As it turns out, hiding requires cover.

[Imaculata]

So like... How do you conceptualize hiding in an open room?

It would involve hiding in the shadows, and/or waiting for guards to look the other way. It may even include extinguishing light sources to create areas of shadow. If the room has furniture, that provides even more opportunity to stay out of sight.

If the room is entirely open and empty, then I would inform the players that if they want to hide in the room, they cannot stay there for longer than 1 round, or they will be noticed. They would have to quickly sneak past the guards when they are looking the other way, and I would raise the difficulty accordingly.

I’m not @Imaculata , and I don’t play PF, but I think he? was talking about a natural outdoor scenario.

I'm not talking about PF or 3.5, but about hiding in any system in general. In a natural outdoor scenario, there would always be ways to hide from sight. Even an open desert has dunes to hide behind, or you could approach from the direction of the sun so you are harder to see. Open grassland still has grass to hide in, and a frozen tundra still has snow to obscure you from sight.

Is there any specific terrain type that you are wondering about?

 

[mewzard]

Don't forget if your campaign is able to hit the higher levels to invest in this Legendary stealth skill (assuming Pathfinder 2):

"Legendary Sneak Feat 15
General Skill
Source Core Rulebook pg. 263
Prerequisites legendary in Stealth, Swift Sneak
You’re always sneaking unless you choose to be seen, even when there’s nowhere to hide. You can Hide and Sneak even without cover or being concealed. When you employ an exploration tactic other than Avoiding Notice, you also gain the benefits of Avoiding Notice unless you choose not to. See page 479 for more information about exploration tactics."

24/7 Stealth with no cover/concealment (at full speed, given you need Swift Sneak to take it), and you can always do both Avoiding Notice and other tactics in exploration.

But yeah, taking advantage of shadows is always useful. Darting between shadows at opportune moments is how I tended to do stealth, when there was a lack of obvious physical barriers to visuals. Naturally, the ability to create distractions, be they visual or audible, will do you wonders for dealing with guards.

 

[kenada]

I’d forgotten about Legendary Sneak, but it’s such an awesome skill feat: you’re always sneaking unless you choose not to sneak. That conveys legendary so succinctly.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I’d forgotten about Legendary Sneak, but it’s such an awesome skill feat: you’re always sneaking unless you choose not to sneak. That conveys legendary so succinctly.

Damn I need to look into translating that into 5e for my rogue lol.

Right now we kinda do consider him to have a “Passive Stealth” that is used unless he is drawing attention to himself, and we make heavy use of spy movie tropes like a vehicle moving past and he is just gone, etc.

Basically, he is so stealthy and so in tuned with shadow that even his best friends think it’s magical, even though it isn’t. The Artificer in the group (who is also his like...true love?) took the spell to see invisible stuff because she was convinced that he was turning invisible.

Edit: the passive stealth thing is because past level 11 (we are at 12), Rogues do have an effective passive score in all their proficiencies, and he has 20 Dex and Expert Stealth.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It would involve hiding in the shadows, and/or waiting for guards to look the other way. It may even include extinguishing light sources to create areas of shadow. If the room has furniture, that provides even more opportunity to stay out of sight.

View attachment 115168

If the room is entirely open and empty, then I would inform the players that if they want to hide in the room, they cannot stay there for longer than 1 round, or they will be noticed. They would have to quickly sneak past the guards when they are looking the other way, and I would raise the difficulty accordingly.



I'm not talking about PF or 3.5, but about hiding in any system in general. In a natural outdoor scenario, there would always be ways to hide from sight. Even an open desert has dunes to hide behind, or you could approach from the direction of the sun so you are harder to see. Open grassland still has grass to hide in, and a frozen tundra still has snow to obscure you from sight.

Is there any specific terrain type that you are wondering about?

I agree with all this. I also would allow a Sneak to shadow someone for a round (or longer if it made sense with the target’s level of awareness) simply by staying low in their blind spot. It won’t work indefinitely, but since I’ve literally done exactly that a thousand times IRL in a variety of situations and I’m nowhere near the skill at sneaking about that is represented by proficiency...I’m cool with allowing it where it makes sense to everyone involved.

For reference, I consider 5e proficiency to represent a level of skill with which you can perform the tasks related to that proficiency as a professional.