So, I gather a lot of people are confused by the 5E stealth rules. I have to admit, they're kind of odd and nonintuitive. Here's how I read them; I'm wondering if other people read them the same way.
1. You are either seen or unseen. Normally, you need heavy obscurement to be unseen. Some abilities may modify this (e.g., wood elves can be unseen in rain or light mist, and an invisible creature is unseen always).
2. You must be unseen to even attempt stealth.
3. If you are unseen, but could possibly be detected (e.g., by hearing your footsteps, or if your heavy obscurement is not quite as heavy as you might like), you can make a Stealth check to avoid detection. This is opposed by the passive Perception of any creature that could detect you, and the Perception check of a creature that devotes an action to trying to detect you.
4. Whether you could possibly be detected is up to the DM and common sense to determine.
Does that sound right?
1. You are either seen or unseen. Normally, you need heavy obscurement to be unseen. Some abilities may modify this (e.g., wood elves can be unseen in rain or light mist, and an invisible creature is unseen always).
2. You must be unseen to even attempt stealth.
3. If you are unseen, but could possibly be detected (e.g., by hearing your footsteps, or if your heavy obscurement is not quite as heavy as you might like), you can make a Stealth check to avoid detection. This is opposed by the passive Perception of any creature that could detect you, and the Perception check of a creature that devotes an action to trying to detect you.
4. Whether you could possibly be detected is up to the DM and common sense to determine.
Does that sound right?
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