Is there a way of relabley sneak attacking with a bow? do you need surpirse? Or can it be done with flanking? I have tried hard to flank with a bow but i am never awarded the sneak attack. Any hints greatly apreachiated.
You cant flank with a bow unless you are willing to accept the attacks of opportunity for using a ranged weapon at melee distance. To sneak attack using a bow all you need is: ~ a Rogue with the sneak attack feat (all rogues have this) ~ a Bow, crossbow, or thrown weapon ~ a Target that is flatfooted, prone, held, or flanked by melee ~ distance to target to be LESS THAN 30ft So you can move a melee character behind the target to flank it then use your rogue to shoot it for the sneak attack. However, if you use your Rogue to get behind the target that wont flank them unless your Rogue gets within 5 feet of the target. If you get that close, the target will get an AoO to hit your rogue for using the bow at such close range. Your rogue can use sneak attack with any weapon they are proficient in, including bows, as long as they can hit the target with that weapon from no farther then 30ft. To judge 30ft, its easiest to check your move action to reach the target (hold Alt by default) and if you can reach the target using only the green move, then you are close enough. Beyond 30ft, its just a normal bow attack. The Far Shot feat DOES NOT affect this. You can sneak attack any target that has, for whatever reason, lost its Dexterity bonus to AC. A flatfooted opponent, such as at the beginning of combat, is an easy mark. Any target that has been tripped or is prone works. A target that is magically Held using spells like Hold Person or Hold Monster works too. So does any target that is Encumbered, Disabled or Paralyzed. And lastly, you can sneak attack any target that is flanked in melee by your Rogue, other party members, pets, or summons. Flanking to get the bonus and allows SA has to be done with 2 characters within 5 feet of the target and on opposite sides of the target. The only part Im not 100% sure about is using things like the Web or Entangle spells. Can anyone else answer if being webbed/entangled causes loss of Dex bonus and/or allows for Sneak Attacks?
^ All correct info, here is an advanced tip: You can sneak attack if the enemy can't detect you for some reason. That means that, aside from the conditions above, you can perform a sneak attack if: - the enemy is blinded or - you are invisible. With that in mind, spells like Glitterdust, Invisibility Sphere, Greater Invisibility, Blindness gain a new meaning in support of a ranged rogue. Last time I checked, entanglement/web did not allow sneak attacks. There were also a few other "crowd control" spells that did not produce helpless state, but the specifics are slipping my mind. EDIT: Fun fact: Did you know you could Coup de Grace with a bow if you're standing next to your target?
Actually... the above is only partially correct I'm afraid. You cannot flank with a ranged weapon AT ALL, unless you have a specific feat, class ability, or spell which does not exist in TOEE. You cannot sneak attack that way in pnp or TOEE. Though you can in NWN games, which often confuses people. You also do not need to be proficient in the weapon, ranged or otherwise, that you use to sneak attack. You take a massive penalty, but proficiency is not required. Again, NWN handles this differently. Most of the other info/tips is fairly accurate. The most reliable ways to generate ranged sneak attack in TOEE are (off the top of my head): surprise/catch them flatfooted shoot while undetected/invis (improved invis is great since you remain invis after attacking) glitterdust or Blindness, hold person/monster (or you can just coup de grace held foes if you're close enough) make them prone via grease, trip, tasha's laughter, etc (but you suffer a -4 penalty to ranged attack) Also as mentioned by others, ranged SA requires you to be within 30 feet of target, and obviously the target needs to be a crittable/sneak attackable foe.
^^ Good catch there Aus, I forgot about invis. Good to know. Pretty sure Pool of Radiance and Icewind both had the same flaw as Neverwinter then. As for proficiency, I thought in TOEE, as in all DnD CRPGs, that if you werent proficient the weapon would be highlighted red in your inventory and you couldnt equip it. You saying we can use use non-proficient weapons and just take the -4 penalty like pnp? Ill have to check that out in game. Thanks for the info.
^ Yes, you can equip stuff you're not proficient with for a penalty, true for both weapons and armor. The few exceptions are: Druids cannot equip weapons and armor that "contradict their philosophy"; Small races cannot equip weapons that are too large for them (no Greatswords for halfings and gnomes, I'm afraid; BS only with proficiency).
Right. TOEE is closer to pnp rules on the proficiency thing than IE games or NWN, etc; you can use almost any weapon with a penalty as long as it's not a large weapon for a small creature (no Monkey Grip feat or similar in TOEE). And druids actually can use any weapon; it's just metal armor/shield they have issues with. You can even put armor on your pureclass wizard/sorcerer, or full plate on your rogue; the penalty for not being proficient besides the obvious ASF (arcane spell failure) % is you take a penalty to attack rolls (and other checks too iirc) equivalent to the armor check penalty (acp) of the armor. In other words, you can have the wizard wear padded armor without light armor proficiency, and all you get hit with is the 5% asf, since padded armor has 0 acp. Similarly, strap on leather armor, deal with 10% asf, but still zero acp/penalty to rolls. Even better, mithral chain shirt, same 10% asf, zero acp/penalty to rolls, can be enchanted to a total +7 to ac (+4 armor, +3 enhancement), or best of all, the blue elven chain for +8 to ac and 5% asf (but -2 or so acp to rolls). It's great for ftr/wizard types (who should have the proficiency anyway), not as necessary for pureclass wizards really unless you're careless about protecting them; mage armor or the +3 bracers of armor are good enough for this game.
