[3.5e] Hide and Sneak attacking - some scenarios.

[Bobur]

Hello everyone, I didn't find anything with a quick search and it might be a bit too much for the RAW Q/A thread, so I want to ask here:
I am just starting to play a rogue, and begin to realize how tricky everything including SA can be. so please help me clear some of that up.

1) The obvious: Flanking and surprise attack.
2) Denying Dex/FF - certain conditions, balance, grapple... being invisible when attacking.

3) But it becomes a bit tricky when you add the hide skill to the mix.
Hide, if successful, basically makes you invisible and the easiest way to go from there is a ranged attack (30ft)

4) You can hide in darkness or fog (concealment) But you can't SA as long as you are inside the darkness. Or can I attack a target outside of the concealment zone with a bow or blade and do SA dmg? I don't think so, but maybe you know for sure.

5) Hiding and melee: Here it becomes a bit confusing in my mind.
I make a hide check (maybe with bluff for distraction) and wait for my next turn. Can I then move to a target and melee attack it for SA dmg?
I assume not - I would think that I am not hidden anymore once I leave my hiding place and therefore can't SA. This approach would work in a surprise attack though with a partial charge.

6) Hiding behind a corner/door/cover: Works just fine. What this does is that the target doesn't see you looking around the corner. However, as soon as he moves past the corner he would automatically see you, since you have no longer a cover to hide behind, yes?
What I could do in that scenario is to ready an arrow though.

7) Awareness: Let's say I shot a target and he knows that I am there, hiding somewhere. How does that affect Sneak attack options? I would think of it the same way as invisibility, as long as he doesn't find me with a spot check or by moving around cover, he should remain vulnerable. Not sure on this though.

8) Any other scenario... whatever comes to your mind that might be worth noting.

Thanks in advance.

I just started playing a rogue but I am a bit astonished as to how easy it is to block SAs. 1 Blur or fog spell completely negates my main dmg source, while half the enemies are immune to begin with.
Unless I get darkvision or low light vision, sneak attacking from a dark corridor or just in the night doesn't work either.... 3.5e really doesn't want rogues to do SA, does it. ^^°

[Kayblis]

Rogues have a huge damage potential, and there are tons of ways to work around surprise as you mentioned. Conversely, there are tons of ways for rogues to keep their trick functional too.

1 and 2 are simple, as you stated. Flank or Dex denial are straightforward enough and should be common in group play. Hide is when it gets a bit more complicated, but it's workable. You can hide any time you have cover or concealment, so it's easy to do in the dark. You also can create a distraction to hide with a Bluff check, although that's not needed if you're in a fog or dark place.

If you do create a distraction, you need to move into a hiding place, and the rules state a general 1ft of movement per skill rank so you can hide behind anything close by that would give you cover. Hiding in that way incurs a -10 penalty, and is done as part of the movement to get to your destination. If you have Full Cover/Concealment, no Hide check is really needed from then on, but you can make the check to avoid having people know where you ran to.

Now, from hiding you can snipe a target with a ranged attack, and your location is now known. You can avoid being spotted by beating the target's Spot check with a Hide check at -20 penalty(sniping rules), and it costs a move action after your attack. This means sniping and hiding is effectively a full-round action with a hefty penalty to your check.

If someone knows you're behind some cover spot and it's not Full Cover(as in, you failed a Hide check), you don't get sneak attack. You have to move to a different location(possibly along the hiding cover) and succeed in an opposed check before you can be considered hidden again. A bluff check helps here too, if you can't move to another cover spot.

Hiding into melee is finnicky, you can do a surprise round attack but from then on it's on a round by round basis. You can use concealment from darkness or fog to roll Hide vs your opponent's Spot, and hide close by with that. You make Hide checks as part of another action, and take a -20 by doing it while attacking. Any miss chance negates SA damage, so you need a way to see your opponent without being affected yourself - get some sort of Darkvision, Tremorsense, Blindsight(Blindfold of True Darkness is great for that), or True Sight. The Pierce Magical Concealment feat also works wonders if your concealment comes from friendly caster spells. If you're in a tough situation, True Strike lets you ignore all miss chances for 1 attack.