In the interest of getting the most out of a character class that received very little love in D&D v3.5, I’ve taken a look at a couple of methods for optimizing the Rogue’s best combat feature: the Sneak Attack.
As you may know, a Rogue gets bonus damage whenever he is within 30 feet of his opponent, and that opponent is “flat footed” or flanked in relation to him. There are a number of ways to acheive the “flat footed” or flanked condition. Traditionally a Rogue will sneak up on his oppenent (by means of Hide and Move Silently). Additionally, the Feint maneuver can deny an opponent his dexterity bonus (rendering him effectively flat-footed). Flanking is a simple matter of getting an ally and proper footwork. I’ll be focusing primarily upon the suprise (sneaking & hiding) aspect of the Sneak Attack.
In order to take full advantage of the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 rules to deliver optimal damage, the Rogue will want to make as many Sneak Attacks as possible during a combat. This can be accomplished by attacking, withdrawing, hiding, stalking, and repeating as necessary, but there remains a mechanism by which a Rogue may take several attacks before his opponents get their guards up.
This is accomplished through a careful selection of feats. Both the Two-Weapon Fighting and Archery subsets of feats allow for additional attacks, but are generally thought to be non-complimentary. In the case of thrown weapons, however, both paths apply. Quick Draw, Two-Weapon Fighting, Point-blank Shot, and Rapid Shot are the primary feats for this attack-optimization scheme.
*edit on 2005-01-24: a similarly-cheesy Fighter variant for milking thrown attacks can be found at the Privateer Press Forum
The Feats
Quick Draw is required for a thrown-weapon specialist, as readying a weapon is required after every attack (loading a bow apparently is easier than drawing a knife in D&D). This allows the Rogue to make more than two attacks in a round with thrown weapons. After taking all available attacks, the Rogue can then draw again as a free action and thus never be caught completely disarmed.
Two-Weapon Fighting per the PHB, page 160, the Two-Weapon Fighting style applies explicitly to thrown weapons. Combined with Quick Draw, this feat allows a 1st level Human Rogue with a Dex of 15 (minimum for Two-Weapon Fighting) to have two Sneak Attacks at +0 to attack with an additional 1d6 per hit against a flat-footed opponent.
Rapid Shot allows for an additional ranged attack during a full-attack action. While not directly useful during a Suprise Round (which only is good for one standard action), this can be extremely useful if the Rogue’s opponents are flat footed for other reasons. This can include the first round of normal combat, provided that the Rogue acts before his target (a combatant does not recover from the Flat Footed status until his initiative, and is thereby elegible for Sneak Attacks). A 3rd level Rogue can attack once during the suprise round with a +4 with an additional 2d6 damage. During the following round, if he attacks an opponent whose initiative has not come around yet, he may make three Sneak Attacks at a +0 with the same additional 2d6 damage per hit. That is potentially 8d6 of sneak attack damage before the opponent has had a chance to react (presuming some good attack rolls).
Point-Blank Shot gives a +1 bonus on attack rolls for ranged opponents withing 30 feet, which happens to be the distance from which a Rogue can Sneak Attack from. This effectively reduces the penalty a Rogue gets from fighting with two weapons. A 6th level Human Rogue can make one Sneak Attack during a suprise round at a +7 to attack, with an additional 3d6 damage. During the subsequent Full Attack action, he can make three Sneak Attacks (against an opponent that is still flat-footed) at +3, for a total of 12d6 extra damage if all land.
Improved Initiative is a nice finishing touch. Once Rapid Shot enters the picture, it becomes especially valuable to win initiative after the suprise round. Add a +4 bonus to a Rogue’s high Dexterity and you’ve got the odds in your favor. At 9th level a Rogue can attack once during the Suprise Round at +9, with an additional 5d6 damage per hit, and upon winning initiative take four sneak attacks at +5, +5, +5, and +0 with the same additional 5d6 per hit. Assuming the last attack misses (with no attack bonus, it is quite likely at that level), the Rogue would do 20d6 in sneak attack damage while his victim (or rather, worthy opponent) still hasn’t pulled his pants up.
Further accentuation
The strongest feature of any Rogue is his skills, however interesting or potent the Sneak Attack ability may be. Therefore a couple of skills should be used to bring out the full potential of a combat-oriented Rogue:
- Bluff: for use in feinting and otherwise taking advantage of slow-witted opponents. Can be used to generate impromptu Flat Footed situations.
- Sense Motive: It would be tragic for a clever and nimble Rogue to get duped by some brutish Fighter, wouldn’t it?
- Hide: If your opponent knows you’re there before the fight starts, you lose the Suprise Round and may not catch anybody flat footed at all.
- Move Silently: See Hide.
- Listen: awareness of one’s surroundings is a matter of life an death in combat and pre-combat as well. Nobody sneaks up on a competant combat Rogue.
- Spot: See Listen.
- Tumble: upon discharging a hail of darts and knives at your opponents during a suprise round and a full action, any survivors are likely to close that 30 foot gap for some payback. Extract yourself from the melee on the following round without risking an attack of opportunity by tumbling out. QED
Additional feats as the Rogue progresses through levels past 6 can further this path as well. Weapon Focus in a favored thrown weapon improves the chances of hitting (always a benefit), Improved and Greater Two-Weapon Fighting each add additional attacks when your Rogue qualifies, Skill Focus gives a significant edge on frequently-used skills from the list above, with the minor (+2/+2 bonus) two-skill improvement feats such as Acrobatic can make a Rogue effectively surpass his level-based skill cap by 5 ranks.
Tactical Point
Taking into consideration the typical ACs your Rogue will encounter, you may determine that taking many multiple attacks with stacking -2 attack adjustments will still result in a fairly large ratio of hits to misses. If this is the case, I recommend taking Improved Initiative before Point Blank Shot. One helps you go before your target, maintaining the sneak attack, the other improves your chances of hitting.
If you’re already hitting, why blow the feat? Conversely, if you are looking at very even odds on your attack rolls, take your Weapon Focus before Improved Initiative. Typically if your opponents have high ACs while flat-footed, they are unlikely to have the high Dexterity stats that would result in them frequently beating your initiative.
Similarly, if you find your Rogue missing quite often, bulk up on your Weapon Focus and Point Blank Shot even earlier, before you stack Rapid Shot with your Two-weapon Fighting. What good is all that bonus damage if you aren’t connecting? The order of feats given above assumes your Rogue will be hitting with a reasonable frequency, attacking lightly-armored targets.
Summary
A Rogue following this path can make for an extremely traumatic encounter for an adventuring party with poor Spot and Listen skills, as he unloads on them for shocking amounts of damage before they are given their fair chance. If the party survives, and the Rogue escapes through means of tumbling, bluffing, hiding or other guiles, such an NPC could give even the heartiest of adventurers nightmares.
As a player character, a Rogue following this path is rather a novelty character, and if allowed to use his skills to their fullest (especially against creatures with few hit points) is somewhat likely to overpower whatever group he’s in, so if you’re DMing a group with such a character, be prepared to make concessions so that the rest of the party can keep up with their light-footed, dagger-chucking munchkin companion.
*note: this article was revised after determining that in D&D v3.5 one cannot take more than one attack during a Standard Action, unless otherwise stipulated in the rules.
Yeah… if that rogue is named Zharg, and he shoots me in the chest one more fucking time… I am going to go apeshit (more than I already have).
I dare say that if Zharg were this type of Rogue he would have initiated combat instead of waiting for it, and a certain Trollkin would never have hit 4th level.
I daresay you are actually quite right.
How does the rouge get additional sneak attack damage durring the surprise round ? It sounded as if you meant that during the suprise round on a normal sneak attack (at level 1) a rouge could do 2d6 damage ? is this correct or am i reading this wrong ?
Sneak Attack damage applies to any attack during which the target is denied his dex bonus (even if he normally wouldn’t get a bonus). During combat, any combatant that has not had his initiative come up yet is flat-footed, and eligible for sneak attack. This applies to the Surprise Round as well.
If you take multiple attacks, you get the Sneak Attack bonus on each successful attack. Anything that provides an additional attack without requiring a full-round action would allow a rogue to take multiple attacks during the surprise round, and thereby get multiple sneak attacks. It is my understanding that Two-weapon Fighting requires a full-attack action, but Rapid Shot doesn’t. I don’t have my PHB handy at the moment, but that is my recollection.
Both two weapon fighting and rapid shot require full round actions, so they can’t be used in surprise round.
Eep! I stand corrected! Page 140 of the v3.5 PHB clearly states that taking more than one attack requires a Full Attack Action. Neither the Rapid Shot nor Two-Weapon Fighting feat descriptions (nor the two-weapon fighting rules in the Combat chapter) provide any wording contradicting this or creating special exceptions. I expect to have this article corrected before Saturday in light of this.
I suspect that my misinterpretation was the result of a carried-over ruling from my v3.0 days…
Are u allowed to have sneak attacks in total darkness if you have the blindfight feat?
and when you take the greater two weapon fighting are your attacks with a light weapon -2/-2/-8??? because you get another attack with your offhand at -10 so when you have a light weapon it becomes -8??
I seem to recall seeing the Sneak Attack question you ask in an issue of Dragon some time ago. The answer is “no.” Blindfight reduces a flat 50% miss chance to 25%, but doesn’t grant the ability to target precisely enough to gain the benefit of a Sneak Attack.
Regarding Greater Two Weapon Fighting, the third off-hand attack is at -10 (whereas the second was at -5 from Improved Two Weapon Fighting). All of these attacks would be subject to the initial -2 minimum penalty for fighting with two weapons (so if you normally attack at +12, and were using light weapons with Greater Two Weapon Fighting you’d get a normal attack at +10, a second normal attack at +5, and an off-hand attack at +10, +5, and +0. Add in Rapid shot and it’s +8/+8/+3/+8/+3/-2. That was beyond the scope of my original article, though, as I don’t expect Rogues to have that many feats. A human Rogue18 would be able to have all of these feats: Rapid Shot, Quick Draw, Two Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus, Point Blank Shot, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Greater Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Init, I suppose.
Thanks for the sneak attack review. I need one thing clarified. I am an 11th level rogue. If I have rapid shot, so I am getting 3 shots in a full action attack per round with my composite light bow does that mean that if I get a sneak attack on the first shot in the attack I get a sneak attack on the second and third shots as well? Thanks
You get the benefit for any attack while an opponent is flat-flooted, flanked, or otherwise denied a Dex bonus to AC. If you have three attacks per round and an opponent that fits the above, you can try for three sneak attacks. Any ability that would allow you to strike multiple times with one attack action (such as the Manyshot feat) is only one “attack” and would only get a single Sneak Attack damage bonus. This was the subject of a couple of rules clarifications in Dragon Magazine (once after 3.0 was released, and again after 3.5 came out).
I would like to point out that in order to get a sneak attack from feinting you need to have the improved feint feat.
Quote:
If your Bluff check result exceeds your target’s Sense Motive check result, the next melee attack you make against the target does not allow him to use his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any). This attack must be made on or before your next turn.
(from http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/specialAttacks.htm#feint )
Otherwise, great guide!
You are correct, Corvus. As I mentioned early in the article, this was focusing on the surprise angle on getting the sneak-attack damage.
Corvus, I don’t see how the Feint text (for Bluff) precludes the attack from the subsequent round to still apply sneak attack damage. It says “on or before” your next turn. Without improved feint, you’ve used your standard action for the round (by feinting), but according to the text you can still use the faint benefit (sneak attack) “on . . . your next turn.” What am I missing? Why would improved feint be needed to gain sneak attack from feinting?
Ellan,
If you use feint as a standard action (without the extra feat), your opponent will have a full turn to move out of your way or otherwise neutralize your ability to gain a sneak attack. Using feint as a standard action reduces the number of attacks you get over time by half, which goes against the underlying goal of “milking” the sneak attack. You may be better served by simply trying to establish a flanking position with your party’s Fighter instead of burning a turn.
OK, so it’s not that you don’t get the advantage of sneak attack with feint as standard action, but rather it may be more difficult (perhaps impossible), depending on what the target does (i.e. immobilizes me, goes invisible, etc) to successfull sneak the following round. Correct?
I’m playing in a Midnight 2nd edition campaign which has some interesting modifications (heroic paths and class traits), that make additional attacks and move actions in a single round possible, and want to be sure I understand. thanks.
Nice article, I was planning to make a build quite similar and here it is.
However in your thinking you forget about the feat prerequisites, a Human Rogue level 1 can’t take Quick Draw as a bonus feat since it requires a BAB of +1, and a rogue starts with just 0. Also a level 3 Rogue can’t take Rapid Shot as its next feat, since Point Blank Shot is needed first. Right now I’m trying to add in some flaws (introduced in Unearthed Arcana) to free up some bonus feats to make this build happen.
Oh dear god: all the fail in this article. First of all if you have only a single standard action in which to make your attacks, you CAN NOT USE TWO WEAPON FIGHTING!!! Wielding a second weapon gives you a second attack at a -6/-10 penalty (for a light off-hand weapon) in a FULL ATTACK action. This secondary attack is not granted in a standard action used for an attack since a full attack action is a full round action. The Two Weapon Fighting feat simply decreases these penalties to -2/-2 to each attack instead of -6/-10. Therefore this feat is absolutely useless in a surprise round where you have only a standard action, not a full round action. Since once the surprise round is over you lose sneak attack damage, you have basically wasted a feat by taking TWF. Also you provoke an AoO when you make a ranged attack while within the threat range of an enemy, which will be quite an issue if you ever get pinned down.
Now I would like to offer my own solution to being able to sneak attack more without flanking that I developed for a Ninja (due to their sudden strike not being granted when flanking). Take Quick Draw, and a skill trick from Complete Scoundrel called Hidden Blade. Hidden Blade allows you to use your move action to draw a hidden weapon using the Sleight of Hand skill. If your Sleight of Hand check is higher than your opponent’s Spot check, your opponent is flatfooted against the attack you make in this round. Naturally you would have max ranks in sleight of hand, baggy clothing (+2 to your check), 5 ranks in bluff (+2), and hopefully you purchased a magical item called Filcher’s Friend (Complete Adventurer pg 130) which gives you a +5 bonus to any sleight of hand check made with a metal object… such as a blade. Time to have 10 blades on your body. Whip em out with Hidden Blade, deal sneak attack (or sudden strike) damage, and finally drop your weapon so you can do the combo again next turn.
The full attack action was brought up here in the comments section nine years ago. You’re nine years late to the party. Nothing worth whipping out your capslock key over. As for ninjas, there’s no such thing in the core rules. Piss off.