I'm thinking of making a sniping character and was looking for a way to extend the range on my sneak attacks out beyond the 30ft limit to somewhere around 100ft+. I already know about the crossbow sniper feat but that only extends it out to 60ft. The sniper's shot spell from the spell compendium essentially makes the range infinite but I want this to be the skill of my character and not that from a magic item or spell.
Does anyone know additional feats or PrCs that further extend the sneak attack range?
I made it an Epic feat (Ranged Sneak Attack). That seemed to be the best way to do it within the spirit of the core rules.
I was mulling over it after I posted and though about a feat:
Distance Precision
Prerequisites: Wis 13, weapon focus (light crossbow, heavy crossbow, repeating versions of both, longbow, or shortbow), sneak attack +3d6.
Benefits: you may choose to subtract damage dice from your sneak attacks in order to extend the range at which ranged sneak attacks may be made. For each dice lost you extend the range by +20ft, you may not use this extended range to fire farther than your ranged weapon's maximum range however.
That's not bad; I like that idea a lot. Subtracting dice to increase the range seems like a reasonable trade-off, and the prerequisites look good.
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Yeah, the feat looks good. A few things I would change, though:Distance Precision
Prerequisites: Wis 13, weapon focus (light crossbow, heavy crossbow, repeating versions of both, longbow, or shortbow), sneak attack +3d6.
Benefits: you may choose to subtract damage dice from your sneak attacks in order to extend the range at which ranged sneak attacks may be made. For each dice lost you extend the range by +20ft, you may not use this extended range to fire farther than your ranged weapon's maximum range however.
- Make it clear that the feat only functions with a weapon you have Weapon Focus in. I see you made it one of the prerequisites, but the verbage of your feat is a little nebulous on that fact.
- I would recommend requiring Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot as additional prerequisites for this feat, simply because the ability to apply sneak attack damage at long ranges would suggest an exceptional degree of precision with the weapon, as reflected by Precise Shot. Given these fairly steep prerequisites, I would say that the feat allows you to reduce sneak attack by 1d6 for each range increment you want to extend the ability over (not just an extra 20').
- Instead of Wis 13, I would say 5 ranks of Spot would be more appropriate.
- If you decide not to go with my recommendation of Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot as prereqs, I would probably limit the maximum range of the feat to one range increment of the weapon (so a maximum of 100' for a longbow, for example). Perhaps make an additional feat called 'Improved Distance Precision' that also requires the Far Shot feat in addition to this feat and allows you to continue the progression out to your absolute maximum range. The improved feat could also upgrade the benefit of the original feet from 20' per die to 30' per die.
hmmmm.... I like your suggestions, here's a revised version:
Distance Precision
Prerequisites: Spot 5 ranks, Weapon Focus (light crossbow, heavy crossbow, repeating versions of both, longbow, or shortbow, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, sneak attack +2d6.
Benefits: you may choose to subtract damage dice from your sneak attacks in order to extend the range at which ranged sneak attacks may be made. For each dice lost you extend the range by +30ft, you may not use this extended range to fire farther than your ranged weapon's maximum range however. This feat may only be applied to ranged weapons with which you have weapon focus.
Improved Distance Precision
Prerequisites: Spot 10 ranks, Weapon Focus (light crossbow, heavy crossbow, repeating versions of both, longbow, or shortbow), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Far Shot, Distance Precision, sneak attack +5d6.
Benefits: you may choose to subtract damage dice from your sneak attacks in order to extend the range at which ranged sneak attacks may be made. By choosing to lose one die off of your sneak attack you may extend the range at which you make sneak attacks out to your weapons first range increment. For each additional die you remove after that you may extend this out by another range increment; you may not use this extended range to fire farther than your ranged weapon's maximum range however.
I like this idea, and recommend that the Far Shot feat should be a prerequisite on which it is built on.
I like this idea, and recommend that the Far Shot feat should be a prerequisite on which it is built on.
I thought about that but decided that the cost-benefit ratio for the basic feat would be too high. I did include it in the "improved" feat however.
Also don't forget the sniper's shot spell from Complete Adventurer, which does exactly what you want your feats to do except there's no reduction in damage dice, and it's only 1st level for assassins.
already took that into account in my first post ;)
I don't want a "x/day" that is assosiated with spells and I do not want an "unlimited use" magic item. I want this to be useable at any time in any environment reflecting the characters skill at ranegd sneak attacks not his magic or wealth.
already took that into account in my first post
Oops... I saw that the first time around, then saw the spell later today and forgot you'd already ruled it out. Sorry!
Does anyone know additional feats or PrCs that further extend the sneak attack range?
Cheatin's my favorite way. :-)
I'd say get your head together with your DM and make up a feat for it.