| Roco |
I've been reading over the new rules for pathfinder 2.0 and something I was really hoping for was how perception, stealth, and facing (or the lack there of) works in pathfinder.
I've always loved to play rogue but it always struck me as odd that sneaking just could not be done effectively in combat without magical assistance or some extraordinary abilities. The act of trying to stay behind someone's back or out of their sight while they are distracted is seemingly thwarted because pathfinder and DnD rules like to give characters 360 degree vision.
When I read the first line in the book describing the Seek action I was thrilled! Seeking had a cone of sight, I thought facing would be a thing for sure!
But sadly having read the section on Perception and the section on stealth, they basically left these two areas the same. They did give an action to "distract" using the deceive skill so at least you can attempt to run out into non concealed squares before hopping into concealment again. But the issue still stands, once combat starts, even if you started the fight in stealth and they don't know where you are, the moment you try to be a rogue and do rogue things (like sneak up behind and stab a fellow) you're seen just by stepping out of the shadows like they pinged you from radar.
This feels bad both mechanically and narratively. There are means to make stealth in the middle of a fight viable, invisibility being the obvious "supplement" but not everyone has money to spend on magic items or has the magic to make that happen.
Sometimes my rogue wants to be able to run into another room, hide for a bit, wait for a target's back to be turned before he enters again and charges/stabs that same guy that no longer knows his exact whereabouts!
So I propose a way to incorporate facing rules that don't change the current rules set all too much and allow for a basic facing strategies to be implemented without making it busted or belittling other means to be stealthy in a fight like with magic and abilities.
During combat/Encounters, all characters have a 180 degree (or 90 or whatever seems fare) view cone of precise sensing/focus. Any creature or object in this view are treated as the rules currently state for sensing with no changes (so trying to sneak through this view cone without cover, distraction etc would knock you out of it)
Any creature outside this view cone (so to the sides or behind them essentially) gives a character the "sensed" status. You know your enemies are there but your focus is elsewhere at the time being.
All creatures may spend a free action, triggered by another creatures action, to change their facing towards the triggering event. So say a bold face rogue is in your face and trying to circle behind you, you can follow their movements, essentially your "facing" follows them so as to not loose track of a potentially deadly enemy trying to get at your back.
With this sort of set up it essentially allows a cleverly sneaky character to use position, tactics, and stealthy espionage to get behind an enemies back. Because their back is always considered to be "sensed" and not concealed or seen, you can always catch them flat footed, so long as they aren't following you with their facing/precise sense cone of vision, which most will if they know you're there.
This also makes regular characters looking to get an easier hit on an enemy have an easier time if they manage to get behind the enemy without being noticed, or they surround the enemy. Alternatively if you have a good teamwork another player or enemy can call to their ally as a free action to just let them know there's a guy behind him going for the stab (if they see him and aren't behind that person as well)
I know with the way I've described it, the idea isn't perfectly worded and there's plenty of room for exploiting, but I want to hear some thoughts on this idea?
I just have always loathed the stealth/perception interactions and how you can't really employ strategy based on creature's facing.
It seems wrong to me that when I haven't broken stealth but my team has and the fight starts that I can't get a sneak attack on the enemy because they were already had a turn to act before I stepped out of the shadows to shank them.
It's equally frustrating that I can't get behind a group of enemies covering their flanks but not their backsides, and try to stealth and stab so long as I got their focus off of me.
Equally it allows enemies and players to try and hit a "weak" area. Essentially if an enemy ignores the giant sword swinging fighter or barbarian they'll be flat footed to the attack coming from behind.
You could also implement facing dependent abilities, flaws, spells, conditions. There's a lot you can do with it. Of course that does make things a tad more complicated.