sneak attack from darkness

[ZR]

An assasin is on the roof of a cavern 50 foot from a subject. The assasin has hide in plain sight. The subject is in an illumination that goes out to 30"

The assasin has spider climb and snipers eye and is hiding on the roof with some cover for three rounds and then lets off a volley of three arrows (after watching for 3 rounds).

Please comment on the correctness of this:

1/ He gets deat attach on 1st arrow.
2/ He gets sneek attack on all three arrows (regardless of the subjects supprise roll)
3/ He is considered concealed to charactes without some form of darkness vision
4/ He is hiding to those with infravision
5/ He has sneek attack again the following round if they subjects dont have infravision
6/ He has sneek attack on those with infravison if he sucessfully hides.

 

[Bagpuss]

What is this infravision you speak of?

Oh and illumination goes out to 30ft shadowy light goes to 60ft and elves can see normally to 60ft and shadowy to 120ft (might be 90ft).

 

[ZR]

OK lets use light spell 20" and 20" and I am at 50"

Its a dwarf with darkvision....but that besides the point. I want a generic answer so lets just consider anyone who has a chance to see him....someone who is closer say 30".

 

[Thanee]

...snipers eye...

That extends the sneak attack range? Normally they only apply within 30 ft.
I'll assume that he is within sneak attack range (extended or closer and smaller light radius) below.

EDIT: Ok, covered (see below).

1/ He gets deat attach on 1st arrow.

Correct, thanks to the spell.

2/ He gets sneek attack on all three arrows (regardless of the subjects supprise roll)

Correct, however...

First of all, if this is an out-of-combat situation, then the assassin gets a surprise round, which means only a standard or move action, but no full-round action. So it would be only one arrow with sneak attack.

If it happens inside combat, then he would get all arrows with sneak attack.

3/ He is considered concealed to charactes without some form of darkness vision

Correct. Total concealment, no less, if he is in full darkness (not the spell!).

Please note, that as written above, light sources also provide shadowy illumination, so if the light source would illuminate out to 30 ft., the assassin would not be in total darkness then, but let's just assume, that this is not the case (i.e. 20 ft. bright and 40 ft. shadowy).

4/ He is hiding to those with infravision

And anyone else for that matter, but only until he attacks, then the hiding is negated, so it doesn't matter.

5/ He has sneek attack again the following round if they subjects dont have infravision

Correct.

6/ He has sneek attack on those with infravison if he sucessfully hides.

Yeah. He could hide with the move action and then make one attack with sneak attack.

Bye
Thanee

 

[ZR]

Thanee,


The spell alows you to do a sneek attack out to 60" and to use a death attack on ranged weapons...

If I was invisible would they get their dex on AC...if no please explain the difference to me. If I am in total darkness (with respect to an observer) what difference does it make.

Under darkness rules you are denied dex to AC.

 

[Thanee]

Aha, ok, then the first one is obviously correct.

Darkness (the spell) does only grant concealment in 3.5 (shadowy illumination), therefore the victim does not lose Dex bonus to AC as it was in 3.0.

Invisibility is the same, since it is gone after the first attack. You would need Greater Invisibility to pull it off.


Ah, wait... you meant actual darkness, not the spell! ^^

That is a little different then, since the hiding does only matter against creatures with Darkvision, as you said, so the part above, where I said the hiding was negated after the first attack - while true - does only matter, if the target can see in the dark.

Edited the above answers to reflect the differences.

Bye
Thanee

 

[ZR]

I dont know where you get that from

SRD under concealment
line of effect to a target but not line of sight he is considered to have total concealment from you.

Ignoring Concealment
Concealment isn’t always effective. A shadowy area or darkness doesn’t provide any concealment against an opponent with darkvision (but does so for normal vision)


Darkness
Darkvision allows many characters and monsters to see perfectly well without any light at all, but characters with normal vision (or low-light vision, for that matter) can be rendered completely blind by putting out the lights. Torches or lanterns can be blown out by sudden gusts of subterranean wind, magical light sources can be dispelled or countered, or magical traps might create fields of impenetrable darkness.

In many cases, some characters or monsters might be able to see, while others are blinded. For purposes of the following points, a blinded creature is one who simply can’t see through the surrounding darkness.

Creatures blinded by darkness lose the ability to deal extra damage due to precision (for example, a sneak attack).
Blinded creatures are hampered in their movement, and pay 2 squares of movement per square moved into (double normal cost). Blinded creatures can’t run or charge.
All opponents have total concealment from a blinded creature, so the blinded creature has a 50% miss chance in combat. A blinded creature must first pinpoint the location of an opponent in order to attack the right square; if the blinded creature launches an attack without pinpointing its foe, it attacks a random square within its reach. For ranged attacks or spells against a foe whose location is not pinpointed, roll to determine which adjacent square the blinded creature is facing; its attack is directed at the closest target that lies in that direction.
A blinded creature loses its Dexterity adjustment to AC and takes a -2 penalty to AC.
A blinded creature takes a -4 penalty on Search checks and most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks, including any with an armor check penalty. A creature blinded by darkness automatically fails any skill check relying on vision.
Creatures blinded by darkness cannot use gaze attacks and are immune to gaze attacks.

 

[Thanee]

Yeah, I mixed that up with the spell Darkness, which does not generate darkness.

See my longer post with the answers above, I edited it meanwhile.

Bye
Thanee