improved sneak attack

[Roman]

How about making it two feats?

Improved Sneak Attack - only increases the damage of one SA die

Deadly Sneak Attack - increases the damage of all SA dice, but has improved sneak attack as a prerequisite

This means that it costs you two feats thus hopefully balancing it somewhat.

 

[HeavyG]

actually, that feat wasn't that bad. even with ten levels of rogue it only averaged 5 points of more damage.

It's 5 points per attack. At 10th level, a rogue could have 4-5 attacks, if he really wanted to (and he would if he had that feat ) and had a wizard friend with Haste. I'd say 20 points of dmg is a pretty big deal. Not really game breaking, but still.

There's a feat in Book of Exalted Deed that increases sneak attack dice vs evil opponents to d8s. There's also a feat in the psionics book that lets you reroll 1s on sneak attack damage dice. That last one grants you an increase of 0.5 dmg per dice on all sneak attacks. Based on that, I'd say that increasing one die to a d8 is too weak to be worth a feat.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Ya, but 10 more damage at 20th level is nothing. Even if you min max it to get +15 damage, it is not that big of deal by the time one hits 20th level. At tthat level there are many good ways to reduce the chances of a sneak attack, so defenses against it rise as well.

Well the reason its super-powerful is because it only costs 1 feat for +10-+15 damage on each SA hit. Increasing the dice by one step won't automatically unbalance your game, but the opportunity cost is too low methinks.

 

[Crothian]

it's also 3.0 so while not much has changed it was designed for a different game.

 

[Rystil Arden]

it's also 3.0 so while not much has changed it was designed for a different game.

'Strue, though I bought the book and refused to allow the feat back in 3.0 as well...3.0 had even more WotC PrCs that allowed for easy Sneak Attack stacking (some of the conversions slowed down the SA progression in 3.5).

 

[Nifft]

Well the reason its super-powerful is because it only costs 1 feat for +10-+15 damage on each SA hit. Increasing the dice by one step won't automatically unbalance your game, but the opportunity cost is too low methinks.

Right, especially compared to what a Fighter has to do to get +4 damage.

-- N

 

[ElectricDragon]

How about this? (Of course, I assume all responsibility for going too far...)

FOCUSED SNEAK ATTACK [GENERAL]
You have learned to focus your sneak attack and maximize the damage.
Prerequisites: Sneak Attack +2d6, Hide 6+ ranks
Benefit: By focusing your mind and body you can increase the die size of all dice on a successful sneak attack once per day. This increase is from d6's to d8's.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Each time you take this feat, the prerequisites increase by +1d6 and +2 ranks, and it allows you to focus your mind and body to increase the die size of one more successful sneak attack per day. In no way will this feat ever increase die size higher than d8's.

GREATER FOCUSED SNEAK ATTACK [GENERAL]
You can focus your sneak attack so that it affects even creatures normally immune to sneak attacks.
Prerequisites: Focused Sneak Attack, Sneak Attack +5d6, Hide 6+ ranks
Benefit: You can focus your mind and body so perfectly that creatures normally immune to sneak attacks suffer damage from your sneak attack. This damage is not rolled but is equal to 1 hp for each sneak attack die. Creatures immune to flanking are immune to this ability unless flatfooted or otherwise denied their Dexterity bonus to AC.

Ciao
Dave

 

[Technik4]

Ya, but 10 more damage at 20th level is nothing.

Heh. I think the reactions to this feat are funny giving the previous discourse involving a PrC with improved Sneak Attack acquisition.

creatures normally immune to sneak attacks suffer damage from your sneak attack.

This I would never allow a rogue to have. The entire concept of a sneak attack faces certain limitations; removing those makes the rogue too useful in more fights. Basically, there will be some fights where the 'fighter' is of little use except to soak damage, similarly monsters with high SR or other spell-nullifying effects relegate a wizard to buffing and utility effects. For the rogue, certain monsters cannot be sneak attack'ed, thus taking the spotlight off of him for that fight.

I realize the proposed feat only allowed it 1/day (with high pre-reqs), but I wouldn't like the precedent. Would you similarly allow feats that allow a Wizard to automatically bypass SR 1/day or a Fighter to automatically bypass DR 1/day?

Here are a couple SA-related feats I came up with:

Skilled Ambush [General]
You have honed your skills to take advantage of the first blow.
Prerequisites: Sneak Attack +1d6*, Improved Initiative
Benefit: When the character strikes a foe who is flat-footed at the beginning of a combat, any Sneak Attack dice are rolled as d8s instead of d6s.

*- In AE the pre-req is First Strike and it improves both SA and FS dice.

Brutal Blows [General]
You strike callously, leaving terrible scars.
Prerequisites: Sneak Attack +5d6
Benefit: When the character damages an opponent with a Sneak Attack, the target also takes 1 point of termporary Charisma damage.

Technik

 

[Seeten]

There are feats to sneak attack undead, and constructs. So I dont see where its too much, unless by that you mean, the prereq's are too low.

 

[Technik4]

There are feats to sneak attack undead, and constructs.

Just because a feat was written doesn't mean it has to be used. I don't like those feats and think they unbalance the rogue more than most things (even though undead are the whipping boys of clerics and paladins). Besidse, it doesnt make intuitive sense - there's a reason you can't crit them, no anatomy (or none worth damaging).

Technik