FormerlyHemlock
Hero
Hi,
I think stealth, run properly, is one of the best parts of 5E, possibly as much fun as combat. I wanted to see how other people run stealth in their games, and share how it works in my own.
Basic insight: systems with a single roll pass/fail are boring. Combat is interesting because it offers multiple decision-points and depletes multiple resources at different rates. For stealth to be fun, it has to offer decisions and consequences.
My basic rule: stealth is a continuous action, not a one-time event. You don't make the Stealth roll when you first Hide, you make it when someone has a chance to notice you hiding, and you may make it more than once. The Hide action can cause someone to lose track of where you are so you can attempt stealth rolls, but for example there's no such thing as "going into stealth" in an empty room (although you can roll the dice anyway to prevent players from knowing the room is empty).
Application: if you are sneaking, when you initially come into sensory range of a creature, you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to see if you give yourself away with sound/motion. Compare that result to the creature's passive Perception as normal. However, if you pass the first check, that's not the end of it. As you move closer, every time you halve the distance between you and the creature, make another Stealth check (maximum of once per round) to see if you give yourself away. In situations where you are obscured, use the same Stealth roll for both sound and hearing, so it is possible to be heard but not seen when the enemy has Disadvantage on vision checks due to light obscurement.
Example (based on actual play): The party is creeping through the underdark in two sections, the shadow monk Eladriel and lore bard Jack on point, the necromancer Vlad and his seven skeletal archers following thirty seconds and 100 feet behind. All members of the party have darkvision. The DM knows there are three drow elf soldiers sneaking through this same tunnel.
Drow have greater sensory range (120 feet) than El and Jack, so they have a chance to spot them first.
DM: Make a stealth check, please, both of you.
El gets a 17, Jack gets a 13. The drow have a passive perception of 12, so none of them notice the half-elves creeping slowly from shadow to shadow towards them. At 60 feet, since the PCs are moving, they have to make another stealth check. Since the drow are within sensory range of regular darkvision, they have to make stealth rolls too.
DM: Make another stealth check please. [Meanwhile, he rolls three checks for the drow. 17, 18, 18. Jack's passive perception is +7 and El's is +6, but they are at disadvantage on sight due to darkness.]
Jack's player [quietly]: 14 due to Expertise.
Eladriel's player: 23.
DM: Jack, your keen ears detect a faint scraping sound in the darkness ahead of you, like metal on stone. [If it weren't dark, Jack would have also spotted the drow moving, but his visual Perception is only 12 compared to the elf's 17 stealth.]
Jack: I tap El's hand to signal her to stop and listen.
Because they are stopping, Jack and El will keep their 14 and 23 Stealth checks, and because they are actively listening, they will get active Perception rolls to oppose enemy Stealth. (Note: active rolls can be worse than passive rolls if you roll poorly, which is realistic because sometimes you can pay attention to the wrong things.)
Meanwhile, the drow creep closer, to 30 foot range, and roll again: 7, 21, 13.
DM: roll Perception please. Disadvantage on visual.
Jack: [rolls twice] 8 on visual, 18 hearing.
El: [rolls twice, second roll is higher so ignored]14 all-up.
DM: Jack, you hear rustling movement again, and then you see a slim black-clad form quietly moving through the shadows of the tunnel toward where you are hiding behind a stalagmite. You also hear a foot scrape somewhere behind the first one--there's another creature out there. El, you actually see the second creature, following a few paces behind the first. They're now about 20 feet away from you. What do you do?
El: I hold still and listen hard, trying to see if there are any more of them.
Jack: I'll cast Message and alert Vlad that there are incoming.
DM: Jack, make another Dexterity(Stealth) check please to see if you can turn away and cast the cantrip behind your hand, without them hearing it. [rolls another Stealth check for the third drow: 18] El, what's your perception result?
El: [rolls dice] 13, 11 visual.
DM: There seem to be only the two of them. They pass within five feet of where you're hidden.
El: Okay, I signal to Jack and stealthily pull out my longbow. I'm going to shoot them both, one arrow each, then Shadow Jump behind them, closer to Vlad.
Jack: I'll cast Faerie Fire on both of them.
DM: Okay, roll initiative.
Combat begins, and when Jack's spell goes off, they are surprised to find themselves fighting not two but three drow. The drow on the other hand are surprised to find themselves fighting anyone at all--they are all surprised this round. Because Jack had warned Vlad of the incoming threat via Message, he and his skeletons get to act during the surprise round as soon as Jack lights them up. The drow are therefore swiftly dispatched, Jack extinguishes the light, and sneaking resumes. But are there more drow lurking in the shadows ahead, drow who might have seen the light of the first battle and are themselves now stealthily lying in wait? Wait and find out!
Note some consequences of this sytem: small parties are sneakier. Ideally you want someone on point, and you also want that person not to be trigger-happy and to have some way to communicate back to the main body. There is uncertainty when you engage, and it cuts both ways (against both players and monsters). Tucker's kobolds may think they're ambushing a lone fighter in plate mail, but in reality there's a barbarian and an assassin escorting him, and they will turn the ambush on the kobolds. Starting a fight should be kind of nervous because you never know exactly how it's going to turn out. Fog of war is fully in effect.
And that's pretty much it. I know that there will be some DMs out there who prefer to keep it simple, a single roll pass/fail to see who (if anyone) is surprised at the start of an encounter, but for anyone who enjoys sneaking through the shadows and choosing when and where to begin the fight, maybe that little example will be inspiring.
How do you run stealth? What makes it fun for your table?
I think stealth, run properly, is one of the best parts of 5E, possibly as much fun as combat. I wanted to see how other people run stealth in their games, and share how it works in my own.
Basic insight: systems with a single roll pass/fail are boring. Combat is interesting because it offers multiple decision-points and depletes multiple resources at different rates. For stealth to be fun, it has to offer decisions and consequences.
My basic rule: stealth is a continuous action, not a one-time event. You don't make the Stealth roll when you first Hide, you make it when someone has a chance to notice you hiding, and you may make it more than once. The Hide action can cause someone to lose track of where you are so you can attempt stealth rolls, but for example there's no such thing as "going into stealth" in an empty room (although you can roll the dice anyway to prevent players from knowing the room is empty).
Application: if you are sneaking, when you initially come into sensory range of a creature, you make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to see if you give yourself away with sound/motion. Compare that result to the creature's passive Perception as normal. However, if you pass the first check, that's not the end of it. As you move closer, every time you halve the distance between you and the creature, make another Stealth check (maximum of once per round) to see if you give yourself away. In situations where you are obscured, use the same Stealth roll for both sound and hearing, so it is possible to be heard but not seen when the enemy has Disadvantage on vision checks due to light obscurement.
Example (based on actual play): The party is creeping through the underdark in two sections, the shadow monk Eladriel and lore bard Jack on point, the necromancer Vlad and his seven skeletal archers following thirty seconds and 100 feet behind. All members of the party have darkvision. The DM knows there are three drow elf soldiers sneaking through this same tunnel.
Drow have greater sensory range (120 feet) than El and Jack, so they have a chance to spot them first.
DM: Make a stealth check, please, both of you.
El gets a 17, Jack gets a 13. The drow have a passive perception of 12, so none of them notice the half-elves creeping slowly from shadow to shadow towards them. At 60 feet, since the PCs are moving, they have to make another stealth check. Since the drow are within sensory range of regular darkvision, they have to make stealth rolls too.
DM: Make another stealth check please. [Meanwhile, he rolls three checks for the drow. 17, 18, 18. Jack's passive perception is +7 and El's is +6, but they are at disadvantage on sight due to darkness.]
Jack's player [quietly]: 14 due to Expertise.
Eladriel's player: 23.
DM: Jack, your keen ears detect a faint scraping sound in the darkness ahead of you, like metal on stone. [If it weren't dark, Jack would have also spotted the drow moving, but his visual Perception is only 12 compared to the elf's 17 stealth.]
Jack: I tap El's hand to signal her to stop and listen.
Because they are stopping, Jack and El will keep their 14 and 23 Stealth checks, and because they are actively listening, they will get active Perception rolls to oppose enemy Stealth. (Note: active rolls can be worse than passive rolls if you roll poorly, which is realistic because sometimes you can pay attention to the wrong things.)
Meanwhile, the drow creep closer, to 30 foot range, and roll again: 7, 21, 13.
DM: roll Perception please. Disadvantage on visual.
Jack: [rolls twice] 8 on visual, 18 hearing.
El: [rolls twice, second roll is higher so ignored]14 all-up.
DM: Jack, you hear rustling movement again, and then you see a slim black-clad form quietly moving through the shadows of the tunnel toward where you are hiding behind a stalagmite. You also hear a foot scrape somewhere behind the first one--there's another creature out there. El, you actually see the second creature, following a few paces behind the first. They're now about 20 feet away from you. What do you do?
El: I hold still and listen hard, trying to see if there are any more of them.
Jack: I'll cast Message and alert Vlad that there are incoming.
DM: Jack, make another Dexterity(Stealth) check please to see if you can turn away and cast the cantrip behind your hand, without them hearing it. [rolls another Stealth check for the third drow: 18] El, what's your perception result?
El: [rolls dice] 13, 11 visual.
DM: There seem to be only the two of them. They pass within five feet of where you're hidden.
El: Okay, I signal to Jack and stealthily pull out my longbow. I'm going to shoot them both, one arrow each, then Shadow Jump behind them, closer to Vlad.
Jack: I'll cast Faerie Fire on both of them.
DM: Okay, roll initiative.
Combat begins, and when Jack's spell goes off, they are surprised to find themselves fighting not two but three drow. The drow on the other hand are surprised to find themselves fighting anyone at all--they are all surprised this round. Because Jack had warned Vlad of the incoming threat via Message, he and his skeletons get to act during the surprise round as soon as Jack lights them up. The drow are therefore swiftly dispatched, Jack extinguishes the light, and sneaking resumes. But are there more drow lurking in the shadows ahead, drow who might have seen the light of the first battle and are themselves now stealthily lying in wait? Wait and find out!
Note some consequences of this sytem: small parties are sneakier. Ideally you want someone on point, and you also want that person not to be trigger-happy and to have some way to communicate back to the main body. There is uncertainty when you engage, and it cuts both ways (against both players and monsters). Tucker's kobolds may think they're ambushing a lone fighter in plate mail, but in reality there's a barbarian and an assassin escorting him, and they will turn the ambush on the kobolds. Starting a fight should be kind of nervous because you never know exactly how it's going to turn out. Fog of war is fully in effect.
And that's pretty much it. I know that there will be some DMs out there who prefer to keep it simple, a single roll pass/fail to see who (if anyone) is surprised at the start of an encounter, but for anyone who enjoys sneaking through the shadows and choosing when and where to begin the fight, maybe that little example will be inspiring.
How do you run stealth? What makes it fun for your table?
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