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🕵️‍♂️ HIDING, UNSEEN ATTACKER, STEALTH 🕵️‍♂️
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Why use stealth in combat?
If you are considered an unseen attacker against a target you get advantage on attacks. In addition, attacks against you are at disadvantage.

What is unseen attacker?
An unseen attacker is an enemy that is not clearly seen and gets advantage on attacks as long as they are unseen, but to get advantage you also need to be able to see your target. As soon as you attack the enemy knows your location and are now seen.

How do I become unseen after being seen?

To become unseen in light obscurement, you need to take a hide action and in general the enemy can't be looking at you. You are in clear sight if you're in light obscurement and the enemy is looking at you.

You can get into heavy obscurement to become unseen. Keep in mind generally if you're heavily obscured, so is the enemy.

You can gain the invisibility condition to become unseen.

Some features of classes or race allow you to take a hide action to be unseen or confer it. For example, you can choose a wood elf and make use of the mask of the wild feature to use the hide action while in light obscurement regardless if an enemy is looking at you.

Anytime you are unseen you can take an action to hide.

What counts as light obscurement?

Things like dim light, patchy fog, or moderate foliage. Moderate foliage could include a small patch of bush.

What counts as heavy obscurement?
darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage. An example of dense and moderate foliage would be a group of bushes in a 30 by 30 area. The first 10 feet into the area could be considered moderate foliage and dense after.

Obscurement also matters from the perspective of the creature that is looking. If the creature has the blinded condition, everything is obscured. If a creature, creature 1, is looking at a wall a creature, creature2, on the other side would be obscured to it. If there was another creature, creature 3, on the other side of the wall creature 2 and 3 would not be obscured to each other.
This also means that you can be unseen to SOME creatures in a combat and seen by others.

If I'm hidden how do I get spotted?

To become hidden, you typically take the hide action. You'll roll a dice and determine your stealth for the scene. Your stealth roll is checked against the NPC or PC passive perception. If you rolled a 16 on stealth and the NPC has a passive perception of 14 you're hidden from them. Keep in mind you need to stay unseen and unheard to maintain stealth.

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