Sniper Shot Listen Check DC

[iwatt]

Sorry if this has been asked before. The situation is the following: the PC sharpshooter in the party is shooting from 200' awat from his victim. He "will" drop the target in one round . The closest NPC's are about 400' from the sharpshooter, and about 180' from the target. They are on guard, so I can assume they are taking 20 in their spot and listen checks.

These are the following rules I've found pertaining to this:

1) A Battle has a base listen DC of -10.

2) The SRD says -1 for every 10' away from the sound. It is fairly open terrain, so there is no walls or doors to listen through.

3) From Ultimate firearms, I have that it takes a Listen DC 15 to figure out from which direction the high caliber (2d12 or +) is coming from.

If I base myself only on 1) and 2)
The target, whoose 200' away from the sniper, has the following listen DC (if he even survives):

DC = 10 = -10 (base) + 20 (200' away) tohear the shot
DC = 15 to pinpoint direction.

These two values make sense to me, and are pretty adequate. The listen DC's for the guards 400' away would be:

DC = +30 = -10 (base) + 40 (400' away)

which means my guards with a +6 to listen (pretty good) don't stand a chance in this case. Since they are 180' away from the target, they have +18 modifier to the Listen DC to hear the taret fall.

This basically means that the sniper can pick off the target (an advance post guard) with impunity. Is this fair? Am I doing this correctly? What do you do in your game?

 

[DanMcS]

A sniper shot is automatically heard. You can hear a gun like that fire for a mile in the right circumstances. To hear the guy that got shot fall over, yeah, they wouldn't hear it, but they would hear the shot, so they'd be looking back at their target, and it would be DC -10 or so to notice on a Spot that he wasn't there any more.

To pinpoint where the shot came from, a high DC is fine, but they should get the general direction automatically.

 

[DanMcS]

By the way, you can't be "taking 20" on spot and listen checks. You can take 10, but taking 20 would mean they were listening 20 times to attempt to hear 1 sound.

 

[iwatt]

But there should be some mechanci for the Gunshot. You say a mile away, that means DC 10 a mile away. 1 mile is aprox 5280'
That makes the distance modifier = +528
therefore, the listen DC of a gunshot is -518

I know that 400' away is right next door, and the guards should be able to hear it, barring unusual circumstances. I was just trying to see if there was an offcicial ruling, or if not, some adequate house ruling. Last night the Sniper was shooting during a thunderstorm, so it really was'nt that important. Next time it will be. My player's have no problem with me telling them there is no way the shot won't be heard, but If the shoter is far enough (max range), there should be some chance for the shot not to be noticed. I have never shot a wepon in my life, nor been particularly close to someone firing one, so I don't have my experience to rely on.

Ian Watt

BTW, I had him take a concentration DC 15 to shoot at the same time the thunder sounded.

 

[Pagan priest]

Two things: the propellant makes a large noise upon discharge, and the bullet travels at supersonic speed, causing a sonic boom. Using a silencer on the rifle diminishes the report, making it harder to determine the firing location by sound. Using cold load ammo causes the bullet to travel at less than supersonic speed, eliminating the sonic boom. Using both together means that a guard standing 40 feet from the target may not hear the shot... the first clue is when they spot the target fall.

Oh, and if these are very observant guards, there is a chance that they might spot the mussel flash, but that's what a flash suppressor is for.

 

[iwatt]

Thanks for reviving this thread

What is cold load ammo?
About the silencer, I'm going with Charles Ryan's Ultimate Firearms, that says that 2d12 weapons cannot be silenced. And real snipers go for real damage

 

[Ranger REG]

A cold-loaded ammo packs just enough gunpowder in the casing to propel the bullet at subsonic speed (below the speed of sound).

Snipers who like to do real damage do it from a distance and under cover, which give them ample space for him to escape any retaliation or return fire if the enemies spotted him.