Kaies's page

Hi, to preface this I am a new DM and also new to the Starfinder rules. We are running Against the Aeon Throne, so possible minor spoilers for anyone who's not played it yet.

Recently a situation has cropped up in my game where we've been learning the stealth rules and it doesn't quite make a lot of sense. From what we can gather, if the enemy is unaware of you, you will either get a +40 bonus to your stealth roll, or a +20 if you've moved recently.

In our specific scenario my PC's have set up an ambush at a graveyard, waiting for a patrol to pass by and attack them. There's an iron wrought fence around the graveyard which according to the AP provides cover and also a +4 circumstance bonus to stealth checks if you hide behind it.

Opposite the graveyard across the path is the jungle forest, which is said to provide partial cover, I've also said it would provide +2 circumstance bonus to stealth checks too. Now going by the rules, they should get the +40 bonus because they have time to set this ambush up, plus they can also take 20 on the stealth roll. So this is a +60 before they even add modifiers.

This seems absurd, going by rules an ambush is always going to guarantee you a surprise round on every monster, regardless of their perception modifier. It will also be incredibly deadly against players if there's ever an ambush set up for them. This may be intended, but it sill feels iffy...

My questions are:

Is the bonus supposed to apply out of combat or only in combat?
Is it only supposed to apply to invisibility, was it a mistake when they said it applied to unawareness?
Why even give the fence a circumstance bonus to stealth if it wouldn't matter?
How would you rule the situation?
Am I the only one who feels this is really unusual?