Stealth in Combat

[Mistwell]

I don't think it's reasonable, and I think it more and more. People have lots of ways to gain Combat Advantage without using Stealth. 13 other ways, in fact. Asking the Rogue to break LOS completely before allowing another Stealth check (under cover or concealment then) isn't unreasonable, IMO.

Everyone keeps focusing on the rogue.

It's not just about the rogue. A ranger attacking at distance with stealth as a skill will often want to gain combat advantage from it, to offset the cover bonus he is granting his foe by placing himself behind cover to begin with. Your view would make cover a net harm to the Ranger's attacks on a fairly regular basis.

 

[bardolph]

But it's not just denying sneak attacks. It's denying every single character and monster the chance to get +5 to all defenses and turn invisible because they are standing in a bush or behind a corner.

All a creature has to do is get adjacent to the hidden character, and their stealth is blown. -5 drops to -2.

Bottom line is that a Stealthy character can make themselves tough to target, therefore helping the Defender play their role, and allowing the party to function as it should. This is a good thing.

The only time I think this would really be a problem is if the monsters are using Stealth to avoid being targeted by the PCs. How to play this? I'm not sure how RAW it would be, but I would strip Hidden status from any creature that is adjacent to one of the PCs.

 

[eamon]

I really hope that a clarification is released soon by WotC. I find the trivial stealthing - potentially behind an ally that is smaller than you - which grants such high defensive bonuses to be disturbing.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

All a creature has to do is get adjacent to the hidden character, and their stealth is blown. -5 drops to -2.

Could you help explain where you're getting the -5 penalty from?

Is it:

concealed + successful Stealth roll = hidden from view = total concealment (-5 for targets to attack)

?

I think that's the one thing confusing me about Stealth. Just what the heck does 'hidden from view' mean mechanically?

 

[Roxlimn]

Mistwell:

If the enemy has cover from the Ranger, then he has cover from them, too. -2 to hit for +2 effective defenses across the board seems like a fair trade to me. And that doesn't take Nimble Strike into account, where you can attack without penalty, and then move completely into Total Cover and not even get attacked.