Stealth Attack

[ceratitis]

Why don't you make it work only when the target is flat footed (or denied its dex bonus to AC I suppose, but that is more common than flatfooted) so it can't be used every round against a flanked foe. Would definitely limit its use.

maybe but whats the logic behind that? (yes i know i put down the "logic" argument before) just trying to understand what would let you use it on someone flatfooted but not on someone flanked.
any comments on my idea to attach a skill check for knowledge:anatomy instead of a save?

 

[Zelc]

maybe but whats the logic behind that? (yes i know i put down the "logic" argument before) just trying to understand what would let you use it on someone flatfooted but not on someone flanked.
any comments on my idea to attach a skill check for knowledge:anatomy instead of a save?

a) Game balance
b) Someone who's flat-footed isn't defending himself. Someone who's flanked just has some trouble defending himself. There are abilities that trigger only off being flat-footed, and not off being flanked (like the Ninja's Sudden Strike). Maybe being flanked they can still defend themselves well enough to avoid the silencing attack?

 

[Aust Diamondew]

No, they can't. They require command words.

From the srd on wands:
To activate a wand, a character must hold it in hand (or whatever passes for a hand, for nonhumanoid creatures) and point it in the general direction of the target or area. A wand may be used while grappling or while swallowed whole.

No somatic component, no verbal, just point it and will it.

 

[Zelc]

From the srd on wands:
To activate a wand, a character must hold it in hand (or whatever passes for a hand, for nonhumanoid creatures) and point it in the general direction of the target or area. A wand may be used while grappling or while swallowed whole.

No somatic component, no verbal, just point it and will it.

From the SRD on spell trigger items:

Spell Trigger

Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it’s even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Anyone with a spell on his or her spell list knows how to use a spell trigger item that stores that spell. (This is the case even for a character who can’t actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin.) The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

And:

Activation

Wands use the spell trigger activation method, so casting a spell from a wand is usually a standard action that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. (If the spell being cast, however, has a longer casting time than 1 standard action, it takes that long to cast the spell from a wand.) To activate a wand, a character must hold it in hand (or whatever passes for a hand, for nonhumanoid creatures) and point it in the general direction of the target or area. A wand may be used while grappling or while swallowed whole.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

In D&D, there is just no way of outright killing an unaware target of similar CR with a plain old melee attack. Sure, there are ways to try it, but they're hardly reliable, and never work.
Every adventure requiring stealth goes to hell when the party tries to sneak up and take out a lone sentry. Even a patrol ends up being written as a level-appropriate encounter, which just ruins everyone's fun when they try out their +20ish Hide/Move Silently and the guard calls out an alarm with 3 hit points left.

Whatever happened to the CR 1/2 guard with 5 hit points? They're everywhere at level 1-2, but as the party goes up in level, the guards do too, even in the same town/forest/citadel/wherever.

I call that Gygax math.

 

[Zelc]

In D&D, there is just no way of outright killing an unaware target of similar CR with a plain old melee attack. Sure, there are ways to try it, but they're hardly reliable, and never work.
Every adventure requiring stealth goes to hell when the party tries to sneak up and take out a lone sentry. Even a patrol ends up being written as a level-appropriate encounter, which just ruins everyone's fun when they try out their +20ish Hide/Move Silently and the guard calls out an alarm with 3 hit points left.

Grappling and Pinning? Maybe a feat that raises your grapple score when attacking from surprise?

 

[Kmart Kommando]

Grappling and Pinning? Maybe a feat that raises your grapple score when attacking from surprise?

that doesn't kill him, you'd have to have a friend there to spill his hit points on the floor. really, the only way you could do that by yourself is have a BAB of 11+ and grab, hold, pin, then attack with your 3rd iterative , which is less likely to hit anyway, or you could grapple for 'damage your opponent' for the 3rd attack, but the -4, and the -10 iterative makes it even less likely.
plus, grappling is rarely effective on level-appropriate monsters. Maybe if all you're built for is grappling, but then you'd be gimped nearly everywhere else, which is another failure of the system, but that is for another thread altogether...

Best you could do is have some sneak attack, and maybe do an Iron Heroes-ish stunt, maybe a lurking shadow stalker trick with opposed Hide/ Move Silent checks for extra damage.