Teh. Surprising how long it took to get the most usual useage of Sneak Attacks into this thread !
In practice this is the most common useage of Sneak Attacks - you let your tank go for the enemy, and then the thief gets something really nasty in by flanking the enemy. "
This way it works in all DnD3.x games (Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale 2, Knights of the Old Republic, The Temple of Elemental Evil).
The limitation of having to be in stealth mode is only in ADnD (Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale 1, Planescape: Torment etc). The ability was called "Backstab" back then, and it gave a muliplier to your damage, not additional damage.
To summarize:
- Sneak attacks appear always when your opponent is not aware of your attack.
(a) if you flank opponents, most importantly attacking from the backside (but in normal DnD some classes, such as Barbarian, cannot be flanked)
(b) if you paralyze opponents
© if you are successfully sneaking up on them
To add:
- You cannot sneak attack opponents which are immune to critical hits. In normal DnD the undead are the most important examples for people immune to crits. In KotoR items protecting against crits should help against sneaks too, but I haven't had any opponent with sneaks yet so I don't know for sure yet.