Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Rogue sneak attack , error

Assuming another ally melee is within 5 feet of the enemy I'm not in viewport why can't I sneak hit? This happens to me very, very often, especially in the underworld... whether it's close combat or long-range combat, in long-range combat it could be my fault that it's dark, but is it also important in close combat that it's light?

another scenario also in the underrealm, opponent is next to a fire so i can assume he is not in the dark, i am not in the window of the opponent who is standing by the fire, i go into sneak mode, want to shoot sneaky in long range but he tells me i I'm at a disadvantage... and I don't know why?...

You can find out what's giving you a disadvantage by aiming at the enemy with a regular attack. It should then show up at the top middle of the screen.

Though I think in Patch 8 the sneak attack is a bit finicky, so it doesn't work even though it should in some cases. I'm not sure as of this moment, but perhaps this will be improved with Patch 9 which is coming very soon.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try what's on it, but I think it's still a bit buggy, which I also noticed that some of the camera guides are still very buggy

If you have advantage, OR if you do not have disadvantage (as in, you are making a straight roll, regardless of what ever other factors may be involved), and you have an ally that threatens the target (not incapacitated) within 5 feet, then you should get your sneak attack.

The way the game processes Sneak attack, however, causes it you check the condition at the wrong time - so that if there is ANY source of disadvantage affecting the roll, at all, it does not permit your sneak attack; this is incorrect.

It has always been like this, and it has never been fixed, despite countless reports. A few patches ago they updated sneak attack so that it errors and won't work, rather than just making a normal attack, so this bug became more visible for more people, but it still has not been fixed.

If your situation is that you are hidden (advantage), but at long range (disadvantage), and you have an ally threatening your target, then you have neither disadvantage, nor advantage, and are making the attack with a normal, straight roll - so you SHOULD be able to apply sneak attack if you hit.

I go out of the opponent's window, in other words I go where he doesn't see me but I'm still within range, no matter whether it's long-range or close combat, then go into sneak mode, that works too, and if I then want to make a sneaky attack It doesn't work, a player can also threaten the opponent, it doesn't work, I mainly have these problems after the destroyed village and in the lower kingdom, the opponents are also illuminated or in the light, it's bright.

Part of the issue with ranged "sneak attacks" is that ranges are not currently accurate for missile weapons at present in EA. At least they are not equal to the ranges listed in the PHB as they all cap at 18 meters (59 feet) in the game. Where weapons like shortbows and light xbows should be 80/320 (80 feet being normal range, and 320 feet being max (disadvantage) range unless you have the sharpshooter feat. And heavy xbow should be 100/400, and longbows 150/600 feet respectfully. This all affects those of us that want to play rogue snipers in the game (sneak attack with ranged). So anything outside of 18meters (59 feet) is essentially put at a disadvantage in the game thus not allowing us to "sneak attack" them at present. I hope they fix this in the future, and I have not checked to see if the "sharpshooter" feat is implemented in the game, which would would change things dramatically if implemented properly.

On a side note they also have not implemented all ranged weapons yet as of last patch, so this is an area they may well be still working on for final release.

Genuine rules question: I thought it was correct.

If memory serves, that’s how it works in Solasta; you can’t sneak attack from long range. Isn’t that what makes the tradeoff between bows and crossbows interesting?

No - the requirement is that you not be making the attack at disadvantage - that you not have disadvantage on your roll. If you have a source of disadvantage, and a source of advantage, then they cancel out and you make a flat normal roll - you do not have disadvantage on your roll, and so sneak attack is allowed is you meet the other condition.


Look at it this way... there are *two* possible conditions that allow sneak attack, and the first does not mention disadvantage at all. If having any source of disadvantage meant that you could not meet the second condition at all, ever... then that would Also mean that having Any source of advantage would automatically mean that you would always meet the first condition, by that same reasoning... which is not the case.

What matters is the roll that you are actually making - if you have advantage on the roll - that is, if you are literally rolling two dice and taking the better result, then you can apply your sneak attack. Alternatively, if you have a threatening ally engaged with your target, you can apply your sneak attack as long as you do not have disadvantage on the roll - that is, as long as you are not literally rolling two dice and taking the lower result.

Solasta does this correctly; if you attack from long range, but are hidden, you are generally making a straight roll - you have a source of advantage (being hidden), but you don't make the roll with advantage so you won't be able to apply your sneak attack unless your target has a creature hostile to it engaged with it. If you Do have an ally threatening your target, then you can apply your sneak attack, because you are making a straight roll - you have a source of disadvantage (long range), but it is negated by your source of advantage (hidden), and so you are making a straight roll - you do not have disadvantage on the attack roll, so the condition is met and sneak attack can be applied.

Ingame tooltip should include some expandable part containing such examples.

I think if they just had a viewable compendium that gave the correct definitions for terms that players could check at their leisure, that would save a lot of effort in the long run. In trying to save space, be brief, or be more concise with their tooltips, the game has ended up conflating or confusing a number of things, which can then become misleading for players in turn.

I see ...

There was suggestion some time ago that would imho help ...
I mean right now (if i remember it corectly) if you try to sneak attack and you cant, the game only write next to your cursor something like "you cannot sneak attack" ... and while that can be usefull to veteran players, newbie like me often finds himself yelling at screen "But why?!" ...

It would be most helpfull if the game would provide us option to expand this tooltip showing us conditions for Sneak Attack ... and mark that one wich is not met with source.

Like:
---

Advantage : Attacking from shadows - ●
Disadvantage: Poisoned - ●
Result: Regular hit roll.

Party members close to target:
Lae'zel - ●
Gale - ○
Tav - ○

Result: Sneak Attack possible.

OR

Advantage : Attacking from shadows - ●
Disadvantage: Poisoned - ●
Result: Regular hit roll.

Party members close to target:
Lae'zel - ○
Gale - ○
Tav - ○

Result: Sneak Attack NOT possible.
You dont have advantage, nor friend close to target.

OR

Advantage : Attacking from shadows - ○
Disadvantage: Poisoned - ●
Result: Disadvantage hit roll.

Party members close to target:
Lae'zel - ●
Gale - ○
Tav - ○

Result: Sneak Attack NOT possible, you roll with disadvantage

---

I mean the game need to check theese things anyway right?
So why not show it?


//Edit:
I would use simmilar tooltip for Hex aswell ...
I was quite unpleasantly surprised when i finded out that my Magic Missile, nor my Witch Bolt triggers its damage.

I see, thanks for explaining.

Sneak attack needs to be remade from ground up. It's buggy as hell, post were made with screenshots....It's buggy mess you can do sneak attack even if you have disadvantage and vice versa.

The fact that it's an active skill it just horrible, it ruins multiclassing, removes one of the rare good things about dual wielding and the chance to get the sneak attack off per round is drastically lowered for no good reason whatsoever!

+1 that Sneak Attack needs a whole bunch of work. Larian loves toggles, but for some reason didn't make sneak attack one. :\

Larian could also use their homebrew allowance to rename Sneak Attack to something else...like Precise/Deft/Vital Strike. Since Larian expects a lot of non-D&D players to play BG3, doing so would likely help avoid a bunch of confusion where players think they *must* sneak in order to get sneak attack.

Personaly i still dont like the idea of toggle ...
And im quite sure that some moder will do that rather sooner than later.

The only fix i would ask for is Off-hand Sneak attack.
And maybe adding its damage to AOO for Rogue.

May I ask why? If it was done the same way metacasting is done for sorcerers it would even increase amount of clicks needed, and would open up functionality.

It makes no sense to make Sneak Attack a toggle because the 'on' position is strictly better than 'off'. Every other toggle justifies its existence by representing a choice: You're paying a ressource (sorcery point, reaction, bardic die) to get an effect, so the game requires active confirmation. Sneak attack costs nothing; a toggle would confuse players and add nothing to the game.

The toggle would default to on, turning off for only a single attack when you click it, and then automatically turning back on. So in the 90+% of cases where you'd want to sneak attack on your first (possibly only) attack each turn, it'd require no extra clicks. In the remaining cases, it's almost a certainty that you'd want to sneak attack on your 2nd attack, so it's still only a total of 1 extra click.

The benefits of a toggle over an icon are:
- it automatically would apply sneak attack to opportunity attacks
- you can combine sneak attack with other powers (e.g., weapon abilities, smite, etc)
- you can directly click an enemy to attack them, rather than having to click the dedicated "sneak attack" icon and then click the enemy

The benefits of a toggle over automatically applying sneak attack on your first successful hit each turn are:
- if for some reason you don't want to apply sneak attack to an enemy (e.g., main-hand attack a low-HP enemy to kill them, saving sneak attack for an off-hand attack against a farther-away enemy), you can do that by turning the toggle off.

Sure you can!
But dont be disapointed, there is nothing deep in it ... its just matter of personal prefference.

In Sorcerer case, its necesary evil to me, since amount of icons would be overwhelming without toggle menu ...
But that is not a problem with Rogue.

As you probably know by now, i like action bar ... and it seems only logical that i therefore want something there.

So ...
Option A ... make it toggle as non-lethal-attacks are ... would mean that either have basicaly nothing to click on. OR (and that is worse option imho) That we get into incredibly tedious and anoying game, where when my rogue wish to be effective keep turning Sneak Attack on and off for every attack. :-/

And Option B ... make it toggle as Metamagic is ... would mean that i would need to go to unbindable part of hotbar (that is forced on me, no matter if i like it there or not) in order to activate something before every-single attack move i can do. And that sounds anoying as fuck. :-/

Curent version fits me the best ... i press 1/2/3 and attack ... smooth, simple, fast, effective. :3
And 1/2/3 is all my Rogue would need ... Ranged, Meele, Offhand.

//Edit:
Just imagine:
You fight Goblin 1 and Goblin 2 ... Goblin 1 is on Meele range from you, Goblin 2 is far, but close enough to shoot and you can Sneak Attack both ... Goblin 1 have 1HP left, Goblin 2 is full, but would die on single strike with full power.
You want to kill them both within single round.

Option A:
Your Sneak Attack is turned on ...
So you need to go into passives bar > turn it off > return to main bar (i just realized this step is optional) > attack Goblin 1 and kill it > go back to passives bar (optional again, technicaly you can stay there this whole time) > turn it back on > return to main bar (optional again) > attack Goblin 2 and kill it.
Pretty anoying if you ask me.

Option B:
Your Sneak Attack needs to be turned on before every single strike you want to use it ...
You attack Goblin 1 and kill it > you turn your Sneak Attack on > you attack Goblin 2 and kill it.
Sounds good ... presuming you dont forget (and in long run, we all ARE going to forget sometimes) and accidentaly dont attack Goblin 2 with regular attack.

Option C:
Your Sneak Attack is right on your hotbar on bindable possitions ... sure you can still forget it, technicaly, but its certainly a lot harder to forget press attack button you are using with every single character, than forget to go turn on some shining icon in the corner.
So you attack Goblin 1 and kill it regular way > you press 1/2/3 (depending on where you put your Sneak Attack you wish to use) and kill Goblin 2 aswell.
Smooth, simple, fast, effective, with fresh scent of lemons! :3

Well, ideal option would be a pop up like in Solasta . It’s a good example Rag, though I feel situations in which one wouldn’t want to use sneak attack with their first attack would be rare. That said I don’t find current implementation too much of the hassle, though if off hand was added for both melee and range 4 shortcuts for the same ability sounds rather inefficient.

Speaking of toggle, should we be able to combine sneak attack with other attacks if multiclassed?