7.23 Stealth (Dex)
The Stealth skill represents your ability to escape detection while moving or taking large-scale actions. All Stealth checks are made as part of movement or other actions, so they require no special action to perform. If you have been noticed by a creature, you automatically fail all Stealth checks against that creature until you can escape its notice, such as by disappearing out of sight.
7.23.1 Common Stealth Tasks
Avoid Notice: You can make an opposed Stealth vs. Awareness check to prevent creatures from noticing you. Success means that the observer’s awareness of you, such as unaware or partially unaware, does not change. Failure means that the observer can observe you using any senses they detected you with. Generally, success with sight-based senses causes creatures to become fully aware of you, while success with other senses causes creatures to be partially unaware (50% miss chance, -2 Armor and Ref) of you. You must repeat this check whenever you take an action that you want to conceal, such as moving, or your circumstances otherwise meaningfully change in a way that would make you easier to observe.
Hide: You can make an opposed Stealth vs. Awareness check to make creatures that are aware of you lose track of your position. In order to use this ability, you must move in a way that makes observers lose sight of you for at least ten feet of your motion. In addition, you must have cover or concealment for the entire duration of your movement. This can be achieved by moving through total darkness, moving out of line of sight, teleporting at least ten feet, or similar activities. Success against an observer means that they become partially unaware (50% miss chance, -2 Armor and Ref) of you instead of fully aware of you.
7.23.2 Common Stealth Modifiers
A creature smaller than Medium size gains a +5 bonus to the Stealth skill for each size category by which it is smaller than Medium. Similarly, a creature larger than Medium size takes a -5 bonus to the Stealth skill for each size category by which it is smaller than Medium. These effects are summarized below.
- Fine: +20
- Diminutive: +15
- Tiny: +10
- Small: +5
- Medium: +0
- Large: -5
- Huge: -10
- Gargantuan: -15
- Colossal: -20
Stealth checks generally require cover or concealment (see Cover and Concealment). For this purpose, do not consider any cover that would be hidden as a result of a successful check, such as an object you hold in front of you. You take a -20 penalty to Stealth checks against creatures who can observe you without any interfering cover or concealment. This includes creatures who can ignore concealment with abilities like blindsight.
You take a -10 penalty to Stealth checks against creatures who can know your location with a special ability like blindsense. This does not stack with the penalty for not having cover or concealment.
Moving stealthily is more difficult than hiding in place. If you use a movement speed to move, you take a penalty to your Stealth check to conceal that movement. This is a -5 penalty if you move at no more than half your speed. If you use the sprint ability or move faster than half your speed, this penalty increases to -10.
Making a strike, using somatic components, and taking other similar large-scale actions imposes a -10 penalty to the Stealth check. If you make a strike with a Heavy weapon, this penalty increases to -20. This is separate from and stacks with the +20 bonus that a creature gets to notice you if you hit it with a strike (see Common Awareness Modifiers).