Group Stealth Options

[DanmarLOK]

Thought I'd ask if anyone's ruled on 'group stealth'? I was listening to the PA podcast last night and at point Perkin's had them roll stealth as a group, i.e. one person rolled stealth and the rest just rolled assist rolls.

This pointed out a very common issue with stealth and parties. It's VERY unlikely that a party is all going to pass a stealth check individually even if they're all trained in it. Random chance is going to dictate that out of 5 rolls, one of them is going to be a 4 or less on average.

I've heard it other's podcasts and seen it in my own game play where someone always flubs the roll.

This makes it almost impossible for the group to sneak into anywhere that they all need to go especially if there is more than one check to be made.

A couple of sessions ago the party tried to sneak into a slaver keep. They were busted before they even got close by one of the two people sneaking rolling a 2 or 3 or something like that versus two Lurkers who even asleep with their ears plugged with wax and drunk would have heard them with passive perception (no they weren't really plugged and drunk and asleep, just an exaggeration to make a point.)

And I've found rarely are there situations where I as the DM or the players want to sit around while one person sneaks off to do something that actually make sense.

Just curious at how other groups are doing stealth checks on the groups and if they'd like to share.

Possible options that strike me off the top are -

Group stealth - One person rolls stealth for the group with a negative X per party member that's not trained in stealth. That person's keeping an eye on them as they move, motioning them away from the broken glass, telling them not to touch the stack of beer cans etc, don't step on the Ayoooogah horn.

Drastically lower the stealth checks that they have to oppose whether it's a flat DC or the perception check of someone else etc.

Give up on trying to use stealth except in situational cases where it makes sense for the stealthy person in the group to split off for some reason.

Open to suggestions on other ways to rule this -

 

[MrMyth]

I'll occasionally run group stealth checks where the entire party rolls, and as long as half the party succeeds, they are successful. Basically, the stealthy people can help the others hide as they sneak. Which keeps the tension up and keeps everyone involved, but means one poor roll won't flub things.

This is usually if trying to stealth as part of a skill challenge or for a similar scene - if just trying to sneak up on a group of enemies to get a surprise round, I'd have everyone roll entirely individually.

 

[Ryujin]

I'm partial to an idea that I recently had; roll for the worst stealth in the party, with the rest contributing via "aid another" rolls. After all, it's the worst guy who'll likely blow the whoel thing anyway.

 

[Virindi]

I have in past made all the players roll stealth check. If more than half pass the stealth check they all do. If I have six players that evening and the group check is tied. Then the group must re-roll their checks. I equate that the majority helped quiet down their comrades noisy armor and equipment, or failed to do so.

I think this works better than a practical auto success using one player (typically with the highest stealth skill) to roll a stealth check while receiving four assist rolls.

 

[lukelightning]

I do the "if 50% pass then you all do" but I don't necessarily tell the players... so when everyone sneaks by the sleeping ettin and the last person rolls a 1, there is some tense moments as one of the ettin's heads wakes up and sees the noisy player.... "huh, I see a paladin..." then the other head says "you're just seeing things, now shut up and go back to sleep."

 

[Destil]

The DMG actually mentioned somewhere that when a group is using stealth they have the lowest bonus player roll.

Aid another isn't a bad plan. It takes a standard, but you can only move two squares without penalty anyway.

 

[Nytmare]

My groups S.O.P. is that, when things are well lit, the rogue is as far ahead of the group as he can safely get so that the plate-mailed dwarf usually has at least a 5 to 10 point bonus (10 to 20 squares) from whatever they might be moving up on. He'll wait at doors and try to keep within eyesight of the rest of the group, but aside from that, having a surprise round is more important to him than the safety of the rest of the party.

If things are dark, they keep a mage handed torch out in front of the party and give up on trying to be sneaky.

In general, I do a passive stealth check to see how close they get before one side notices the other.

The only time I want to really do active checks for stealth is on a battlemat. I try to throw them the occasional "part of this encounter involves part of the party sneaking across this sparsely lit room, past guards, while the rest of the party does X, Y, and/or Z" encounter.

I'm kinda torn between the idea of having the least sneaky player roll vs having everybody do it. On one hand, yes it kinda makes sense, but on the other hand, having one person roll for a group check sounds like a perfect situation to use a passive check instead.

The idea of a group actively aiding someone else's stealth check seems kinda silly to me. Kinda like the old "the bard sings a song to inspire sneakiness" joke. I'm trying really hard to not picture a group of people tiptoeing around a dwarf in clanky plate mail whispering "shhhhhhhh..." and making calming motions with their hands.

In a situation where you were being forced to actively make a skill check, wouldn't aiding someone else's skill check automatically mean that you were flubbing your own? You only have so many standard actions you can take in a turn.

 

[LostSoul]

I do the "PC with the worst modifier rolls, others can aid" option. I thought that was the rule; that probably came from Burning Wheel or some other game.

I do the same for Perception on the other side.

 

[Starfox]

Groups stealth makes a good skill challenge once you cut skill challenges down to size.

 

[bobcat_grad]

During a skill challenge my players are currently in the middle of, the need to sneak around a town to locate some captives. There are statioary sentries and roaming ones, too. As they go from building to building trying to find the captives, part of the challenge is to move quietly. What I did is to come up with other skills that players can use prior to making a group stealth check. Example: using streetwise, they find a ggod route to take. Or using religion, they can offer up a short prayer before moving. For each success, I add a cumulative +2 bonus everyone can use on their stealth check. So if 3 of 5 players succed, everyone gets a +6 to stealth check. Then if 3 out of 5 succeed on stealth, the party suceeds. I had to do something like this due to only one player having a decent stealth skill.