So I'm thinking about building an assassin-themed character for a Hell's Vengeance campaign, and in fleshing out the details of the build, I like some of the thematic effects but am curious about a few of the mechanical benefits. I'm thinking about making the build as a Scout Knife Master UC Rogue, with the focus being on attacking from above (DFA) and concealing weapons (currently thinking about doing TWF balisongs). My question is, while I get that concealing a weapon is just a sleight of hand check, and that it's good for niche cases where you need to go somewhere and appear unarmed (a fancy party or something), but does it have any other mechanical benefits? Can I use it to initiate a sneak attack or something? As far as action economy goes, I imagine I would use a swift action to release one knife from a spring loaded wrist sheath, a free action to open the butterfly knife, and then move/attack, doing the same thing on my follow-up round in order to draw the second knife.
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The biggest issue most of the time is the surprise round mechanic. Since you can only take one action during a surprise round, you will quickly end up in regular combat rounds before you even have the chance to do anything.
So essentially you would need to release the knife and be right next to your target or at least able to throw the knife to attack him.
Hmmm so if I'm visibly unarmed (not even a weapon my belt) during combat, I don't benefit from suddenly becoming armed if we're already in combat, I assume? That would make concealing a weapon pretty limited in use, not that that's inherently a terrible thing.