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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 6884361">I don't necessarily agree with your conclusions, but I do agree that I just don't give a rats hindquarters how hard it is to sneak in real life.  (For the record, I also don't care how much plate armor weighs, how historically accurate dual-wielding is or isn't, or the physics of Darkvision.)All that matters is whether or not a mechanic contributes to nuanced decision-making in the game.If the utility of stealth is so great that it reduces interesting decision-making...such as whether or not to try to sneak up at the beginning of combat, or even which proficiencies to invest in...then we have a problem.  And if the Surprise round factor is as great as you describe, then that would seem to suggest such a problem.But I think that surprise problem can be mitigated in ways other than trying to apply a particularly harsh "realism" filter to it.  It's easy enough for a DM to: - Design encounters that can't be trivialized by stealth - Design encounters that put stealthers at risk  - Occasionally have sneaky bad guys pull the same trick on the adventurers - Balance the encounters under the assumption that a couple targets are going to die fast - And, yes, sometimes give the rogues a setup where their stealth shines and they get to hug themselves for one-shotting the bad guys.Maybe what we need is a discussion not of how stealth works, but of how surprise works.  Because unless the whole party is stealthy the mooks aren't going to be surprised.</blockquote>

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