Stealth

Description

Ability Score Used:	Dexterity
Usable Untrained?	Yes
Armor Check Penalty Applies?	Yes

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

Stealth is a Stance which you can enter either as part of a move action or using a swift action, and requiring a free action to sustain each round after the first. Like other stances, it can be disrupted by being knocked prone or subjected to a condition which reduces your available actions for the round, and it cannot be maintained continuously for more than 1 minute. In addition, the stealth stance carries several other restrictions which must be followed in order to sustain the stance (see 'Maintaining Stealth' below).

Upon entering the stance, the GM rolls a stealth check for you, adding your stealth skill to the result. This result is the target DC for any creature's perception roll to see or hear you while you remain stealthed. Some GM's may elect to allow players to make this check themselves.

To initiate the stealth stance, you must have either total cover or total concealment from any target you wish to be hidden from. You may initiate stealth as long as you have total cover or total concealment from at least one target. Anyone who can perceive you when you make your stealth check is unaffected by your stealth check, regardless of the result. As a result of this, some creatures are nearly immune to stealth (e.g. creatures with life sense, tremorsense, etc. are very difficult to find cover/concealment against.)

You cannot enter a stealth stance if you are carrying a visible light source or making noise louder than a whisper (which includes command words for items, or verbal components for spells).

Targets from which you do not have total cover or total concealment may make a perception check (DC equal to your stealth check result) when you move somewhere that they could possibly perceive you (i.e. leave your cover or concealment).

Modifiers

• Size: Creatures gain a bonus or penalty on Stealth checks based on their size: Fine +4, Diminutive +3, Tiny +2, Small +1, Large -1, Huge -2, Gargantuan -3, Colossal -4, Titanic -5.
• Standing Still: A creature that is not moving (not even a 5-foot step), but is taking other actions which don't break stealth (like drinking a potion), gains a +5 circumstance bonus on stealth checks.
• Freeze In Place: A creature that stands stock-still, takes no actions other than to hold as still as possible to maximize their stealthiness, gains a +10 circumstance bonus on stealth checks.
• Invisibility: If you are invisible, you gain a +4 circumstance bonus on Stealth checks if you are immobile (standing still or frozen in place), or a +2 circumstance bonus on Stealth checks if you're moving. Note that this bonus stacks with the bonus for standing still or freezing in place.

Action

It is a swift action to initiate the stealth stance. This may also be included as part of a move action.

Try Again

If you enter the stealth stance but get a stealth roll result that you are unhappy with (assuming your GM doesn't make the check for you), dropping the stance and re-entering it, in addition to requiring you wait until the next round to retry, causes you to suffer a -5 cumulative penalty for each retry taken without a combat occurring since your last attempt. Any single round of combat, including a surprise round, resets this penalty back to zero. There is no in-game justification for voluntarily retrying a stealth attempt, since you think you're hiding like a pro.

Special

Re-Initiating Broken Stealth

No one may re-enter the stealth stance in the same round in which it was voluntarily broken. That is, you cannot attack (breaking the stance), use a move action to acquire total cover/concealment and then use a swift action to initiate stealth on the same round; you must wait until the following round to re-enter your stealth stance. This same rule nearly always applies to monsters, even those which are naturally invisible such as the Will-o-Wisp. Such creatures, if they have the proper remaining actions to do so, could re-initiate invisibility, but not the stealth stance. They would have to wait until the following round to initiate the stealth stance, assuming they voluntarily ended it.

Re-initiating the stealth stance after being involuntarily knocked out of the stance (e.g. you are knocked prone) can be done as soon as you have an available swift action, total cover or total concealment, and the conditions which disrupted your stance have been removed. There is no retry penalty applied to re-initiating a stealth stance which has been involuntarily ended.

Invisibility

Stealth is the act of moving silently and hiding in shadows, and it is, in many ways, BETTER than invisibility. That said, if you are invisible, you gain a +4 bonus on Stealth checks if you are immobile, or a +2 bonus on Stealth checks if you're moving. Invisibility also provides the total concealment necessary for initiating stealth, but does NOT automatically grant successful stealth. An invisible ogre in plate mail is still going to be audible (and therefore targetable even without an active perception roll) unless he initiates a stealth stance and rolls a stealth check first. Invisible creatures who have not initiated a stealth stance can have their squares targeted without the need for a perception check, since everyone still knows which square the creature is in. Of course, invisibility provides total concealment, which grants a 50% miss chance. By contrast, had our invisible creature initiated a stealth stance and made a stealth roll, enemies could only target the creature's square if they beat its stealth roll with an active perception check.

Creatures with Blindsense, Tremorsense, Lifesense and other non-sight-based senses can ignore the bonuses provided by invisibility, and even gain a bonus to their perception rolls to see through stealth of +5. However, they do not automatically perceive a stealthed character. See Types of Senses for more details.

Maintaining Stealth

Once you have entered the Stealth stance and rolled your stealth check, you may sustain your stealth stance as a free action each round as long as you are not affected by a condition which terminates your stealth, and do not take any actions which break your stealth. Any time you take an action which introduces (or removes) a penalty to your stealth check, you must make a new stealth check if you wish to remain stealthed.

You may move around unobserved as long as you sustain the stance and your stealth check continues to exceed at least one creature's perception checks. You can move up to half your normal speed each round and use Stealth at no penalty. If you move more than half up to your full speed, you take a -10 penalty. You may not run or charge and sustain stealth (See 'Actions that Break Stealth' below).

Ending a move with no cover or concealment does not end your stealth stance. You are assumed to be staying low, keeping quiet, and moving cautiously to maintain your stealth.

Non-Ground Movement

Using any type of movement that isn't walking along the ground typically inflicts a penalty on your stealth check. Some movement types are so noisy, or produce such flashy visual effects that their use voluntarily ends your stealth stance altogether.

• Climbing : If you have a climb speed (i.e. you can climb without making Movement checks), you do not suffer any penalties to stealth checks while climbing. However, if you must make Movement checks to climb, you must also make a new stealth check at a -5 penalty, in addition to any penalties you might incur from moving more than half your speed. (Note that the climb skill also inflicts penalties for moving more than 1/4th your speed.)

• Swimming : If you have a swim speed (i.e. you can swim without making Movement checks), you do not suffer any penalties to stealth checks while swimming. However, if you must make movement checks to swim, you must also make a new stealth check at a -5 penalty, in addition to any penalties you might incur from moving more than half your speed. (Note that the swim skill also inflicts penalties for swimming more than half your speed.)

• Flying : If you have a fly speed (i.e. you can fly without making Movement checks and have some means of flying without the use of a command word or verbal spell component), you may or may not need to make a new stealth check at a penalty. If your flight is accomplished by the use of wings, you must make a new stealth check at a -5 penalty, in addition to any penalties you might incur from moving more than half your speed. Some modes of flying, such as a magic carpet, may not inflict any penalties to stealth checks. (Note that flying slower than half your speed requires its own Movement check.)

• Teleporting : All teleportation abilities require you to make a new stealth check at a -10 penalty, as they are loud and flashy. Obviously, using any teleportation spell or item that requires a verbal component or command word will voluntarily break your stealth stance altogether.

• Burrowing : Burrowing through stone voluntarily breaks the stealth stance. Burrowing through earth inflicts a -10 penalty to your Stealth roll in addition to any penalty for moving more than half your speed. Earth Glide does not inflict any penalties to stealth checks, except those incurred from moving more than half your speed. Note that burrowing deeper in loose earth inflicts a -10 penalty to perception rolls made to detect you per full 5-foot square of loose earth between the sneaker and the perceiver. Conversely, if a creature has tremorsense, it takes no perception penalties, and instead gains a bonus to its perception of +5 to detect burrowing creatures. Furthermore, you cannot initiate stealth against a creature with tremorsense while on or under the ground within the radius its tremorsense, as you do not have total cover or concealment.

Actions That Break Stealth

Voluntary Actions

Making an attack

You voluntarily end your stealth stance after you make an attack roll, whether you hit or miss. You are considered stealthed until the resolution of the attack roll as long as your target did not succeed on their perception check to notice you. Attacks made from stealth use the target's flat-footed AC and allow use of sneak attack.

Failing a movement skill check

The stealth stance voluntarily ends if you attempt to make a Might, Movement or Acrobatics check and fail to meet any DC required for the skill check to succeed. The Stealth stance also voluntarily ends if you enter an enemy's space, unless you succeed on a Might check to Clamber into that space. The target DC of this acrobatics check is the enemy's Maneuver Defense minus 5. Invisibility on top of stealth does not make any of these checks easier. Failing an acrobatics check to cross a narrow surface or move across uneven ground also breaks your stealth stance. Moving through threatened squares (but not occupied squares) while sustaining a stealth stance does not require an acrobatics check unless the creature can detect you somehow -- the creature doesn't threaten you if it can't perceive you.

Making Noise

Stealth immediately ends if you make any noise louder than a whisper, including uttering the verbal components of a spell or command words for an item.

Running or Charging

Running or charging breaks the stealth stance just before you start to perform the run or charge action.

Turning on a light source

Stealth immediately ends if you turn on, or reveal, a light source. Carrying an invisible light source does not end Stealth, although it may give creatures a strong reason to actively look for you.

Involuntary Actions

Being knocked prone or suffering any status condition which reduces your available actions for the round involuntarily breaks your stealth stance.

As with all stances, stealth cannot be sustained continuously for more than 1 minute at a time. After 1 minute, characters must find new total cover or total concealment and re-initiate the stance with a new swift action. Because this is involuntary, it does not suffer the penalty for retrying.

Sniping

Sniping is a special action which allows you to make a single ranged attack without breaking your stealth stance. If you are in a stealth stance and are at least 10 feet from your target, you can use a full-round action to make one ranged attack and then immediately make a new stealth roll at a -10 penalty to sustain the stance. There are feats, weapon properties, and class abilities which can reduce this penalty.

Creating a Diversion to Hide

You can use the Bluff skill to attempt to initiate a stealth stance. A successful Bluff check can give you the momentary diversion you need to attempt a Stealth check against one enemy. Distracting an enemy with Bluff follows the rules for Feint, and costs a standard action. (Note that Improved Feint reduces this to a move action.) Following a successful distraction, you must use a swift action to enter the stealth stance and then make a stealth check against that specific enemy. You are not stealthy against any other enemies unless you try to distract multiple enemies. You may attempt to distract multiple enemies at once, but the Bluff check takes an additional -2 penalty for each opponent after the first to a maximum penalty of -20 (you make only one roll, each enemy rolls to resist it), making this tricky to pull off. Any enemy which resists is not fooled, and you do not have Stealth against them.

Attacking a Stealthed Creature

If you know that a stealthed creature is in a particular square, you may attack him as though he has concealment (20% miss chance). However, in most cases, you don't know (in-game) which square a stealthed creature is in. Generally, GM's should just disallow attacks when the target's location is unknown. However, area attacks and wild swings may sometimes come up, and the GM should calculate where the target could possibly be, make a roll to see if the right square was chosen and then roll miss chance.

For example, a stealthy enemy is somewhere within an 80' x 80' room, and the insane gnome sorcerer wants to chuck a fireball at them, even though they don't have any real clue where the enemy is. Meta-game, the players can see a miniature on the board and know the enemy is in the northeast corner of the room. However, to simulate uncertainty, the GM could give the gnome a 25% chance to choose the right region of the room (since the fireball is a 40' diameter, and the room has roughly four 40' regions). Obviously, if the room were smaller, or the fireball bigger, the chance of guessing the correct region is improved. All of this is an attempt at ignoring the metagaming knowledge that the enemy is in a particular area, and instead simulate complete uncertainty. Generally speaking, the GM should announce how they're going to determine whether the attack had a valid target, but not reveal whether the check succeeded or not, since the players wouldn't know whether the fireball hit the enemy. If the enemy is later revealed, it may or may not look a bit charred.

Epic Skill Uses

Note: All uses below require a minimum of 21 Ranks in the skill to use.

There are currently no epic-only uses of the stealth skill, since all uses of Stealth are opposed rolls and naturally scale. Conversely, it can be said that ALL uses of this great skill are Epic!