[3.5] Best feats for sneak attacking

[Myou]

Can anyone sugget some feats that will help one of my characters make the most of his sneak attack ability? (He's a rogue//assassin right now, and will be adding shadowdancer.)

All sources are open.

Thanks in advance. ^^

[Kurald Galain]

Try "Craven".

[sombrastewart]

Here are a few for you:

Telling Blow - Add sneak attack damage on critical hits. If you use something like a rapier with a large crit range, this is the kind of way to really stack it up.

Deadly Precision - Reroll 1's on sneak attack damage. Great feat, but if you'd rather just buy it, get Bracers of Murder from Drow of the Underdark. Since you're in assassin already, you might want to, given that they also give you a +2 to your Death Attack DC.

Craven - Heroes of Horror, isn't it? It adds your level to sneak attack damage, I think. I don't know, off-hand.

Those are just off the top of my head.

[Dyllan]

Craven is clearly great, as stated. It's + your character level to damage on sneak attack, and -2 to will saves vs. fear.

Telling blow I'm not so convinced of. If you're playing your rogue/assassin right, you should be getting sneak attack due to flanking, surprise or an invisibility/blink type effect pretty much all the time anyway. It could be good if you're playing a character totally geared towards criticals, the kind who either gets a critical threat, or misses.

Deadly Precision is not nearly as good though. There is a 1 in 6 chance of it doing anything on any d6. When it does do something, you add between 1 and 5 damage, or an average of 3 damage. That means it adds an average of 0.5 damage added per die rolled. You have to be rolling 7 dice of sneak attack damage before it has as much effect as adding 1d6 sneak attack damage would. I'd definitely try to get the ability from the magic item instead, were I you.

[MammonAzrael]

I believe Craven is from Champions of Ruin, not Heroes of Horror.

Also, here is some info you may find useful, in the 3.5 Rogue Handbook.

[Person_Man]

Sneak Attack feats. Feat index.

The four most important Sneak Attack feats:

Dragonfire Strike: Turns your Sneak Attack damage into energy damage, bypassing Precision Damage immunity, assuming your DM is nice about it (some argue that you must first deal the Sneak Attack damage before it becomes energy damage).

Staggering Strike: Staggers enemy for 1 round when you Sneak Attack them with a melee attack. Ridiculously useful against boss enemies, in that it prevents them from making a full attack or casting a full round action spells.

Craven: +1 damage per character level on every Sneak Attack. The equivalent of Power Attack without reducing your To-Hit bonus.

Darkstalker: Enemies with Tremorsense, Scent, Blindsight, etc, must still make a Spot check in order to locate you when you Hide.


Ways to Qualify for Sneak Attack:

Spoiler

Show

1) Ambush: If you ambush your enemy, you get a free Surprise Round against them. A Flat Footed enemy loses their Dex bonus until they act.
Remember the the Surprise Round is only a Standard Action. So you'll need Greater Manyshot or Pounce (remember that you can still Charge if your actions are limited) to get a full attack.

2) Win Initiative: If you win Initiative, you enemy is still Flat Footed, and still denied their Dex bonus.

3) Flanking: Have someone summon a lot of weak creatures.

4) More Flanking: Invest in Handle Animal. Buy a lot of dogs. They're cheap and easy to train.

5) Still More Flanking: Invest in Tumble, get behind your enemies, have your party's meatshield fight in front of them.

6) Yet More Flanking: Adaptable Flanker feat (PHBII) allows you to flank from any square. Combine with a reach weapon, and now you can stand next to or even behind a friend and still flank an enemy.

7) Dear Gods, How Much Flanking Do We Need?: Obtain Familiar + Improved Familiar, if you can cast arcane spells. Now you have a full time friend to Flank with, and he can Share Spells with you (like Alter Self and Greater Invisibility).

8) Armor Lock: 1st level spell from Complete Scoundrel that works on enemies wearing armor. Buy a wand.

9) Greater Invisibility: Once your party hits level 7ish, there's really no reason someone in your group shouldn't cast this on you at the start of every combat.

10) Ring of Blinking: If you're party members are jerks and refuse to cast Greater Invisibility on you, use this item instead. Pick up the Pierce Magical Concealment feat (Complete Arcane) to ignore your 20% miss chance.

11) Skill Tricks: Again, check out the Complete Scoundrel. Skill Tricks can be very useful.

12) Fear: If your enemy is Cowering, he loses his Dex bonus. There are a large variety of ways to get and use Fear effects, and a variety of ways to corner or immobilize him.

13) Stun: If your enemy is stunned, he loses his Dex bonus. Work with the Monk in your party, or ask the caster to use spells with this effect.

14) Blind: If your enemy is blind, he loses his Dex bonus. There are spells and alchemical items that do this.

15) Helpless: There are a variety of spells and a few effects that render your foe paralyzed or otherwise helpless. A Rogue's Coup de Grace almost never fails.

16) Hide in Plain Site: There are many ways to get this. My favorite is a dip into Warlock let's you Hide in Plain Site every round as a Swift action. This means that any enemy who fails their Spot check is denied their Dex bonus against your next attack. Not efficient if you want to make full attacks, but helpful nonetheless.

17) Grappling: An opponent who is grappled loses their Dex bonus to everyone except the grappler, another way to tag team with your party members.

18) Net, Razor Net, Lasso: Each of these is a touch attack that imposes a -4 penalty on Dex. Penalties from different sources stack. Enemies with 0 Dex count as being paralyzed. I wouldn't even bother with taking the Exotic Weapon feats, because touch attacks are easy, so the -4 penalty to hit is palatable. Though I would invest in Spell Storing weapons, and find spells that deal Dex damage/penalties.

19) Feint: This is a retarded waste of an action in most cases. But it works well at low levels if you're not using TWF, and if you're an Invisible Blade with the Surprising Riposte feat (Drow of the Underdark), it works for a full attack.

20) Telling Blow (PHBII): When you crit, you also deal Sneak Attack. I'm not a fan of this method. It doesn't double your Sneak Attack if you flank and crit, WotC has made it clear that it just let's you qualify. So at best 30% of your attacks get Sneak Attack. There are many better uses for your feats, IMO.

[Curmudgeon]

Deadly Precision - Reroll 1's on sneak attack damage. Great feat

No, that's a sucky feat.

Let's do the analysis. It lets you reroll 1s on sneak attack dice, which on average improves a 1 to 3.5 (+2.5 points of damage). But this only happens 1 time in 6, and Rogues only get a sneak attack die every 2 levels; the average improvement is +2.5/12, or +0.21 points of damage per Rogue level.

Contrast this with Craven, which adds +1 point of damage per character level, and you'll see that Deadly Precision is a poor choice.

- - - -

Telling Blow is what I describe as a "margin" feat. It creates a third trigger for sneak attack damage: a critical hit. This overlaps with, but is independent of, flanking and foes denied their DEX bonus to AC. It only performs well with weapons with a wide threat range; that's mostly melee weapons such as a keen rapier (15-20 threat range). For ranged weapons, the standard crossbow with Keen Edge cast on the bolts threatens on 17-20; a great crossbow (Races of Stone) is an exotic weapon with an 18-20 base threat range. Telling Blow has an additional interesting characteristic, in that its precision damage trigger is solely dependent on the critical hit, so it also works when

• you're more than 30' away;
• the target has concealment; and
• you don't move at least 10' (for skirmish).

So here's how Telling Blow works for you.

1. You've got Craven, which adds a non-dice bonus to all sneak attack. The dice don't get multiplied on a critical hit, but the Craven bonus does.
2. Your encounter starts at more than 30' away. You fire at the enemy instead of wasting the opportunity to do damage by moving to close. Any critical hits add sneak attack damage, with Craven damage multiplied.
3. You're visually undetectable, which gives you +2 to your attack. You strike, but it turns out the enemy has Uncanny Dodge and is normally immune to sneak attack in these circumstances. If you get a critical hit you add sneak attack damage anyway, with Craven damage multiplied.
4. You've got a flanking partner, but you get into position first. You attack; a critical hit also adds sneak attack damage, with Craven damage multiplied.
5. You and a flanking partner get into position, but it turns out the enemy has Improved Uncanny Dodge. You still get a +2 flanking bonus to your attack; a critical hit also adds sneak attack damage, with Craven damage multiplied.
6. You're all set to do a sneak attack but somebody throws in a spell like Darkness that adds concealment, which spoils most sneak attacks. You attack anyway; a critical hit also adds sneak attack damage, with Craven damage multiplied.

These are marginal circumstances; much of the time you'll get to use Greater Invisibility or a flanking partner to make reliable sneak attacks. Add together all these marginal circumstances, and Telling Blow (with the right choice of weapons and tactics) becomes a worthwhile feat.

- - - -

Adaptable Flanker + Vexing Flanker: You can flank by yourself with a reach weapon and armor spikes.

Sorry; that's not correct.

When you are adjacent to the chosen target, you can choose to count as occupying any other square you threaten for purposes of determining flanking bonuses for you and your allies. You also occupy your current square for flanking an opponent.

Seems promising, right? Sorry, you've missed the basic requirement for flanking:

flank

To be directly on the other side of a character who is being threatened by another character.

Adaptable Flanker can let you count as threatening from other spaces around a foe -- but it cannot also make you count as another character. You cannot flank by yourself.

[AslanCross]

I know these aren't feats, but they can help Sneak Attack immensely---if your DM allows Tome of Battle.

There are two stances from the Shadow Hand discipline:
Island of Blades: If you're adjacent to an ally and an enemy is adjacent to both of you, it's automatically considered flanked.
Assassin's Stance: Gives +2d6 Sneak Attack.

A straight rogue can take these via the Martial Stance feat, though you need to eat up another feat slot with Martial Study to actually qualify for Martial Stance, sadly.

[Myou]

Thanks to everyone who's posted, you've given some very helpful advice.

My DM, being the kindly and indulgent soul he is, has doubled my number of feats so here's my current selection;

Starting;

Weapon Finesse
DarkStalker
Two-Weapon Fighting
Keen Intellect

Later;

3. Sacred Strike

3. Improved Inititive

6. Arterial Strike

6. Improved TWF

9. Improved critical: Kukri

9. Telling Blow

12. Greater TWF

12. Craven

15. Staggering Strike

15. Persistent Attacker

18. Weapon Focus: Kukri

18. Disembowling Strike


I'm trying to make as much use of sneak attacks and criticals as I can. And I plan to never stay in melee against multiple opponents after making my sneak attacks.

Does anyone have any advice on the feats I've chosen?

Or know any more ways to boost my criticals.

[shadowfox]

If you've got a good bluff skill, then Combat Expertise --> Improved Feint. While it doesn't improve your sneak attack damage, it does allow you to hit your enemy easier (hopefully) by pulling off a feint, and you get sneak attacks when you normally wouldn't be able to.

The fact that you need Combat Expertise is the one downside, as it may be a feat you're not interested in and you may not use it.

[Thurbane]

Thus thread has just given me a great idea for a homebrew Rogue PrC - one who has reduced skill points and special abilities, but gets bonus sneak attack feats, like a fighter gets fighter feats. Unless there is one already?

Needs a name like Back Stabber but less cheesey.

[Emperor Tippy]

Dip a level of Swordsage (after level 6 IIRC) so that you can get Assassins Stance and a few maneuvers. Take the feat Shadow Blade to add Dex to Damage when you are in a Shadow Hand stance and using a Shadow Hand weapon (daggers qualify).

That's an extra 2d6+Dex damage on every attack.

[Person_Man]

Thus thread has just given me a great idea for a homebrew Rogue PrC - one who has reduced skill points and special abilities, but gets bonus sneak attack feats, like a fighter gets fighter feats. Unless there is one already?

Needs a name like Back Stabber but less cheesey.

Homebrew

Brigand Rogue add on:

At levels 6, 12, 14, and 18, you gain a bonus feat. This bonus feat must require Sneak Attack or Skill Focus as a pre-requisite. You must otherwise qualify for the feat in order to take it. At level 20, you gain the ability to disembowel your enemy. On any attack that successfully hits and deals Sneak Attack damage, you deal maximum damage. This includes base damage, bonus damage from Sneak Attack, magical enhancements, critical hit multipliers, etc. You may use this ability once per day as an Immediate Action, and must announce that you are using it after you successfully hit but before you roll damage.

Requirement: Someone else in your party must play a full caster and know what they're doing in order for you to take this add on.

[monty]

If you've got a good bluff skill, then Combat Expertise --> Improved Feint. While it doesn't improve your sneak attack damage, it does allow you to hit your enemy easier (hopefully) by pulling off a feint, and you get sneak attacks when you normally wouldn't be able to.

The fact that you need Combat Expertise is the one downside, as it may be a feat you're not interested in and you may not use it.

Feinting really isn't that good, though. You're much better off flanking or being invisible. Also, the crap prerequisite makes it even less appealing.

[Decoy Lockbox]

Before we quite playing 3.5, me and some friends cooked up our version of the ultimate sneak attack guy. It was rogue with a splash of swordsage and swashbuckler. Each sneak attack did weapon+str+int+dex+sneak attack+2d6 extra sneak attack (from ToB stance), and the character could use island of blades instead of assassin's stance when the need arose. It even had a few ranged attack powers from swordsage, which it could use to sneak attack at a range during surprise rounds or against flatfooted people. It was loads of fun to play, and was rather versatile.

[Myou]

If you've got a good bluff skill, then Combat Expertise --> Improved Feint. While it doesn't improve your sneak attack damage, it does allow you to hit your enemy easier (hopefully) by pulling off a feint, and you get sneak attacks when you normally wouldn't be able to.

The fact that you need Combat Expertise is the one downside, as it may be a feat you're not interested in and you may not use it.

I looked at that route, but I really want to try and avoid spending that long in melee combat, I'll be relying primarily on a quick flank/attacking from invisibility to get sneak attacks.

It'd be nice to have this too, but to fully capitalise on SA AoOs would probably require about 4 feats, and I just think there are better ways to spend them. Thanks for the tip though!

Dip a level of Swordsage (after level 6 IIRC) so that you can get Assassins Stance and a few maneuvers. Take the feat Shadow Blade to add Dex to Damage when you are in a Shadow Hand stance and using a Shadow Hand weapon (daggers qualify).

That's an extra 2d6+Dex damage on every attack.

That would be great, but I actually don't want to take any dips or multiclass. Great idea though. ^^

Feinting really isn't that good, though. You're much better off flanking or being invisible. Also, the crap prerequisite makes it even less appealing.

Yeah.

Before we quite playing 3.5, me and some friends cooked up our version of the ultimate sneak attack guy. It was rogue with a splash of swordsage and swashbuckler. Each sneak attack did weapon+str+int+dex+sneak attack+2d6 extra sneak attack (from ToB stance), and the character could use island of blades instead of assassin's stance when the need arose. It even had a few ranged attack powers from swordsage, which it could use to sneak attack at a range during surprise rounds or against flatfooted people. It was loads of fun to play, and was rather versatile.

Wow, sounds good! If I make a multiclassed sneak attacker in the future I'll know how to do it now.

[Talic]

That would be great, but I actually don't want to take any dips or multiclass. Great idea though. ^^

Martial Stance and Martial Study will get you the abilities without multiclassing.

If Assassin's stance is a level 3 stance, then you need Initiator Level 5 to use it. Provided you have no levels in ToB classes, your initiator level is 1/2 your Class level. Thus, at level 10, you qualify for the feat.

Take martial study at an earlier level (3 for a level 1 maneuver, 6 for a level 2 maneuver), then, at level 10, you can swap your rogue special ability for a feat, and take martial stance for Assassin's stance. If you want your rogue special ability, do it at 12. The extra Sneak attack damage will serve you well, IMO.

[Hal]

How about Skill Tricks, too? There are a few that let you render your opponent flat-footed, which is just what you need for Sneak Attack.

Acrobatic Backstab - Tumble through an enemy's space successfully and your next melee attack on this turn treats the enemy as flat-footed.

Hidden Blade - (requires Quick Draw) Lets you hide a blade with Sleight of Hand, then draw it and attack, rendering opponent flat-footed.

Flick of the Wrist is a feat from CW that does about the same thing, but can only be used on each opponent once per battle.