greetings everybody!
how do you handle the two skill pairs hide/move silently and spot/listen?
are you always making two opposed skill checks when the upsneaking pc could be seen AND heard by his victim? i think this would be the most realistic method but this would involve a lot of dice-rolling...
are there people who just unite the pairs to one single skill each (a move silently/hide skill opposed by a spot/listen skill)?
If a PC is sneaking, I require the pair of rolls - mostly so the player doesn't know the circumstances. Sure, they make think they can't be seen at all - but requiring the Hide check puts that tiny piece of doubt in their minds.
Now, I agree - this can result in an awful lot of die rolls if you make one roll of each for each move action. I generally simplify that by just letting the player roll once and having it cover a large chunk of movement. Not the rules, but it makes things easier and go faster - both of which are good things in my opinion.
so you let the pc and the npc each roll once and then you compare the two rolls with the applying modifier for sound and then for vision? a good method indeed! this is how i'll handle this!
i'm preparing my first d&d session for 13 years and my first v3.5 session ever so i keep on asking here on the boards for everything i don't understand. i must say that the www really really rocks when it comes to roleplaying. back in the early nineties there was no internet so we had nobody to ask questions. now you just post a question and get an answer in the same hour. simply great!
This doesn't come up often in my games. Most of my players either play fighters, spell casters or clerics. But when it has come up I use the one roll method. I use the same roll on both stats. It saves time and I think is more accurate. If you can't move silently then the enemy will hear and spot you and if you can't hide then the enemy will spot and hear you. So I figure that if one fails, they both fail. Oh and good luck on your game dsan.
A bit from my Hoarde
This doesn't come up often in my games. Most of my players either play fighters, spell casters or clerics. But when it has come up I use the one roll method. I use the same roll on both stats. It saves time and I think is more accurate. If you can't move silently then the enemy will hear and spot you and if you can't hide then the enemy will spot and hear you. So I figure that if one fails, they both fail. Oh and good luck on your game dsan.
I have my players all roll 10d20 at the beginning of the session. I write these down and note thier Spot, Listen, etc... modifiers as well. When there is an occassion where one my need these skills, I use the prerolled numbers. The advantage I found is that I can tell the players what their PCs do / don't see (for instance) without having to ask for a roll in-game. They seem to like this, too, as it cuts down on the meta-thinking. "I failed my Spot check! There must me SOMETHING here!"
Anyway, when it comes to stalking, I combine the modifiers for both hide and move silvently. I apply both to one roll. The target also combines their listen / spot modifiers and applies them to one roll. It keeps the rolling to a minimum, and also simulates the fact that, while stalking, both skills are interdependent.
so you let the pc and the npc each roll once and then you compare the two rolls with the applying modifier for sound and then for vision? a good method indeed! this is how i'll handle this!
To clarify: each makes two rolls of the d20 -- Hide/Move Silently for the one attempting stealth, Spot/Listen for the one who could potentially see or hear something.
And that's only most of the time. Sometimes I'll make them do it twice, especially if it's a really long distance or there's some other reason to think it should happen more than once.
But generally, it's two dice per side, in the name of speed.
This doesn't come up often in my games. Most of my players either play fighters, spell casters or clerics. But when it has come up I use the one roll method. I use the same roll on both stats. It saves time and I think is more accurate. If you can't move silently then the enemy will hear and spot you and if you can't hide then the enemy will spot and hear you. So I figure that if one fails, they both fail. Oh and good luck on your game dsan.I have my players all roll 10d20 at the beginning of the session. I write these down and note thier Spot, Listen, etc... modifiers as well. When there is an occassion where one my need these skills, I use the prerolled numbers. The advantage I found is that I can tell the players what their PCs do / don't see (for instance) without having to ask for a roll in-game. They seem to like this, too, as it cuts down on the meta-thinking. "I failed my Spot check! There must me SOMETHING here!"
Ditto. I have lamitaned 3"x5" cards you can download from the RPGA site for initiative order that has all of the PC's pertinent info on it. I have each player roll 10d20 and write the results on the back of the cards with erasable pens (they don't know who's card they are rolling for so it prevents a little bit of metagaming). You can use these rolls secretly for a ton of stuff besides Spot and Listen. Just depends on the level of secrecy required when suddenly having a player roll a die might tip them off that something is up.
I usually don't bother with the MOVE SILENTLY roll unless there's a reason (like an old squeaky floor or dead branches) and the player is trying to get past some guards without sounding the alarm.
The Hide roll is usually used to hide before an enemy enters the room or area where the player is. If the enemy does not "spot" the hiding player, than he is unaware of him and , thus, suseptible for a sneak attack since he will be flat-footed on the first round, nomatter how much noise you make or bright your cothes are.
Ultradan
roll two differently colored d20.s in one fell swoop stating "the purple one is Hide".
Not a heck of a lot of die rolling....