Stealth (Apath)

	Unofficial rules compendium
	Contents 1 Check 1.1 Stealth Check Modifiers; 1.2 Perception Check Modifiers; ; 2 Conditions For Going Into Stealth 2.1 Distraction; 2.2 Cover or Concealment; ; 3 States of Alertness; 4 Group Stealth; 5 Sniping; 6 Camouflage and Hiding Objects; 7 Special Cases 7.1 Camouflage and Hide in Plain Sight; 7.2 Invisibility; 7.3 Senses Other Than Sight; ; 8 Action; 9 External Links 9.1 Discussion Sources; ;
	Contents 1 Check 1.1 Stealth Check Modifiers; 1.2 Perception Check Modifiers; ; 2 Conditions For Going Into Stealth 2.1 Distraction; 2.2 Cover or Concealment; ; 3 States of Alertness; 4 Group Stealth; 5 Sniping; 6 Camouflage and Hiding Objects; 7 Special Cases 7.1 Camouflage and Hide in Plain Sight; 7.2 Invisibility; 7.3 Senses Other Than Sight; ; 8 Action; 9 External Links 9.1 Discussion Sources; ;

Interpretation, News, Rewrite Much of this article is merely recapitulation and interpretation; I explain the Stealth rules as I understand them. But certain parts are either new or rewritten. State of alertness, group stealth, and taking 10 are new rules. Invisibility has been made to confirm more closely to the normal Stealth rules. Rather than having its own rule for when a character is pinpointed or merely spotted, it uses the general state of alertness rule.

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 whose Perception you beat with your Stealth can't sense you or say where you are. You are effectively invisible against them. When hidden this way, you gain a +2 bonus on attack rolls, and ignores opponents' Dexterity bonuses to AC (even if they lack such a bonus, which is significant for sneak attack). Attackers don't know where you are, and must guess at a square to attack in.

As long as your enemies 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. Sometimes this can be to your advantage; an enemy who reports your location to its allies might make sounds which can reveal its own location.

As soon as you attack or do something to draw attention to yourself, you exit stealth. For exceptions see sniping below. If you are successfully using Stealth and attack another creature, you gain the advantages of being invisible; a +2 bonus on the attack roll, and the opponent cannot apply its Dexterity bonus to armor class. This allows you to use the sneak attack ability rogues and some other characters have. Only your first attack in a round gains this benefit.

Stealth Check Modifiers

Creature using Stealth is...	Stealth modifier
Size Modifier	See text
Moving at more than half speed, or gesturing (sign language, somatic components)	–5
Working (standard or full-round action) or Talking (verbal components)	–10
Running or in combat	–20

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.

Once you are successfully hidden and are aware of all potential observers, you can take 10 on Stealth checks. Since unaware observers generally take 10 on their Perception checks and are often distracted as well, it is possible to remain in Stealth indefinitely unless something untoward happens, such as new creatures entering the scene.

Perception Check Modifiers

These Perception check modifiers typically apply to perceive someone using Stealth.

Circumstance	Perception modifier
Distance	-1 per 10 feet
Behind an obstacle (corner, closed door)	-5
Through a wall (per foot of thickness)	-10
In improved cover	-10
Total Concealment (invisible, total cover)	-20
Observer is distracted (busy, in melee)	-5
Observer is asleep	-10

The +20 modifier for total concealment assumes a situation with a fair amount of distractions, like a city street or busy room. In a very quiet setting or when another sense could reveal the character this modifier is reduced to -10, or even less in an absolute quiet.

Conditions For Going Into Stealth

To hide using stealth, you need to satisfy two conditions, you need to be under cover or concealment, and all observers need to be distracted.

Distraction

An observer is distracted if one of the following applies:

The creature has a visible enemy (typically one of your allies) closer than you are.
The creatures is being distracted by a Bluff check.
You have total cover or total concealment against the creature.

Note that a distraction is only required to hide when you are currently being seen. If an opponent can't see you because you are currently hidden, you don't need a distraction.

Cover or Concealment

In order to hide, you need to have cover or concealment against all hostile observers.

States of Alertness

Potential observers can be either be unaware or alert. Typically creatures start an encounter unaware and become alert due to failed Perception checks. This makes failing Stealth a two-tier process; the situation begins as fairly routine with unaware opponents and escalates on the first failed Perception check. A character in combat is always alert.

A creature that is unaware takes 10 on Perception checks, and is often distracted as well. If a Stealth check fails to overcome the Perception of an unaware creature, it becomes alert.

An alert observer rolls Perception checks each time another character tries to use Stealth and may take move actions to try and use Perception to spot hidden enemies on its own turn. A creature that sees a plausible explanation for what created the disturbance that made them alert (often the result of a successful Bluff check) returns to being unaware, otherwise it remains alert for around 15 minutes. An alert observer that succeeds at an opposed Perception vs. Stealth check spots the sneaking character.

Group Stealth

When a group tries to move stealthily the following procedure can be used. Do not use this rule in combat or against aware opponents; it is intended for groups trying to avoid combat.

Each character makes a Stealth check. Use the best result. Each character beyond the character with the best roll penalizes the main character's Stealth check by -4. If a character's Stealth check was 10 or more the penalty for that character is reduced to -2. This is a variant of the Aid Other action.

Characters can hang back to lessen the impact they have on the main character's Stealth check. The Stealth check of a character who hangs back can never be used for the group's roll. For every 10 ft. behind the head of the group a character is, his Stealth check gets a +1 bonus, but his effective Perception check suffers a -1 penalty. Being behind a door or corner counts as being 50 ft. away. Common practice is to have two groups; a point group or point man moving at the head, and a secondary group moving far enough behind to gain an effective Stealth modifier of +9, sufficient to always roll 10.

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. If you pass this check, you were never visible, and targets have no idea where you are.

Note that even if this roll fails, you can take a 5 ft. step and fulfill the conditions on entering Stealth, you can try to use Stealth at the beginning of a round. This grants the attack advantages of Stealth and avoids all circumstance penalties due to your actions in the previous round. It does not protect you in between turns.

Camouflage and Hiding Objects

A creature can use Stealth to try and hide an object or even another creature. This is a full-round action for each 5 ft. square to be camouflaged, and uses the size modifiers of the creature or object to be hidden. All normal conditions for Stealth must be fulfilled. Use the stealth bonus of the creature that did the hiding rather than that of the hidden creature, making checks as required when observers could see through the camouflage. If the object or creature moves or is moved, this use of Stealth ends.

Special Cases

Camouflage and Hide in Plain Sight

Rangers and some other characters gain improved stealth abilities. Camouflage means you always have concealment for the purpose of Stealth. Hide in plain sight means you can always have cover and all observers are considered distracted. These benefits only apply to the use of Stealth; they offer no other advantages.

Invisibility

Invisibility denies all observers a line-of-sight and thus normally imposes a -20 penalty on Perception checks as above. Invisibility provides both distraction and concealment. An invisible creature that takes no actions, does not move, and does not speak can use a Stealth bonus of +20 instead of their actual Stealth skill. If an observer can perceive the invisible character with another sense, such as blindsight, invisibility is negated.

Senses Other Than Sight

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

Darkvision and low-light vision allows creatures to ignore concealment in conditions of poor light, but it is still possible to use contrasting shadows against such vision. Thus, it can actually become easier to hide against creatures with darkvision by introducing a light source, and thus shadows.

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 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. Camouflage is a great asset here.

Secondary Senses: Even if you are invisible to a primary sense, or an observers primary sense 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.

A character that has one or more secondary senses put out of action suffer a -4 penalty on Perception checks, cf deafened condition.

Action

Usually none. Normally, you make a Stealth check as part of movement, so it doesn't take a separate action. You can use stealth as part of a 5 ft. step. You can only make one attempt at Stealth per round.

External Links

Original Stealth rules at d20PFSRD.com
Stealth Discussion at ENworld
Stealth development article at Paizo Blog

Discussion Sources

The text in this article is Open Game Content. It is covered by the Open Game License v1.0a, rather than the Action copyright. To distinguish it, these items will have this notice. If you see any page that contains OGL material and does not show this license statement, please contact one of the Action administrators. Please note that images used in article may have different copyright than the text.