I am considering variant multiclassing for a build, initially to get Trapfinding. Then I remembered that this VMC, and Sanctified Slayer both have Sneak Attack.
The build is Inquisitor (Sanctified Slayer + Reaper of Secrets) w/ Rogue VMC. Because of this, the Inquisitor gains 1d6 sneak attack @ 4th, at 7th it increases to 2d6. But at this level also, the Rogue VMC gives the Sneak Attack Class Feature (Which the Inquisitor already has now).
I've received different interpretations, and I'm just curious for the RAI. I'm hoping for a solid justification with rules citing. The interpretations I can imagine are:
1) Both Sneak Attack sources stack; therefore at level 7, the Inquisitor + VMC rogue has 3d6 sneak attack. This means the character qualifies for feats that require a certain degree of sneak attack, such as the 5d6 Sneak attack for Dastardly Finish (Whose prerequisites would be met at level 11)
2) The sneak attack sources do not stack, but since they trigger off the same attack, under the same conditions, the damage is effectively the same. Fr example, at level 7, the sneak attack results as 2d6 + 1d6, rather then 3d6. The notable difference between example 1 and 2 is that feat prerequisites are met at different levels; Dastardly Finish's prerequisites would only be met at level 16 for this character.
3) The Sneak attack sources do not stack; because having the same class feature twice should not happen. Therefore, only the higher of the two sneak attack pools triggers; effectively the VMC's sneak attack damage never occurs, because it will always lag behind the Sanctified Slayer.
Here's hoping for a clear result, and maybe even a Dev weigh in. Thanks to everyone in advance.
As far as I'm aware, sneak attack always stacks.
If you took a level of vivisectionist alchemist, a level of rogue, and a level of slayer snakebite brawler you could have 3d6 sneak attack at level 3.
That was my intuition as well Claxon, except this is variant multiclassing which is something I'm not terribly familiar with. I'm not sure if they have different progression rules for similar class abilities.
VMC are new-ish. Like many optional systems that Paizo has released...they have been less than stellar (IMO) in regards to robustness and have all the information included to be able to answer questions like this.
At the least, it does not state that it should not be stacked with other sources, and somewhere (can't remember where) it was established that sneak attack always stacks.
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As far as I'm aware, sneak attack always stacks.
If you took a level of vivisectionist alchemist, a level of rogue, and a level of
slayersnakebite brawler you could have 3d6 sneak attack at level 3.
Actually, that doesn't work, because of the hinky way they wrote vivisectionist.
At 1st level, a vivisectionist gains the sneak attack ability as a rogue of the same level. If a character already has sneak attack from another class, the levels from the classes that grant sneak attack stack to determine the effective rogue level for the sneak attack’s extra damage dice (so an alchemist 1/rogue 1 has a +1d6 sneak attack like a 2nd-level rogue, an alchemist 2/rogue 1 has a +2d6 sneak attack like a 3rd-level rogue, and so on).
However, other than vivisectionist, sneak attack dice stack.
Actually, that's really terrible because then it doesn't make sense for how it should work on a class that doesn't provide the full normal sneak attack progression.
Like slayer.
I just rule your Sneak Attack dice cannot exceed half your hit dice. I rule the same for Order of the Star VMC Cavaliers and Channel Energy.