SKILLS

Stealth

(Dex)

You're skilled in moving about unseen and unheard.

Check: Your Stealth check is opposed by the Notice check of anyone who might notice you. While using Stealth, you can move up to half your normal speed at no penalty. At more than half and up to your full speed, you take a -5 penalty. It's practically impossible (-20 penalty) to use Stealth while attacking, moving all out, or charging.

Size Modifiers: Apply the modifier from your size category to your Stealth checks to represent the difficulty and ease of noticing smaller and larger targets, respectively: Fine +16, Diminutive +12, Tiny +8, Small +4, Medium +0, Large -4, Huge -8, Gargantuan -12, Colossal -16.

Hiding: If others have spotted you, you can't use Stealth to remain unseen. You can run around a corner so you are out of sight and then use Stealth to hide, but others then know at least where you went. Note you can't hide if you have no cover or concealment (since that means you're standing out in the open).

Creating a Diversion to Hide: You can make a Bluff check to gain the momentary diversion needed to attempt a Stealth check while people are aware of you. When the others turn their attention from you, you can make a Stealth check if you can get to a hiding place of some kind. (As a general guideline, the hiding place has to be within 1 foot for every rank you have in Stealth.) This check, however, is at a -5 penalty because you have to move fast.

Tailing: You can use Stealth to tail someone at your normal speed. This assumes you have some cover or concealment (crowds of people, shadows, fog, etc.). If the subject is worried about being followed, he can make a Notice check (opposed by your Stealth check) every time he changes course (goes around a street corner, exits a building, and so on). If he is unsuspecting, he only gets a Notice check after each hour of being tailed. If the subject notices you, you can make a Bluff check, opposed by Sense Motive. If you succeed, you manage to pass off your presence as coincidence and can continue tailing. A failed Bluff check, or being noticed a second time, means the subject knows something is up.

Challenges: You can take the following challenges with Stealth:

Accelerated Stealth: You can move up to your normal speed in exchange for a -5 penalty to your Stealth check. In return for a -20 penalty to your check, you can move faster than your normal speed, such as by running or charging.

Slip Between Cover: You can make a Stealth check at a penalty to quickly cross an area lacking cover or concealment without automatically revealing yourself. For every 5 feet of open space you cross, you take a -5 penalty to your Stealth check. You also take the normal Stealth penalties for moving faster than half your normal speed and such. So, you can slip past a 5-foot open doorway without being seen, for example, or duck from shadow to shadow.

Vanishing: You can "disappear" when no one is watching you. This is essentially a use of Stealth to hide when the character has concealment or a distraction (no one looking directly at him, essentially). It requires a Stealth check with a -5 penalty, and the character must be within a normal move action of an exit, or some cover or concealment (a window, skylight, ventilation duct, etc.). A successful check means the character seems to disappear; an observer turns around only to discover that he is gone. Characters can use Bluff or Intimidate to gain the momentary distraction needed to vanish in this way.

Action: Stealth is a move action.