So I'm building a rouge and my goal is to be able to take out low level guards and other unfortunate creatures out in one hit as a stealthy assassin (no I don't want to take the assassin prestige class, I'd rather just take the silent kill feat and assassinate ninja trick, and buy some assassins dust instead of giving up 5 levels worth of rogue talents) and in my quest for extra damage I came across Branch Pounce and the idea of dropping from a chandelier of a 50 ft grand ballroom and assassinating someone assassin's creed style was too awesome to pass up, until i realized apparently dropping from above is a charge which can't be done while using stealth -.- so why the hell does this feat have a prerequisite of 3 ranks in stealth if it can't even be used with stealth? unless three's just something here i'm not seeing or thinking of? some DMs won't let you charge in a surprise round as it's a full round action, some DMs see the attack at the end of a surprise round as the standard action. I'm dealing with a very new DM so he doesn't really have an answer for me.
Branch Pounce (Combat)
You are adept at exploiting higher ground to its greatest advantage in battle, and can leap from above to deal incredible damage to your foes.
Prerequisites: Climb 3 ranks, Stealth 3 ranks.
Benefit: When charging a target by jumping down from above (such as when jumping out of a tree), you can soften your fall with a melee attack. If the attack at the end of your charge hits, the attack deals damage as normal and you also deal the amount of falling damage appropriate to your fall to the target (1d6 points for a 10-foot fall, 2d6 points for a 20-foot fall, and so on). This falling damage is not multiplied on a critical hit. You land in an unoccupied square of your choosing adjacent to the target, and you take falling damage as if your fall had been 10 feet shorter. You can attempt an Acrobatics check as normal to treat the fall as an additional 10 feet shorter for the purpose of determining the damage you take from the fall. If your attack misses, you land prone in a random square adjacent to the target and automatically take the full amount of falling damage.
You can still use stealth to get into position. Your stealth will end the moment your charge begins, but that doesn't change the fact that this will be happening on a surprise round and your target will be flat-footed as a result.
Given the literal face-plant that occurs if you miss, I'd be highly inclined to get access to True Strike in some form to guarantee this attack hits...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Owl Style would let you
You can move with the quiet grace of an owl.
Prerequisite(s): Dex 13, Skill Focus (Stealth), Stealth 1 rank.
Benefit(s): While using this style, you can use your base attack bonus in place of your ranks in Stealth to determine your Stealth skill modifier (as usual, this does not replace your ranks for other purposes, such as determining the effects of Skill Focus). While in this stance and using Stealth, you can charge at a –10 penalty beyond the penalty you take for using Stealth at full speed (which is typically –5).
Foes that fail their Perception checks and don’t otherwise notice you (for instance, with an ability like blindsight) are denied their Dexterity bonuses to AC against all attacks you make against them during or at the end of that charge instead of just against the first attack.
Foes that fail their Perception checks and don’t otherwise notice you (for instance, with an ability like blindsight) are denied their Dexterity bonuses to AC against all attacks you make against them during or at the end of that charge instead of just against the first attack.
This literally does nothing. If you charged out of stealth against enemies who didn't notice you then you have a surprise round, so they're denied their dexterity bonus to AC anyways.
That does if you have a way to make extra attacks on a charge that means all of them grant sneak attack. And no a surprise round only happens before the first actual round of combat. Once that round is gone breaking stealth to ambush someone is no longer the surprise round nor are they suddenly back to flat-footed against you for a whole round.
You can still use stealth to get into position. Your stealth will end the moment your charge begins, but that doesn't change the fact that this will be happening on a surprise round and your target will be flat-footed as a result.
Given the literal face-plant that occurs if you miss, I'd be highly inclined to get access to True Strike in some form to guarantee this attack hits...
just want to point out that if you start your turn while in stealth. you can charge and only the attack break the stealth so your (first) attack from the charge would be a sneak attack if the target didn't notice you.(you can also see this in the owl style feat brought up there, when it talks about that without it you only get one sneak attack). after the attack your stealth is broken and you need to get into hiding again.
-which is why spring attack might be batter as you can keep on moving after the attack so if you reach cover or have concealment you can end the movement back in stealth mode.side note. if you don't end up moving your full speed i belive you don't take the -5 panelty on stealth, right?
I like this concept. If you really want to crank up the heat with your surprise attacks, get Ledge Walker, Fast Stealth, Hellcat Stealth, and/or Hellcat Pounce.
I like this concept. If you really want to crank up the heat with your surprise attacks, get Ledge Walker, Fast Stealth, Hellcat Stealth, and/or Hellcat Pounce.
Underhanded is disgusting if you've gone Knifemaster as I have, took a trait to gain kukri proficiency, plan on taking slashing grace with it for a 1d4+dex+max damage d8 sneak attack+ whatever else I can put on there like 2d12 for sassone leaf Residue, bleeding attack, branch pounch, assassinate, the list goes on.
If you are able to take only a standard action on your turn, you can still charge, but you are only allowed to move up to your speed (instead of up to double your speed) and you cannot draw a weapon unless you possess the Quick Draw feat. You can’t use this option unless you are restricted to taking only a standard action on your turn.
Dang I had forgotten about that entirely, thanks bud
The rogue's scout archetype gains the ability to sneak attack after a charge. Pretty sure it's Unrogue compatible too.
The rogue's scout archetype gains the ability to sneak attack after a charge. Pretty sure it's Unrogue compatible too.
All Rogue archetypes are technically compatible with URogue because every Rogue class feature that can be traded out has an explicit equivalent URogue class feature. However, PFS can be a bit arbitrary with their rulings on URogue archetype compatibility so you always need to double-check the legality of the combination there. For home games, anything goes unless your GM says otherwise.
al unchained classes with the exception of unchained monk can take their chained version's archtype. they are built to do so. even things that are named difrently in unchained (like the trap sense) have text where it state that they can work as if they were the original rogue class ability for things like archtypes.
monks can't since they reworked all the ki powers to be selectable (and to be on defrent levels as well).