Sneak attack

[ZhanStrider]

Hey guys, I'm trying to explain to my DM why having sneak attack at any range is broken. Can you explain why it has the range if 30 feet?

[eggynack]

It really isn't broken. We're just talking reasonable damage, and situational damage at that. If anything, this would be a nifty way to buff the ever-weak ranged combat path.

Edit: Also, pretty sure you can't flank at range without effort, so this would be even more situational than normal sneak attacks.

[Extra Anchovies]

If you're more than 30 feet away, you can't see the target's vitals well enough (or you can, but they may have shifted a bit between the time the arrow is fired and the time it strikes). That's the in-game justification, AFAIK.

ETA: your GM might be more willing to compromise; maybe suggest only letting sneak attack apply within one range increment?

[Divide by Zero]

Sneak Attack already has enough immunities and it's not spectacular damage unless you put a lot of effort into optimizing it anyway. While the fluff is questionable, I wouldn't call that broken.

[eggynack]

I get the argument for 30 ft. sneak attack fitting in a flavor way, but I gotta say, if the game let you sneak attack from any distance, I wouldn't be all like, "Oh man, total flavor fail. That makes no sense." I'd just see it as a completely reasonable thing.

[torrasque666]

I don't exactly see how hitting someone from farther than they can see wouldn't be a sneak attack. Hell, I just made a build off the top of my head that can hit someone from almost a mile away.(5,400 feet, someone else might be able to get it further) X/Cragtop Archer 4/X+ gets you a max range of 15 increments instead of 10, far shot and distance get you base*1.5*2 and with a heavy crossbow you have a range of 120*1.5*2=180*2=360 per range increment, 15 increments for a total of 5,400 feet. If you're telling me that that aint a sneak attack, then what the hell is?

Seeing them is a whole other problem tho.

[Troacctid]

It has the range of 30 feet because you need to be able to aim accurately in order to strike the vital spot that you're supposedly hitting when you make a sneak attack, and that's difficult to do if you're too far away.

The limit is pretty easy to circumvent. Sniper's Shot is a 1st level spell. You can get a wand of it for 750 gp.