Sneak Blinking

[LordOfCain]

Why shouldn't all rogues/classes with sneak attack and enough wealth just buy a ring of blinking and get sneak attack all day?

[Jormengand]

Why shouldn't all rogues/classes with sneak attack and enough wealth just buy a ring of blinking and get sneak attack all day?

That's roughly what they usually do.

[Necroticplague]

Because it gives all your attacks a miss chance.

[OldTrees1]

Ring of Blinking gives you a 20% miss chance, reduces your speed to 75%, and makes you vulnerable (at a 50% miss chance) to ethereal threats.

In Return it gives you a 50% miss chance, enables Sneak Attack, and allows you to shunt through obstacles.

So while it is a great ring to buy, one might be selective with its activation. (Even my Fighters buy a copy)

[Story]

Because the Collar of Umbral Metamorphisis is much better.

[gorfnab]

Because it gives all your attacks a miss chance.
The feat Pierce Magic Concealment negates the miss chance from Blink.

[Zaq]

The other downside is that a Ring of Blinking doesn't last very long (7 rounds), so unless your GM lets you constantly turn it on every 42 seconds (and since Blink affects your move speed, that can have other effects), you're likely to need to spend a standard action at the start of combat to turn it on, which is frustrating. That's not to say that it's never a good idea to do that (sometimes you'll know combat is coming a bit in advance, and sometimes combat lasts long enough that it's okay to burn one round enabling your Sneak Attack on the other rounds), but it's enough of a drawback that you don't necessarily want to rely on it as a primary strategy.

As has been mentioned, Pierce Magical Concealment can get around your miss chance, but that takes two feats, a resource which is usually in very short supply for many Rogues. Again, not to say that it's never a good idea, just saying that there's a nontrivial cost to it.

[Necroticplague]

The feat Pierce Magic Concealment negates the miss chance from Blink.

The 20% chance for you to miss isn't from concealment, so that doesn't help.

[Jowgen]

The 20% chance for you to miss isn't from concealment, so that doesn't help.

It's more expansive than the name suggests. Specifically, it "allows you to disregard the miss chance granted by spells or spell-like abilities such as darkness, blur, invisibility, obscuring mist, ghostform (see page 109), and spells when used to create concealment effects".

Seeing how Ghostform is specifically included, and grants incorporeal miss-chance, I don't see much of an argument against it working for Blink.

[Deadline]

The 20% chance for you to miss isn't from concealment, so that doesn't help.

It's worth noting that if the 20% miss chance that Blink inflicts on you was from concealment, that would also turn off your Sneak Attack.

[Beheld]

Indeed, Blink does not provide a miss change from concealment at all (to the Rogue) it even specifies the reason for the miss chance: "Likewise, your own attacks have a 20% miss chance, since you sometimes go ethereal just as you are about to strike."

Which means that among other things that under any interpretation at all, things like a Force Bow or Ghost Touch weapons would still have zero miss chance.

Also note that there is a pretty good argument that ranged attacks suffer no miss chance from blink, since spells only affect you and attended objects, not unattended objects, so if you put something down on the ground, there is a 0% chance that it's on the ethereal, and a 100% it's on the material, since the spell no longer effects it. Just like if you put down an object, it stops being invisible.

So if you throw or shoot something the spell ceases to affect it and it instead becomes a projectile on the material plane.

You can also try to swing the Ring of Blinking as an intelligent item by a lot of different means, and doing so saves you from the action cost. (Although yeah, unless you are in a hurry or trying to be especially quiet, you should totally be activating it every 3-4 rounds).

[Jormengand]

So if you throw or shoot something the spell ceases to affect it and it instead becomes a projectile on the material plane.

...Which is also very similar to the interaction between projectiles and enlarge person.

[Beheld]

...Which is also very similar to the interaction between projectiles and enlarge person.

Yeah, it's based on the general rules for all spells, it just most of the time doesn't matter, and Blinking is one of the few times it does.

[Necroticplague]

Indeed, Blink does not provide a miss change from concealment at all (to the Rogue) it even specifies the reason for the miss chance: "Likewise, your own attacks have a 20% miss chance, since you sometimes go ethereal just as you are about to strike."

Which means that among other things that under any interpretation at all, things like a Force Bow or Ghost Touch weapons would still have zero miss chance.[/quote] Um, Ghost Touch weapons don't reach across the Ethereal plane. They are only effective at hitting incorporeal, not ethereal, targets. Riverine weapons or Ethereal Reavers, however, would work (since the weapon is on both the material and the ethereal at all times).





You can also try to swing the Ring of Blinking as an intelligent item by a lot of different means, and doing so saves you from the action cost. (Although yeah, unless you are in a hurry or trying to be especially quiet, you should totally be activating it every 3-4 rounds).

Or if having an intelligent rings isn't available, Haunt Shift or Planar Binding a Fiend of Possession should do the trick.

[Beheld]

Um, Ghost Touch weapons don't reach across the Ethereal plane. They are only effective at hitting incorporeal, not ethereal, targets. Riverine weapons or Ethereal Reavers, however, would work (since the weapon is on both the material and the ethereal at all times).

I don't know the specifics on Ghost Touch weapons since I don't play fighters, but fair enough.


Or if having an intelligent rings isn't available, Haunt Shift or Planar Binding a Fiend of Possession should do the trick.

I mostly try to avoid super broken things, so plans that involve Planar Binding at all are not ones I really talk about. Much less one using the terrible Possession rules in Fiendish Codex that allow you to bind a 6HD creature and then have it possess an Iron Golem.

(I realize you might be referring to the PrC from Fiend Folio, but I don't know the specifics of how that is broken, so meh.)

[Necroticplague]

I mostly try to avoid super broken things, so plans that involve Planar Binding at all are not ones I really talk about. Much less one using the terrible Possession rules in Fiendish Codex that allow you to bind a 6HD creature and then have it possess an Iron Golem.

(I realize you might be referring to the PrC from Fiend Folio, but I don't know the specifics of how that is broken, so meh.)

I was referring to the PRC, yeah. Never heard of what you're referring to. Which Fiendish Codex is that in?

[LordOfCain]

I was referring to the PRC, yeah. Never heard of what you're referring to. Which Fiendish Codex is that in?

And page number please.

[Beheld]

Fiendish Codex I, Hordes of the Abyss.

Demonic Possession section, PG 21-26. It's really unclear how monsters can become or are possession, all it says is "Sometimes a fiend with at least 4 Hit Dice and a Charisma score of at least 13 has the supernatural ability to shuck its physical form and take on an incorporeal one that enables it to possess other creatures—or even objects."

And then later says "A fiend with this ability has a Challenge Rating 2 higher than standard fiends of its kind. For example, a succubus with the possession ability is CR 9 rather than CR 7."

So you apparently can apply the "template" to Core demons, but no rules on how to get or find one. Best overview of the rules I've seen is this (http://tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=56299&start=0).