Super-duper Sneak Attack

[Laurellien]

Simple question, how does one get the most sneak attack damage on a level 17 character who is CG?

[insecure]

Which books are you alloved?

[SamTheCleric]

Hmm... obviously lots of rogue levels...

Also the feat Martial Stance (Assassin's Stance) would get you +2d6 sneak attack... and I think there's a spell that adds to your sneak attack.

The feat Craven adds your character level to your sneak attack damage...

And I'm spent.

[Chronicled]

Consistently, or for one attack? A Human Factotum with a high enough Int and plenty of Fonts of Inspiration could drop a single 36d6 Sneak Attack per encounter at that level (without any flaws for more FoI, even).

Edit: Actually, with Nightstalker's Transformation, that would be 39d6 1/day, with 3d6 SA for the rest of that fight.

This is of course before items granting more SA.

[Laurellien]

Consistently ideally, and no ToB. Other than that, any 3.5 book or 3.0 unupdated (so no song and silence). Oh, also must be human.

[Meat Shield]

Also a weapon in CompWarrior (?) that gives another 2d6 SA I believe

[Keld Denar]

Someone put together a a build of classes with SA and SA-like that managed 20d6 by level 20. That was a very very long time ago.

The most you could get theoretically? I'd imagine a high level Unseen Seer type character could Wish for a Greater Consumptive Field, walk through a rural neighborhood to get an uber caster level, then casting Hunter's Eye. Hunter's Eye gives you 1d6/CL, and since you CL is arbitrarily high, you'd have an arbitrarily high amount of SA.

Really, is there anything that can't be accomplished with the widespread merciless slaughter of innocents?

[Kurald Galain]

Things that help...

Rogue 3 has two dice of sneak attack, whereas Rogue 1 / Psychic rogue 1 / Spellthief 1 has three dice. Combine with more classes for yet more dice.

Rogue's Vest item.

Humanbane feat. Improved Psionic Shot feat. Sniper's Shot spell. Any ranged touch spell for a weapon.

Multiple attacks combined with Cloud of Daggers spell.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

Ignoring for a moment the crazy spells like any caster at all, I'll give you the low down on a few simple ways to get high damage sneak attack characters.

1: If you want, you can mix up levels of Rogue/SA variant Fighter/various PrCs to get more SA per attack.

2) Common builds are three:

a) Archer Rogue-You take Rapid Shot, you Haste yourself, you get an intelligent ring of blink. You then Fire a full attack from your longbow (Elf) or Shortbow. This gives you at level 17 with only Rogue levels: +25/+25/+25/+20/+15 each doing 1d8 + 9d6 + 1 + enhancements on bow and arrows.

b) Halfling Hurler-You are a Halfling, You take Rapid Shot, You take Quick Draw, You get an intelligent Ring of Blink, You haste yourself, you use your first special ability to take Perfect TWFing without meeting the pre-reqs, since you don't have to. You then throw Alchemists Fire or Acid Flasks drawn from your Handy Haversack. You haste yourself and get: +25/+25/+25/+25/+20/+20/+15/+15 each doing 10d6 Fire damage with an additional 10d6 next round, or 10d6 Acid damage.

c) Pounce Rogue-You are a Water Orc, You take one level of Barbarian, specifically Spirit Lion Totem, you take the Whirling Frenzy variant, you haste yourself, you greater invisibility yourself, you take Perfect Two Weapon Fighting with your first special ability, you Pounce Full attack people at +30/+30/+30/+30/+25/+25/+20/+20 for 9d6 + 13 or 6 (Str) + weapon stuff.

Of course in reality if you start the game at level 17 you should get yourself a wand of Divine Power too, and Greater Magic Weapon weapons, and spend other money on weapons.

Also, all three builds benefit from PrCs that add 1d6 SA and +1 BAB at first level. And all three should have a wand bracer with Golem/Plant/Grave strike and except Pounce they should have Sniper's Shot just in case. Also Craven.

So if you assume that the Bow Rogue has a +3 Bow and +3 Arrows, and the TWF has both +3 Weapons, and the Hurler spends his money on flasks, and then they get GMWed then the full routines are:

+34/+34/+34/+29/+24/+19 for 1d8+13d6+22 each.

+30/+30/+30/+30/+25/+25/+20/+20/+15/+15 for 10d6+17 elemental damage each at flat footed touch AC and possibly an additional 10d6+17 next round.

+36/+36/+36/+36/+31/+31/+26/+26/+21/+21 for 11d6+2d8+27 or 11d6+2d8+34

[SurlySeraph]

1. Go to www.crystalkeep.com
2. Look up every prestige class that gets +1d6 Sneak Attack at 1st level.
3. Realize how similar most of their prerequisites are.
4. Take as many of them as you can.
5. Take as many base classes that have Sneak Attack progression at 1st level as you can, too. Rogue 1 / Psychic rogue 1 / Spellthief 1/ Sneak Attack Fighter (from Unearthed Arcana) 2 is 5th level and has 5d6 Sneak Attack.

EDIT: Invisible Blade 1/ Nightsong Enforcer 1/ Ronin 1/ Shadow Thief of Amn 1 (might not be possible to justify outside of Forgotten Realms) is the best I can find for a Chaotic Good character. A lot of PrCs that get Sneak Attack at 1st level require evil alignment. I suppose you could put an alignment shift in your backstory and take them anyway, but that's kinda cheap, even for an optimization discussion.

In any case, Rogue 9 / Psychic rogue 1 / Spellthief 1/ Sneak Attack Fighter 2/ Invisible Blade 1/ Nightsong Enforcer 1/ Ronin 1/ Shadow Thief of Amn 1 is 17th level and has +13d6 Sneak Attack. Using various methods outlined above, you can boost that some more.

The problem with this is that having 1 or 2 attacks per round with a truly ludicrous amount of SA damage is less effective than having 4 or 5 attacks per round with a merely ridiculous amount of Sneak Attack damage. This build will probably suck up all of your feats into qualifying for the PrCs. Spending those feats on the Two-Weapon Fighting tree to get more attacks per round is probably going to be more effective.

If you have any feats left open, take the feat Telling Blow. It makes you deal SA damage on critical hits. That with a Keen kukri or rapier (or, better yet, dual-wielding Keen kukris or rapiers) allows you to put a lot of hurt on enemies.

@V: Yes. Very much yes.

[Tengu]

1. Go to www.crystalkeep.com
2. Look up every prestige class that gets +1d6 Sneak Attack at 1st level.
3. Realize how similar most of their prerequisites are.
4. Take as many of them as you can.
5. Take as many base classes that have Sneak Attack progression at 1st level as you can, too. Rogue 1 / Psychic rogue 1 / Spellthief 1/ Sneak Attack Fighter (from Unearthed Arcana) 2 is 5th level and has 5d6 Sneak Attack.

0. Make sure your DM uses the partial BAB rule, or else you won't be able to hit the broad side of a barn.

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

Surly, you are misunderstanding the Variant Fighter, you get Rogue SA instead of Fighter feats, that doesn't mean you get 1d6 SA whenever you would have gotten a feat, it means you get 1d6 SA at odd levels exactly like a rogue, and give up all your fighter feats.

[Person_Man]

Sneak Attack increases by an average of +1.75 per level, many enemies are immune to precision damage, and most classes that offer Sneak Attack have less then full BAB. So its not a particularly optimal way to improve your damage output.

Having said that, here are my suggestions:

TWF: More attacks.

Double Hit: Allows you to make two attacks when you make an attack of opportunity. Miniatures Handbook.

Craven: +1 Sneak Attack damage per character level. Champions of Ruin.

Dragonfire Strike: Allows you to convert Sneak Attack into energy damage, and adds +1d6 damage. In addition to being potent against enemies with vulnerability to energy, this theoretically solves Rogues' problems with undead, plants, etc., but the wording of exactly when it becomes energy damage is ambiguous, so its debatable. Dragon Magic.

Here's a good thread on the subject by Fixer. Note that there are a lot of feats that will give you some margin benefit (Arterial Strike, Deadly Precision) that really aren't worth it. There are also several really good feats (Staggering Strike, Maiming Strike, Neraph Charge) that don't add damage, but are useful nonetheless.

[Chronos]

Since nobody else has mentioned it yet, I'll point out that there's a feat in Book of Exalted Deeds that changes your SA dice from d6 to d8. There's also an incarnum feat in Magic of Incarnum that adds bonus points of damage to sneak attacks, but it's only worthwhile if you have some other source of essentia to fuel it.

[NephandiMan]

You can also up the damage by taking a couple feats from the Mercenaries book. I think they're Improved Sneak Attack and Superior Sneak Attack - one gives you d8s for SA rather than D6s, and the other upgrades those to d10s.

Picture a 19th-level rogue swinging 10 bastard swords with every sneak attack. Yeah. And that's without stacking more dice on top of that.

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

Are you talking about the most damage per attack, or the most attacks that qualify for SA?

The former, we've already covered pretty clearly.

The latter, I would recommend a natural weapon 'X of smack' build; a rogue/druid/totemist with aberration wild shape, for instance, could turn into a Rukanyr, with a whopping number of natural attacks, add girallon arms, threefold mask of the chimera, etc., for an even more ridiculously whopping number, and so on.

Even 1d6 sneak attack adds up when you're making thirteen+ attacks in a single round at full BAB.

A homegrown example.

[SurlySeraph]

Surly, you are misunderstanding the Variant Fighter, you get Rogue SA instead of Fighter feats, that doesn't mean you get 1d6 SA whenever you would have gotten a feat, it means you get 1d6 SA at odd levels exactly like a rogue, and give up all your fighter feats.

Oh? Are you sure? N'er mind then.

Also, Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick, is back! *praises and annoys him*

[Laurellien]

Thankyou very much, this is all brilliant advice that is really useful!