Beating Miss Chance

[Monodominant]

So...

I was wondering if there is an item/weapon effect that helps you ignore or reduce someone's miss chance and/or concealment.

For example if I am fighting someone that has "Displacement" on him. Is there a way to ignore that? Would Ghost Touch/Ghost Strike work against it?

How about against blur or a miss chance due to darkness?

[Yora]

Unless the enemy is not physically present (as with a blink spell), the Blind Fight feat almost always helps to reduce miss chance by half. (Or better, if the chance is only 20% to begin with.)
No idea how to get it without taking the feat, though.

If it is an illusion effect, true seeing should always work to completely ignore the miss chance.
If it is just invisibility, see invisible works as well.

Having blindsight removes the need to see the enmy at all, so almost all miss chance sources are negated as well.

[DonEsteban]

I don't know who this Miss Chance is that you're talking about, but I would urge you not to beat her, please!

Sorry, couldn't resist. I don't think there is a catch-all method to ignore every miss chance, but there are a multitude of ways to ignore miss chances caused by certain effects.

I don't know what ghost strike is, but a ghost touch weapon only ignores miss chances of incorporeal creatures and displacement doesn't make you incorporeal. So no, it wouldn't work.

[Eldariel]

Pierce Magical Concealment-feat from Complete Arcane is tailormade for this job too; allows you to, as the name suggests, pierce magical concealment.

[Kol Korran]

Having blindsight removes the need to see the enmy at all, so almost all miss chance sources are negated as well.

as i undestand the depends on the creature's mode of Blindsight (though i'm a bit vague as to what that means). it enables the creature to avoid needing to pinpoint the invisible creature, but a miss chance may still apply, for example, for a dragon:


Originally by the SRD:
Blindsense (Ex)
Dragons can pinpoint creatures within a distance of 60 feet. Opponents the dragon can’t actually see still have total concealment against the dragon.

more specifically


Originally by the SRD:
Blindsight negates displacement and blur effects.

[Person_Man]

Crystal Helm soulmeld bound to your Crown chakra (2 levels of Incarnate or 2 feats) makes all of your attacks Force effects, which negates various forms of miss chance. Though as Eldariel points out, Pierce Magical concealment negates ALL miss chances from magical source, and is usually the best way to go.

[Eldariel]

as i undestand the depends on the creature's mode of Blindsight (though i'm a bit vague as to what that means). it enables the creature to avoid needing to pinpoint the invisible creature, but a miss chance may still apply, for example, for a dragon:



more specifically

Blindsense and Blindsight are two different things. Dragons have Blindsense. Blindsight = you "see" everything clear as day without vision. Some creatures have one, some have the other; the mechanics for each are uniform across the board.

[Kol Korran]

Blindsense and Blindsight are two different things. Dragons have Blindsense. Blindsight = you "see" everything clear as day without vision. Some creatures have one, some have the other; the mechanics for each are uniform across the board.

i stand corrected :smalltongue:

[Darrin]

I was wondering if there is an item/weapon effect that helps you ignore or reduce someone's miss chance and/or concealment.


Torch Bug Paste (25 GP, Complete Scoundrel p. 120) negates almost all forms of concealment (except for magical darkness).

A Stormfire Ring (4000 GP, MIC p. 206) also has a faerie fire effect 5/day, auto-hits as a 10' burst, and does 5d6 electrical damage (1d6 per round) without a save.

[Keld Denar]

Awesome Smite negates all miss chance for the smite attack. Combine that with a weapon that has a Lesser+ Revelation Crystal attached to it and your whole team can whomp on the foe for a round after you've awesomely smote off their concealment. Use it on your first iterative, and the rest of your attacks won't suffer any problems.

Great Cleave is terribad, but one thing it is useful for is stripping off Mirror Images. A destroyed image is considered "dropped", which would trigger another hit. As long as you don't hit the origional target, you should be able to mow through all of the images before you roll a 1.

[Draz74]

DMG has Seeking (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#seeking).

Ranged only. There are some MIC items that will let you bypass miss chance for melee too, if only a limited number of times/day, but I don't have time right now to hunt them down ...

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Get a +1 Seeking Trident and use it in melee.

[Kyuu Himura]

Blinfold of True darkness gives you blindsight, so, even if you can't see it, you suffer no miss chance.

That leaves only Blink, which can be negated with dispel magic.

And, maybe, Superior Invisibility, but I don't think the blindsight given from the blindfold is sound or smell related. In any case, dispel this one as well.

Or throw flour at people, that works too....

[Safety Sword]

I have to ask:

What did Miss Chance do to you anyway? Surely it doesn't deserve a beating.

But really, it's very dependent on what source the miss chance is coming from.

[Sith_Happens]

Illusion Bane (MIC, +1 equivalent) weapons ignore miss chances from illusion effects, and can attempt to dispel all illusion spells on a target once per day.

[Monodominant]

Miss Chance is a ... well for lack of a better word slut!

There I go with my amazing sneakiness catching my opponent completely unaware and I swing my supah augmented weapon at him.

Now I had -studied him for 3 rounds- (wink wink, nudge nudge) so even if he were to survive the fortitude save I had poison in the weapon (along with venomous strike feat) and a very decent sneak attack plus blade of blood.

So in my mind that was a guaranteed kill... well... he had Displacement (MIC) on his armor so ... puff he is gone my attack misses and then... well... then he cast Finger of Death.

[Basket Burner]

Any caster high enough to cast Finger of Death is immune to Death Attack and poison anyways, so don't worry about it.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Any caster high enough to cast Finger of Death is immune to Death Attack and poison anyways, so don't worry about it.

From the description, the target seems more likely an arcane caster, probably a Wizard. As far as I know, there are no spells that grant a wizard that immunity besides things like Transformation or Death Ward. And transformation he couldnt retaliate with a spell and Death Wars is a cleric spell. He'd need a Mithral Animated Soulfire Buckler floating around him to be immune. I'm sure there are other ways but I can't think of anything at the moment as I'm AFB.

[noparlpf]

Having blindsight removes the need to see the enemy at all, so almost all miss chance sources are negated as well.

I like blindsight, it's handy for things like that. Throw on scent (with that neat feat that lets you pinpoint things by smell) for good measure.

On the other hand, it then sucks when the DM for a one-shot has the neat idea to have some kind of weird magic Blur effect that makes things not only LOOK but also SOUND and SMELL as if they're somewhere else.
"That beats AC...*rolls die*...but you miss."
"Wait, why?"
"I told you when I described the scene. Everything has a kind of blurred, mistlike quality to it."
"Yeah, but I have blindsight. AND Uncanny Scent."
"Yes, but there's still a miss chance."
"Wait, so you're saying they don't even sound like they are where they are?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
Worst encounter ever. It took us three hours because the bad guys couldn't hit us and we couldn't hit them.

[Keld Denar]

Scent is redundant when you have Blindsight. Blindsight is basically sight, just not hampered by the normal things that inhibit sight like darkness or concealment. Basically sight+. You don't pin-point foes with Blindsight, you KNOW exactly where they are. There is no 50% miss chance.

All scent lets you do is spend a move action to know what direction your foe is in, unless they are within 5' of you, then you can pin-point them (which just means know their 5' square) if they are super close. There is still the 50% miss chance, though.

[Curmudgeon]

Get a +1 Seeking Trident and use it in melee.
Well, that rather defeats the purpose, doesn't it? While you're using it as a ranged weapon, it has the seeking (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#seeking) ability. While you're using it in melee, it can't have any seeking (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#seeking) ability.

[Eldariel]

I like blindsight, it's handy for things like that. Throw on scent (with that neat feat that lets you pinpoint things by smell) for good measure.

On the other hand, it then sucks when the DM for a one-shot has the neat idea to have some kind of weird magic Blur effect that makes things not only LOOK but also SOUND and SMELL as if they're somewhere else.
"That beats AC...*rolls die*...but you miss."
"Wait, why?"
"I told you when I described the scene. Everything has a kind of blurred, mistlike quality to it."
"Yeah, but I have blindsight. AND Uncanny Scent."
"Yes, but there's still a miss chance."
"Wait, so you're saying they don't even sound like they are where they are?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
Worst encounter ever. It took us three hours because the bad guys couldn't hit us and we couldn't hit them.

On the other hand, I'm real surprised the basic protective illusions are only visual whereas Images begin to cover all the senses real fast...

[Keld Denar]

From the description, the target seems more likely an arcane caster, probably a Wizard. As far as I know, there are no spells that grant a wizard that immunity besides things like Transformation or Death Ward. And transformation he couldnt retaliate with a spell and Death Wars is a cleric spell. He'd need a Mithral Animated Soulfire Buckler floating around him to be immune. I'm sure there are other ways but I can't think of anything at the moment as I'm AFB.

Death Attack, while also being blocked by Death Ward, is basically just Sneak Attack+.

If an assassin studies his victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (assassin’s choice).

If the wizard had all 4 Heart of Earth/Fire/Wind/Water/Heart running, or Elemental Body (all of which last hours/level), he would be completely immune to SA due to either 100% fortification or Elemental traits, and thus would not be subject to Death Attack.

Just saying...doesn't take Death Ward to block it...another reason why Death Attack is trash.

[noparlpf]

On the other hand, I'm real surprised the basic protective illusions are only visual whereas Images begin to cover all the senses real fast...

Yeah, really.


Scent is redundant when you have Blindsight. Blindsight is basically sight, just not hampered by the normal things that inhibit sight like darkness or concealment. Basically sight+. You don't pin-point foes with Blindsight, you KNOW exactly where they are. There is no 50% miss chance.

All scent lets you do is spend a move action to know what direction your foe is in, unless they are within 5' of you, then you can pin-point them (which just means know their 5' square) if they are super close. There is still the 50% miss chance, though.

I had Uncanny Scent (Savage Species). Pinpoint foes within 20' as if you could see them, basically.
See, the blindsight I had was based on hearing, so in any case where I was deafened I wanted something else too. The most efficient systems have multiple redundancies. This guy filled the role of party scout, though he was also our secondary melee thingy and secondary healer. (Yes, a Druid.)

[thompur]

Gauntlets of Ghostfighting(MIC) eliminates miss-chance vs. incorporeality.
There are also bracers, i believe, that let you ignore concealment 3/day. AFB so I don't know what they're called.

[Curmudgeon]

If the wizard had all 4 Heart of Earth/Fire/Wind/Water/Heart running, or Elemental Body (all of which last hours/level), he would be completely immune to SA due to either 100% fortification or Elemental traits, and thus would not be subject to Death Attack.
Well ... almost. The Lightbringer Penetrating Strike ACF lets you still deal sneak attack damage (with ½ the normal dice) to those who would normally be immune, as long as you flank them. So the Assassin just needs to have picked that up and then death attack, because it doesn't care about the number of sneak attack dice you have, still works.

I had Uncanny Scent (Savage Species). Pinpoint foes within 20' as if you could see them, basically.
Sorry, you're confusing the terms. "Pinpoint" means you know the creature's location (i.e., its square(s)). It's not sight, and you can't target the creature; you can only attack their square. Which means that (unless you've got some other ability) you've always got a 50% miss chance.

[Basket Burner]

From the description, the target seems more likely an arcane caster, probably a Wizard. As far as I know, there are no spells that grant a wizard that immunity besides things like Transformation or Death Ward. And transformation he couldnt retaliate with a spell and Death Wars is a cleric spell. He'd need a Mithral Animated Soulfire Buckler floating around him to be immune. I'm sure there are other ways but I can't think of anything at the moment as I'm AFB.

There's a long list of ways. Arcanists have the easiest time. The simplest way is Elemental Body, which grants full immunity to both precision damage and poison all day, though there is also Heavy Fort + the usual saves to pass poison saves 95% of the time and so forth.

Also, he doesn't need to Animate any buckler that he uses.

Anyways. Poisons have bad DCs you see. For that matter, so does Death Attack.

[Kol Korran]

Death Wars is a cleric spell.

i need to build me a cleric! :smallbiggrin: (yes, i know it was a miss spell, but i liked it!)

[Keld Denar]

Funny story, in several places it is called "incorporial miss chance", but actually its called "incorporial weapon immunity". The undead is immune to your attacks 50% of the time. The end result is the same, but its technically not a miss chance.

[Coidzor]

Worst encounter ever. It took us three hours because the bad guys couldn't hit us and we couldn't hit them.

:smalleek: ...It's times like that where people need to realize that they're capable of taking a mulligan...

[Tyndmyr]

From the description, the target seems more likely an arcane caster, probably a Wizard. As far as I know, there are no spells that grant a wizard that immunity besides things like Transformation or Death Ward. And transformation he couldnt retaliate with a spell and Death Wars is a cleric spell. He'd need a Mithral Animated Soulfire Buckler floating around him to be immune. I'm sure there are other ways but I can't think of anything at the moment as I'm AFB.

Heart of X spells grant, among other things, heavy fortification. This negates sneak attack, and thus, Death Attacks. Poison is easily negated.

[MesiDoomstalker]

i need to build me a cleric! :smallbiggrin: (yes, i know it was a miss spell, but i liked it!)

I was on an Ipod, so you can do the math. For all the others claiming that the Wizard has SA and thus Death Attack immunity, were assuming the OP attacked a NPC. Not knowing his DM, were assume that this NPC has equal optimization as the OP. Since he's actually trying to use Death Attack, I don't think he's super optimized, of course correct me if I'm wrong. So having such protections up constantly, while possible, is not a given. And any DM not playing DM vs. PC's would not make a fully optimized Wizard against an Assassain.

Now, I admit this is all assumptions and I could be dead wrong. All I'm trying to point out that Wizards (assuming it was a Wizard) do not have a class feature that woud make them immune without foresight. The DM would of had to made the NPC cast such spells (and thus also have them in his spellbook and use those spell slots) ahead of time. Just because a Wizard can doesn't mean he has.

[Basket Burner]

I was on an Ipod, so you can do the math. For all the others claiming that the Wizard has SA and thus Death Attack immunity, were assuming the OP attacked a NPC. Not knowing his DM, were assume that this NPC has equal optimization as the OP. Since he's actually trying to use Death Attack, I don't think he's super optimized, of course correct me if I'm wrong. So having such protections up constantly, while possible, is not a given. And any DM not playing DM vs. PC's would not make a fully optimized Wizard against an Assassain.

Either way, Elemental Body is the same level as Finger of Death. And since it lasts all day, there is no reason not to cast it. The fact of the matter is that Assassins and their low DC, slow effects are well past their expiration date, and that his problem isn't miss chances, but that he'd have done 5 damage and alerted the Wizard to his presence and then been one shotted even if he had hit.

This is also a far cry from fully optimized, as anything even close to that would not even let him launch an ultimately futile attack.


Now, I admit this is all assumptions and I could be dead wrong. All I'm trying to point out that Wizards (assuming it was a Wizard) do not have a class feature that woud make them immune without foresight. The DM would of had to made the NPC cast such spells (and thus also have them in his spellbook and use those spell slots) ahead of time. Just because a Wizard can doesn't mean he has.

They last all day. So he wakes up in the morning, and he shuts down entire archetypes in 3 seconds. There is no reason why anyone would not choose to do this.

[Keld Denar]

No, you just said that a wizard doesn't have access to Death Ward. I mentioned that a wizard doesn't NEED access to Death Ward, several other spells cover that base WRT Death Attack.

[MesiDoomstalker]

No, you just said that a wizard doesn't have access to Death Ward. I mentioned that a wizard doesn't NEED access to Death Ward, several other spells cover that base WRT Death Attack.

I'm Sorry Keld, I did mean to offend. I was responding others.


Either way, Elemental Body is the same level as Finger of Death. And since it lasts all day, there is no reason not to cast it. The fact of the matter is that Assassins and their low DC, slow effects are well past their expiration date, and that his problem isn't miss chances, but that he'd have done 5 damage and alerted the Wizard to his presence and then been one shotted even if he had hit.

This is also a far cry from fully optimized, as anything even close to that would not even let him launch an ultimately futile attack.



They last all day. So he wakes up in the morning, and he shuts down entire archetypes in 3 seconds. There is no reason why anyone would not choose to do this.

Reason 1: Did not now they existed.
Reason 2: DM did now want to laugh in the PC's face because he won DM vs. PC
Reason 3: The DM made the concious choice to not fully optimize the NPC in question and let him have a weakness. If not having immunity to an archetype can be called a "weakness".

[Basket Burner]

Reason 1: Did not now they existed.
Reason 2: DM did now want to laugh in the PC's face because he won DM vs. PC
Reason 3: The DM made the concious choice to not fully optimize the NPC in question and let him have a weakness. If not having immunity to an archetype can be called a "weakness".

There is nothing DM vs PC about having a super genius character employ the most basic of tactics. If your character requires said super genius to not think, the problem lies within the mirror. And personally, I'm shocked that an Assassin of the actual Assassin class lived that long.

[MesiDoomstalker]

There is nothing DM vs PC about having a super genius character employ the most basic of tactics. If your character requires said super genius to not think, the problem lies within the mirror. And personally, I'm shocked that an Assassin of the actual Assassin class lived that long.

You honestly think that shutting down a PC's entire build "because its the smart thing to do" is not confrontational?

As the OP already expressed, he did not have fun with this. No word on if the DM had fun but as a game, they are all supposed to have fun. Taking away the fun from a player is confrontational, even if unintentional.

[Basket Burner]

You honestly think that shutting down a PC's entire build "because its the smart thing to do" is not confrontational?

As the OP already expressed, he did not have fun with this. No word on if the DM had fun but as a game, they are all supposed to have fun. Taking away the fun from a player is confrontational, even if unintentional.

It is playing the NPC to their intelligence. If a basic move shuts down your entire build, the problem is your entire build, and you should look for a means to not be shut down so easily instead of hoping that the DM plays all enemies dumb, or buys into that nonsense that intelligent enemies equals adversarial DM.

Fact of the matter is he got shut down anyways. He is looking for ways to not be shut down. I am pointing out that miss chance is the least of his problems. As for not being shut down, he's kinda screwed there. Of the four boxes, Fighter is the weakest class but Rogue is the weakest archetype.

[MesiDoomstalker]

It is playing the NPC to their intelligence. If a basic move shuts down your entire build, the problem is your entire build, and you should look for a means to not be shut down so easily instead of hoping that the DM plays all enemies dumb, or buys into that nonsense that intelligent enemies equals adversarial DM.

Fact of the matter is he got shut down anyways. He is looking for ways to not be shut down. I am pointing out that miss chance is the least of his problems. As for not being shut down, he's kinda screwed there. Of the four boxes, Fighter is the weakest class but Rogue is the weakest archetype.

So he gets penalized for playing a tier 4 class instead of a tier 1? Thats not fun.

[noparlpf]

:smalleek: ...It's times like that where people need to realize that they're capable of taking a mulligan...

You mean leaving? We had already done that once that game, after the first encounter (the ghost elf refused to be a halfling and we had to go pay for a Miracle; some people just don't like having the Druid be the primary healer) and didn't want to quit too often during a single one-shot.
Amusingly, when, after a brief discussion with the other two players (one was dead and couldn't be Reincarnated), I turned to the DM and said, "We're leaving. We'll be back a bit later." Then we went out, got the ghost elf Miracled back to a ghost elf, and picked up another party member (the dead guy had other characters of the same level with him).


Amusingly, my Tier 4 characters often outperform my party members' Tier 1-2 characters. I minmax a lot more.
Regardless of optimization, though, if the DM wants a certain power level, they should make that clear ahead of time. Otherwise, the DM should be accommodating to the players, not shutting them down.

[candycorn]

So he gets penalized for playing a tier 4 class instead of a tier 1? Thats not fun.

No, he gets what he should get if he's a tier 4, going up against a typical, intelligence-based tier 1.

If someone believes that they can fly, and jumps off a 200 foot building with 30 hp left, it's not "fun" for them to fall 200 feet, take 20d6, and die.

It's funny, but that's only because watching people do stupid things often is.

On the list of stupid things, that's near the top. Below that is "using fragile attack forms against a powerful defensive class"

Below that is "trying to shoot down the attack helicopter with arrows"... Along with most of the other things Rambo did.

[Coidzor]

You mean leaving?

No, I meant the DM admitting that he had messed up and saving you all three hours of largely wasted time.

[noparlpf]

No, I meant the DM admitting that he had messed up and saving you all three hours of largely wasted time.

Oh, that. I hadn't heard the phrase before. Yeah, that would have been nice. He's kind of inexperienced, though.

[Basket Burner]

So he gets penalized for playing a tier 4 class instead of a tier 1? Thats not fun.

Sorry to disappoint you, but riding a racing bicycle well does not a high level character make.

[Keld Denar]

Nitpick: BMX are stunt bikes, not racing bikes. You can half-pipe a BMX, but you won't see anyone win a Tour de France on one. :smallcool:

[noparlpf]

Nitpick: BMX are stunt bikes, not racing bikes. You can half-pipe a BMX, but you won't see anyone win a Tour de France on one. :smallcool:

I've seen this reference a few times...what is it?

[Keld Denar]

Wizard vs Fighter; The Movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuMpYTyRjw)

[Paul H]

Hi

Truestrike allows you to ignore miss chance for concealment. (In addition to granting +20 Insight bonus to hit).

In PF the Magus can take an Arcana that allows them to use wands in their off-hand and make attacks as a full-round action (like TWF), suffering -2 to hit with all attacks.

My Str 14 Dwarf Magus in PFS campaign used wand of Truestrike to attack at +23 with his Bastard Sword each round. (In PFS 1st lvl CL1 wands can be bought using Prestige Awards).

Thanks
Paul H

[Optimator]

Actually, BMX bikes were originally for racing.

[Paul H]

hi

And BMX is releveant to this thread how, exactly.....................?

Thanks
Paul H

[Safety Sword]

Wizard vs Fighter; The Movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFuMpYTyRjw)

I don't know if they knew what they were doing, but it sure is true.

Funny as hell.

[Basket Burner]

Nitpick: BMX are stunt bikes, not racing bikes. You can half-pipe a BMX, but you won't see anyone win a Tour de France on one. :smallcool:

They also are not crime fighting bikes, but as long as you're using it poorly...

[Curmudgeon]

There I go with my amazing sneakiness catching my opponent completely unaware and I swing my supah augmented weapon at him.

Now I had -studied him for 3 rounds- (wink wink, nudge nudge) so even if he were to survive the fortitude save I had poison in the weapon (along with venomous strike feat) and a very decent sneak attack plus blade of blood.

So in my mind that was a guaranteed kill... well... he had Displacement (MIC) on his armor so ... puff he is gone my attack misses and then... well... then he cast Finger of Death.
The problem lies in assuming success, rather than thinking things through so that you can anticipate problems and plan for success. And a big part of that includes planning for failure, and how to work around it.

Even without a miss chance you can't guarantee a hit unless your target is helpless and you're executing a coup de grace. So what do you do if you roll a 1? Assassins have this awesome ability called Hide in Plain Sight, and if you're high enough level to have a "supah augmented weapon" you should have both HiPS and maximum ranks in Hide. So you should be hidden before the attack (Hide when you move to close, with either no penalty or -5 for the check depending on how far you move), and also Hide while attacking (-20 penalty). Displacement (on Bracers of Armor, I'd guess) only lasts for 5 rounds in a day, and the wearer can only activate it on their turn (swift action command). So if the enemy had a chance to activate their armor property, they knew you were there and your whole effort was a guaranteed flop.

Hide, even when you're using Supernatural Hide in Plain Sight to enable it, isn't magical, and that means you can't be seen even with True Seeing. But that doesn't mean you can't be detected. For instance, your "supah augmented weapon" has a magic aura. An enemy with permanent Arcane Sight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/arcaneSight.htm) will notice magic in your square even if they can't see you. Did you think to get Nystul's Magic Aura (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicAura.htm) cast on all your magical stuff to remove their auras (make them register as nonmagical to such detect spells)? Failing that preparation, you're going to appear as a sudden new area of magic in the enemy's vicinity, which (with your 3 rounds of study) is both reason and time enough to make a nervous spellcaster trigger their daily Displacement effect.

If you can avoid detection (with Hide and Move Silently, plus suppress all magic auras) you can stand there and swing at the adjacent foe repeatedly. You Hide while attacking: if you miss, you just swing again; if you hit, you also keep at it. On a miss the enemy won't even know there's a threat. On a hit they'll know a threat exists but still won't know where you are even when you're next to them. Then you might get a chance for attacks of opportunity if they try to move somewhere or start to cast a spell.

You might not get an immediate kill, and you should plan on that likelihood. The target might have 100% fortification, for instance. Well, the Lightbringer Penetrating Strike ACF and an invisible flanking buddy will fix that. (It can even be plain Invisibility; your friend doesn't need to attack, just give you a flanking advantage.) Poison might well not work. But if you got to Rogue 10 (possible if you have "a very decent sneak attack") you could take Crippling Strike to deliver 2 points of STR damage with each hit, with no save. (The Savvy Rogue feat in Complete Scoundrel makes that damage happen even against enemies immune to sneak attack.) An enemy suddenly reduced in Strength will be slowed down if their gear now puts them at a Medium load. Hit them enough to exceed their Heavy load limit (-10 to STR if you get in 1 hit in the surprise round and 4 hits in a full attack while they're still flatfooted, say) and they'll be immobilized even if they've got great DR and make their saves vs. your death attack. Drop them to 0 STR and they're helpless; finish them off with a coup de grace.

If you expect your DM to just provide easy targets for you to kill, you might want to check out Table 3–2: Encounter Difficulty in Dungeon Master's Guide (page 49). Fully 5% of all encounters are supposed to be of "overpowering" difficulty (run away or expect to die).

Think things through, and plan around potential difficulties; don't assume anything will go well. It's better to be pleasantly surprised when things go your way, rather than dead when they don't. :smallsmile: