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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 6795103" data-attributes="member: 6775031">That's not how the game works, though. It actually bothers to go out of its way to say that characters are generally looking in all directions during combat, and you flat-out can't hide from a creature that can see you. That little part of the text was written to specifically address this issue, and it specifically calls out Invisibility as an exception.The DM only uses dice to resolve a situation if the outcome is uncertain. If the enemy is alert for threats from all directions, and it can see you (because you aren't heavily obscured or behind total cover), then the outcome is certain - &quot;you can't hide&quot;. Given the certainty of the outcome, a die roll would be superfluous. For normal case scenarios, where your allies are engaging the enemies and there are no dragons or earthquakes or anything, that falls under the standard general expectations of combat - that is the &quot;in combat&quot; to which the rules refer. Basic combat doesn't count as a special exception in which to invoke the &quot;certain circumstances&quot; in which a creature might be distracted. An exception, where you would need to roll, would be if something entirely unexpected and utterly distracting was preventing the creature from looking around. If the orcs are engaged with your paladin and barbarian allies, but then an earthquake strikes while a gold dragon appears overhead, then that might be a sufficient distraction. The specifics of what would qualify fall to the DM, of course, but it would be difficult to argue that it's unexpected for the person with the big sword to swing it at you.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 6795103, member: 6775031"] That's not how the game works, though. It actually bothers to go out of its way to say that characters are generally looking in all directions during combat, and you flat-out [I]can't[/I] hide from a creature that can see you. That little part of the text was written to specifically address this issue, and it specifically calls out Invisibility as an exception. The DM only uses dice to resolve a situation [I]if[/I] the outcome is uncertain. If the enemy is alert for threats from all directions, and it [I]can[/I] see you (because you aren't heavily obscured or behind total cover), then the outcome is certain - "you [I][B]can't[/B][/I] hide". Given the certainty of the outcome, a die roll would be superfluous. For normal case scenarios, where your allies are engaging the enemies and there are no dragons or earthquakes or anything, that falls under the standard general expectations of combat - that is the "in combat" to which the rules refer. Basic combat doesn't count as a special exception in which to invoke the "certain circumstances" in which a creature might be distracted. An exception, where you [I]would[/I] need to roll, would be if something entirely unexpected and utterly distracting was preventing the creature from looking around. If the orcs are engaged with your paladin and barbarian allies, but then an earthquake strikes while a gold dragon appears overhead, then [I]that[/I] might be a sufficient distraction. The specifics of what would qualify fall to the DM, of course, but it would be difficult to argue that it's unexpected for the person with the big sword to swing it at you. [/QUOTE]

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