Posted January 24, 2018
Common but a little overrated IMO. If you want use stealth a lot. Shadowdancer, lets you enter stealth in a room full of enemies. Handy but it's really taking a class for one feat.
Repeated stealth sneak attacks are a great way to deal damage to enemies that can be sneak attacked (and that can't see invisible), even if you only really get one swing per round this way. At least the physical based enemies might not get some of their attacks per round either.
Granted, I might be a bit biased because I really enjoyed stealthing in and out of combat. :)
IMO the main argument for HIPS is the cheesy, attack step away, stealth, attack, step away, stealth, attack,... Routine. The NPCs reaction makes it kind or exploit like. I think there are some timing issues between reusing this ability and the detect interval. I think there should have been a significant cooldown between using HIPS.
For me this seems like a cheap tactic, and kind of annoying play style, so I don't do it, then the value of Shadowdancer declines. Still handy, but worth giving up another class, a point of BAB?
I find it much more satisfying to use stealth to launch a targetted attack to start the fight, and then fight them toe-to-toe once the surprise is over. It rewards planning that first attack, rather than exploiting the engine.
I definitely wouldn't recommend someone never play a Shadowdancer. Definitely a class to try at some point if you are into playing Rogues.
Post edited January 25, 2018 by PeterScott