D&D 5E is stealth an action?

[Noctem]

These absurd examples only serve to reinforce my position that treating the rules, specifically stealth and hiding as absolutes aren't going to work

no they go to show that the rules don't need to specifically call out that you can't do something or that you don't gain a specific benefit / penalty at all times just because you can sometimes do / gain them.

 

[Nytmare]

These absurd examples only serve to reinforce my position that treating the rules, specifically stealth and hiding as absolutes aren't going to work

At your leisure, please feel free to google Russell's Teapot and the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

 

[Ovinomancer]

At your leisure, please feel free to google Russell's Teapot and the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

Russel's teapot is largely unpersuasive. I'm inclined towards the point it's trying to illuminate, and I find it largely unpersuasive.

 

[spectacle]

At your leisure, please feel free to google Russell's Teapot and the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

Do you have an argument that doesn't involve absurdity?

 

[mellored]

Moving to a new location would fit in the category of "something like that," no? The logic I'd use would say that if you're hiding behind a low wall, and you move along that low wall to a new place, you're not hiding in the same place anymore.

You remain hidden until you stop hiding.

Until you are discovered or you stop hiding, that check’s total is contested by the Wisdom (Perception) check of any creature that actively searches for signs of your presence.

Most examples are about moving around while hidden. Not hiding in 1 place.

Make a Dexterity (Stealth) check when you attempt to conceal yourself from enemies, slink past guards, slip away without being noticed, or sneak up on someone without being seen or heard.


Movement is not listed under things that would break hidden. (Unless you move into someone's vision).

You can’t hide from a creature that can see you, and if you make noise (such as shouting a warning or knocking over a vase), you give away your position.

 

[Noctem]

Small correction from previous errata is that you can now hide as long as you are "unclearly seen", so simply being seen is no longer enough to stop you from hiding.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Small correction from previous errata is that you can now hide as long as you are "unclearly seen", so simply being seen is no longer enough to stop you from hiding.

Where is that from?

 

[mellored]

Where is that from?

http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/Errata_PH.pdf

 

[Ovinomancer]

http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/Errata_PH.pdf

Ah, thanks. I had missed that, apparently. Well, that's a potentially huge difference.

 

[Noctem]

Ah, thanks. I had missed that, apparently. Well, that's a potentially huge difference.

yes it is. It allows for much more freedom as to when you can roll to hide.