spot, listen, hide, move silently

[Cullain]

if someone can just give me a page number for this, that'd be great, but I haven't seen one.

Character A is trying to sneak up on character B. Character A gets and 10 on both his hide and move silently rolls. Character B gets a 11 on his spot and listen rolls. When does character B see/hear the character?

Cullain

 

[Hypersmurf]

Assuming Character A is only moving half his speed, and assuming Character B wasn't observing him when he started hiding, he won't be seen.

Although Character B can - if he suspects there might be someone hiding - try a Spot check again as a full-round action.

(Descriptions of Hide and Spot in the PHB.)

Ditto for Move Silently vs Listen.

-Hyp.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Listen and Spot are both reactive skills, which means that they don't take an action to use. You can use a full-round action to *retry* a check, but you on't need it to do so in the first place.

If the character was watching in the first place, the other couldn't Hide (without a diversion).

 

[Cullain]

Sorry, let me clarify a little more.

Bob the ranger is 200 feet away from the camp. He starts to head towards the rest of the party, where Ricky the cleric is on watch.

Bob rolls, and his total for both, with bonuses, is 10. Ricky's total, with bonuses, is 11. Is he spotted right away(200 ft from the camp?)

Now, say there's the same scenario, except Bob the ranger rolls an 11, with bonuses. Ricky the cleric rolls 10. Is Bob then able to sneak the entire 200 feet into the camp?

I'm sure i'm missing something here, just not sure what.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Well, there's the -1 penalty to Spot for every 10 feet between the Spotter and the Thing To Be Spotted. So when Bob the Ranger is 200 feet away, Ricky has a -20 penalty to Spot him.

As far as I can tell, there's no rule that says when a Hide check "runs out". You could do it in a few ways :

1/ The Hide check lasts until either the hider draws attention to himself or the hider is spotted.

2/ The Hide check is made each round, like with climbing.

3/ The Hide check is rerolled each time circumstances change - moving from forest into clearing, moving from darkness into firelit shadow, and so on.

I could be missing something, though.

-Hyp.

 

[EverSoar]

Its whoever wins the opposing roll. If the ranger wins, he mangages to hide unless the cleric saw him before he tried to hide, in which case he can't hide.

But if the ranger tried to hide, and the cleric was watching and his spot check beat the hide check of the ranger, then the cleric spots the ranger.

Same for listen and Move silently

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Hmm. How about this:
Ranger A sneaks towards the group which is 200 feet away.
He Hides, rolls (with all his bonus) a 10 on Hide.
Cleric B tries to guard the group. He rolls a 11 on Spot, without the penalties from beeing 200 feet away. These penalties (-20) would make it a effetive -9.
If you do not want to roll every time, you should assume that these roll results stay this way, only the circumstance modifier change. So, when the Ranger is a at 10 (or 20? Mathematics... ARGH) Feet the Cleric will spot him and may alarm his group...

I think this is the best way to handle this, and it avoids rerolling all the time...

 

[Ferox4]

In the DMG, under encounter distance, there are numerous tables describing spotting distances for all sorts of terrain. In your example, once you determine the maximum distance at which the Cleric can spot the Ranger you tally up all the appropriate modifiers and that is the DC for the Cleric to spot the Ranger -- NOT opposed rolls, yet. Not until the Ranger is at half the max spotting distance (or within the Cleric's sight limits) do you then make opposed rolls.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

Ferox is correct. Use the encounter distance rules on pages 59-60 in the DMG. You only switch to opposed rolls after the ranger gets to half the encounter distance unspotted.

As you see, alot depends on terrain type and illumination, which you have not provided. Let's say it is Scrub terrain and daylight. So at 210 feet, the cleric gets a spot check to notice the ranger. The DC is 25 + the ranger's hide skill modifier, which should be around 5 or 6. So the DC is about 30. Since I did not get the impression the cleric had +10 for spotting, he will fail the roll.

When the ranger gets to 105 feet, then they make opposed checks. The cleric will be at -10 at this distance. Let's say the cleric failed the spot check. The ranger moves at half his speed to avoid detection. If his speed is 30, then he moves at 15. He is probably taking double moves, so his goes 30 feet per round. The cleric must use a full round action to make new spot checks. The ranger moves 30 feet to 75 feet distance The cleric's spot is now at -7. If the cleric fails, the ranger moves to 45 feet away where the cleric's spot is at -4. If the cleric fails again, the ranger moves to 15 feet, where the cleric is only at -1. Hopefully the cleric will spot the ranger at this distance.

 

[photon1966]

Question?

Could the Cleric on Gaurd duty take a 10? He is awake, alert, but simple keeping an eye and ear out. If something alerts him then he could take a full round reroll and focus his attention in the direction he believed the noise/sight came from. Possible a good place for a little distracting magic or mundane rock throwing.