I've been watching some live D&D games on the net. I have noticed that many of the players seem to think that saying, "I stealth." means they disappear from sight, no matter where they are or what is around them. I can understand this as 99.9% of video games handle stealth in such a manner.

I have played Thief and Deusix, though have not gotten far in either. These 2 games are built around stealth. REAL stealth, where one uses shadows, timing, and slow movements trying to keep objects between you and your quarry.

I have seen far too often in these live D&D games, video game players thinking "stealth" means "disappear from sight." They say this out in the open, ignoring shadows and lighting. They say this with nothing obscuring themselves from their quarry.

Have video games pretty much killed this entertaining skill? I think they have and would like them to rework their thoughts on it

Play games like Splinter Cell Blacklist, Metal Gear Solid V: GZ and/or TPP and other Tom Clancy games and your faith in the stealth genre will be restored .

I've been intrigued by Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid. I may look into these a bit more. It's still a very small list

D&D stealth you can trait for hiding in plain sight among other things. At least in 3.5(I play Pathfinder).


Our rogue ended up with a friggin 65 stealth score....


Need a perception of Stupid or blindsense to see that. Unsure if True Sight sees it(think that's only magic, or is that Arcane Sight? Been awhile, don't often play spellcasters).


Tremorsense will find you if you move.


My last spellcaster was a sorceress. Cast invisibility or winds of vengeance on myself, fly 60 ft up(draconic bloodline, wings) Time Stop. Delayed blast fireball, quickened delayed blast fireball every round I had of Time Stop, all set to trigger the round Time Stop ends.


1200 fire damage in one round AoE.


Lol.

I've been playing a lot of Far Cry 3 recently. I am certain this is the case for other Far Fry games too, but they use stealth very effectively. They also use stealth mixed with diversion tactics. For instance, I hid in a bush on a hill overlooking an enemy encampment. I used a sniper rifle to try to take out the enemies there and they started firing in my general direction without actually knowing exactly where I was. Some came up the hill to search for me. They eventually found me and it all got a bit messy. I restarted and tried again. I used a sniper rifle to shoot the lock off of a cage that was housing an angry bear. While the bear was running around, I used several well-placed shots to take out the people who were shooting the bear the most (one guy in an elevated position who was able to fire continuously without danger of the bear got his head blown off, another who was shooting the bear while the bear was pre-occupied in eating his friend got his shot off as well). In the end they killed the bear, but now there were only two men left. I put away my rifle and snuck up behind them, making sure to kill them in specific order so the other wouldn't see me killing the first one silently with my machete.


This is quite a common occurrence in Far Cry (3, probably all of them). If you enjoy stealth games and haven't tried these out, give them a go. They do a fairly good job of it.

I dunno, I've used stealth where it's definitely optional, such as TES and Fallout, and generally prefer that approach to going in all-guns-blazing, and recall one of my most fraught times was trying to steal some documents in Stalker without getting caught (I succeeded, though it was difficult); Bioshock's Burial At Sea II was also really good fun to play stealthily too. In all cases I used actual stealth rather than invisibility, though I think it was only BaS where I could successfully lead NPCs is some random direction where I wasn't.

Ah that would be nice. Seems in Fallout 4, you fire one shot from the shadows, every raider within a mile snaps around and fires dead on at your position.

Plenty of good stealth games out there

Alien: Isolation

Outlast

Soma

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Styx: Master of Shadows - with a sequel on the way

The Dark Mod

Plus all those games like Dishonored, TES, Fallout, Stalker etc where stealth is an option.


I seem to spend most of my gaming creeping around in the shadows.

Good selection. There's also Mark of the Ninja, Gunpoint and Invisible Inc.

And stealth is pretty much essential on the higher difficulties in the Metro series. Especially if you want the best ending.

What I would love to see in a game where Stealth is an option is the two different "type" of stealth techniques used: Tactical Stealth and Social Stealth.

Think of a game that was a cross between Thief and Hitman/Assassin's Creed. You could stick to the shadows, peek around corners, keep out of the line of sight of enemies. Then change the dynamic as needed by dawning an outfit that allowed you access and walking among the enemy like a wolf in sheep's hide.

Games that want to have stealth as a focal point or a option should give you options for entry like in Dishonored or Deusix. You should be able to rely on shadows to and lighting to be your friend. I think AI has also been dumbed down in Stealth too. If you alert enemies they will look for you for an intense 20 seconds to only sheath their swords and curse the wind even though THEY FREAKING SAW YOU! They should stay on high alert for a more realistic amount of time. If the game has a day night cycle then at least for a 12 hour period and swords/guns should be ready to go.

Of all the things to main stream, stealth was the worst choice. Stealth is not supposed to be easy. It's supposed to be the path that only a few can walk.

I think it all depends on the group & the DM (well, and the game rules). If the DM lets them do that, then they will. Meanwhile, the 5th ed D&D game I'm playing a rogue in, actually getting "stealth" is kind of hard - but that's an issue between me and the DM. (And while looking up how 5th ed handles stealth, I saw discussions of people whose groups tried to abuse the heck out of rules like "halflings can hide behind a human sized character" to keep "hiding" behind their party's fighter, in the middle of a combat. Hah.)

On the other hand, 5th ed also made stealth less combat-required for rogues, since they can get their "sneak attack" damage in other ways (actual stealth gets you "advantage" on your attack roll as well as sneak attack damage; but you can also get the bonus damage if you're tag-teaming an enemy, or if you're an Arcane Trickster rogue using the Mage Hand spell as a distraction)

edit: honestly, though, what people can get away with has always depended greatly on your DM's attitudes. I played Shadowrun with a guy who apparently thought that throwing things was incredibly difficult - just trying to side-arm a grenade out the drivers-side window of a van took a roll with a huge penalty, and then he claimed we couldn't get the grenade more than 5-10' away.

Stealth in videogames are usually hard to balance. Where do you draw the line of balance vs overpowered vs realistic vs fun / not fun. Glad I am not the one to have that job, since, almost all people have their opinion on what can be done and what can't be done.

As for p&p roleplaying games and stealth, mostly comes down to the group playing, in all sort of aspects. DM, the game itself (does it support stealth well?), expectations, seriousness contra loose fun, I am reluctant to put age in there, but it can play a role in realistic expectations vs younger folks who might (not saying all!!) be more frivolous about it etc. etc.

Have videogames killed it? I don't think so. Think it is more a case by case scenario.

Some of them.


But underrail for example has the best stealth in any isometric RPG I've ever played, and it's an optional aspect and skill of the game. And the game only came out a few months ago.


So I wouldn't say the skill is dead. Many games do it bad, but some do it great