Sneak Attack vs. Sneak attack reaction

[Seltin]

I am level 7 at the moment, using Astarion as one of my companions. So far, I have been assuming Sneak Attack Reaction is the same thing as Sneak attack.

As in, lets say I am flanking the enemy so I have advantage. I use my normal attack (the sneak attack reactions are set to automatic) and I assumed my normal attacks also triggered the sneak attack reaction as well. But now I am not sure that is the case.

Instead of normal attack, I can click on the class action Sneak Attack instead. So which way am I actually using the rogues advtange of sneak attacks or ae both doing it?

[Curath]

It's a bit confusing because of how Larian implemented reactions and the UI.

Normal sneak attacks happen on your turn, you can either use those special "sneak attack melee / ranged" buttons or have the game prompt you every time you attack (and have sneak attack unused).

"Sneak Attack Reaction" toggle means: do you want to automatically trigger sneak attacks when you get Attack of Opportunity sneak attacks ON OPPONENT'S TURN. If you check the box, the game asks you every time you use an attack of opportunity "Do you want to sneak attack now?"

It's not stated clearly, but you do get a sneak attak on every turn. Not only your turns, but also when enemies have their turn. You still have only one reaction to use for attacking, so only one sneak attack on enemy turns. But feel free to sneak attack any time you can on your turn and hope that enemies let you sneak attack on theirs as well.

[Aranador]

Not quite what the above poster said.

You can use the sneak attack button to attack with sneak attack, assuming you've met the conditions, and know it will happen.

You can have your sneak attack reactions turned to automatic, and any time you hit, opportunity attack or not, if sneak attack conditions are met, you will also use sneak attack automatically. Remember that you can only sneak attack once per turn, so if you do atttack twice (maybe main and off hand attack if you dual wield) only one will sneak attack, and if set to automatic, the first time you are eligable, it will fire then.

You can have your sneak attack reactions turned off, in which case you will only ever sneak attack if you use the sneak attack attack button.

You can have your sneak attack reactions turned on, but set to 'ask'. Now any time you hit, and sneak attack is possible, it will ask if you want to add it for that attack. This mode is useful if you have multiple attacks, and you are just absolutely certain you will get a critical on the next attack, so do not want to use it this attack, or if your attack killed an enemy, and therefore you might as well keep it for the next attack on a different one.

The more fancy you get with your build and tactics, the more likely you want that third option.

[Mijj]

You can also check the combat log and hover the damage you will see that when using a "normal" attack you have the sneak attack damage added, the thing is that on the screen you see nowhere else that the sneak attack happened.

[Muskrat]

Bumping this to clarify, as I just checked this, and the posts above are slightly incorrect about sneak attack on your turn.

Re: auto sneak attack - setting the reaction will not trigger sneak attack on your turn if the triggering condition is the enemy is threatened. It will trigger for attacks with advantage it seems.

[imtheedi]

The big advantage of Auto sneak attacks is that you can use special arrows at the same time.