Sharing Sneak Attack with your familiar

[Beni-Kujaku]

Consider an Unseen Seer. He has Sneak Attack and a familiar. When he designates his familiar as the "toucher" for his Shivering Touch and the familiar hits the target, does it deal the master's sneak attack damage, since it's his spell? I assume not, since it's the familiar making the attack roll.

Is there a way to share or give your sneak attack dice to other people so that they can enjoy stabbing people too?

[Aracor]

In theory you could share the Hunter's Eye spell with your familiar, and that would give it sneak attack as long as it doesn't move out of range. Or you could cast Hunter's Eye targeting your familiar instead of yourself, which means it doesn't have a range limitation, but still a limited duration unless you're combining it with persist spell.

[Gruftzwerg]

Is there a way to share or give your sneak attack dice to other people so that they can enjoy stabbing people too?

If your intention is to really "share" your sneak attack, we have to step into cheesy TO area.

1) Symbiotic template
Imho the best options here are all around the abuse of the "symbiotic"-template (savage species). But all of those needs hard investments. You either need an Ice Assassin of yourself as guest or be a warlock with either the Crawling Eye or Disembodies Hand invocation.

With either one of these you can "share" all your abilities to your familiar.


Another option would be to be Dvati and use one of the twins as guest for the familiar.

Note that the familiar and the guest needs to change in size and type to be a legal host creature (e.g. lesser/-/greater Spider Form or Polymorph/- any Object).


2) Dvati Polymorph cheese + DM Fiat
Polymorph both of you into a pair of Dvati twins. Argue with your DM that you should now share abilities xD (I don't think that this is gonna work by RAW)

[Saintheart]

Probably won't solve your problem, but the third party product Book of Familiars by Troll Lord Games (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24984070&postcount=23)(the 3.5 one, not the Pathfinder or fifth edition one) gives rogues a Shadow Familiar that explicitly shares the master's ability to sneak attack and the master's sneak attack dice.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Thank you everyone! Looks like it's not really possible as-is. Doesn't really surprise me, it was just to check.


Probably won't solve your problem, but the third party product Book of Familiars by Troll Lord Games (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24984070&postcount=23)(the 3.5 one, not the Pathfinder or fifth edition one) gives rogues a Shadow Familiar that explicitly shares the master's ability to sneak attack and the master's sneak attack dice.

I'll check that out. Not applicable to my game, for obvious reasons, but I very much like those 3rd party specialized sourcebooks.

[ShurikVch]

Channel the Mishtai/Greater Channel the Mishtai (Magic of Incarnum): the Mishtai in question is

"The Pillow Spider," famed female rogue (Sudarn Period): Gain +4 insight bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks; sneak attack +1d6.
Greater Channel the Mishtai is better because it allow to directly select the Mishtai rather than roll for random, but with some luck even Channel the Mishtai may do the work

Also

Share Spells: You may have any spell you cast on yourself also affect your familiar. To be shared, the spell must have you as its target; effect and area spells cannot be shared. Spells with touch range cannot be shared unless you target yourself with the touch.
You and your familiar can even share spells that normally do not affect creatures of the familiar’s type (which is usually magical beast). The shared spell need not be arcane; any spell you can cast on yourself can also affect your familiar. You also can share spell-like and supernatural abilities, provided you can target yourself with them.

All powers granted by vestiges are supernatural in origin, even if they replicate spells or abilities that are not normally considered magical.
Andromalius, the Repentant Rogue grants 2d6 Sneak Attack