- all of your sneak attack damage is affected, not just what you gain after taking the feat.My gut response to Improved Sneak Attack back when T&T first came out was that it was probably broken. The prereqs are minimal, and no rogue would be without this feat.Now, a couple of years later, seeing it in Mercenaries got me started on thinking about this issue again. Looking at it in the context of other feats -- particularly Weapon Specialization (PHB) and Spellcasting Prodigy (FRCS) -- I'm no longer convinced that it is broken.Much like WS and SP, few characters of the appropriate class will not take this feat, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, IMO. You still have to give up emphasizing some other element of your character to focus on sneak attack damage, and it doesn't make it any more likely that you'll be able to make or land sneak attacks in general. I am contemplating making the BAB prereq slightly higher (perhaps +4), but I'm not sure if that's really necessary.What do you think? Is Improved Sneak Attack a solid feat, or does it need to be modified before it can be considered balanced?As a followup question: Mercenaries also includes Superior Sneak Attack, which has Alertness, Improved Sneak Attack and BAB +8 as prereqs and steps your SA damage up by another die type (d8s are now d10s). A rogue or ninja (from Rokugan) with this feat will be truly brutal in combat, but so will a maxed out fighter with Improved Critical and an appropriate weapon. What do you think of this feat?Thanks in advance. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification