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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Smeelbo" data-source="post: 4698415" data-attributes="member: 81898">Fleeting Ghost, Reconsidered Yet AgainWhile I've reached no final decision on how to correctly interpret Fleeting Ghost, I am being more and more swayed by the argument that it acts like an exception to Becoming Hidden, rather than being a weaker version of the paragon feat Secret Stride. I noted earlier, and in some other threads, that if Fleeting Ghost were intended to simply remove the movement penalty for a Stealth Check, it would have been written more like this:Effect: Move up to your full speed. If you can make a Stealth check at the end of this move, you do not take the normal penalty from movement on this check. In other words, it would modify the Stealth check you could already make, rather than explicitly granting a Stealth check at the end of the move. It has been pointed out that this wording is awkward, and that "common sense" should be used, but then I read the wording on this feat, immediately before Shadow Stride in the PHB, page 122:Dangerous Theft, Rogue Utility 10: Encounter, Martial Free Action, Personal Prerequisite: You must be trained in Thievery. Effect: On your next action, ignore the -10 penalty when you make a Thievery check to pick a pocket during combat. Compare this language to Fleeting Ghost and Shadow Stride. Clearly, the authors of the rogue utilities knew how to write a power so that it modified a check, as opposed to granting a check. Now consider the Stealth Errata:Becoming Hidden: You can make a Stealth check against an enemy only if you have superior cover or total concealment against the enemy or if you’re outside the enemy’s line of sight. If Fleeting Ghost were intended only to remove the penalty from a Stealth check, leaving all other requirements intact, then it would have been worded similarly to Dangerous Theft, above. Because Fleeting Ghost explicitly grants a stealth check, I conclude that Stealth check is an exception to Becoming Hidden, which would otherwise preclude that Stealth check at the end of a normal move. One can reasonably argue that the developers simply botched the wording, but the fact that the wording of Fleeting Ghost was not errata'd, while Shadow Stride was reworded, combined with the precedent of Dangerous Theft's wording, strongly suggests that the wording of Fleeting Ghost reflects their intent, and therefore the Stealth check is intentionally granted and intended to be an exception to the Stealth Errata. Smeelbo</blockquote>

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