Ranged sneak attacks - what's your experience?

[RigaMortus2]

There is a tactical feat in Tome of Battle that makes a target flanked for up to a minute. You have to initiate the feat with an Intimidate check followed by a melee attack, but once you do, they are considered flanked for 1 minute, which means you can use a ranged weapon on them at that point. The tactical feat is called Clarion Commander and the feat ability is called Perpetual Flank.

 

[Daerys]

Take a couple of rogue levels, max use magic device and get a wand of grease. Everyone in the area of a grease spells must make balance checks, or fall prone. Everyone without 5 ranks in balance is automatically flat-footed

Another way would be to get good'old Hide in Plain Sight, gained from PrC like the Shadowdancer or the Stalker of Karash. An item like the collar of Umbral Metamorphosis from Tome of Magic gives you Hide in Plain Sight as well.

 

[Whimsical]

Consider taking Warlock as your "archer" class. Ninja/Warlock would rawk! Would the Practiced Spellcaster feat upkeep the damage done by the eldrich blast?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

There is an argument to the contrary,

... that I'm glad to see still raises its head from time to time.

 

[Hypersmurf]

... that I'm glad to see still raises its head from time to time.

Hey, I wasn't advocating it... just acknowledging that it exists.

-Hyp.

 

[Storyteller01]

Not much really. We had to house rule quite a bit to make an effective sniper. Still doesn't get more than one shot per round, but the odds of being found are nil (distance penalties for spot checks).

Even if you don't want to snipe, there isn't much you can do to add to ranged damage, at least compared to melee advantages.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Hey, I wasn't advocating it...

I know. That's my job!

 

[ElectricDragon]

As a low-level archer/rogue you need to exploit any reason to get a SA that you can find.

Balance checks cause flatfootedness (unless the target has 5 or more ranks)
Climb checks cause loss of Dexterity bonus to AC (unless the target has a climb speed)
Blinding causes loss of Dexterity bonus to AC
Carrying more than one's max load causes loss of Dexterity bonus to AC


Marbles, flour, and caltrops are your friends. Also look for positions on the battlefield where you can attack from above or below with a 60 degree or better slope between you and your foes that remains within 30 ft. of them.

Ciao
Dave

 

[Vurt]

I'm playing a scout in one game and he makes for a reasonable fit for the classic archer/rogue type character. About the only things he doesn't get are a few of the social skills and Trap Sense, as the errata clarifies that the scout does get both Open Locks and Disable Device as class skills. Skirmish damage doesn't scale upwards as quickly as sneak attack damage does, but on the other hand, the player has better control over when to apply it, as the character can move around at its leisure, but often causing a condition that denies Dex is either problematic or costs another action. Plus, the scout gets a number of archery feats on their bonus feat list, so completing an archery feat chain is a little easier.

It's worth a gander if someone in your group has Complete Adventurer.

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[Dakhran the Dark]

There is an argument to the contrary, that separates the +2 flanking bonus (which explicitly requires a melee attack) from the condition of flanking. According to this argument, one's position can mean one is flanking (and thus eligible for sneak attack), while not gaining the +2 bonus on attack rolls (since a ranged attack does not qualify).

-Hyp.

Said argument probably ignores the word from the horse's mouth on the specific definition of flanking as it pertains to sneak attacks...

Creatures become susceptible to sneak attacks when flanked because they must divide their attention between two or more opponents whose relative positions make it difficult to block or dodge their attacks. The situation is something like dealing with an unseen foe, but isn't quite as severe.

To flank an opponent, two allies must be on opposite sides of that opponent, and they both must threaten the opponent (Chapter 8 in the Player's Handbook has some handy diagrams that explain flanking). You threaten an opponent when you can make an armed melee attack against that opponent. You're "armed" when you use a manufactured weapon, natural weapon, the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, or the monk's unarmed strike ability. You don't actually have to have a weapon that can hurt an opponent to threaten that opponent. If you and your buddy have no silver weapons but find yourselves on opposites sides of a werewolf, you still flank the werewolf (but see the final section of this article series).

You can flank with any melee weapon, including a reach weapon, but you cannot flank with a ranged weapon.

You get a flanking bonus from any ally your foe can see (and who is in the correct position to flank). If your foe can't see you, you don't provide a flanking bonus to any ally. You literally cannot flank a blind creature; however, a blind creature loses its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against your attacks (so you can sneak attack it), and you get a +2 to attack it to boot. Creatures with the blindsight ability effectively "see" within blindsight range and can be flanked.

The improved uncanny dodge class ability can prevent a creature from being flanked (see the next section).​

BTW, on the original subject, that whole series of articles is good for rogues looking to maximise their sneak attacks...