How far ahead do you need to be to stealth without penalty?

[GameOgre]

Say you are playing a rogue in a full group of platmail junkies going through a dungeon and so you want to move ahead of the group a bit to scout.

How far do you need to get before you can stealth and move in front of the group without having them mess up your stealthiness?

I'm thinking you are in the lead by **** amount and they slowly follow by a lesser amount so they stay roughly the same distance back.

This has come up several times and my group has varying distances and possibilities in mind and I thought I would ask you guys to see what you thought.


Obviously this will vary a bit depending on the situation but in general how far to you think you should be?

 

[Hriston]

If the main group tries to be stealthy (no roll required, just the declaration of intent), they would need to stay 2d6 x 5 feet back (10-60 feet, depending on conditions) to avoid any uncertainty that a monster might hear them.

If for some reason they aren't trying to or can't be stealthy, like if they need to travel at a normal or fast pace, the distance would go up to 2d6 x 10 feet (20-120).

As a DM, I randomly generate these distances to add some variability to situations, not to play gotcha. I always let the players know what the relevant distances are, assuming their characters can perceive the acoustic conditions.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

Are we talking about the distance for the stealther to remain undetected or the party?

If its just the stealther then as little as a step or two.

If its the entire party then it depends on the passive perception of the creatures/whatever. I'd wing it as 100ft or so for convenience, with caves and other areas that might encourage echos doubling or even tripling the range of detection.

Now really, a smart scout will have their party make as much noise as they can and use it to bait potential ambushes, with the creatures moving to engage the main party and revealing their position to the scout who should in turn have a signal ready or be communication with the main party so that they can make sure everyone is prepared.

 

[DEFCON 1]

For ease-of-use on my end, I always say the party has to be two full Dashes back, or 120 feet (30' move / 30' dash over two rounds).

 

[Nevvur]

I start with a 30 foot baseline and adjust based on the exact circumstances. The figure is based less on my comprehension of acoustics and more on gaming convenience.

In my experience, it's not something worth getting into fiddly bits over.

 

[5ekyu]

Say you are playing a rogue in a full group of platmail junkies going through a dungeon and so you want to move ahead of the group a bit to scout.

How far do you need to get before you can stealth and move in front of the group without having them mess up your stealthiness?

I'm thinking you are in the lead by **** amount and they slowly follow by a lesser amount so they stay roughly the same distance back.

This has come up several times and my group has varying distances and possibilities in mind and I thought I would ask you guys to see what you thought.


Obviously this will vary a bit depending on the situation but in general how far to you think you should be?

You are basically asking only this - how far away can the party be spotted or heard.

The presence of a front scout has nothing to do with that.

That varies by situation and is unspecified by 5e.

Outdoors in the daytime, a party might be spotted miles away from the dust their horses kick up.

In the woods, do they scatter animals, are they riding horses?

Underground, how loud is the ambient noise, is the area stone which reverbates/echos or is it dirt and roots?

The circumstance is not the "little" part of stealth, its the major part.

As GM i assign it as a trait for an area.

 

[Tony Vargas]

In the olden days, it was 60', but, nowadays (OK for the last 10 years), we have group skill checks, so you don't have to split the party to sneak a bit.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

The DM screen has rules for this. They should have been in the DMG, but for some reason they hid them away in a screen most people won't buy.

 

[Satyrn]

My group doesn't actually do the scouting ahead thing (rather the scout will check out a specific thing while the others wait for him to return before moving on), but I think if I needed to answer your question in my game, I'd say if the scout was "somewhere else" that'd be enough for the group's mis-stealth to not apply to the scout.

Somewhere else might be up the corridor, around a couple corners ahead; on a ledge above the party; or across the river. The sort of thing where, visually (in my mind as a DM, and hopefully in the players' minds), the scout is considered elsewhere.

 

[LordEntrails]

I would do like some others have mentioned. Determine it separately.

How far ahead do you want to be when the main party is detected? How far behind you do you want the main party to be when you are detected by the bad guys?