Tag: Role-Playing Games combat

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Between the Shoulder Blades: Sneak Attack!

Between the Shoulder Blades: Sneak Attack!

Rogues are masters of stealth and deception, but one mechanic makes them stand out from other classes: sneak attack.  Under the right circumstances, a 3rd level Rogue will deal more damage than a 3rd level Barbarian who is in Rage.

In today’s Critical Hit to the Blog, I’m going to discuss the mechanics of sneak attack and give some tips and on how to improve your chances of getting a sneak attack and ideas on how to improve your sneak attack damage.

Getting Into Position

If you cannot see the ninjas, it's too late...

The Core Rulebook states that if you can catch your opponent when they are unable to defend themselves effectively from your attack, defined as your opponent being denied their Dexterity bonus to their armor class, you can strike a vital spot for extra damage.    So, what counts as an opponent being denied their Dexterity bonus?

The best-case scenario is having surprise.  If the enemy doesn’t know you’re there, then they can’t defend themselves.  Sneak attacks can be used within 30 ft., so a Rogue, with their combination of sneakiness and accuracy with ranged weapons typically due to high Dexterity, can make at least one sneak attack with a crossbow or other ranged weapon before the target is able to use their Dexterity modifier again.  By using the Stealth skill, a Rogue should be able to get himself into a position to make one and possibly two sneak attacks before entering melee combat.

You can also gain sneak attack damage by flanking a target with another party member.  Flanking is defined as your opponent being threatened by two characters on its opposite border or opposite corner.  Essentially, you have to have two characters on opposite sides of the enemy in order to flank the enemy.  My group plays this a little different.  If two characters are attacking the same enemy and the two characters are in any two non-adjacent squares, we consider the enemy flanked.  That’s how my group does it.  How your group handles flanking is up to your DM.

Once you are in melee combat, until you can flank an opponent, you won’t be able to get your sneak attack damage, unless an opponent is held.  In melee combat, using a ranged weapon incurs an attack of opportunity, so your best bet is to ditch the crossbow and draw your sword.  In melee, use your Acrobatics skill to tumble past defenders to get into flanking position.  You can also use the Ready action to tumble past an attacker. Assuming success, then you have now tumbled out of harm’s way and you can prepare yourself for getting into position.

Improving Your Chances

A high Stealth score is a must for increasing your chances of getting a sneak attack.  Increasing your Dexterity is a must.  This has the added benefit of increasing your ranged attack bonus.  Along with a high Dexterity score, there are several items from the Core Rulebook that you can get to increase your Stealth score.

The first is Shadow armor special ability.  The Shadow, Improved, and Greater Shadow special abilities increase your Stealth score by +5, + 10, and +15 respectively.

Next, there are potions.  Potions can be used to replicate any spell of up to 3rd level, so you have a lot of options on that front.  Aside from spells like darkness and invisibility, there are several options that you can use to get into sneak attack position.  Haste is a good choice, as well as expeditious retreat.  Both of those spells allow you to move faster than normal, which can help you get the positioning you want.  Ventriloquism and silent image can both distract an opponent, giving you the chance to put that arrow between their shoulders.  Cat’s grace increases your Dexterity by +4, which can’t be bad.  Pretty much any spell from the Illusion school can be really useful.  Scrolls are similar to potions, except that they can replicate any spell of up to 9th level, opening up your options ever further.

Next up are rings.  From the list presented in the Core Rulebook, there are five rings that can really useful to a Rogue looking to get in that extra shot: Ring of Blinking, Ring of Chameleon Power, Ring of Freedom of Movement and Ring of Invisibility.  The fifth is the Ring of Feather Falling.  You could use this ring to jump from a great height and float down to get the drop, literally, on your opponent.

The Staff of Illusion, the Staff of Passage, and the Staff of Size Alteration can all make it easier to sneak up on your prey.

Now we get into the good stuff: wondrous items.  Robe of blending.  Bag of tricks.  Boots of speed.  There are 300 items in the Core Rulebook and it’s easy enough to make more, with the help of your DM.

Turning it Up to 11

Yep...it goes that far

Once you’re in position to sneak attack someone, you need to make the shot count.  How do you do that?  Again, having a high Dexterity will help with your ranged attack roll and if you’ve taken the Weapon Finesse feat, it can also help you with your melee attack roll.  But wait, there’s more.

When it comes to weapon choices, it really depends on your class.  Obviously, you have to be a Rogue or some sort of Rogue variant to get the sneak attack ability, but multiclassing is not a bad way to go to amp up your sneak attack.  Barbarians, Fighters, and Rangers are all excellent classes for a Rogue to multiclass into.  All three classes give you access to martial weapons as a class feature at 1st level.  As funny as it sounds, that means you can now sneak attack with a greataxe or a halberd.  These three classes also have the fastest base attack progression, meaning that when you switch from one of them to Rogue, your base attack bonus won’t suffer much.

Barbarians also give you Rage and Fast Movement at 1st level, meaning that you move 10 feet faster per round than normal, giving you a greater movement range to work with, and Rage gives you a +4 bonus to Strength, meaning another +2 to damage with your sneak attack.  If you start out as a Barbarian, there aren’t many Rage Powers that will be useful at early levels for bolstering sneak attack.  The best rage power at 2nd level is Powerful Blow, which gives you a +1 to a single damage roll.  A 2nd level Barbarian/1st level Rogue with a Strength of 14 wielding a greataxe (1d12 damage) and using rage and Powerful Blow, would get a +6 to attack and their damage is 1d12+3 plus 1d6.  That gives you an average of 13 points of damage.

Fighter not only gives you access to martial weapons, but also a lot of bonus feats, if you stick with it for a few levels.  If you start with Fighter, I suggest going with five levels of Fighter before switching to Rogue.  That way, you will have gotten five feats (two regular, three Fighter bonus feats) as well as Weapon Training.  Weapon Training has you pick a weapon you have proficiency in, and gives you a +1 bonus to both attack and damage rolls with that weapon.  Because Fighters are so versatile thanks to their feats, you can create either a formidable melee Fighter or a ranged Fighter with deadly accuracy.  I would run the numbers on a Fighter/Rogue combo, but there are so many variables in terms of feats and whether the Fighter is focused on melee or ranged combat that I’m not sure it’s worth it.

Ranger is interesting to multiclass with a Rogue.  Both classes get a lot of skill points to use each level, but more importantly, Rangers get a combat style choice at 2nd level.  Starting at 2nd level, a Ranger must pick either archery or two-weapon fighting as their combat style.  Depending on which style you pick will determine what combat style bonus feats you’ll get.  You get a combat style feat at 2nd level and then every four levels after that.  Rangers also get a favored enemy at 1st level, which gives them a +2 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against those enemies, but also a +2 to attack and damage rolls against those enemies.  So, a 2nd level Ranger/1st level Rogue with a Dexterity of 14, who is wielding a longbow (1d8 damage) against their favored enemy, having taken the archery combat style and gotten the Point Blank Shot feat, gets a +7 to attack and their damage is 1d8+3 plus 1d6.  That gives you an average of 11 points of damage for a sneak attack.

Spellcasting classes like Bard, Sorcerer or Wizard would give you access to spells like the ones I discussed above, but they have poor base attack progressions, which limits your effectiveness in sneak attacking.  They also have the lowest hit dice of the PC classes, which means you might be stuck with ranged fighting, even if you have a high Strength score.  Normally, you’d be playing party that would probably contain a spellcaster that would be willing to use those spells for you or if you don’t have a spellcaster, you can use potions, which don’t have a verbal component that might tip off your target to your location, thus denying you the sneak attack attempt.

Fighting Feats

In this section, I’m going to look at feats that will help boost your damage output with sneak attack.  You can’t really increase the damage of sneak attack other than gaining more Rogue levels, but you can increase the damage of the weapon itself, which adds to the total damage done during a sneak attack.  Having a high Strength bonus will help when sneak attacking with a melee weapon or when using a composite bow.

  • Arcane Strike:  This feat gives you a +1 to damage and your weapon is considered magical for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.  This feat only works if you have the ability to cast arcane spells.
  • Deadly Aim:  This feat allows you to take a -1 penalty to ranged attack rolls to gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls.  When your base attack bonus reaches +4 and every +4 after, you can increase the penalty by -1 and increase the damage to +2.
  • Double Slice: This feat allows you to add your full Strength bonus to your off-hand attack.  Normally, you only get to add half of your Strength bonus to your off-hand attack.  Usually, this is only a couple points difference, but adding those couple extra points along with your sneak attack might be enough to take out an opponent.
  • Improved Critical:  This doubles the critical threat range of your selected weapon.  This gives you a greater chance to multiply your damage output.
  • Critical Focus:  This feat gives you a +4 bonus to confirm a critical hit.

Note:  There are other critical feats that you can take.  These do not increase the damage output of sneak attack or the critical itself, but you can possibly (among other conditions) stun, stagger, sicken, or tire a foe, making it harder for them to fight back

  • Manyshot: This feat allows you to fire two arrows as part of one attack during a full-round attack action.  You only get to apply sneak attack damage to one arrow, but that’s still twice the base damage that gets added in.
  • Point Blank Shot: This feat gives you a +1 to both attack and damage rolls with a ranged weapon to a target within 30 ft.
  • Power Attack: This works just like Deadly Aim, except for melee attack and damage rolls.  If you are making the attack with a two-handed weapon, a one-handed weapon used in two hands, or a primary natural weapon, the damage increased by 50%.
  • Rapid Shot:  You get to make an additional attack during a full attack, but that shot and every shot after it takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls.
  • Vital Strike:  You get to double your weapon damage when making a single attack.  You don’t get to double sneak attack damage, but doubling the base damage adds in to the total.
  • Improved Vital Strike:  You get to triple your weapon damage when making a single attack.
  • Greater Vital Strike:  You get to quadruple your weapon damage when making a single attack.

Note:  Read as written, you can still get a critical hit when using a feat in the Vital Strike tree.  You don’t get to multiply all of your damage dice by your weapon multiplier, but you do get to multiply your base weapon damage by that multiplier and add in the appropriate Vital Strike damage and your sneak attack damage.

  • Weapon Specialization and Improved Weapon Specialization:  These feats will give you +1 and +2 respectively to your damage rolls with the appropriate weapon.  The downside to these feats is that they are available to Fighters only, at 4th and 12th levels respectively.

Aside from feats, there are also magical weapons with special abilities, most of which will increase your damage output.  Please note that some special abilities do not stack with feats or spells that have similar properties.  For example, a sword with the speed special property gets to make one additional attack roll at your highest attack bonus, but do not stack with the haste spell.  The keen special ability doubles the critical threat range of the weapon, but do not stack with the Improved Critical feat or the spell keen edge.

At lower levels, you might be able to buy or find a weapon that does extra damage, such as fire or cold.  Personally,  I prefer frost or shock because a fair number of monsters have resistance to fire or are immune to it.  If you can afford one of the burst weapons, I strongly suggest getting that.  Not only do you get the extra 1d6 of the energy type in question, but on a confirmed critical hit, in addition to that 1d6, you also get 1d10 of that same type of energy damage.

Remember: any additional damage you can do during sneak attack is a good thing.

So, there you have it.  Sneak attack explained and damage improved.  Hopefully this will give you some good ideas for your next Rogue character.

Remember to find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SkredlitheOgre

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Go back and read all of my other blogs, either underneath this one or on my personal blog: skredlitheogre.blogspot.com

Until next time, be awesome to each other and good gaming.

Will.

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Game Tips: Improve Your Combat

Game Tips: Improve Your Combat

From Dungeons & Dragons to Pathfinder, combat is an integral part of any tabletop RPG.  Take in mind that this is coming from a stanch advocate of RPG sessions focusing on a strong story element.  As a GM, I prefer not to use combat as a main focal point.  That said, I also believe it is important to approach combat in the same way I approach role-playing.

To really immerse players in a game you must find ways not only to tell your story, but to paint it and make it come alive.  Today I will provide you with some new ideas to make the combat portion of your game fresh and exciting.  I’m listing these as ideas because that’s exactly what they are.  You may adopt one or all of these ideas into your game to make combat a lot more exciting than just rolling dice and drinking soda.

#1: Add music to your game

Find some really kick ass music to add to your battles.  You may already play Bach or traditional medieval music while your players explore crypts or parlay with sexy wenches in taverns while in town.  Now crank it up a notch and find some really hot stuff to keep the players engaged in the battles.  Have something prepared for each battle and note the artist and track you want to play right next to your battle in your DM notes.  Que the audio track prior to the battle so the PCs don’t have a tip off that something is coming up.  When the PCs enter the battle let the audio roll.

Suggestions for audio:

Traditional Battles:
Akimbo (Jon who writes for my online magazine NERD TREK sings and plays bass in Akimbo)
The Sword
Metallica

Epic Battles:
The Black Mages

Strange Battles:
(Combat on another plane or existence, space, or against odd adversaries)
Radiohead

Have more to add?  Let’s hear them!

 

#2: Craft Model Scenery

A few years ago I had no idea how to build model scenery.  With the help of former Wizards of the Coast cartographer and model scenery extrordinaire Todd Gamble I learned the art of crafting realistic scenery for use in battles.  Although the precise details of hand crafting model scenery would take multiple articles to convey, I will give you the brief version here.

Step 1:  Buy Polystyrene Foam Insulation from your nearest large hardware store (Lowes, Home Depot, etc.)  The foam is blue or pink and is very tough.

Step 2:  Use a small sharp knife to score marks across the foam (if you’re under 18 have an adult score the marks for you).  Break the foam into varying sizes.

Step 3:  Roughly stack a few pieces of the foam, glue with wood glue, and run wood skewers through all the pieces.  Let dry overnight.

Step 4:  Use the knife to carve into the sides of the foam.  I run the side of the blade over the sharp edges of the foam letting random pieces break off to look like rocks.  Use your hands to rub off any loose pieces.  Don’t be afraid to hurt the foam, you want all the little pieces off or it will look weird later.

Step 5:  Mix 1 part wood glue to 1.5-2 parts water in a spray bottle.  Shake up and spray down your project.  Next cover the project in sand, dry dirt, or glue rocks where you want them.  Wait for stuff like static grass or moss.  Put that on last.

Step 6:  Pour latex paint through a paint filter into a spray bottle.  Fill with 1 part paint to 3 parts water, shake it up.  Take project outside and mist with paint.  Let dry in sun or overnight.

Step 7: Follow steps above with black paint but mix 1 part paint to 6-8 parts water for varying results.  Spray heavily on your project and use a hairdryer to push all over your project and into the cracks and crevasses!  This will give it the appearance of shadows and additional texture.  Let dry.

Step 8: Glue on final rocks, static grass, moss, or whatever you want.

Congrats, you have something realistic.  Check out this stuff Todd made and then visit his website here: Todd Gamble Art!

#3: Don’t stop Storytelling

You’ve been the DM, essentially the narrator of this story through dangerous dungeons and interesting locales.  Why would you stop just because a battle has begun?  Give the players an exciting play by play description as the battle unfolds.  Remember that a real life battle takes only seconds and so many things happen in that time.  In the time it has taken you to read these few sentences a man could have already been killed in battle.

Your adrenaline pumps through your veins, you struggle to shake the horse blinders that encroach upon you threatening to give you tunnel vision.  The evil mage raises his arms in a menacing stance and begins to chant in a deep ungodly voice.  You move as fast as you can, charging forward while you wrestle your blade from it’s scabbard.  The seconds seem stretched for an eternity as you cover the short ground between you and the mage.  His arms lower and just as you are about to make contact a blast of flames explodes from his fingers and slamming into you with such force that you are thrown into the air.  You find yourself lying upon the grass, leather armor partially on fire and your hair scorched and burned.  You look down and see a large black hole in your armor.  Luckily the spell missed your vitals.  You struggle to your feet and return to the fray.

 

#4: Supplies & Miniatures

Miniatures are a great way to depict where everyone is on the battlefield.  If your battle has only a few combatants don’t worry about minis as they sometimes can take away from the role-playing experience.  If there are a lot of rules, characters with very specific abilities, or lots of combatants- by all means bust out the minis!  I recommend buying plastic miniatures to save time and putting them in bead boxes available at art supply stores or online .  I always carry about 6-8 of these boxes in hiking backpack (link!) along with all my other supplies.  Another ideal investment is a battlemat available at Amazon.com.  All of the aforementioned products are shown below in links to the best deals I could find at Amazon.com below.

I recently read an article on a blog called “the Learning DM” about maximizing your storage and transport space for minis and D&D books.  The author recommended this amazing tackle box that he was using for a RPG transportation box.  Here’s one of the pictures of how he maximized the space.

 

#5:  Mix things up

Don’t have the party battle orcs in a boring old flat circular cavern.  Create an interesting cavern with twists, turns, and elevation changes.  Perhaps a few orc archers are up in a higher cavern that the PCs can only get to by flying, scaling a slippery and dangerous wall, or progressing further into the cave.  Remember also that the enemy isn’t stupid.  They wouldn’t keep treasure chests full of powerful magical items lying around.  They would pick up those items and use them against the PCs.  The next time you see a Longsword +3 or a Wand of Fireballs in a treasure horde take it out of there and pop it into the hands of the enemy.  Yes, this might make the enemy a little unbalanced, but it also makes the combat that much more exciting.

Try throwing a puzzle into the middle of an adventure.  The party enters a room where a spiked ceiling suddenly starts to descend and both exits slam shut.  A wall slides away revealing a complex puzzle. While the rogue is trying to disarm the trap undead begin to lumber out of the shadows.  On top of all this, small holes in the wall begin to spew noxious gas!  The party is going to have to plug these up or die from asphyxiation.  Now the rogue has to disarm the trap or the mage has to solve the puzzle before the gas kills everyone, and the fighter and cleric have to deal with the undead.

That’s an intense battle.

 

Have a great idea for something which adds suspense or an extra element to RPG combat?  Let’s hear it! 

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Improve your RPG: Combat

From Dungeons & Dragons to Pathfinder, combat is an integral part of any tabletop RPG.  Take in mind that this is coming from a stanch advocate of RPG sessions focusing on a strong story element.  As a DM, I prefer to avoid combat as a main focal point.  That said, I also believe it is important to approach combat in the same way I approach role-playing.

To really immerse players in a game you must find ways not only to tell your story, but to paint it and make it come alive.  Today I will provide you with some new ideas to make the combat portion of your game fresh and exciting.  I’m listing these as ideas because that’s exactly what they are.  You may adopt one or all of these ideas into your game to make combat a lot more exciting than just rolling dice and drinking soda.

Idea #1: Add music to your game

Find some really kick ass music to add to your battles.  You may already play Bach or traditional medieval music while your players explore crypts or parlay with sexy wenches in taverns while in town.  Now crank it up a notch and find some really hot stuff to keep the players engaged in the battles.  Have something prepared for each battle and note the artist and track you want to play right next to your battle in your DM notes.  Que the audio track prior to the battle so the PCs don’t have a tip off that something is coming up.  When the PCs enter the battle let the audio roll.

Suggestions for audio:

Traditional Battles:
Akimbo (Jon who writes for NERD TREK sings and plays bass in Akimbo)
The Sword
Metallica

Epic Battles:
The Black Mages

Strange Battles:
(Combat on another plane or existence, space, or against odd adversaries)
Radiohead

Idea #2: Craft Model Scenery

A few years ago I had no idea how to build model scenery.  With the help of former Wizards of the Coast cartographer and model scenery extrordinaire Todd Gamble I learned the art of crafting realistic scenery for us in battles.  Although the precise details of hand crafting model scenery would take multiple articles to convey, I will give you the brief version here.

Step 1:  Buy Polystyrene Foam Insulation from your nearest large hardware store (Lowes, Home Depot, etc.)  The foam is blue or pink and is very tough.

Step 2:  Use a small sharp knife to score marks across the foam (if you’re under 18 have an adult score the marks for you).  Break the foam into varying sizes.

Step 3:  Roughly stack a few pieces of the foam, glue with wood glue, and run wood skewers through all the pieces.  Let dry overnight.

Step 4:  Use the knife to carve into the sides of the foam.  I run the side of the blade over the sharp edges of the foam letting random pieces break off to look like rocks.  Use your hands to rub off any loose pieces.  Don’t be afraid to hurt the foam, you want all the little pieces off or it will look weird later.

Step 5:  Mix 1 part wood glue to 1.5-2 parts water in a spray bottle.  Shake up and spray down your project.  Next cover the project in sand, dry dirt, or glue rocks where you want them.  Wait for stuff like static grass or moss.  Put that on last.

Step 6:  Pour latex paint through a paint filter into a spray bottle.  Fill with 1 part paint to 3 parts water, shake it up.  Take project outside and mist with paint.  Let dry in sun or overnight.

Step 7: Follow steps above with black paint but mix 1 part paint to 6-8 parts water for varying results.  Spray heavily on your project and use a hairdryer to push all over your project and into the cracks and crevasses!  This will give it the appearance of shadows and additional texture.  Let dry.

Step 8: Glue on final rocks, static grass, moss, or whatever you want.

Congrats, you have something realistic.  Check out this stuff Todd made and then visit his website here: Todd Gamble Art!

 Idea #3: Don’t stop Storytelling

You’ve been the DM, essentially the narrator of this story through dangerous dungeons and interesting locales.  Why would you stop just because a battle has begun?  Give the players an exciting play by play description as the battle unfolds.  Remember that a real life battle takes only seconds and so many things happen in that time.  In the time it has taken you to read these few sentences a man could have already been killed in battle.

Your adrenaline pumps through your veins, you struggle to shake the horse blinders that encroach upon you threatening to give you tunnel vision.  The evil mage raises his arms in a menacing stance and begins to chant in a deep ungodly voice.  You move as fast as you can, charging forward while you wrestle your blade from it’s scabbard.  The seconds seem stretched for an eternity as you cover the short ground between you and the mage.  His arms lower and just as you are about to make contact a blast of flames explodes from his fingers and slamming into you with such force that you are thrown into the air.  You find yourself lying upon the grass, leather armor partially on fire and your hair scorched and burned.  You look down and see a large black hole in your armor.  Luckily the spell missed your vitals.  You struggle to your feet and return to the fray.

Idea #4: Supplies & Miniatures

Miniatures are a great way to depict where everyone is on the battlefield.  If your battle has only a few combatants don’t worry about minis as they sometimes can take away from the role-playing experience.  If there are a lot of rules, characters with very specific abilities, or lots of combatants- by all means bust out the minis!  I recommend buying plastic miniatures to save time and putting them in bead boxes available at art supply stores or online .  I always carry about 6-8 of these boxes in hiking backpack (link!) along with all my other supplies.  Another ideal investment is a battlemat available at Amazon.com.  All of the aforementioned products are shown below in links to the best deals I could find at Amazon.com below.

I recently read an article on a blog called “the Learning DM” about maximizing your storage and transport space for minis and D&D books.  The author recommended this amazing tackle box that he was using for a RPG transportation box.  Here’s one of the pictures of how he maximized the space.

 

Idea #5:  Mix things up

Don’t have the party battle orcs in a boring old flat circular cavern.  Create an interesting cavern with twists, turns, and elevation changes.  Perhaps a few orc archers are up in a higher cavern that the PCs can only get to by flying, scaling a slippery and dangerous wall, or progressing through the caves further.  Remember also that the enemy isn’t stupid.  They wouldn’t keep treasure chests full of powerful magical items lying around.  They would pick up those items and use them against the PCs.  The next time you see a Longsword +3 or a Wand of Fireballs in a treasure horde take it out of there and pop it into the hands of the enemy.  Yes, this might make the enemy a little unbalanced, but it also makes the combat that much more exciting.

Try throwing a puzzle into the middle of an adventure.  The party enters a room where all of a sudden a spiked ceiling starts to descend and both exits slam shut.  A wall slides away revealing a complex puzzle. While the rogue is trying to disarm the trap undead suddenly lumber out of the shadows.  On top of this there are a few holes in the walls that noxious gas spews from.  The party is going to have to plug those up or die from asphyxiation.  Now the rogue has to disarm the trap or the mage has to solve the puzzle before the gas kills everyone, and the fighter and cleric have to deal with the undead.

That’s an intense battle.

 

Have a great idea for something which adds suspense or an extra element to RPG combat?  Let’s hear it! 

That’s what this place is all about, NERD TREK- I’m on a TREK for NERDS just like you.  Yes, I know you’re a nerd because only a nerd could get this far into an article about nerdy Role-Playing games!