Sneak Attack

[Muppethero]

I am super familiar with Sneak attack from 3.5.
How is the most efficient way to get to be able to use sneak attack? 5.0 Sneak attack confuses me

[Settings]

Far as I can tell so long as the person performing sneak attack doesn't have aggro and the enemy is either unaware of your presence or engaged in combat with a teammate, you're good.

[Muppethero]

Originally posted by ᛊᚨᛁᛚᛟᚱ ᛗᛟᛟᚾ:

Far as I can tell so long as the person performing sneak attack doesn't have aggro and the enemy is either unaware of your presence or engaged in combat with a teammate, you're good.

that was my understanding as well. So i flanked. I know flanking is not a thing in 5. but I thought becuase he is active with a team mate i should have advantage

[Brady4444]

Don't be in combat or in line of sight.

[Kyutaru]

Originally posted by Muppethero:

I am super familiar with Sneak attack from 3.5.
How is the most efficient way to get to be able to use sneak attack? 5.0 Sneak attack confuses me

You just have to have advantage against them. There are literally so many ways to cause advantage in the game that it's pointless to list them all. If you have advantage against the target, you can sneak attack it. Look for the ways your party grants advantage. Striking from stealth is one of the default ways to gain advantage and is one the ways rogues specialize in.

[Settings]

Originally posted by Muppethero:

Originally posted by ᛊᚨᛁᛚᛟᚱ ᛗᛟᛟᚾ:

Far as I can tell so long as the person performing sneak attack doesn't have aggro and the enemy is either unaware of your presence or engaged in combat with a teammate, you're good.

that was my understanding as well. So i flanked. I know flanking is not a thing in 5. but I thought becuase he is active with a team mate i should have advantage

You don't even have to flank to be honest, I have Astarion pop ranged Sneak Attacks all the time standing right in front of people.

EDIT: I dont think it works for melee, but it does seem to work for Ranged Sneak Attacks.

[El Presidente]

Its Easy mode. Sneak, initiate the battle with your thief or sneakeroo (AND ONLY That character) and do a ranged sneak attack. you will notice you have another action free.... sneak again. End turn, enemy is bamboozled doesnt know what to do, choses to do nothing instead, sneak attack again, sneak end turn repeat. doesnt matter how many enemys there are or how strong. everyone will fall

[Dovahbear]

Successfully hide, then sneak attack.
That's really all there is to it.

It's also worth noting that if you're wearing something you're not proficient with it will give you 'disadvantage' which prevents you from having 'advantage' which means you won't be able to sneak attack.
So, you know, be mindful about the kind of boots you put on your rogue and what not.

You can cheese a lot of stuff with a sneaky theif rogue with a bow abusing sneak attack.
Hide. Sneak attack. Hide again. End turn.
Repeat until all the filthy goblins are dead.

Edit: Technically what you need is 'advantage'. You can get advantage on an enemy in a number of ways but the easiest and most straight forward is to successfully hide. If you're hidden from them, you have advantage on them.

[Muppethero]

Originally posted by El Presidente:

Its Easy mode. Sneak, initiate the battle with your thief or sneakeroo (AND ONLY That character) and do a ranged sneak attack. you will notice you have another action free.... sneak again. End turn, enemy is bamboozled doesnt know what to do, choses to do nothing instead, sneak attack again, sneak end turn repeat. doesnt matter how many enemys there are or how strong. everyone will fall

i have had a few of these with Gale. My fav was in the goblin camp. I thunder waved 4 goblins into the Spider pit. And everyone went after the spiders, and when the spiders where dead they all went back to their normal routines.

[Angarvin]

apart from having advantage through sneaking or other means, your other option is having an ally in 1.5 meters of your target (melee range), which does not grant advantage (unless we're talking wolf barbarian), but still allows you to perform your sneak attack.

be mindful tho that this latter option can fail to trigger your sneak attack if the target is too big. a good example is bulette: because he's so criminally thicc characters can't stand close enough to the center of the model thus they're more than 1.5 meters away and you can't sneak attack.