"Backstab", please come home to your Rogue

[cliff]

I was being more than a little sarcastic, but my point was that original Backstab had no mechanic, and the trend in RPGs is to mechanic the bejeezus out of rules. Sneak Attack is somewhere in between, with a vague sense of "backstabing" with hard rules for "draw a line" toss on top of it. Could it be more specific or more like actually stabbing someone in the back? Maybe, but I think that is an area where someone can come up with a house rule feat to boost damage when engaging a Sneak Attack in a round immediately after an ally directly opposite the Rogue makes a successful damaging attack of Bluff attempt.

Oo...that's a sweet feat!

[Beckett]

Best way to fix the rogue is to make backstab a full attack action. does not trip over, (meaning spirited charge trample) the fighter, keeps the rogue a super hitter, just not as much, (the way it should be), and keeps "those players" from screwing the rest of the party because they can't murder everyone in that one hit as easily.

[SlimGauge]

Beckett, wouldn't doing that mean that a rogue couldn't perform a backstab/sneak attack during a surprise round (because you only get a standard action) ?

[bden]

For house ruling
one thing you could do is allow the first attack of a rogue against an oponent in a given combat to be a sneack attack

only works once in a given combat with that particular oponent
it would allow you to remove sneak attacking a flanked oponent
without penalising to much the rogue since now he can use it on everyone but for only one attack

and to allow rogues to use sneak attack with all its attacks
in a traditional back stab(move silently+ hide in shadow)= stealth against any suprised oponent
since a back stab is so hard to set

[Neil Phillips]

Sneaksy Dragon wrote:

what about rogues having slightly bumped sneak attack (+2d6 at first level and +1d6 per every other level) and remove the least logical part of 3.5 rogues, flanking sneak attack. I have to admit that im a bit retro and still like the idea of "backstab", but i still think it will get more at the hide-and-stab combat style that a Rogue should be operating with.

Without that the Rouge takes a back seat in combat behind the fighter's. It is one trick to try and even him out.

[Sneaksy Dragon]

i am willing to barter having the rogue be better at being a rogue ( actually able to successfully sneak in most conditions, without scent, blindsense, tremorsense , darkvision, and blindsight mucking up any chance to successfully sneak in any adventure path) for them being second melee fiddle to the primary BAB classes. Regis should not be doing more damage than Drizzt....dear god no.

make skills good enough and you can have tons of noncombat options.