Okay, so a wizard casts Invisibility on a rogue, and the rogue has a high enough Base Attack Bonus (or is utilizing Two Weapon Fighting) to have multiple attacks as part of a Full Attack. He sneaks up on an unaware enemy and makes a Full Attack. Is said enemy denied their Dex bonus to AC, and therefore susceptible to Sneak Attack, for the duration of the Full Attack Action, or would the rogue become visible after the first attack and therefore lose the benefits of Invisibility for the remainder of his attacks for the Full Attack?

The rogue becomes visbile after the first attack.

I would say for the entire round since the person is surprised.

1) The rogue definitely becomes visible after the first attack.

2) The first attack is definitely a sneak attack UNLESS the victim doesn't lose his Dex towards invisible attackers.

3) If the enemy DID NOT notice the rogue coming, the enemy is flat-footed until he acts.(If he never loses his Dex due to being flat-footed, ignore this.) So all further attacks this round AND if the rogue wins initiative afterwards all those attacks as well are also sneak attacks.

If the enemy DID notice the rogue(for example with a Listen check) then attacks after the first are not sneak attacks as he is not flat-footed. The first attack only depends on Condition 2.

(Invisibility makes the opponent lose his Dex bonus regardless of being flat-footed. So with Greater Invisibility, all attacks would be sneak attacks all the time, but see Condition 2.)

So if the rogue were to become invisible via the spell of the same name (or similar effect) in the middle of combat, he would only benefit from its effects for a single attack, and not the course of the action the attack was a part of?

In reply to Roaming Shadow (msg # 5):

Correct. Unless you could do something to remove the entire awareness of your character's existence.

Remember, as stated above, if the original attack began during a surprise round, or before the Target has even had a chance to act at all, they still remain flat-footed.

The exceptions of course, already having been listed above.

I believe that the surprise round allows only a standard action. So unless the rogue has some ability that allows him to take a full round action (such as a full attack) on the surprise round, he'd only get one sneak attack even then. So the only way he'd get a full attack would be to sneak attack from invisibility on the surprise round, win initiative over his target, and then do a full round attack.

In reply to jaberwok (msg # 7):

He could just say 'I spend my surprise-round standard action standing around. Now that we're into full rounds and the enemy still hasn't noticed me, I do a full round attack'

There's no legitimate reason to force an invisible opponent to take a surprise round.
I've seen people argue over it before (with a monster that can phase in and out of the Astral Plane as a move action) and didn't understand why they felt you had to take and reveal themselves during the surprise round.

To me, that's the nature of the surprise round -- in other words, it doesn't matter when the invisible rogue acts; the round he attacks is the surprise round, and he gets to attack once. Basically, any time there's a moment of surprise the attacking group gets to perform a standard action, and the surprised group gets to perform "hey, my pants are around my ankles!"

(Personally I find this to be fair; surprise gets you a momentary edge, and then the enemies get to react. It's one of the places, IMO, where RAW and RAI are pretty much in agreement. But I'm not going to argue this point further; do as you like in your games.)

Back to the OP: If the rogue rolls well in initiative and beats his target, then in the first round of combat he'll get a full attack action with sneak attack. Otherwise, it's incredibly difficult to get more than one sneak attack in a round without help (flanking, blinking, invisibility, etc).
This message was last edited by the user at 15:03, Sat 25 Jan 2014.

RAW, you get ONE STANDARD ACTION in a surprise round. These are your three options, with pros and cons:

1) Use your standard action normally, then roll for initiative in the next round. This is the normal operation.

Pro: If you win initiative, you get to do a single attack AND a full attack while your foe's still flat-footed. Pretty awesome.

Con: If you lose initiative, you only get to do one single attack while your foe's flat-footed, then they get to act.

Summary: Do this if you're absolutely sure you'll win initiative.

2) Use your standard action to "delay".(Or "ready", works pretty much the same way.) Delay costs a standard action and gives a standard action.(Which can of course be downgraded to a move just like any.) You do nothing in your surprise round, then you do a single attack while the foe's flat-footed as you automatically act first. You DO NOT roll for initiative if it's just the two of you as you go before your foe by default. If there are others, you simply go first in the order.(Put yourself at the highest number rolled, plus one.)

Pro: There is functionally no pro. You would have acted first anyway, then you might have acted again, now you won't. There might be situational pros, like if you have some ability that relies directly on your initiative order or if instead of going first you go after something happens.(An ally does something?) If it's just the two of you, I guess not bother with initiative is something.

Con: THERE IS NO PRO. That's a large con. You are essentially giving up the chance to act twice in a row.

Summary: Don't do this unless you have a reason to.

3) Do nothing. Yes, you can do nothing with your standard action. RAI, that might be a little cheesy, but RAW it's fine. If you were visible, you would certainly be allowed to waste your standard action, invisibility makes no difference. However, the GM is perfectly within his rights to say that combat does not start(as no one noticed you) and you get ANOTHER surprise round. If you keep doing nothing, repeat until your spell expires.

So what happens if the GM goes along with it? The surprise round is wasted, you roll initiative. If you win initiative, do a full attack. If you lose initiative, so what? You're invisible. Unless the foe can find you while invisible, they waste their turn obliviously. Now, since technically we're acting like combat started and the enemy got a turn, they ought not to be flat-footed after your first hit. However, unless they suspected you at all, I personally would rule that the enemy stays flat-footed until they get to act WITHIN COMBAT.(I.e: not "doing nothing".)

Pro: If your GM agrees with me, you get to do a full-attack before your enemy acts regardless of what happens with initiative. In fact, if it's just the two of you and your spell isn't about to expire, no need to roll initiative. Even if the enemy hears you, you get to do a full attack, the first attack of which is still a sneak attack.(Unless they dispel you somehow.)

Con: You are unable to do a single attack followed by a full attack. Also, if the enemy wins initiative and has a way of detecting(including hearing and smell) and dispelling an invisible foe, you may completely blow your advantage. This isn't a surprise round anymore, yes they are capable of acting.(But they shouldn't if they haven't noticed you, that's just bad GM'ing.)

Summary: Do this if you don't think you can win initiative. At least you get more than a single attack. But if you can win initiative, option 1 is always better. It also doesn't depend on GM interpretation.

Why is everybody obsessed with the Surprise Round? My original post said absolutely nothing about the Surprise Round. I don't care about the bloody Surprise Round. I'm talking about after combat has already been initiated.

Let's say on ROUND THREE of combat, the wizard casts invisibility on the rogue. The rogue takes an action to move next to the enemy sorcerer, who fails to detect the rogue's movement with Perception. The rogue can now perform a Full Attack. When the rogue becomes visible due to attacking, is it in response, and therefore after, the first attack roll or the resolution of the attack action?

Well in THAT case, you only get one sneak attack. The rest are regular attacks as you lose your invisibility.

Going back to my original post, losing your Dex bonus from being flat-footed and losing your Dex bonus against an invisible opponent are two different things. Your enemy isn't flat-footed in the middle of the fight, and you lose your invisibility THE MOMENT you do an attack.

If you want more than one, that's why we have Greater Invisibility. Play a pixie some time and annoy everyone.

Roaming shadow,

The only way you would also continue to get sneak attacks is if the individual somehow continued to be flat-footed.  Or, if the individual in question was flanked (or some other reason to lose dex bonus).  Otherwise, like Flint_A said, only the first attack would be a sneaky one.

Combat starts when a character is ready for and expecting combat, not the first round someone attacks, thus if the target knows or suspects that an invisible or unknown something might attack, it doesn't count as first round of combat.

That said, Flint_A and GamerHandle have the correct way of things.