Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Sneak Attack: not possible in spite of advantages and no disadvantages

Hi there!
I've been playing BG3 for a while now (on XBox Series S) and have been trying to figure out, when Astarion is able to make a Sneak Attack and when not.
All the rules I have found state, that a Sneak Attack should be possible whenever Astarion has at least one Advantage but no Disadvantage.
But my playing reality does not fit these rules:
Quite often I see multiple green Advantages and no red Disadvantages for a ranged attack, but Sneak Attack (Range) is still not possible, stating that the fulfilled rule was not fulfilled.
Once I even had a very peculiar situation:
Astarion had two green Advantages and no Disadvantage, being on high ground and one other Advantage (I think magical weapon or so) against a stick monster in a swamp.
No Sneak Attack was possible.
Next round the monster climbed up to be on the same height as Astarion.
This time there was only one Advantage, as the high ground was lost, still no Disadvantage.
But strangely now a Sneak Attack was possible, though the situation was worse than before.
Since that time I am quite sure that it's not me, it's them.
This seems to be a bug.
Am I missing something?
Have other's been experiencing similar problems?
May it be connected to me playing on an XBox, or to the character Astarion (I have not tried this with a different rogue)?
Any helping comments would be welcome!
So long, Greddock

One thing to note, the "Green Advantages" you see aren't necessarily providing "Advantage"

Advantage in D&D is a specific bonus where your dice are rolled twice and you take the best result.

Things like High Ground bonus don't provide Advantage, it just provides +2 to your attack rolls. Magical Weapon also doesn't provide Advantage, it just applies +1 to your attack and damage rolls.

Typical sources of Advantage are:

- Hiding/Being Invisible
- Reckless Attack
- The target being Blinded/Entangled
- The target being Prone/Sleeping and within 3m of you
- The target being affected by Guiding Bolt

Sneak Attacks require this Advantage to occur (Or having another ally standing within 1.5m of the target, which is the most common way of enabling Sneak Attacks. Heck, the ally doesn't even have to be in combat with the enemy for this to work which is a common way to utilize Arcane Trickster's Mage Hand or Warlock's Imp summon which are able to freely be invisible and thus can move about outside of combat to go stand next to an enemy to enable Sneak Attacks)

Ah, thanks, that explains a lot.

Yes, I was aware about the "roll twice and take the better" thing, but not that only these Advantages are counted for Sneak Attack.
So the green remarks on targeting are information which are *not* helpful for Sneak Attacks.
Is there any other way of getting the information about real Advantages than knowing them by heart?
And: I guess there are Advantages which are not shown as green information?

That would explain my example with the stick monster:
High Ground and Magic Weapon are shown green and help but don't count as Advantages.
Later when the stick monster had climbed up, it was standing next to an ally (my Gloomstalker Githyanki Jirvan in fact).
That would explain why Astarion had an Advantage.
But that was not shown in green while targeting.
Which would mean that Advantages and green info are two separate things altogether.
Could you please explain the "Mage Hand" trick?
My character Jirvan can do this (as a Githyanki). But I could never find a good application.
I thought I could use it for manipulations, when I couldn't reach the thing to manipulate. But that didn't work...
Thanks again for your help!

I notice that you can get the sneak attack almost all the time by just using the bonus action to hide. Even if you're in combat in bright sunlight with enemies all around, it seems you always succeed to hide and enable the sneak attack.

Yes, they are indicated when previewing an attack:



Notice that the "Hiding" green notification is displaying 2 dice? That's signifying that it's providing Advantage. Meanwhile my "Weapon Enhancement" is not showing those dice, so it is only providing bonus to the attack roll.



This is also signified when the game is showing attack success chance. Note that it outright states I'm getting Advantage.

Of course, I'm on PC so the UI is a little different, but the overall design is similar on console if I recall correctly.


No. All sources of Advantage and Disadvantage are clearly marked.


That would not be Advantage.

Sneak Attack has 2 different conditions that enable it:

1) Having Advantage.

OR

2) Having an ally standing within 1.5m of the target (Whilst not having Disadvantage)

Both can enable Sneak Attack. Only one is required to enable Sneak Attack.


Yes.

The Green info is a collection of anything that is providing a benefit to your abilities. This include things like Attack Modifiers as well as Advantage.

Just like the Red info is a collection of anything that is providing a defecit to your abilities. Again, this will include Attack Modifiers as well as Disadvantage.


It is pretty simple. As Sneak Attack can be enabled by simply having an ally within 1.5m of a target, it's possible to summon a Mage Hand and use its ability to fly to move around the battlefield to sit next to any target you wish to enable Sneak Attacks on.

With invisible Mage Hands like the Gith racial one or the one provided by Arcane Trickster subclass, so long as you don't do any actions with them that would break invisibility, they can move around a battlefield unnoticed and thus can easily be utilized for the entire combat.

In addition, if you have an invisible character already out before initiating combat, they won't actually join the combat when it starts, allowing them to move completely unhindered ignoring character turns completely.


Mage Hand has a few uses. One of the main ones is it can fly to places and throw objects (This can be used to steal items in plain sight if you throw it somewhere out of sight... Then everyone gets mad at the Mage Hand itself rather than your characters)

A popular thing to do in combat is to place some items like potions/bombs on the ground and have the Mage Hand throw them at targets. Since placing items from your inventory onto the ground doesn't cost any actions, you can do this without worrying about spending your character's turns (Just be careful about turn order. Enemies like to target items like these and break them)

In some cases you can even use a Mage Hand to shove enemies. Though its Athletics and Strength values are pretty poor so it doesn't have a high success rate, but it's something you can do if you have it out.

I know that being Hidden always does the trick.
But I had situations when the enemy could see in the dark, when even Astarion could not hide.
And sometimes he needs his bonus action for drinking a healing potion or such...

Thanks a lot, you made my day!

I've been trying to puzzle this one out for a while now.
I think I never would have figured out, that an ally standing next to the enemy enables Sneak Attack without being an Advantage.
Now that I know how it works I can use that to my advantage - and my mind can be a bit more at peace.
Can't wait to test all your tips and tricks tonight, especially trying some things with then Mage Hand!

It doesn't work that way for me. Hidden people are often spotted immediately and come out of hiding (so check the sightlines before hiding if you're planning to do something out of sight). It will say in the log if you were spotted because someone has darkvision. It's a shame you come out of hiding to _everyone_ though, not just those who saw you.