D&D (2024) Stealth in 2024 - Alternatives

[jgsugden]

...My best experience with a Stealth Challenge involved (a) players devising a strategy to distract/evade search parties as they infiltrating a lizardfolk camp, then (b) using Stealth checks more like saving throws when things went pear shaped and a PC was about to be discovered - success meant avoiding detection at the last moment. So it was much more about applying creativity to avoid detection… and high Stealth PCs could take more risks.

There were other unique elements to that infiltration scenario, but that was the core of my approach to stealth in that case. Played VERY well for my old group.

That is essentially what the system I describe above does, and why we liked it when we used it. The players had the rules for modifiers to help them figure out a good plan for how to distract/evade in order to minimize the chances of being discovered and the DM (me) required them to roll if things got close.

The net effect was that it felt like planning (or improvising) a heist and when die rolls became necessary due to complications as the plans unfolded it added tension. It felt more cinematic and less perfunctory.