Sneak attack with no grid no minis

[Ashtagon]

How would you adjudicate sneak attacks in a game that is using neither grid nor miniatures? Creative ideas that aren't just "DM decides", as well as RAW interpretations, are encouraged.

[BRC]

We've been doing this for years. It's not hard. Generally, we just assume that if something is in melee with two characters it is flanked. It's hardly an exact science, but it works.

[Roguenewb]

Depends on the grittiness. If the campaign is hardcore, run it with clear, full descriptions. If it's more Heroic, whenever the player can get "advantage" over the defender, whatever the DM decides that means.

[Psyren]

It's worth noting that there are chess masters who can play the entire game without a board or pieces.

So, you know. No excuse. :smalltongue:


For more helpful advice: one of my groups had no minis or mats, so we just used graph paper + pencils and sketched out the battlefield, along with letters (like our initials) representing our characters, the monsters etc. This is helpful not just for things like flanking, but also LoS, area effects, tracking size/reach, distance/range etc.

[Khedrac]

The problem with no miniatures or maps is ti doe smake it all subjective and open to the DM's call. However for things like flank you can specifically state things like:

"As I approach X I move to be behind him as he faces Y" = flank
"Now X is also in combat with Y I will sidestepto try to get on the opposite side" - may be flank, if not the next side-step should do it.
etc.

Alternatively facng can come back in - that which 3.5 ditched. Flanking would no longer give direct benfits, but attacking from behind could give the same or better... Also attacking from the non-shield side would negate the shield.

[Ashtagon]

The problem with graph paper is that it's basically using another medium to substitute for the grid and minis. I'm looking for a true gridless way to objectively adjudicate the situation.

Something along the lines of "if badboy attacked Fred Fighter last round and Fred Fighter used his attack to strike Badboy, then Roger Rogue can sneak attack Badboy."

[Psyren]

The problem with graph paper is that it's basically using another medium to substitute for the grid and minis. I'm looking for a true gridless way to objectively adjudicate the situation.

Something along the lines of "if badboy attacked Fred Fighter last round and Fred Fighter used his attack to strike Badboy, then Roger Rogue can sneak attack Badboy."

You don't have to use it all the time -just as a visual aid to get your point across, whether limited solely to this once situation or in future sneak attack instances if you want. After all, if you can adjudicate it verbally (as you just did above), surely you can also illustrate the various steps by sketching them out.

While yes, you can in fact do this without any visual aids at all, humans tend to be visual creatures and it'll be much easier for your group to follow along with your description/reasoning.

[Urpriest]

Flanking isn't tough. If you're using movement at all, then just make sure that when you move in to a foe that someone else is already in melee with you say "I move to flank with so-and-so".

Flying is much harder. I don't really see how you could handle flight maneuverability without a grid.