Unearthed Arcana Fighter Variant (D&d 3.5)

[Wazirak1]

I was wondering, and I think I know the answer, but is it considered effective to take sneak attack progression over bonus feats? I'd think it could be pretty game breaking if you get high charisma, and max bluff for feints.

[Dusk Eclipse]

It is a decent option; but no it isn't game breaking by any means.

at level 20 you normally have 10d6 Sneak attack dice which averages 35 points of damage. If you land all your itterative attacks you get 140 points of damage, sure it sounds high; but if you compare it to the HP totals of the monsters you are expected to fight:

Tarrasque: 858
Wyrm Black Dragon 459
Balor 290
Pit Fiend 229

It isn't that high, you can't kill any of them in a single full attack and they will most likely kill you or otherwise incapacitate you if they get a turn.

Sneak attack isn't reliable, there are tons of way of negating it, for example at least 4 types of monsters are flat-out immune to it, you need to flank or get the enemy flat-footed in order to use it. You need to get a full attack in order to maximize the damage output of sneak attacker, if you move an attack your 140 average damage dropped to simply 35.

Besides Feinting in combat is a Standard action, meaning you can't attack in the round you feinted and even if you get Improved Feint it is a move action, which again means only 1 attack. And since it is an opposed skill check, it will most likely rely on the dice roll, and if you fight a nonhumanoid enemy (like most of the high level monsters) you get a -4.

[Piggy Knowles]

In general, I'd say that the sneak attack fighter is playable (when combined with the Thug variant, at least), but worse than the standard fighter version. Sneak attack with no real class features to speak of makes a pretty sub-par class.

Think of it this way - a regular fighter can pick up Martial Study and Martial Stance for Assassin's Stance, then nab Craven to add his class level to all sneak attacks. This is a three feat investment for decent sneak attack damage, and a typical fighter gets 11 bonus feats throughout his career. That means that you can spend the other eight feats doing things like picking up the TWF tree, learning other martial maneuvers and stances, etc.

[Kelb_Panthera]

It's not a terrible option for an archer fighter, but overall it's nothing special.

[Tokuhara]

In general, I'd say that the sneak attack fighter is playable (when combined with the Thug variant, at least), but worse than the standard fighter version. Sneak attack with no real class features to speak of makes a pretty sub-par class.

Think of it this way - a regular fighter can pick up Martial Study and Martial Stance for Assassin's Stance, then nab Craven to add his class level to all sneak attacks. This is a three feat investment for decent sneak attack damage, and a typical fighter gets 11 bonus feats throughout his career. That means that you can spend the other eight feats doing things like picking up the TWF tree, learning other martial maneuvers and stances, etc.

Then what's stopping Thug Fighter from grabbing the three aforementioned feats?

[Waddacku]

Then what's stopping Thug Fighter from grabbing the three aforementioned feats?

Nothing at all, Thug only loses one feat. Sneak Attack Fighter loses eleven. That's a fourteen feat difference. So full SA Fighter gets 35 average extra damage, regular fighter with those three feats gets 27. 8 damage behind, and still has eight more bonus feats to improve it.