Ability Spotlight: Sneak Attack

Once again into the breach with another Ability Spotlight, and this time it's a highly requested one based on a staple roleplaying class. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Sneak Attack;

Sneak Attack

   You are adept at finding and capitalising on the weaknesses of your enemies. An expert with ranged weapons and light blades, your strikes are lethal and precise. Not for you is the raging assault, but the slaughter born from patience. Even if your plans fall through or you find yourself overmatched, you can always fall back on your sharp wit and quick thinking to get out of sticky situations.

   Your Hit Points per level rises by 1.

   Your Skill Points per level rises by 3.

   You gain a +1 bonus to Reflex.

   When you hit an enemy that grants Combat Advantage to you with a weapon in the Light Weapons category, any damage you inflict is multiplied by 2. This does not include additional damage granted by Enchantments. This damage multiplier is applied after other damage multipliers, including critical hits. This bonus damage cannot be applied against enemies that are immune to critical hits.

Ability Synopsis

   Sneak Attack is a classic ability of rogues and thieves, corsairs and assassins, cutthroats and ne'er-do-wells. Characters that benefit from Sneak Attack provide explosive damage and extreme utility to an adventuring party, with no single way to optimise or build.
   The ability is drawn from the typical Rogue class, and its practical applications and Talents lean toward that (ig)noble heritage. Sneak Attack is great at deleting weaker enemies and capitalising on large scale boss battles. Sneak Attack holds the illustrious privilidge of being the only ability that grants a permanent damage multiplier, and as a result can be counted as one of the most powerful abilities in the game. To top it off, Sneak Attack is one of the few abilities that comes with 3 Skill Points per level. As a result, characters can put spare points into extra combat skills, defences, or a multitude of skills.

   Sneak Attack comes with a few caveats that are reliant on game mechanics that are not immediately obvious, and finding a way around these caveats is key to utilising the effectively.
   Combat Advantage is granted by unseen attacks, flanking a target, kicking a man while he's down, or similar debilitating effects. While a target grants Combat Advantage, any creature that tries to attack them can roll two dice and choose the higher one. For any additional cause of Combat Advantage, the attacker gains another dice. A man that is prone and being flanked grants two dice, for example. A flanked and prone man being attacked from a man on higher ground gets an additional three dice. This is a restriction that forces a character to fight cleverly, such as flanking targets with allies, abusing terrain advantages, or tripping opponents. On the other hand, Sneak Attacks are always made from a position of strength, and are both accurate and lethal. Whatever grants Combat Advantage also has Combat Disadvantage against its attackers. Disadvantage is, of course, to roll an additional dice and take the lower. This means a character is safer from retaliation, so long as the victim can stay at a disadvantage.
   While double damage is a lethal effect, Sneak Attack can only use weapons in the Light Weapons category. This includes smaller blades, such as daggers, short swords, or rapiers, and most ranged weapons. Most of these weapons inflict Piercing damage, which can narrow their scope against targets resistant to piercing attacks. Infamous culprits include amorphs, skeletons, and constructs. There are no blunt light weapons, which means that these enemies are resistant to Sneak Attack regardless of your loadout. These enemies also tend to be immune to critical hits, which makes them very difficult to tackle for a Sneak Attack user. I would recommend characters to carry one blunt weapon and put a few points in it just for such an eventuality. You have skill points to spare, don't be afraid to sprinkle them around.

Key Talents

   Sneak Attack has two great strengths - damage and skill use. The Talents available to Sneak Attack focus on improving damage, expanding the use of skills, and making it easier to achieve Combat Advantage.

   Assassin transforms the damage of Sneak Attack from a double to a triple, so long as you attack in a surprise round or from stealth. This is the trademark talent of snipers and one-shot killers, and is a huge increase in damage. Characters with ranged weapons tend to get more milage from this Talent than melee characters because it is easier to maintain cover or stealth at range. Because of the added requirement, this Talent is not an auto-pick for most characters. However, this Talent can work wonders for characters built to accomodate it.

   Sniper supports Assassin very well, allowing to make a Stealth check to remain hidden after firing a ranged weapon. Essentially, this means the character can sit in the same spot and fire without being seen with free reign. Otherwise, a character must move, hide, and then attack. This is a time consuming strategy that, while great for remaining out of harms way, is slow. 

   Axeman, Swordsman, and Thug should be addressed together, as they allow single-handed Axes, Heavy Blades, and Maces respectively to be used with Sneak Attack. These weapons deal more damage that the standard fair found in Light Weapons, and they cover Piercing, Slashing, and Blunt damage types. However, these weapons are in the Heavy Weapons category, and use STR instead of DEX. This means that skills you may need, such as Stealth or Theivery, may be less potent if you chose to focus on STR instead of DEX. If you chose to increase both, then other important skills will be lacking.

   Trapfinding is a classic Rogue skill that has become a Talent, and is the forerunner of at least eight other Talents that improve skills. It grants a +2 bonus to Perception, and allows you to reroll one dice to find hidden things or Insight checks to identify the properties of traps. This is the only Talent of its kind, and makes dungeoncrawling that much easier. All of the similar Talents also provide unique bonuses, ranging from making Stealth or Climb checks at full speed, to replacing the use of some skills to others, allowing you to maximise the efficiency of your skills.

   Improved Trip, Improved Disarm, Improved Feint, and Improved Charge are on the General Talents list, but need to be addressed because of their usefulness to Sneak Attack. Trip and Disarm provide easy Combat Advantage and bonus attacks, but fall short against targets that cannot fall over or aren't carrying weapons. Feint can achieve the same end by providing a free attack, but does not provide any additional bonuses against targets that can be disarmed or fall over. Improved Charge requires a wind-up like a normal Charge, but grants Combat Advantage as well. If you Blitz instead of Charge, a dual-wielding character can murder an enemy in one flurry of knives and blood.

Recommended Builds

   For all of its power, Sneak Attack is not particularly splashable. Instead, it does best work when paired with other abilities that help to provide Combat Advantage or build on skill bonuses.

The Shadow Assassin (Sneak Attack + Shadow Affinity + Bound Weapon)

   When building a character around Sneak Attack it is best to do so that increases the likelihood of Combat Advantage. Shadow Affinity's Terror in the Dark grants constant Combat Advantage to the target of the Shade, guaranteeing Sneak Attacks without much difficulty. Shadow Affinity also has a selection of highly useful powers - Executioner's Noose can drag targets toward you or allow you to zip line to them, allowing for instant executions or spiderman style antics. Destroy the Light and Tenebrarum Rex can be used to set up zones of complete darkness in order to activate the bonus of Assassin, whereas Darkside offers raw damage in the form of another damage multiplier. Shadow Affinity also brings Slip Away with it, allowing for free Stealth skill checks in concealment, followed by free movement.
   Bound Weapon provides stable damage that scales well with Sneak Attack, since the gradual damage upgrades count as quality upgrades rather than enchantments. However, other Talents that grant the likes of Axiomatic or Chaotic traits are still enchantments, and thus their damage is not doubled. Bound Weapon is better used for consistent damage, or taking Transform! multiple times to gain access to a variety of weapons with no draw time.

The Pit Fighter (Sneak Attack + Dominate the Field + Equipment Optimisation)

   Rather than the typical sneaky play that Sneak Attack encourages, this particular combination of Character Abilities creates a vicious head on fighter with elements of tankiness. Dominate the Field grants access to Unbalancing Shove, which grants Combat Advantage whenever you Mark a target. In other words, since Dominate the Field Marks targets when you attack them, so long as you keep attacking the same target they grant Combat Advantage to you. Thus, you can Sneak Attack the target in every round after the first.
   How you build from there is up to you. Take one of Axeman, Swordsman, or Thug to gain access to higher damage weapons and equip a shield to become tankier, or take advantage of Dominate the Field's punishing set of retaliation Talents and build for rapid strikes. Equipment Optimisation provides the opportunity for flat defence and damage increases, as well as a slew of skill related improvements. This also gives the option to gain some nifty Craft skill upgrades, allowing an amount of flexibility not usually associated with tanky characters. This includes attachments and augments, or gadgets available to Engineering crafts.

The Sneak Thief (Sneak Attack + Equipment Optimisation + Animal Companion)

   Built for nought but utility, this combination of abilities grants the widest selection of skills and flexibility. Equipment Optimisation comes into play in a similar manner as the example above, but with less focus on the bonuses to gear and more on improved crafting. The ability to create gadgets with Engineering play up to the requirements of Sneak Attack, while poisons and potions made by Alchemy can make those attacks even more lethal. Combining the two can create some game-changing control effects - an adhesive blind grenade can shut down an encounter, or poison-tipped snares to immobilise and damage high health targets. Both such examples grant Combat Advantage and allow easy escapes if you become the target of the enemy's ire. Animal Companion emphasises mobility and strategic play. You can use your pet to flank enemies, and the Talents available to you either improve on that mobility or expand your skill bonuses. The Talents that improve skills under Animal Companion also improve your pet, thus many pets benefit from a similar playstyle to you. Combining all of these aspects together, this character relies on the setup for easy takedowns. Imagine scouting forward with an unnaturally sneaky wolf companion, scaling the walls at full speed without being seen, hanging from the rafters and dropping custom bombs on the enemy, then rapelling down to aid your allies in the cleanup operation. Or whatever, you can choose to find the treasure instead.

The Dashing Swordsman (Sneak Attack + Glamer + Bardic Song)

   This particular set of abilities functions more as a supporting role with vicious melee capabilities rather than a backstabbing killer. Even without Talents, Glamer and Sneak Attack work seamlessly together. Glamer's power to alter a target's vision is unparalled, and provides both the opportunity to Sneak Attack and the ability to escape. Glamer also provides limited use of spells to compliment this swashbuckling playstyle, as does Bardic Song. These spells are limited to Illusion spells and a smattering of Enhancement spells, allowing you to pick and choose spells that compliment your fancies. Bardic Song provides the usual bonus to saving throws, and can be customised with different bonuses to best fit your party.
   Bardic Song also has Talents very similar to Improved Trip and Improved Disarm, Footwork and Riposte respectfully. This is noteworthy because the effects of each stack, so successfully disarming or tripping a target awards two bonus attacks. Sneak Attack and Bardic Song also benefit from Talents that increase passive Reflex, so long as you wear cloth armour or no armour, so you remain very difficult to hit amongst the cut and thrust of the chaos you sow. However, all of these abilities only grant 1 Hit Point per level. So while this character offers damage, magic, support, and a huge range of utility, you are surprisingly fragile despite being difficult to hit.

  

Thank you for reading so far, if there's anything more you want to see let me know what you think in the comments section below!

Providence v3: The story so far...

Years have come and gone, and Providence has been in a state of evolution, although do to personal activities, I haven't made any posts about it!

   Since being sampled at a few conventions and by some tabletop aficionados, there were some valid points raised which forced me to put Providence back into preliminary drafts. Of course, that's hugely depressing - I just finished writing those magic lists!

   The positives are very positive; character customisation is deep and rewarding. None of the playtesters felt railroaded into any build, and each of them managed to achieve their own personal image without sacrificing the typical party dynamic. One player raised an eyebrow, and asked to make a druid style character that could transform into an owl, had an owl pet, and was still a primary spellcaster, and could still be a viable combatant. Primal Magic, Animal Companion, and Primal Soul with talents focussed toward spell slots and improved Longbow damage proved an acceptable answer.

    The range of options, including backgrounds and racial options proved to be very popular, as did the revamping and simplifying of the crafting system. It was a barebones table during playtesting, but it made planned downtime a vital piece of certain parties for tinkering and item creation.

   The actual game handled well, which was expected, given that it was drawn from a mix of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 and 4th edition. However, this is also a key part of the problems.

   

   The origins of Providence are visible within the game design, which detracted from the overall experience since players familiar with Dungeons and Dragons didn't just take to it, they knew it almost inside and out. Whereas this made them feel comfortable, knowing roughly what was going to happen, how the mechanics worked and how best to fight, it was also taking them out of the game - it still felt like a homebrew mod. To put it bluntly, it still wasn't different enough from the original games.

   The other key problem was the world itself. Originally created as a generic fantasy world of 'points of light' equilibrium for a campaign, the world of Providence has been grilled as boring and uninspired. Race selection is standard, and as a result players often fail to attach themselves to the world. And why should they be emotionally invested, if everything is in a state of equilibrium, and nothing is at risk? In a world of elves, men, and dwarves, what differentiated it from the next adventurer's domain? Nothing, not really.

So, back to the draftboard!

   The changes I want to make are drastic in scope, and while I have started I am still working my way through the numerous kinks. To explain the extent of the changes, I must first tell you a brief story of the first ever campaign and the evolution of the new world.

   Providence was drafted for a 4E campaign. The campagin was entitled The Glory of the Fiendking, and was a tale of how an enigmatic figure, the self-styled Fiendking, began a terrible war against the entire civilised world. The established kingdoms of men, elves, and dwarves were crushed against a foe that knew the outcome of every skirmish, and understood the weaknesses of each kingdom. The adventuring party were a group that were caught in the crossfire of the Fiendking's war, and had to deal with a world where old, content realms were suddenly plunged into chaos.

   The campaign was never finished, although it was started multiple times with different groups. Later, the campaign was renamed The Glory of the Shining King just to avoid confusion (the King never actually enlisted the aid of Fiends to his army). Despite this, the end of the campaign had been written, just never played through.

   The story was fairly straightforward - the Shining King was a demigod, the son of the god of time. Over the course of his very troubled life, he discovers that aberrant creatures are pouring in from the Silent Beyond, and it would only be a millennia or so before the dark realm breaks through into realspace and those creatures consume all life. At which time, the gods of Providence would abandon this reality and create a new one. The Shining King discovers that this is a cycle that has repeated countless times. Thus, to create a world that could withstand the rigours of the Silent Beyond and fight against the horrors that wait there, he hatched a plan to unite the world under his rule, and ascend to godhood via a ritual of apotheosis. The adventuring group would get caught up in his machinations, and eventually defeat him by interrupting the ritual. Of course, doing so causes a fracture in reality...

   

   This is where the new Providence world starts. After the defeat of the Shining King, the sky cracks in a cataclysmic event, known as the Fracture. All demigods, divine descendents, and the most faithful suddenly disappear. Angels cease their interactions with mortals, and deities cease answering prayers. Divine Magic ceases to work, and without divine healing properties the world turns foetid almost overnight. Freakish aberrant creatures randomly appear through slips in reality, devouring or capturing anyone they can get their monstrous hands on. The tears in reality appear anywhere, and once mighty fortresses crumble in the face of the creatures. They are the Blighted, a scourge on the land.

   The weather is random and rampant; whole islands are thrown into the boiling seas and storms split the sky. The ground heaves in protest, and whole cities fall in on themselves. Worse still, through the crack in the sky sits a world that is getting ever closer. It is a monster planet, looking onward to Providence with a mad, squid-like eye. It is coated in the ruins of the civilisations, and the surface can be seen with skittering creatures. If one were to look past the horror, distant lights are moving toward the crack, for there are more of these monster worlds. They are known collectively as the Tyrannous Stars.

   The end of divine rule has created a terrible schism amongst the populace. Catechists and flagellants perform witch hunts on spellcasters, claiming that overuse of magic caused the Fracture and the Blighted incursions and only abstinance from magic can win the Gods' favour. There is some measure of truth to that assertion, as the Blighted seem to swarm places of magical power, and target mages in the midst of battle. There is no divine salvtion awaiting, sadly. The gods have moved on with their most loyal flock, and have left the universe to die in the tide.

   There is some hope and progress, however. What spellcasters remained created a spell, Reality Bind, which prevents the tears in reality from appearing. This stops Blighted incursions, but it also prevents spellcasting. By maintaining the spell, civilisation has been allowed to regrow to a certain extent. There are a handful of city states scatted across the surface of the tattered world. Trade is difficult, as the great distances are fraught with danger. Magic has been set back, with much of the knowledge gleaned over thousands of years being lost to the catechist purgings. Magic is now treated as something of a controlled substance, and education is highly restricted to colleges and institutes. Oddly, more and more people have been exibiting unnatural powers and magical talent. Technology has slowly filled the gap that magic has left, although it is still fairly simple. Basic steam engines are in wide use, and blackpowder weaponry is largely considered the height of offensive weaponry. Each city state has their own standing militia, but many businesses operate individually to reclaim some of the lost world beyond the walls. These are called the Free Companies.

   This is the world that the new players are thrust into. It is desperate and visceral, and the planet faces impending disaster. Everything has been lost, but there is everything to reclaim.

   The gameplay is also getting a significant change, but it's more of a rework than a complete overhaul.

   The create - a - class feature is still the key part of character creation, although a handful of abilities are getting reworked to make them fit, or being removed because they no longer match the lore of the game.

   Status effects are changing with duration and DC. Saving throws are becoming specific instead of just a duration timer, and their conditions can be more vicious a la 3.5e.

   Skills are changing, as are skill point allocation so you can spend points based on the bonus of your base attributes. Defences, attacks and all of the secondary maths of character creation have been rolled into their own skills. To that extent, skills are expanding to include weapons and defences. To improve one's expertise, you must spend skill points on the weapon skill. Defences are being overhauled - AC has been removed, and now armour grants a flat damage reduction.

   Magic is being redone (yes, damnit! Again! I know, right?!) to reflect the destroyed state of magical knowledge in the world. The five branches of magic - Arcane, Divine, Psionic, Primal, and Meta - are being stripped down and removed. Now, there is one magic list with an extensive number of spells, but there is a system in place for players to edit their spells or to craft completely new ones. Spellcasters are also encouraged to go forth and discover old spellbooks, so to reclaim spells that they otherwise couldn't research. The secret to mass teleportation, for example, has been lost long ago.

   Crafting is being tweaked and expanded in the form of more options and new skills. Accompanying this is the new Basic Craft Blueprint table. If a player wishes to craft something that has no rules or guidelines, the Blueprint table can be used to allow the Narrator to make a judgement call as to how the craft will be performed. It's uses will be rare, but it allows players to construct large scale items such as ships or buildings. In a world where technology is becoming more important, complicated crafting might just be the cornerstone of a late campaign.

   It's a lot to digest, I know. I'll be back sooner than you think with another Ability Spotlight to keep you interested and up to date! I hope you're excited about the new world. Tell me what you think in the comments below.