Should deafness affect stealth?

[Del_Taco_Eater]

I really just curious on what others think, makes sense to me that a deaf character would take a stealth penalty.

My thinking is that if you can't hear what does and doesn't work, make necessary corrections, etc. its harder to move quietly.

Is the floorboard you keep stepping on super squeaky?

[Ms. Pleiades]

Realistically? Yes it should, for the reasons you outlined.

Within the actual game mechanics? No, for the same reason why the feat Weapon Specialization (Longsword) doesn't allow your character to fly by spinning their weapon over their head really fast like a helicopter: the rules don't say the feat let's you do that. Rules/feats/class features have the impact they list, beyond which would be house rules and GM fiat.

[Queen Moragan]

I'm deaf, and I'm constantly amazed at how normal people are so easy to sneak up on.

Deaf people pay usually pay more attention to their environment because they are deaf, so they use their eyes more.

[Klara Meison]

You don't really need your ears to move silently. If you have made a sound, you have done something wrong. If you do everything correctly, hearing will be useless to you. As will your eyes, actually, to an extent-walking silently has more to do with feeling the ground with your feet, a keen sense of balance and your orientation in space than with any other senses.

[zainale]

yes. stealth is hard. one misstep can mess everything up. you need all your senses. if your missing one your using another sense to cover for the missing sense. if your looking at your feet or scanning your path for obstructions your not watching the target. if your not watching your target then they might notice you. and you might be walking into a trap. one stray pebble, dry leaf, brittle twig or loose stone can get in your way. even if your looking at your route to your target your listening to them to keep tabs on them. being deaf would be a major hindrance to a person trying to be stealthy in many situations .(rubble strewn tunnels, a leaf covers forest path with twigs hidden under them). being deaf will be a hindrance to stealth.

but that's not to say it is impossible to over come. there's just a negative or two to your roll.
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there is the drawback trait "hard of hearing" and "deaf"

Hard of Hearing

You have lost part of your hearing, making it difficult for you to be aware of all sounds surrounding you. You also have a problem being stealthy.

Detriment: You take a –2 penalty on sound-based Perception checks and Stealth checks.

Deaf

You can’t hear at all.

Prerequisite: You must have the Hard of Hearing drawback to select this drawback.

Detriment: You cannot learn the Linguistics skill. In addition, you have a 20% chance of spell failure when casting a spell with a verbal component.

but these things are third party so take that with a grain of salt.

here is the condition deafened

Deafened

A deafened character cannot hear. He takes a –4 penalty on initiative checks, automatically fails Perception checks based on sound, takes a –4 penalty on opposed Perception checks, and has a 20% chance of spell failure when casting spells with verbal components. Characters who remain deafened for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them.

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i can't really say anything about stealth and deafness if the person was born deaf.

[Daw]

Interesting that deafness precludes the linguistics skill, which also covers written language and lipreading.

Edit/Add. Linguistics also covers sign language. The deaf are so done dirty in Pathfinder.

As to Queen Moragan on how she is always sneaking up on people. A friend always did that too, because she always forgot to make those little noises we tend to make to announce our presence. She was actually very aware of lighting changes and other stuff to recognize that she wasn't alone. Her foot-sense was pretty decent too.

[Klara Meison]

>a leaf covers forest path with twigs hidden under them

If you hear those twigs snapping, you have already failed at stealthing. Before they snap, you won't hear anything. Why would you need hearing?

[Blake's Tiger]

Klara Meison wrote:

>a leaf covers forest path with twigs hidden under them

If you hear those twigs snapping, you have already failed at stealthing. Before they snap, you won't hear anything. Why would you need hearing?

+1

And to add to the choir... No, because the rules don't say you do.

[Mark Carlson 255]

IMHO, if there is some feedback you receive from a failed stealth roll then as a completely deaf person you would know about it but if there was no feedback how would a deaf person know they failed a stealth roll?
So I think I as the GM would roll stealth for the deaf PC (if I did not do so already in my game as GM's do) and then tell the player if they missed the check by a lot, ie a large failure = more feedback to the deaf PC.

Beyond the Rules:
The other thing I have a little trouble with is IMHO you do depend on the sounds you make while moving to help you move stealthily. So how would you train effectively in stealth if you could not hear? I would have the PC spend extra time to acquire the same amount of skill as a non-hearing impaired person. But then again I would provide a bonus to sighted/touch perception for a deaf person also.

MDC

[zainale]

Klara Meison wrote:

>a leaf covers forest path with twigs hidden under them

If you hear those twigs snapping, you have already failed at stealthing. Before they snap, you won't hear anything. Why would you need hearing?

so you can hide of course your being stealth you should be prepared to hide when you mess up. if your deaf you won't hear the twig crack so you cant duck behind something ..... unless your not wearing shoes then you might be able to roll to feel the twig breaking.