Rogue sneak attack vs. Hypnotized creature

[nycdan]

Here we go again. My group is constantly doing things I have no ready interpretation for so I'm looking to you guys to chime in.

A rogue and a sorcerer walked into bar...no wait, that's not right.

A rogue and a sorcerer have trekked off and encountered a crocodile in a marshland. The croc took a nice bite out of the rogue's leg before being stabbed in return. The sorceror cast hypnotism against which the croc rolled a natural 1 on the Will save. I allowed the hypnotism to take effect at the end of that round to reflect the effect of the critical miss.

Now comes the dilemna. The sorc has opted to leave the croc and move on, but the rogue has dreams of a crocodile-tooth necklace and snuck up behind the croc (Move Silent roll=19). Now this isn't a coup de grace situation since the croc isn't helpless, but I'm wondering how to handle this situation.

The SRD says that drawing a weapon on a fascinated creature breaks the effect, but the rogue's sword was already out. If he is sneaking up, should the croc get an initiative roll for the second round or should the rogue get automatic first action. If the croc rolls, do I impose a penalty (say -4 as per skill modifiers for fascinated targets)?

Thoughts? Thanks all.

-Dan

 

[werk]

Hypotism doesn't say anything about losing Dex to AC, and the croc is not flanked.

The rogue’s attack deals extra damage any time her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC, or when the rogue flanks her target.

There is only a problem if you drop out of initiative, which I would not do...because the combat doesn't appear to have ended and simply because a short-term spell effect is ticking.

 

[cmanos]

I had a similar question about a bard's fascinate ability. It does not appear that a fascinated creature loses its Dex bonus or is flat-footed. Seems it just is penalized on its skill checks, as well as its attitude improving towards you.

 

[Thia Halmades]

And this is why I miss the backstab rules. By RAW, the rogue pops his SA only on a flat footed/DEX denied/Flanked opponent. Now if combat ended, the Rogue can initiate a new combat, and draw surprise (target is fascinated and unaware of the 19 Hide rogue) and then pop his SA. That's totally legal and a loophole of gigantic proportions which would force a DMO.

But the first fight has to be ruled dead.