so I'm building a drow rogue and i'm using a kukri (used traits to get proficiency)and I've come across a bit of a puzzler, if I roll an amazing stealth check and none of the combatants sense me and I creep up and kill someone in a surprise round with sneak attack, it would seem that unless I have the silent kill feat I can't make a stealth check to go unnoticed and what would happen would be the other unaware combatants would make a perception check at DC -10 for hearing the sounds of battle plus other modifiers like walls and distance and not my stealth basically meaning they would notice either way, similarly if I shot them with a crossbow and make a sniping stealth check they would still realise their buddy is dead. I found this out by reading the Silencing weapon special ability description:
"A silencing weapon makes no noise when drawn or when used to attack. In addition, after hitting a creature, the wielder can surround that creature with an aura that muffles all sounds coming from it until the beginning of the wielder’s next turn.
The target can still hear and speak (including uttering command words or casting spells with verbal components), but is much harder to hear. The DC of Perception checks to hear the sound of battle increases from –10 to 10, as long as the only combatants are the wielder of the silencing weapon and targets affected by the weapon’s muffling ability."
but even with the boost from a silencing weapon that's only a DC 10 perception check plus modifiers, so is the silent kill feat the only way to go completely unnoticed? The silent kill feat reads as follows "When you kill a creature during a surprise round, you can attempt a Stealth check, opposed by the Perception checks of potential observers, to prevent them from noticing your action and subsequently identifying you as the assailant." give me your opinion and your interpretation on this aspect of the stealth rule, I am also a full time DM and passionate rules lawyer so i'm pretty interested in seeing what other dms think and how they would handle this.
.... give me your opinion and your interpretation on this aspect of the stealth rule, I am also a full time DM and passionate rules lawyer so i'm pretty interested in seeing what other dms...
I think another way might be taking at least 4 levels of Stalker Vigilante and 1 level of Shadowdancer:
By taking Silent Dispatch...
"When the vigilante ambushes an enemy or enemies unaware of his presence, he can attempt a Stealth check at a –5 penalty. The result indicates the DC of Perception checks to hear the vigilante’s attacks until an opponent’s first action, when the DC returns to the normal –10 for hearing battle. Other enemies present can still see the attack; this talent only prevents the sounds of battle from alerting others."
...you could attempt to one-shot the opponent without being heard.
...and with "Up Close and Personal", you can move and make a single strike as swift action on your opponent and move again:
"When the vigilante attempts an Acrobatics check to move through an opponent’s space during a move action, he can attempt a single melee attack against that opponent as a swift action. If the Acrobatics check succeeds, this attack applies the vigilante’s hidden strike damage as if the foe were unaware of the vigilante. Otherwise, the vigilante applies the hidden strike damage he would deal if the target were denied its Dexterity bonus to AC. Only a stalker vigilante of at least 4th level can select this talent."
In theory that might be combined with Assassinate:
"A ninja with this master trick can kill foes that are unable to defend themselves. To attempt to assassinate a target, the ninja must first study her target for 1 round as a standard action. On the following round, if the ninja makes a sneak attack against the target and the target is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly killing the target. This attempt automatically fails if the target recognizes the ninja as an enemy. If the sneak attack is successful and the target of this attack fails a Fortitude save, it dies. The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 the ninja’s level + the ninja’s Charisma modifier. If the save is successful, the target still takes the sneak attack damage as normal, but it is immune to that ninja’s assassinate ability for 1 day."
The idea is this:
Stealth at -5 to approach and strike the enemy silently, Acrobatic check, swift attack to assassinate (and drop him) and move back into the shadows ...and re-Stealth.
Being a shadowdancer should make easier to pull it.
Skarm
The simple statement here is, it's not easy to kill someone unnoticed (and it shouldn't be) and in order to facilitate it you will need to pick up some abilities from other sources as I don't believe they're available through feats.
I've seen a handful of useful abilities that you could probably make work. While you yourself must be quiet, the real challenge is going to be preventing the target from screaming when you stab them. That is why this is difficult.
For you to achieve exactly what you want, it may require jumping through a bunch of hoops, but you could get there.
Or...
Buy a wand of Silence and invest in UMD. This is probably the easiest solution, will work in more situations, and you can use the other abilities to help you or fill in the gaps.
When the vigilante ambushes an enemy or enemies unaware of his presence, he can attempt a Stealth check at a –5 penalty. The result indicates the DC of Perception checks to hear the vigilante’s attacks until an opponent’s first action, when the DC returns to the normal –10 for hearing battle. Other enemies present can still see the attack; this talent only prevents the sounds of battle from alerting others.
As a full-round action, the vigilante can move up to his speed toward an opponent who is unaware of his presence (or who considers him an ally) and make a single attack against that opponent. If the attack hits, he can attempt a drag combat maneuver against that enemy with a +4 bonus and without provoking an attack of opportunity. If the drag succeeds, the vigilante doesn’t need to have enough movement remaining to move with the enemy. The vigilante can’t use this ability on a true ally or a willing target.
Once per round, when the vigilante succeeds at a hidden strike, he can instantly drop the damaged enemy unconscious for 1d4 rounds. A successful Fortitude saving throw negates this effect (DC = 10 + 1/2 the vigilante’s class level + the higher of the vigilante’s Strength and Dexterity modifiers). Whether or not a creature’s saving throw is successful, it can’t be affected by that vigilante’s mighty ambush again for 24 hours. Only a stalker vigilante of at least 10th level can select this talent.
The vigilante can use Stealth to hide even when being observed. As long as he is within 10 feet of dim light (his own shadow doesn’t count), he can hide without anything to actually hide behind. Only a stalker vigilante of at least 8th level can select this talent.
At 6th level, whenever an assassin kills a creature using his death attack during a surprise round, he can also make a Stealth check, opposed by Perception checks of those in the vicinity to prevent them from identifying him as the assailant. If successful, those nearby might not even notice that the target is dead for a few moments, allowing the assassin to avoid detection.
Here's some examples from Vigilante and an ability that is explicitly called "Quiet Death" from the Assassin prestige class. You can probably make it work with these and there may be more from other prestige classes, I didn't really look too hard.
You can use one of your advanced talents to grab 1 stalker vigilante talent.
Note: This talent is appropriate for unchained rogues and for standard rogues, but is not available to other classes or alternate classes that can choose rogue talents (such as ninja).
Prerequisite: Rogue 10.
Benefit: The rogue can select a vigilante talent. For the purposes of selecting and using this talent, she counts as a 10th-level vigilante with the stalker specialization, regardless of her actual rogue level. Her sneak attack counts as a hidden strike with reduced damage for the purpose of determining the effects of her vigilante talent, which means, among other things, that she can’t apply any of the vigilante talents marked with an asterisk (*) to her sneak attacks.
If you go Stalker Vigilante...
Improved Drag, Greater Drag = +4 to drag
+2 Leveraging Weapon = +4 enhancement to drag
Gauntlets of the Skilled Maneuver = +2 to drag
Thorny Ioun Stone = +2 competence bonus to drag
Pull into the Shadows = +4 to drag
BAB = +7
Drag = +23+STR
This can probably get you at least 10 feet in most cases, so you can get pull them around a corner or away from a door or something.
Skill Focus Stealth = +6
Stealthy = +4
Ring of Chameleon Power = +10 competence bonus (And disguise self, so you can try to look similar to the person you just took out. Another guard or something)
Class Bonus = +3
Class Ranks = +10
Stealth = +33+DEX
Silent Dispatch + Pull into the Shadows + Mighty Ambush + Hide in Plain Sight =
Run out and attack your Target. If you hit, he has to make a Fort save or go unconscious. Probably use Drow poison too. After his 2 Fort saves to remain conscious, you get to drag him a few squares back into darkness or around a corner or something. The Perception check to hear this is at the Stealth Check -5 (+28+DEX after the penalty and before modifiers.)
If you have knocked him unconscious, perform a coup de grace. If there are no guards in the immediate vicinity to hear the command word, use your ring to disguise yourself as the guard (or a random guard... or a random person who would be in this area... depending on circumstances, you could even get the attention of another guard to come check out his ally who has been killed in the dark corner or w/e)
If you have not knocked him unconscious, pray that you beat his initiative to keep the Perception DC at your Stealth Check -5 from Silent Dispatch. Perform a Full Attack and hope you kill him or knock him unconscious with more Drow Poison.
As with any sneaky sneak, consider Wand of Silence and Wand of Invisibility/Greater Invisibility. This makes some of the problems easier to deal with.