Stealth (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

You are skilled at avoiding detection, allowing you to slip past foes or strike from an unseen position. This skill covers hiding and moving silently.

Check

Your Stealth check is opposed by the Perception check of anyone who might notice you. Creatures that fail to beat your Stealth check are not aware of you and treat you as if you were invisible. You can move up to half your normal speed and use Stealth at no penalty. When moving at a speed greater than half up to your normal speed (including taking a 5 ft. step), you take a –5 penalty. It's impossible to use Stealth while attacking, running, or charging, but see Attack and Hide and Breaking Stealth below.

If people are observing you using their primary sense (typically sight), you can't use Stealth, but there are ways to work around this.

• Against most creatures, finding cover or concealment allows you to use Stealth. See senses below.
• If your observers are momentarily distracted (such as by a Bluff check or by being attacked), you can attempt to use Stealth, but this only applies as long as the distraction lasts. To get more lasting stealth, you have to gain cover or concealment.

A creature that takes a move action to discern hidden things is allowed a Perception roll against your Stealth to spot you. Your Stealth is not modified for movement in this case - movement modifiers only apply to becoming hidden.

If you use stealth before another creature enters the scene, you are automatically successful and remain hidden until you break your stealth or an enemy spots you. Creatures entering the scene do not get an automatic Perception check to spot you, they must spend an action to do so or move to a position from which they can see you.

If the cover or concealment that lets you use Stealth is removed or moved around, creatures automatically spot you. In situations where it is there is clearly a risk, but it is not clear if opponents can automatically spot you, the GM can award them a Perception check as a free action instead of making it automatic.

As long as your enemies can communicate, they are able to point out your location to each other if they know where they are; you are usually either hidden against all enemies or not hidden at all.

Creatures gain a bonus or penalty on Stealth checks based on their size: Fine +16, Diminutive +12, Tiny +8, Small +4, Large –4, Huge –8, Gargantuan –12, Colossal -16.

Special Situations

Attack and Hide

You can try to hide by moving after attacking, but must end your movement in cover or concealment to do so, which usually gives you a penalty and/or restricts you from making full attacks.

Breaking Stealth

When you start your turn using Stealth, you can leave cover or concealment and remain unobserved as long as you succeed at a Stealth check and end your turn in cover or concealment. Your Stealth immediately ends after you make and attack, whether or not the attack is successful (except when sniping as noted below). If you make more than one attack this way, such as with a full attack action, you gain the benefits of invisibility on all your attacks.

Invisibility

If you are invisible or have [www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Cover total cover] or total concealment, you gain a +40 bonus on Stealth checks if you are immobile, or a +20 bonus on Stealth checks if you're moving. You can attempt to make opponents lose track of your location with any movement, but suffer normal movement penalties for doing so. See [senses] above.

Senses

Most creatures rely on sight for penetrating stealth, but there are some special cases.

Darkvision and low-light vision: darkvision and low-light vision allows creatures to ignore concealment in conditions of poor light, but it is still possible to use sharp shadows against such vision, as contrast between light and dark still affect them.

Alternate Primary Senses: There are some senses that penetrate most cover and concealment. See blindsense, blindsight, and tremorsense. Even in this case you can still hide if you use a distraction, or if you manage to somehow conceal yourself against the sense in question, such as masking your scent against scent-based blindsight or not touch the ground against tremorsense.

Secondary Senses: Even if you are invisible to a primary sense, or it is blinded, most creatures have a secondary sense (usually hearing, but sometimes scent) they can use that to locate you. You are considered invisible if the target can only detect you with a secondary sense. See keen scent, scent.

Sniping

If you've already successfully used Stealth at least 10 feet from your target, you can make one ranged attack and then immediately use Stealth again without becoming visible in between. You take a –20 penalty on your Stealth check to maintain your obscured location.

Action

Usually none. Normally, you make a Stealth check as part of movement, so it doesn't take a separate action. Using Stealth immediately after a ranged attack (see Sniping, above) is a move action.

Special

• If you have the Stealthy feat, you get a bonus on Stealth checks (see Feats).

External Links

• Stealth Discussion at ENworld