Disrupt Undead and Sneak Attack


Rules Questions


My understanding is that sneak attack from a spell affects the target as a number of extra damage dice of the same type as the spell.

Sneak Attack with acid splash and you do extra acid damage.
Sneak Attack with disrupt undead and you do extra positive energy damage.

I'm making a sorcerer Rogue and I'm trying to pick spells known.

Any suggestions?


Sigurd wrote:

My understanding is that sneak attack from a spell affects the target as a number of extra damage dice of the same type as the spell.

Sneak Attack with acid splash and you do extra acid damage.
Sneak Attack with disrupt undead and you do extra positive energy damage.

That's correct.

Quote:

I'm making a sorcerer Rogue and I'm trying to pick spells known.

Any suggestions?

In general, you need to decide if you are willing to be in melee. If so, spells with melee touch attacks (so that you can trigger sneak attack) are good. If not, spells with ranged touch attacks and ways to deny your opponents their dex bonus to AC are good.

In either case, ways to overcome invisibility and concealment are important.

For specific spells:

Acid splash and/or ray of frost are good choices, since you can cast them all day. Acid splay is particularly good, as it does not allow spell resistance. It is even better if you have a feat that lets you change the energy type. (I think there is one in the APG and there certainly is Energy Substitution if 3.5 is allowed).

Chill touch is nice in that the number of attacks scales, not the damage. This means (if you are willing to stay in melee) that you do not need to cast every round.

If you are going to be in melee, mage armor and shield will be important spells, as well as false life and blur and/or displacement.

Greater Invisibility, glitterdust and blindness are helpful in setting up non-flanking sneak attacks.

Scorching ray appears to allow sneak attack on every ray, which gets you three sneak attacks for one spell when your caster level is 11. (It's possible that there is text not in the spell description that limits sneak attack to the first ray.)

Twilight Knife from the APG seems to be a great spell: it moves to flank opponents (and does some sneak attack damage when flanking). I assume that you can get a flanking bonus from the spell, but it does not explicitly say so.

Summon Monster is also good for creating flanking partners.

Vampiric touch can heal you while also giving better damage.

At low levels, you will want See Invisibility. At higher levels, True Seeing can often overcome concealment.

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