Re: College Rules Sneak Attack
Raiquen Courcelle
The short notice is a deliberate legislative sneak attack to give voting advocates and the public as little time as possible to read and understand all of the convoluted language and then get to Tallahassee for a Wednesday afternoon hearing.
First of all, they mostly does the same amount of damage... But the Psychic Blade does psychic damages, where the sneak attack's damage type is the one of the weapon (bludgeoning, piercing or slashing). The problem is that psychic damage is one of the less resisted type of damage, where bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damages are the most resisted type of damages.
In order to land a sneak attack, the rogue needs to be making an attack with advantage, or the target needs to have another enemy within 5 feet (and that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage), while you are using either a finesse or ranged weapon.
The rogue can also use their bonus action to hide (rogues often have high dex, so hiding is no big deal), giving advantage and sneak attack. The ease of accessing both advantage and sneak attacks is what powers many rogues.
In combat a rogue will almost always sneak attack for every single attack. What's more, the rogue could even do this more than once in a round, by using opportunity attacks. Even if the rogue didn't have sneak attack, they would probably still be hiding to gain advantage, and working together with other melee characters.
While the rogue is out there spamming sneak attacks, the bard is a lot more limited. Firstly, they are limited by their number of bardic inspiration die. With 20 charisma the bard only has 5 uses per rest. That's great if you have 1 fight per rest, but otherwise it's extremely limiting. What's more, if you use your inspiration die for damage, you can't use them for, you know, inspiring people.
Bards don't have a lot of feature support for melee combat either. They don't have cunning actions like rogues, and they have to split their attributes between cha and str/dex to be effective. That tax and lack of feature support makes them less effective. Even if they had access to sneak attack, rogue would be superior.
You are correct to observe that psychic blades is easier to use, but this is only the case when you have remaining bardic inspiration. The reasoning you give here is already baked into tying psychic blades to a limited resource. A 20 charisma 5th level Bard (which is very generous) can use up to five bardic inspiration per short rest. It's easily conceivable for a rogue to use sneak attack every or nearly every turn of every combat without expending any resources at all. You bonus-action-hid last turn? Sneak attack. Your paladin is in melee with your target? Sneak attack. For free.
The setup for this is pretty tedious, but it actually works against you. Mantle of Whispers remains "until you use it or finish a long rest". As long as you don't use the ability's primary feature, you just got psychic blades for free every turn, even more available than the rogue's sneak attack, without expending any more resources.
Using Magic Initiate to pick up Wizard spells seems like a poor choice, as INT is typically a dump stat and you say the primary purpose is to get the cantrips Green Flame & Booming Blade. Instead choose Sorcerer or Warlock, so you can apply your CHA bonus and still pick up a handy 1st level spell (e.g Shield or Absorb Elements). Yes you loose access to Find Familiar, but you already say the Swashbuckler will almost always be able to sneak attack, so the value of a familiar to Help is minimal.
Or use the dexterity score as the initiative score for the characters and monsters. This way the players know who is going in what order, and the only question is what the monsters will do. This allows for some planning by the party ahead of time. "We know the monk is going to move first, so let her get into position behind the orc and do some damage. Then the rogue goes next, attacking the same target and getting sweet Sneak Attack damage, oh and we are using flanking rules too, so the Rogue attacks at Advantage!"
The rule: The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel changed overtime rules in 2022. Now, regular season matches that are tied at the end of the 90 minutes of regulation will end in a tie. Previously, college soccer games in a stalemate after full time would enter two 10-minute periods of sudden-death overtime, known colloquially as "golden goal" rules, and games would only end in a tie if the score remained even after 110 minutes.
What it means: While golden goal rules seem to generate exciting finishes in knockout soccer, in theory, the sudden-death rules affect the quality of play in practice. Often, neither team commits numbers forward for fear of leaving itself vulnerable to a tournament- or season-ending counterattack goal. The general idea behind this rule change is to improve the quality of play, giving teams a chance to get back into the game even after conceding in overtime.
With a relatively high sneak, individuals standing just a foot or two away from a guard can kill them without receiving a bounty. The killer also can remain undetected as long as the guard is not looking directly at them. However, if they then walk past the guard and are detected, the guard may attack them. While fighting back gains no bounty, killing the guard results in the normal 1,000 bounty for murder. Other guards throughout the Hold will not become hostile, so murdering the guard that witnessed their indiscretion may be a solution rather than leaving town for several days.
In high school football, individual state associations can choose any overtime format they want, or even elect to not play overtime at all (ties stand in this case). However, most states use the Kansas Plan. In a majority of states, each team is granted possession of the ball at the 10-yard line, meaning that a team cannot make a first down without scoring except via a defensive penalty that carries an automatic first down (such as defensive pass interference or roughing the passer). As is the case with the college overtime rule, the team that wins the coin toss will have the choice as to whether to take the ball first or second, or decide at which end of the field the overtime will be played. The other major difference between overtime in college football and high school football is that in some states, if the defense forces a turnover, the ball is dead immediately, thus eliminating the possibility of scoring. However, in Texas, the college overtime rule is used, as both the University Interscholastic League, which governs interscholastic activities for Texas public high schools, and the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, the largest analogous body for Texas private high schools, play by NCAA football rules with a few modifications for the high school level.
If a game goes to overtime, a coin toss is held before the start of overtime, but tosses are not held before the start of subsequent overtime periods. In college, for example, the loser of the toss to start overtime has the first choice in the second overtime period. The choices available to the captains in overtime vary among the NFL, college, and various states' high school rules.
The rules vary from the college level to the professional level. In the NFL, unless a player is tagged by an opposing player or gives himself up, he is not down. A player carrying the ball (the runner) is downed when any of the following occurs:
Under college, NFL & USFL rules, if the defensive team gains possession and advances the ball the length of the field into the opposite end zone on the try play (via interception or a fumble recovery, or by blocking a kick and legally recovering the ball), they score two points. This is officially recorded as a defensive conversion scored by the defense. The NCAA adopted this rule in 1988; the NFL added this in 2015; the USFL, 2022.
In all cases (except for ejection of a player or, in rare cases, forfeiture of the game), the non-offending team is given the option of declining the penalty and letting the result of the play stand (although the Referee may exercise this option on their behalf when it is obvious), if they believe it to be more to their advantage. For some fouls by the defense, the penalty is applied in addition to the yardage gained on the play. Most personal fouls, which involve danger to another player, carry 15-yard penalties; in rare cases, they result in offending players being ejected from the game. In the NFL, if a defensive foul occurs after time has expired at the end of a half, the half will be continued for a single, untimed play from scrimmage. Under college rules, any accepted penalty when the time has expired at the end of any quarter results in an extension for one untimed down.
Hey Ronny.
So, in the rules it says that during combat, if a character approaches and attacks an enemy then he is no longer hidden. All fine and good, but is that 2 seperate conditions or a single condition?
If a ranged attacker does not appraoch but attacks does the ranged attacker get advantage?
Round 2: I roll 1d100, get 39 Success 60% as in 1-60). Successful roll. So rogue can now hide and snipe. Thus he may use his bonus action to hide, moves randomly while hidden, fires at enemy with a sneak attack.
In bright light, targets are aware in all directions during a fight so it is not enough to sneak up from behind, there needs to be a distraction (usually from another target) if trying to gain advantage from being hidden if the attack is made in bright light.
That's not to say there are no interesting changes at all, however. Sneak Attacks can now inflict more status damage with Improved Cunning Strike, and it's possible to trade in a Sneak Attack die to remain hidden even after attacking. Death Strike is also a Sneak Attack now, while Rogue Assassins can use Envenom Weapons. Playing as a Rogue in this version of the rules will be different to playing as a Rogue in the 2014 version of the rules. But it will feel the same, and maybe that's the issue.
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