vandaexpress
First Post
Hate is a strong word, but yep, I've got some gripes about 5E...
- Stealth is confusing and depends on the DM's judgement to a greater degree than it should.
Exacerbating the situation here is how the rules that DO exist for stealth are scattered across so many different sections in the PHB!
Stealth is something I've been thinking a lot about lately, and I've found myself going back and forth on it. On the one hand, you have people arguing that stealth is such a fluid concept that no matter how well-codified the rules are, they never seem sufficient for every situation. I can see that being true, and its basically the position that the WotC sages have taken.
But I'm finding myself swinging back to my original perspective as well for one reason:
While yes it is true that DMs can implement their own house rules and should interpret specific scenarios according to their will, this makes it difficult, as a player, especially one who hasn't played with a specific DM before, to understand whether or not they want to play a rogue or how they should build their rogue. Or any stealth-based character, for that matter.
Any class that significantly hinges on DM interpretation of a specific rule or set of rules is facing a greater degree of uncertainty and risk than a typical player, who normally only needs to worry about variability in the content of the adventure, whereas players of these DM-dependent classes also have to worry about interpretation of vague rules which determine, to a greater extent, how their character can contribute to the adventure.
Same applies to Wild Sorcerer and, to a lesser extent, illusionists.
This isn't a game-killer for certain, but it would likely annoy me to play a rogue in AL play, where every DM is different.
I think I may end up codifying my own stealth rules for handling most situations. I've been trying to hold off on the house rule bandwagon until I've DM'd a full-length campaign through at least three tiers of play, but this (along with vision/obscurement) is one case where I'm having to address it so often at the table that I'm tempted to start implementing something sooner. Stealth is such a major part of my campaign that I really need to standardize the rules, I feel like I owe it to my players, especially when so many of their plans hinge on stealth to some extent.