Does Distracting Flare let you stealth?

[Aulirophile]

Let's look at it another way. Let's say you attack the monster and daze it. Then you run into the darkness and have total concealment and make your stealth check. Does the monster lose track of you when it lost sight of you? Or did the monster lose track of you after you ended your movement in some specific square within the area it can't see? Again, I don't know about RAW, but the first one makes the most sense to me. Otherwise the monster knows exactly what square to target with a ranged attack or where to charge (unless you have a way to use a minor action to move), and that seems to be against the intent.

Being completely undetectable, having CA against everything, and having a +5 bonus to all defenses is supposed to be hard. Being Hidden is supposed come at a huge opportunity cost, and yes, monsters will reasonably assume you are in the last square they saw you (which is why all stealth dependent characters find other ways of moving, either as a minor or a free action). Rogues have powers specifically for this, in fact, which suits the shtick of one of their builds (Cunning Sneak).

If you had stealth the whole time, nothing would ever be able to guess where you were. If the rules worked that way you could make a literally unhittable character (you can mitigate blasts/bursts.. if they even guess right).

 

[Robtheman]

Actually, the text for Stealth states "The check is usually at the end of a move action, but it can be at the end of any of the creature’s actions that involve the creature moving." That is not the same as after.

Here is the important bit and the part that makes it confusing. You roll it at the end of the movement because a player could decide to move in a different manner if they fail the stealth roll before they moving their mini or describing it narratively.

This seems to get mixed up with the general rule that you finish one action before you attempt another.

If you pop Distracting Flare, you can move away, roll the stealth check as part of the move, but after you stop moving your mini (or describing it's final location should you not use maps). If you have superior cover you get all the appropriate benefits of a stealth check, plus they never heard or saw the direction you traveled. If you don't have superior cover the bad guy can turn around and see you crouched behind that 1 foot wide pillar. He might be surprised to see you there though.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Well, by RAW the Stealth check being at the end of the movement you aren't (potentially) hidden until then, and DF doesn't change that. So the monster WILL know where you ended the movement. The invisibility does prevent OAs but doesn't actually aid your stealthiness in any way by RAW, though it may let you hide without superior cover/total concealment depending on how you interpret the timing. This is common to pretty much all ways of stealth moving. As other people have said, it is intended to make it difficult to force the enemy to totally lose track of you with a single action. You could trigger DF, move into concealment (possibly avoiding OAs), and then use some standard action to either move away (still potentially hidden) or to say make an attack with CA (and if that attack involves movement you could then hide again). If disappearing totally is REALLY vital and you needed to use your standard action for something else first, then you'll just have to use an AP. Such is the life of a stealthy character. Other options might include using your standard to use Bluff first, at which point you're already hidden and can then really vanish.