D&D 5E A fix for Hide in Plain Sight

[Charlaquin]

The Ranger’s Hide in Plain Sight feature sucks. Fortunately, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything offers an alternative feature where you can use a bonus action to become invisible until the start of your next turn, prof times between long rests. This is a perfectly serviceable alternative, but me personally? I hate it. I like my rangers non-magical (or as close to it as I can get away with), so replacing the ability to make a gilly suit with the ability to turn invisible is dissatisfying to me. I also hate the trend of things being usable prof times between long rests instead of once between short rests, and in general I like abilities to be at-will with drawbacks much more than I like abilities to be limited uses that recover on a rest.

Now, all of that is personal taste. I don’t expect most people to share these grievances, and if Nature’s Vale works for you as an alternative to Hide in Plain Sight, that’s awesome! I’m happy for you, and I wouldn’t want that option to be taken away from you. But, for me, I would really like Hide in Plain Sight to get a buff rather than replace it with a prof/long rest magical invisibility. Fortunately, I have what I think is a nice, simple fix, so I’m sharing it here in case anyone else might have use for such a thing.

As-written, Hide in Plain Sight lets you spend 1 minute making camouflage that lets you hide with a +10 bonus by pressing yourself against a flat surface that is at least as wide and tall as you and remaining still. And I quite like all of that! The big issue for me is just that, once you move or take an action, you have to spend another minute camouflaging yourself before you can hide that way again. And that one factor pretty much completely ruins the feature. So, my fix is to just get rid of that part.

You can spend 1 minute camouflaging yourself, as described in the original feature. While camouflaged this way, you have a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide in terrain the camouflage is made to blend in with (the DM decides if a given terrain is appropriate). Additionally, while camouflaged this way, you can make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide even when you are not covered or obscured by pressing yourself against a flat surface that is at least as wide and tall as you. You stop being hidden in this way if you move or take an action.

I’m considering making the camouflage only work for a limited time, probably until you finish a short or long rest. That seems like a pretty reasonable limitation to me. Anyway, that’s it. Hope someone finds this tweak useful.

 

[Lyxen]

I agree. For me it's the same thing as the really completely stupid gloomstalker feature "umbral sight" which is much too strong.

I have a tendency not to use house rules in 5e (in 3e we had pages and pages of house rules which were a pain to write and to maintain with new publications and it made it harder to move from table to table depending on a DM's preference), so I will probably not use your tweak, but it seems an interesting one (apart from the fact that I don't like fixed bonus in 5e, they interfere badly with bounded accuracy especially if they are large, but that's a feature of the original power anyway).

Just one comment, +10 to stealth is really a huge bonus, I would suggest, if you make it longer lasting and "renewable" to lower it to +5 after you move the first time. It's already very strong, and you could even change it to advantage to stop interfering with BA.

 

[Horwath]

I would just remove the 1 min prep time and have ranger have +10 stealth as long as he/she remains motionless.
Action as normal to Hide, or Bonus action if you get the feature.

Ranger has Pass without trace spell. And yes it's a spell slot resource cost, but Hide in plain sight comparing to Pass without trace is just a slap in the face. Like half of rangers abilities in PHB.

 

[Minigiant]

The problem with most PHB ranger features is not the features and more that they don't match the power level of the tier you get them. HIPS is not a late Tier 2 class feature. As written it is a level 3 feature. Mid 1. A feature for apprentice rangers not master rangers.

I mean you are level 10. You are one of the top 20 rangers on the planet/plane and top 3 in your country.

A Late Tier 2 "ghillie suit" feature would be to have a lower bonus but it not wearing off. Spend 1 minute to give yourself +5 to Dexterity (Stealth) checks in 1 terrain. This effect ends if you move more than half you speed or perform an action other than Hide or Use and Object.

That's my main criticism with the 5e ranger outside of Premeval Awareness. 5e was filling "dead levels" with no thought of what power level the feature was. Similiar problem in almost every non-full-caster except maybe rogue.

 

[Charlaquin]

Just one comment, +10 to stealth is really a huge bonus, I would suggest, if you make it longer lasting and "renewable" to lower it to +5 after you move the first time. It's already very strong, and you could even change it to advantage to stop interfering with BA.

You could go with advantage, which is roughly equivalent to +5. I think +10 is fine, given this is a feature that comes at around the same time rogues are getting reliable talent. Still, good feedback! I’ll be sure to watch out for if +10 proves too strong.

 

[Bolares]

You can spend 1 minute camouflaging yourself, as described in the original feature. While camouflaged this way, you have a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide in terrain the camouflage is made to blend in with (the DM decides if a given terrain is appropriate). Additionally, while camouflaged this way, you can make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide even when you are not covered or obscured by pressing yourself against a flat surface that is at least as wide and tall as you. You stop being hidden in this way if you move or take an action.

This is cool. I'd just make it clear that you can't camouflage in the same spot more than once, to avoid players to comming back and forth from the same place over and over again. (Unless you are cool with them doing this)

 

[Charlaquin]

This is cool. I'd just make it clear that you can't camouflage in the same spot more than once, to avoid players to comming back and forth from the same place over and over again. (Unless you are cool with them doing this)

I’d be fine with them doing that, but I still appreciate the feedback!

 

[GMMichael]

As-written, Hide in Plain Sight lets you spend 1 minute making camouflage that lets you hide with a +10 bonus by pressing yourself against a flat surface that is at least as wide and tall as you and remaining still. And I quite like all of that! The big issue for me is just that, once you move or take an action, you have to spend another minute camouflaging yourself before you can hide that way again. And that one factor pretty much completely ruins the feature. So, my fix is to just get rid of that part.

You can spend 1 minute camouflaging yourself, as described in the original feature. While camouflaged this way, you have a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks to hide in terrain the camouflage is made to blend in with (the DM decides if a given terrain is appropriate). Additionally, while camouflaged this way, you can make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide even when you are not covered or obscured by pressing yourself against a flat surface that is at least as wide and tall as you. You stop being hidden in this way if you move or take an action.

Are you saying, with your tweak applied, you could camouflage yourself and hide, while an evil, evil gnome walks up next to you and doesn't see you, so you attack it, and on your next turn, you just press yourself against the ground and use the Hide action with another +10 bonus? And then you're "hidden," relative to the gnome?

By the way, to put the + 10 bonus in context, you can think of it as turning an opponent's "passive check" into a "rolled a 1 on Wisdom."

 

[Asisreo]

Some important things about Hide in Plain Sight:

It stacks with Pass Without Trace which is a Ranger spell that the Ranger gets around that level.

It can be used with trap setups without using your action, like Cordon of Arrows.

If you have Vanish, you can actually reroll your Stealth check with the bonus because it doesn't use your action.

Casting Plant Growth in the area is a great way to make it even harder for enemies to move through the area. Doubly if you also Spike Growth.

 

[Charlaquin]

Are you saying, with your tweak applied, you could camouflage yourself and hide, while an evil, evil gnome walks up next to you and doesn't see you, so you attack it, and on your next turn, you just press yourself against the ground and use the Hide action with another +10 bonus? And then you're "hidden," relative to the gnome?

By the way, to put the + 10 bonus in context, you can think of it as turning an opponent's "passive check" into a "rolled a 1 on Wisdom."

I mean, sure, but if you’re hiding while the gnome is looking right at you, it knows exactly where to attack to hit you, so the only benefit you’d get is imposing disadvantage on its attack against you and gaining advantage on your next attack against it. Pretty reasonable benefit for a 10th level feature if you ask me, as it’s essentially combining the Dodge action with True Strike - two of what are generally considered to be the worst possible uses of an action in combat.