Stealth is the characters ability to move around without being seen or heard. Characters can use this skill to catch enemies unaware and surprise attack them, hide from pursuers, or shadow someone as they walk down the street without being noticed.
- Primary Characteristic: Agility
- Time to Perform: As part of a Movement
When a character moves and they are unnoticed by any present creatures, they can attempt a Stealth check to avoid being noticed. When a character initiates Stealth, they roll their Skill check and hold on to the results until other creatures come into view of the character. Those creatures then make immediate Perception checks, and if their rolls are lower than the character's Stealth, they are unable to perceive the Stealthing character.
- Characters do not roll their Stealth checks every time the Game Master has someone attempt a perception check to find the character. Instead, the player rolls one check as soon as they enter stealth and keeps that total until the Game Master asks for it. If the player incurs any penalties to their Stealth check during the time they're in stealth, the penalty is applied to their last roll. Characters can attempt a new Stealth roll with no penalties at the beginning of their next turn.
Characters can only hide from targets they are concealed from, either by breaking line of sight or making use of environmental features such as shadows or natural foliage to obscure their position. If they attempt to hide while the person they intend to hide from is watching, their check automatically fails. If they are trying to be hidden from everyone around them and someone has line of sight as they attempt to conceal themselves, the person watching them hide can give away the character's position without having to make a Perception check.
- Players and Game Masters should use common sense when determining what conditions will allow a character to hide. Broad daylight in an open field provides no shadows for characters to hide in, the character should be smaller, or make themselves smaller, than objects they try and hide behind, and living creatures can only be used as cover if the character moves in sync with the person they're using as cover.
- If the character hides behind an object to break line of sight and hide, and the person they're hiding from reestablishes line of sight by going to other side of the object, the character is not immediately revealed, but they must move on their turn in order to maintain a break in line of sight; otherwise, the character drops out of hiding at the end of their turn.
Hiding and then attacking does not conceal the source of an attack. Characters hit by an attack always know what direction the attack came from, even if they cannot tell exactly what space they came from. This allows them to follow the line of effect to its potential source, though they still have to make a Perception check against the Stealthing attacker to see them precisely.
- If a character attacks while engaged in stealth, and their attack has an obvious auditory or visual effect such as a gun shot or a fireball, they suffer a -5 penalty to their Stealth check. This penalty is cumulative if the character makes multiple attacks on their turn or during the time in which they are in stealth.
- For Example: Tathafien has 2 ranged attacks and wants to attack an enemy while he hides. One is an Area of Effect blast with a 5 meter radius, and Tath would suffer a -5 penalty to his Stealth check if he attempted to use it on his target. The second is a 5.56 assault rifle, which hits 5 times in one turn and would apply a -25 penalty to his check. Since the blast incurs the fewest penalties, he decides to use that instead of his ranged weapon.
Just because a character is in Stealth does not mean they're immune to being attacked. If the opponent tries to hit a space they can reasonably intuit the character to be in, and the Stealthing character is in that space, the attacker gets to make an Accuracy check to see if their attack hits, although they will suffer disadvantage on the roll. If they decide to attack with an Area of Effect attack, it's up to the player to get out of the way, possibly breaking Stealth to do so.
- For Example: Tathafien comes across a serial killer that he's reasonably sure will wipe the floor with him if he stays and fights, so he runs away and tries using Stealth to evade his enemy. The only way he can break line of sight is to run around a corner and hide under a conveniently placed box, which he does. The serial killer turns the corner and doesn't see Tath, and he knows Tath must be hiding or at least moving quietly because he cannot hear him running. He sees the box and reasonably suspects Tath might be under it, since it's the only obvious hiding place in the otherwise empty space. He swings a giant machete down on the box, and he only misses because he cannot see exactly where Tath is. He does destroy the box though, so on his turn, Tath has to either stand and fight, or run away and find a new hiding place because he can no longer block line of sight between himself and the big, scary butcher.
Characters attempting to Stealth should note that this skill only works against normal, unaltered senses unless precautions are made prior to the Stealth check against potential Enhanced Senses.
- For example: Tathafien is attempting to sneak into a building and runs across some dogs. He has no problem hiding himself or moving unheard, but he has no way of masking his scent against the dogs's Targeting Smell. Therefore, the dogs get to make an immediate perception check to detect the smell of another creature, find Tath's scent, and immediately track him to his location. Tathafien backs off for a day, then comes back after a day with a special spray that hides his scent so he can hide from the dogs.
- If a character is attacked and takes either Health of Stamina damage, the character takes a -5 penalty to their Stealth check against the attacker's allies per successful hit, as the enemy's friends will notice their buddy hitting something and take a closer look.
Characters cannot use Stealth while Sprinting, as they are focusing all their energy on running as fast as they can instead of moving carefully or methodically.