Tome of Prowess (3.5e Sourcebook)/Stealth

Stealth

Key Attribute: Dexterity

The stealth skill is a movement skill involving cover, concealment, and blind spots. With it you can walk past guards without their noticing, sneak up on a sentry, or tip toe past a creature that sees everything touching the earth nearby. Return to Top

Base DCs and Modifiers

Absolute Vs. Relative Size Modifiers

Absolute size modifiers need to die in a fire. Giants are not at a hiding disadvantage against other giants in giant sized surroundings. Gnomes are not at a hiding advantage in their own communities. These two things only happen because we have absolute stealth penalties for size and no cancelling adjustments for spotters of varying size. Relative bonuses and penalties for being bigger or smaller than your surroundings are fine however, and size bonuses have been converted to these contextual things.

Relative Size	Check Result Modifier	Example
Three or more sizes larger than environment and searcher	-10	Tarrasque in a human city.
Two sizes larger than environment and searcher	-5	Hill giant in a Pixie village.
One size larger than environment and searcher	-2	Human in a gnome burrow.
Same size as environment and searcher	+0	Halfling in a gnome burrow.
One size smaller than environment and searcher	+2	Halfling in a human bar.
Two sizes smaller than environment and searcher	+5	Dwarf in a storm giant's home.
Three or more sizes smaller than environment and searcher	+10	Gnome in a titan's home.

Drawing Attention	Check Result Modifier
Moving at a hustle, or faster, along with a dense crowd	+5
Moving along with a crowd	+0
Moving with a crowd, but not as fast	-2
Standing still within or moving against a quickly moving crowd	-5
Standing still in a clear space	+5
Moving at an unhurried pace in a clear space	+0
Moving at a hustle in a clear space	-5
Moving flat-out in a clear space	-10
Involved in a fight or other disturbance	-15

Untrained Uses

Avoid Notice

Anyone can keep their head down and their hood up when they have to. If someone is searching a crowd for you, or you are being generally observed but haven’t been specifically picked out, you may make a stealth check to continue to avoid notice. This check is a free action, and is made at the end of your turn with modifiers based on what you did during your turn. Your check result sets the base DC for a searcher’s perception check to notice you, and you must make a new check each round that you attempt to avoid notice. Your check result may not exceed 25 at this level of skill.

This ability is used to sneak up behind someone; if you reach them before they notice you they are flatfooted against your attack. Attacking someone alerts them to the square you are in, and carries sufficient penalties that they probably notice you, but it's not guaranteed. It is difficult, but not impossible, to sneak up on someone and stab them in the back while remaining effectively hidden, though they would certainly be aware of the attack and take measures to protect themselves if possible.

If you are noticed, you can’t continue to avoid their notice with a check anymore. Worse, they can point you out or describe you to their friends, granting them bonuses to locating you. You must escape or confuse their ability to detect you before you can make any additional stealth checks to avoid notice from any person who has noticed you. Some ways to accomplish this are running around a corner and hiding in a box while they don’t see you, disappearing into a crowd, gaining full concealment or full cover, or using the Combat Distraction ability of bluff to make them look away just long enough for a quick getaway. This doesn’t mean they don’t know where you’ve gone, just that you get to start making checks again for them to miss you when they come looking. If they see you disappear around a corner and then can’t find you, it might be perfectly reasonable for them to lightning bolt or web the alley to try and bring you out of hiding. Even after you break line of sight and can make new checks, they gain a bonus to finding you in the future because they know what they're looking for.

You take a penalty to this check if you draw attention to yourself. The most common ways to draw attention to yourself are moving in ways that stand out or becoming involved in a fight or commotion; these modifiers are included in the table above. Note that you suffer no penalty if you are traveling with a group of fast moving people, as not moving as quickly as everyone else would make you stand out instead of blend in. Other ways of drawing attention to yourself may include being painted the wrong color during a festival or singing the wrong words while hiding in a choir. These less common ways of drawing attention to yourself may carry a penalty of up to -10 on your roll. The exact penalty is determined by the DM, and they are not required to tell you what the penalty is until after you make your check. You simply don't have the skill to determine the penalty before you have taken the action.

Base DC: None.
Check Result: Your check result sets the DC for an observer to spot you while you attempt to observe them from cover. You may not exceed 25 with this level of skill.

Clandestine Surveillance

You can hide behind a curtain, a well, or a hill and people on the other side of it can’t see you; they may not be able to hear or smell or otherwise sense you either. This isn’t a skill or ability; it’s just what happens when something sits between people. While that’s useful, and not anything you should ever roll for, sometimes you need to expose yourself and break cover to check out the people on the other side. That’s where a stealth check would be useful. Remaining hidden while observing is a free action, made in conjunction with any perception check that requires you to expose yourself. For purposes of this check, you are treated as being only as big as your exposed parts. This is generally three or more sizes smaller than your environment, and so you probably gain a substantial bonus on this check as indicated on the table above.

Base DC: None.
Check Result: Your check result sets the DC for an observer to spot you while you attempt to observe them from cover. You may not exceed 25 with this level of skill.

Rank 4 Uses

Avoid Detection

There is no limit to your check result with the Avoid Notice or Clandestine Surveillance abilities. You are also trained enough to know how large a penalty to your stealth check you would take from uncommon attention drawing conditions, like those described above, and can plan your route and actions better as a result. Mechanically, this means that you can ask the DM ahead of time what the numeric result of doing something would be if it isn’t listed, and they have to tell you, even if they'd rather not.

Rank 6 Uses

Team Player

Sometimes you have to bring the team with you into the shadows, and they may not have any idea what they’re doing. If you accept a -6 penalty to your stealth check, you may use your base check as the base result for every member of your group within 30’ for the purposes of avoiding detection. Each member suffers penalties individually based on their actions for the round however.

Alternately, your group can each make individual checks to avoid notice or detection, as appropriate for each character, and you may then reduce the result of your check to boost the checks of others. For every 1 point that you reduce your check by, you may increase the check of an ally by 2. You may not increase an ally’s check above your own reduced check with this ability, though you may increase their results above 25 if they would be limited from lack of training.

Rank 10 Uses

Foil Senses

When you hide, you can even mask your echo and vibrations. You can mask yourself from the blindsight, blindsense, and tremorsense special abilities. This check is a free action that you can add on to any Avoid Notice check. The results of the check simply apply against the special senses of a creature as well as more mundane methods of detection. Note that you can continue using this ability to hide from their special senses even after they have located you with their more mundane sensory organs.

You use your Avoid Notice check result for this ability. Unlike most stealth abilities, this is actively foiling their senses and does not set a base DC for them to exceed. The base DC for this check is 15 + CR of the creature or 15 + the creature’s ranks in perception, whichever is higher. The dowsing skill may be used in place of perception for this DC if the creature is actively using the Sense Presence ability. The effect of your check depends on the magnitude of your success and the type of special location senses the creature has as indicated in the check result table below.

Base DC: 15 + creature's CR or 15 + creature's ranks in perception or dowsing (if active), whichever is higher
Check Result:

• DC+10 and above: Monsters using Blindsight, Blindsense, or Tremorsense are unable to recognize your presence and do not know you are present, much less what square you are in. You are effectively invisible to these senses as they can not pin point you unless you stab them or do something similarly stupid.
• DC+5 to DC+9: You are treated as having total concealment from Blindsight. Creatures using it can still locate the square you are in, however, and this concealment is moot if the creature can locate you with other senses. If they can't locate you with other senses, which is pretty likely if you're sneaking around, then they suffer the appropriate miss chance. You are effectively invisible to the Tremorsense or Blindsense abilities; they are unable to locate the square that you are in at all, and creatures depending on them probably don't even realize someone is present.
• DC+0 to DC+4: You are treated as having concealment from Blindsight and total concealment from Tremorsense and Blindsense. Creatures using these sense can still locate the square you are in, however, and this concealment is moot if the creature can locate you with other senses. If they can't locate you with other senses, which is possible if you're sneaking around, then they suffer the appropriate miss chance.
• DC-1 to DC-5: You gain no special protection from Blindsight, but do gain concealment from Tremorsense and Blindsense. Creatures using these sense can still locate the square you are in, however, and this concealment is moot if the creature can locate you with other senses. If they can't locate you with other senses, which is possible if you're sneaking around, then they suffer the appropriate miss chance.
• DC-6 and below: You gain no special protection from any special sensory abilities. Better luck next round.

Rank 12 Uses

Fade Into the Background

People have a really hard time keeping an eye on you, even when they know you’re there. You can attempt a stealth check after someone has spotted you without first breaking line of sight or otherwise losing your pursuer, or while you are under any other sort of direct observation. You gain no special benefit to your roll, and may have a hard time pulling it off as your pursuer still gains a benefit from knowing what to look for.

If you also have the Hide In Plain Sight class feature, the bonus a spotter gains from having seen you is reduced by half.

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