How exactly does stealth work in this game?

[e11]

I had Woljif enter sneaking mode and sent him towards some Abrikandilu to see what would happen. They immediately became aware of him, and cast an AOE spell.

Do they actually have to have their backs turned or something?

[seeker1]

So, there's this skill called Perception, and the enemy haz it too, and they get a chance to detect you. If they do ... BTW, from my experience, it doesn't seem to matter which way they are facing nor the environment (lighting etc.). And, also less fun, if you're sneaking up on 5 mobs, they all 5 get to roll Perception checks. In short ... you get detected a lot.

Also separately annoying: most miniboss encounters where there is dialogue and triggers etc. usually blow away stealth.

[Uzkin]

Also, if you enter their melee range they WILL detect you no matter how high your stealth. It's not like in Baldur's Gate 1/2 where you could stealth and go backstab enemies.

[e11]

Originally posted by Uzkin:

Also, if you enter their melee range they WILL detect you no matter how high your stealth. It's not like in Baldur's Gate 1/2 where you could stealth and go backstab enemies.

I see. So sneak attacks are purely for straight combat?

What is the stealth skill mostly for, then? Smuggling a rogue character or two around a difficult encounter doesn't help the rest of the party any.

[Immortal Reaver]

Stealth helps evade random encounters.
Also you can get to melee range and get Sneak attack from it. I did it once for mage before last boss fight in act 2.

[Igg12]

It should be Wojlif d20+stealth roll vs enemies d20+perception, in pnp your make a roll every time you move, in Wotr its quite possible the roll is done every six seconds(round).
Investment in stealth is good for spell casters that use invisibility spells and classes that use abilities like camouflage and hide in plain sight, tricksters are also good. Hiding in combat is a move action so it has a synergy with Vital Strike chain of feats.

[Breca]

Stealth can be useful pre-battle to initiate a surprise turn. Don't expect to sneak up on enemies and backstab them, however awesome that would be. Your stealth is generally good enough to get off a ranged attack, and give you an automatic surprise round.

[gmwaddington]

Stealth is also useful for disarming traps.

[e11]

Originally posted by gmwaddington:

Stealth is also useful for disarming traps.

How so?

[gmwaddington]

Originally posted by e11:

Originally posted by gmwaddington:

Stealth is also useful for disarming traps.

How so?

You can sneak forward into a corridor with enemies, and disarm a trap without them seeing you.

[MjKorz]

Originally posted by Breca:

Don't expect to sneak up on enemies and backstab them

Why not?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2790401687

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2790402475

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2790396106

Treat these screenshots as proof of concept, I haven't actually done a full 0-100% unfair Executioner run. From my understanding and experience, there is nothing preventing you from assassinating most of the bosses in the game on unfair difficulty, killing them instantly before the combat even starts.

I only know that Areelu has a scripted autodetection ability that cannot be bypassed. Perception checks even on unfair difficulty can be beaten by pumping your stealth skill and using the triple invisibility layer (+60 to stealth).

Originally posted by Uzkin:

Also, if you enter their melee range they WILL detect you no matter how high your stealth

Wrong. Only instance I know where this actually occurs is Areelu. For other instances, even when enemies including bosses have True Sight, they still need to pass perception checks.

[seeker1]

I don't play on Unfair, but I managed to execute a few enemies with Assassinate. (The Slayer-Executioner ability you get at 10th level ... ) Some moderately impressive ones.

Never got a miniboss. I sorta figured they might be plot armored against it, anyway.

[mbradtke]

sorry for necro, but i also thought that enemies would auto-detect you if you get into close melee range, like when you see invisible enemies when you are right next to them, but they are still invisible, you just see them, i dont think there is a perception roll involved, so i thought it would be the same for enemies, they just see you and unstealth you, would someone enlighten me? (:

[Chronocide]

Originally posted by mbradtke:

sorry for necro, but i also thought that enemies would auto-detect you if you get into close melee range, like when you see invisible enemies when you are right next to them, but they are still invisible, you just see them, i dont think there is a perception roll involved, so i thought it would be the same for enemies, they just see you and unstealth you, would someone enlighten me? (:

Depends if the game is borrowing the Pen & paper rules or not. Assuming they are:

Creatures have no facing, at least as far as the stealth rules are concerned. in the Pen and paper, you can use a bluff check to distract their attention.

If you are observed, you can't stealth. Invisibility means you aren't observed (because they can't see you).

You can't hide without something to hide behind (aka concealment or cover). The stealth skill essentially allows you to maneuver from one hiding place to another.

Stealth auto ends if you end your turn outside of cover/concealment.

Stealth also ends when you make an attack roll (even if you miss).

Stealth can't be used with charge or while running (unclear what counts as running in this game).

If you move, you take a -5 penalty to stealth.

If you move faster than half speed, it's a -10 to stealth.

Invisibility gives +40 to stealth while stationary, but only +20 to stealth while moving.

[Chronocide]

The barbarian "scent" ability is also simplified in this game to function as blindsense. Not sure if this means it applies the same way to monsters with the scent ability.