Right, though of note is that making the target unaware of your location, as Stealth tends to do, does make them flat-footed against your first attack.
But Sneak Attack, contrary to its name, is less "an attack you need to be sneaky to use", but more an ability to pinpoint weak points when your target can't properly defend against it, whether it's weak points in armor, joints of the undead creature, or even the glowing red gem on the back of the construct.
Problem is, concielment works both ways. Unless you pimp with feats concielment makes you unable to pinpoint those week spots.
By the rules of surprise if you are not aware of the enemy you are surprised. So stealth does play into it.
Perception check vs the player's stealth check determines this.
"Sneak attack" is specifically a rogue ability related to attacking a target denied their dexterity bonus where the rogue gets to assign extra damage.
The two, stealth and sneak attack are not necessarily related, but they can be.
The ability "sneak attack" is really the only true advantage the rogue class has over any other class. Personally I wouldn't go homebrewing and giving this power to other classes.
An attack that outisde of game you and I would call a sneak attack is possilbe through surpise. It just doesn't deal any extra damage over any other attack. What it does however is give you a full round of free attacks where the opponent does not get to retaliate or use their dex bonus.
So, I'm reading over... well most everything I can find related to stealth and sneak attack and I noticed something interesting. They don't appear to be related at all!
What I mean by this is that outside of sniping, which I suppose could be considered continually making the enemy flatfooted because its always the first turn of combat if its just one person, stealth doesn't actually let you sneak attack even if you can stealth in combat. I just wanted to make sure I was correct on this.
Here is why I think this:
Stealth gives you total concealment. Total concealment does not, by itself, say anywhere I can find that it causes others to lose their dex bonus vs you. Thats the end of it.
I find this confusion considering invisibly, that gives total concealment in a form of making you (obviously) invisible, does cause others to lose their dex. Blinding someone, which makes it so everyone around them counts as having total concealment, also causes them to lose dex. Yet, hiding in the smoke to the point you have total concealment and /cant be targeted/ does not cause them to lose dex. Having a special power so you can stealth in the shadows and have total concealment and again, cannot be targeted, doesn't remove their bonus to dex. Do I have this right?
Maybe I am a little slow on the uptake, but are you suggesting that total concealment does not allow for you to sneak attack?
If so that is incorrect. When you have total concealment the opponent can not visually locate you, so they do not know where you are.
As an example if we are both in a fog cloud, and I have an item allowing me to see through fog, but you do not that means I can see you, but you can't see me. This allows for me to sneak attack you because you will have lost dex to AC.
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When the target has concealment is the problem, not the attacker.
There are Feats out there that can have the attacker still do precision damage when the target has concealment.
This comes into play when one of the party members puts up Obscuring Mist. Neither the allies nor the enemies will typically get sneak attacks when inside the mist.
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Sneak attack has been more like flank attack and soon it will be rushdown attack for my little rogue.
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OP is probably wearing a Goz Mask or something similar.
If you your target cannot see and react to your attack, they cannot add their DEX bonus to AC. That's in the Ability Scores section I think, which is why it can be confusing looking for it in the Stealth section.
The Devs have agreed that the intent is to allow Sneak Attack for stealthing and such, even if it isn't plainly stated as well as I'd like it.
Back in Advanced D&D rogues had an ability called backstab, instead of sneak attack. Backstab had much stricter requirements than sneak attack, the rogue had to attack the target from behind and the target had to be unaware of the attack for it to work, they could get it by flanking or any other method.
In Advanced D&D and D&D 3X rogues where one of the only classes who could find traps, so they where very important to a party, especially in Advanced D&D where traps where deadly.
Sneak attack was made easier to get so rogues would have a better time in combat, I guess. So in short, if you think it's odd to not be sneaky for sneak attack, it's because the newer editions made it easier for the rogue than when the rogue first got the ability.
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Back in Advanced D&D rogues had an ability called backstab, instead of sneak attack. Backstab had much stricter requirements than sneak attack, the rogue had to attack the target from behind and the target had to be unaware of the attack for it to work, they could get it by flanking or any other method.
Pathfinder doesn't have a back arc for players at all. You effectively see in all directions and face all directions. So backstab doesn't really work in pathfinder. It's less to keep track of, but I do miss backstab (and shields only protecting from the front and so forth).
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So, I'm reading over... well most everything I can find related to stealth and sneak attack and I noticed something interesting. They don't appear to be related at all!
What I mean by this is that outside of sniping, which I suppose could be considered continually making the enemy flatfooted because its always the first turn of combat if its just one person, stealth doesn't actually let you sneak attack even if you can stealth in combat. I just wanted to make sure I was correct on this.
Here is why I think this:
Stealth gives you total concealment. Total concealment does not, by itself, say anywhere I can find that it causes others to lose their dex bonus vs you. Thats the end of it.
I find this confusion considering invisibly, that gives total concealment in a form of making you (obviously) invisible, does cause others to lose their dex. Blinding someone, which makes it so everyone around them counts as having total concealment, also causes them to lose dex. Yet, hiding in the smoke to the point you have total concealment and /cant be targeted/ does not cause them to lose dex. Having a special power so you can stealth in the shadows and have total concealment and again, cannot be targeted, doesn't remove their bonus to dex. Do I have this right?
Stealth does, but the rules are all scattered in the CRB. Stealth says it's opposed by perception. Perception says that failed checks result in being unable to react accordingly. Page 179 in the combat section says that being unable to react means you can't apply your dex bonus to AC. And sneak attack applies when the target is denied their dex bonus to AC (or is flanked). So, stealth does enable sneak attack.
Though to stealth in combat, you do need concealment or cover. This is easy to accomplish, as dim lighting grants concealment. The traditional rogue/theif, is using stealth in dim lighting and shadows for low levels, until they get good enough to hide in plain sight. Pathfinder is the same, but they go about it a bit different. Lighting level rules are page 172 in the CRB.