Help with "Pool of Radiance ~ Ruins of Myth Drannor": sneaking?

decided to re-play this oldie again
ok it has issues but it's also fun

it's a "sort of" D&D 3.0 based game like "Baldurs Gate"
however, one thing is baffling me, as it's been LONG time since I played it:
how the hell does the game do stealth?

You have Hide and Move Silent skills
but there is *no* way to use them in game that I can see?
all other "activatable" skills (like "Search") are on the drop down skill list to use as you wish
but not Hide/Move Silent

since you can't go very far from the party leader (damn that is a dumb mechanic), even if it is a purely "passive" skill, I can't see it as much good.

anyone have a clue on this?

I seem to recall it being passive, but it's been a long time.

I desperately wanted to enjoy that game, but it was such a boring slog of the same thing, repetitively, that I never did play through it very far.

Yeah I'm guessing it's passive somehow, but it never bothers to explain how/what! :/

it is a bit grindy, lol, and buggy and giving you overpowered stuff but up against overpowered monsters for your level...rather think CRPGs need to stop the idiocy of you being level 1! start at level 3 or so at least, please