Player created role play guides to stealth

[Lokarn]

This thread is intended for players who wish to give others advice on some techniques to use so that they may play a stealthy class in an acceptable way.

Guides should be written in a way that encourages good stealth play, and not to simply say, don't do this, or that.

Please, if you disagree with someone, send them a PM, do not post here with your arguments for, or against methods.

Write your own guide, do not try to write someone else's.

Please DM's correct any blatant issues regarding rules by lining out text and sending a PM to the author of the guide. This will allow them to see where they made a mistake. If you want to that is.

[Lokarn]

This is under development...... feel free to peek though.


Welcome to FRC, I see you are thinking of joining the ranks of characters skilled in the art of stealth. These classes can be great fun to play, as you gain a great advantage over many other classes who will have a hard time detecting you. You may, or may not be aware that NwN's stealth system is a little broken for role play server needs.

The stealth mechanic incorporates both hide, and move silently into one single "mode". Unfortunately, as a stealthy class you will not be able to do one or the other, stealth mode is both at all times. Later I will go into more about this as well as offer my own advice on ways to use the dice bag to separate the skills.

The first thing I want you to learn about stealth is how it is broken. The stealth mode will allow you to sneak anywhere, and anytime. This is a major flaw, because I am sure you realize that being able to sneak right up in front of someone with zero cover is wrong. In a role play situation, in order to hide you need cover. Cover can be any number of things, so long as you could use it to mask your movements from the person or people you are sneaking up on or around. I won't go into cover just yet, let's discuss some other basics to stealth, and how to play a believable sneaker in our game world.

As with any guide much of this is going to be based on my own opinion. I will say that my own opinion has been formulated over many years of play as a sneak in a multitude of games, as well as a good number of movies and shows about spies, ninjas, military spec ops, that sort of stuff.

So, you created a character, you made it into the server and now you want to sneak about, maybe pick a pocket, maybe spy on someone. Sounds good, let's talk a little about your environment.

When playing a sneak, you should always be able to convince yourself that you could hide there. Whether you are crouched behind a rock, pressed up into the corner above a door, or just prowling in the shadows, you should be able to believe it yourself.

I try to plan ahead and pick colors for my outfits that would fit in many situations. Later when you gain some magical gear to aid in your argument as to how you could be hiding there your colors will matter less and less, but to begin, try to use good judgment. If you are going to be in the woods a lot, choose woodsy colors, if it's snow, choose light grays and whites.

It may be a hassle to change colors often, but if you practice a few times, maybe write down the slots and the colors you use there for your armor it can be done quickly, and even better, your attempts to play realistically might impress others including DM's.

So, your colors are set, you have a mark you want to sneak up to, past, or whatever... neat. Let's think about what it means to be stealthy.

Stealthy is the art of going unnoticed. In reality, it's not even hiding really. Sure hiding helps, but if you look around and see various players who all look similar, come up with a disguise that looks similar, just remember to invest in bluff skills if you plan to use disguises.

When sneaking up on NPC's you will have to have a good imagination. Npc's can do anything from stand in the same place, always facing out from a wall, or meandering about, randomly turning to walk another direction. The best thing to do is be sure any NPC is not DM controlled, because if it is, then you will be able to employ diversions and misdirections. Assuming the NPC is not DM controlled, you will have to use your imagination and just pretend that it looked at the pebble you tossed to divert it's attention, or any other idea that you could argue successfully to make it not look right at you as you get close.

I like to hug the walls of a cave when in them, or crouch behind large rocks and boulders. Emote often, it takes some extra time, but it adds so much enjoyment to those watching you and let's them see what you see in your mind. Just be sure that you have the skills to do what you are emoting, I often incorporate a dice roll into some of my emotes, so others with me can see just how sneaky I am being, and poke fun if I fail horribly. Sometimes failures are the most fun you have.

Now, sneaking up on other players is a tricky situation. You will need to remember everything about NPC's, plus you will need to keep in mind what they are doing. They could do anything, including cast random spells just because they are paranoid. Some players like True sight way too much, and may have it up at any point, even warriors might have a potion, or a friendly caster to cast on them.

No matter what, when sneaking about another player use good judgment. Stay under cover, keep them in your mind, if you know they should see you at any point you should drop stealth mode, if you are not sure, send them a tell, ask them to emote what they are doing. Do not tell them where you are, just say something like. "Can you please emote for me what it is you are doing?"

Now I'll just explain basic ways to use stealth that I employ often, and try to show you good ways to manage the skill.

When I stealth, I take my character's size and amount of ability into consideration. I also think of his other skills that might help too, like tumble or perform/bluff/what have you.

In rural towns I will only try to use stealth if I am in a shadowy area like an alley, or under some part of a building. I will at times employ stealth mode to emulate move silently, however this can also be accomplished through the dice bag. I do both depending on my personal situation, you will eventually figure out what works best for you.

Keep in mind some players are not fans of using stealth on a road. I personally think it's ok as long as it isn't a busy roar, and you are only using it to emulate the move silently skill while walking behind some one or thing. I will also say, this is not a good tactic, you would be far better served by keeping off the road and using stealth, because at any moment another could be coming from the other direction, or the issue of unrepresented NPC's can come up.

I will often use stealth fully in a large city, that is any city which uses the tile set with stone streets. It's safe to assume you could use the various people moving about as cover to also move through the city without being noticed. I personally would not use this to stand around, that might bring attention to yourself. I use it to pass quietly unseen.

......... more later, time for food!

[cloakedandhooded]

You mentioned that hiding requires cover. You didn't mention concealment. It's possible to hide when concealed as well, as long as the concealment isn't only on you. (In other words, you can't hide in the concealment if hiding makes the concealment effect disappear as well.)

The darkness of natural nighttime offers concealment, not cover (unless you consider it "cover of darkness"), so time of day affects ability to hide in an area as well, and how close you need to stick to objects.

I suggest playing with environment shadows turned on if you're trying to be sneaky. Knowing where the shadows are helps a lot in knowing where you can hide without cover because you have concealment. With the right shadows, you can stand in the open out of stealth and be unseen. (I once had someone drink a True Seeing potion to see me when I wasn't even in stealth mode. I doubt it helped much.)

My character wears charcoal all the time because shadows don't change colors.

[gathera]

Lots of good ideas here for stealth when it refers to "hiding" but stealth is is to myself the art of not being seen. This encompasses more than just sneaking around in shadows and in part might be reflected in "exactly" how the game engine does work. For example; in town if you are in stealth does that mean that you are skulking about trying to find every small shadowy nook and cranny? Maybe or maybe you are just in plain sight but simply some one that is blending into the throngs. Unnoticed only because you escape notice. In cities do people get pick-pocketed from some rogue hiding in a shadowy area trying to reach out and pilfer you pockets? More likely it happens in a crowd in plain sight of a bunch of people even in the middle of the day. It happens when you distracted or are not being observant. It happens in places wear there is not a shadow cast except by the masses of people around. Your not hiding in shadows your hiding in people, so to speak.

The same principle applies to the roads. There are wagon ruts in the middle for a reason perhaps. Are you trying to walk down the middle of the road in shadows or are you looking like a peddler wandering down the road not worth bothering?

I do like the change of clothes ideas mentioned in the other posts. Such a thing would work even in the circumstances mentioned here. A beggars garb a farmers frock etc... Blending in to the general population and not draped head to toe in black silken robes (except maybe in Great Gaunt where a lot of people wear that *chuckling*). Anyway just my thoughts in the matter.

[soulfien]

I like this thread

Okay, here's my tidbit:

When stealthing, consider this... No one should ever hear you when you come out of stealth in my opinion. If you walk to an area and hear things like enchantment then you may wish to consider resting the enchantments off before using stealth.

If you are stealthed and come out of stealth only to have people *jump* at the sudden barrage of noise, think of that for a moment.