So the rulebook explains what happens when your hidden, but not much about how a character can hide. In a recent session one of my PCs wanted to hide during an encounter in a tavern with a lot of furniture. The PC made an attack it’s previous spotlight, and on their next spotlight they wanted to hide behind a turned over table. So I granted them that because it seemed reasonable. But then I noticed under Finesse it says “hide” making me think that players need to make a finesse roll to hide.
I understand that a character would not always have to make a roll to hide, like if no one was looking at them or aware of their presence at all I feel like they could hide pretty easily. However, this PC was in an encounter in which they already attacked an adversary. This makes me feel that maybe they should have to roll sense there are adversaries who might of noticed them trying to duck behind that table.
I get that while behind that table the anyone trying to attack the PC would roll with disadvantage which narratively make sense if an adversary noticed them hide and was still trying to attack kind of blindly, but what about adversaries that may not of even noticed them hiding. It would not make sense for the adversary to even try to attack them because they would not know the PC is there.
However, I think using an actual duality dice roll would then complicate things because now you’d have to deal with succeed with fear and fail with hope. So what I was thinking of doing is having the PC make a finesse reaction roll and making that the difficulty number for adversaries to notice them moving into hiding. Any adversary with a chance of notice them would then have to make an instinct roll against the PCs finesse roll to notice them. If the adversary succeeds they would be able to target the PC with disadvantage, and if they fail they could not even target the PC while it stays hidden because they did not know the PC was there at all.
What do you all think? Am I making this too complicated?
Thanks, for your consideration.
While you’re out of sight from all foes and they don’t know where you are, you gain the Hidden condition. While Hidden , any rolls against you have disadvantage. After an adversary moves to where they would see you, you move into their line of sight, or you make an attack, you are no longer Hidden .
If the target is aware of the PC (which they would be after being attacked by them) then even if they ducked out of sight, they’d still know where they are. The PC can make a Finesse Roll to sneak to another spot, trick the target into thinking they’ve moved to another spot, or otherwise position themselves that an attack would come from an unexpected angle. The Finesse Roll would be required to gain the Hidden condition, outside of any major distractions to the target.
ALL rolls have disadvantage against a Hidden character, so even rolls to find the Hidden PC would be at disadvantage.
As for Adversaries that aren’t even aware of the Hidden PC, their opportunity to notice them comes from failed rolls to hide from them, or as a possible consequence of Rolling with Fear. A Hidden PC might roll a Success with Fear on an Instinct Roll to locate a particular item. The GM decides that while they find the item, the guard they have been successfully eluding (up until this point) is moving towards where they are, from a direction that makes it hard for them to escape without walking into their direct eyeline. If the PC fails to (or tries to an fails to) do something to remain undetected, the guard sees them and they are no longer Hidden. The PC would then have to move to a position where the guard cannot see them, and then make a Finesse Roll to become Hidden again, though the guard remains aware of their presence, if not their specific location. The guard might fire his Crossbow into the shadows in an attempt to hit the intruder, but it would be at Disadvantage, due to the Hidden condition.
Adversaries don’t have Traits like Strength or Instinct. They have a single Roll Modifier, usually applied to weapons, but which can be used for any action, with bonuses from Experiences that can be applied by the GM spending a Fear on the roll. Most of the time, the PCs will be making Action or Reaction Rolls against the Adversaries DC (which can also benefit from their Experiences, when appropriate).