Sneak Attack vs. Sudden Strike

[WaterTengu]

Is there a difference? If there is, what is it? If there isn't, why did they make sudden strike?

[The Rose Dragon]

Sudden Strike doesn't work when flanking.

[Starbuck_II]

Is there a difference? If there is, what is it? If there isn't, why did they make sudden strike?

Sneak attack works when flanking + whenever deny dex to AC (numerous ways; Uncanny Dodge blocks 50% of ways).

Sudden Strike only works when deny Dex to AC.

In a perfect world, Sudden attack would deal more damage or the class that grants it would have better abilities than a Rogue would normally obtain as Sudden Strike is a weaker version of Sneak Attack.

[Person_Man]

IIRC, Sudden Strike was created for the Ninja as a weaker version of Sneak Attack, to "balance" out the Ninja's additional class abilities. (The Ninja has the ability to become Invisible and gets its Wis score to AC when unarmored). Unfortunately, the Ninja's class abilities can be copied by cheap magic items, so you just end up with a nerfed Rogue.

There are a bunch of different homebrew Ninja fixes out there though. The easiest is to just replace their Sudden Strike with Sneak Attack, and give them Rogue Special Abilities at their dead levels.

[WaterTengu]

ok, so it is similar, ok. thank you all.

[Chronos]

The Ninja has the ability to become Invisible and gets its Wis score to AC when unarmored)The ninja also gets a nondetection ability that's considerably better than what a rogue could get from an item or level-appropriate spell. Still probably not enough to make up for it, though.