How does stealth work in combat?

[SabreCat]

Hey all,

I'm playing a Rogue in a long-running campaign. It seems to me there's some cool things that can be done with the Stealth skill in combat encounters--getting Combat Advantage on "unaware" targets, most notably--but I haven't really used it because I don't have a firm grasp of how the rules work. Maybe you can help...

- Does it take an action to "hide"? If so, what kind of action? (Like, is it possible to start the turn unhidden, go into stealth mode, then leave hiding with an attack that benefits from CA?)

- If it does take an action, would a power like Fleeting Ghost override this cost? "Move your Speed and make a Stealth check" doesn't say anything about what the Stealth check accomplishes, but I'd like to think it means "hide"...

- It requires cover or concealment to use stealth against an enemy in combat. Allies provide cover from enemies. Can I hide behind the Fighter?

- Suppose I'm out in the open at the start of my turn. If I move into cover and succeed at my Stealth vs. the enemy's Perception, is that enough for them to become "unaware" of me, even if it's relatively obvious where I went?

I'd like to hope that the above scenarios will work in my favor, but on the other hand, I recently read a comment that I agree with: skill use shouldn't work better than powers. And it seems it might be too easy to gain Sneak Attack damage by spamming "hide" rolls, heh. So at the least I'd like to know what the RAW suggests before I decide how munchkinly to get about it.

 

[Mort_Q]

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/244339-d-d-4th-edition-stealth-issues.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4t...w-errata-posted-stealth-changes-official.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/241132-rogue-stealth.html

 

[SabreCat]

Oho, great! Thanks for the references.

I guess there's only one unclear place remaining that might give me what I'm looking for: when it says "if you attack, you don't remain hidden," both under Stealth and similar verbiage under Bluff, do you get Combat Advantage for an unaware enemy during that attack (i.e., you come "unhidden" after the attack), or do they effectively notice you at the instant the attack starts?

 

[Unferth]

In the errata under the "Not remaining hidden" bullet, it says: "If you take an action that causes you not to remain hidden, you retain the benefits of being hidden until you resolve the action. You can't become hidden again as part of that same action." So if the action that causes you to lose your hidden status is an attack or includes an attack, you're hidden for that attack. If you lose your hidden status before taking the action that includes the attack, such as first using a move action to move into a location that has neither cover nor concealment, you're not hidden for that attack. This makes the move-and-attack powers quite nice. You can move around a corner, make a stealth check due to your total concealment, then shift out and attack with hidden status.

 

[SabreCat]

Sweet. Thanks for hand-holding me around these rules. It takes some study, what with everything in different places!

So that's what makes Deft Strike so useful... interesting!