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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9589368" data-attributes="member: 6877472">I think at the end of the day, each DM needs to ask themselves what they want Stealth to do in the game, and work backwards from there.  Traditionally, stealth rules have either been godly or damn near useless, and there isn't much middle ground.You either get an Elder Scrolls-esque "stealth mode" where sufficient skill can let you slip invisibly past even the most alert guards as long as you aren't blatant about what you're doing or have a ridiculously hard to attempt feat that can be broken like sugar glass.In real life, it's possible to sneak up on people on open ground, if they are distracted or not looking in you direction.  Guards rarely stay alert for long- either due to fatigue or the boredom of routine, their attention wanders.  A sniper can crawl slowly, a few inches at a time without being noticed, even by people standing right next to them (just look up Carlos Hathcock's feats if you don't believe it).However, in a fantasy world, enemies have abilities to see in darkness, feel vibrations in the air, possess keen senses of vision or smell, or even have automagical abilities to detect life forces, magical energy, and the like. Enemies in dungeons might be on high alert, and one's game of choice might not even take facing into account.By taking these factors into consideration, attempting to use Stealth can feel like trying to hide behind a wall of tissue paper.  It becomes so ludicrously impossible to attempt to hide with anything less than total cover or full obscurement- ie, in a situation where there's no way to see you in the first place!And even then, you can still make noise, have B.O. from sweating, or any number of other things that a monster might be able to detect.So to reiterate- the DM has to basically decide if Stealth is useful in their game at all, and what the limits are. Even if the rules precisely led you to an answer, if you don't like that answer, you're likely going to disregard that answer (insert Nick Fury clip here) anyways, so why belabor the point?</blockquote>

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