Questions about stealthy stride

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foxbait7733
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Joined:Thu Nov 02, 2017 6:21 pm
Questions about stealthy stride

Post by foxbait7733 » Mon Mar 28, 2022 6:29 pm

Stealthy Stride
Illusion. The adept combines fluid movement with magical effects that dampen
sound and mask his presence, including deepening shadows and using illusion to re-
main unobserved. The adept makes a Stealthy Stride test, the result being the Difficul-
ty Number for any Perception tests made to notice the adept.

This talent does not allow the adept to vanish while being observed—once a
character is aware of the adept’s presence and watching him the talent will not work.
Using Stealthy Stride halves the adept’s Movement Rate and the effect of any abilities
used to increase movement speed.

Skill Use: The non-magical version of this talent does not include the magical ef-
fects, but otherwise works the same way as the talent.
Question #1: The middle paragraph says the talent will not work if a character is aware of the adept's presence and watching the adept. Does this mean the talent will not work in totality (it will fail to even manifest at all) if a single character meets this criteria during activation, or does it mean that stealthy stride still activates but any character(s) watching instantly sees through the talent's illusory, concealing effect for the remainder of its use?

Question 1.a: Does an adept who has successfully used stealthy stride completely unobserved notice when the magical effect is deactivated without their consent? (e.g. Dispel Magic, etc)

Question 1.b: If being observed when attempting to stealthy stride (especially if being observed at all prevents its activation in totality), does the adept notice that stealthy stride fails to activate?

An example:
Bella, a Thief, is standing next to her friend in an alleyway with no one else around. Bella activates her stealthy stride talent with her friend watching, and she proceeds to creep around the corner towards two bouncers guarding the door to some seedy establishment she's trying to sneak into.

1.c: Is Bella benefiting from stealthy stride when she rounds the corner? Is she benefiting from it at all? Would she know if she wasn't? Do the guards contest the talent's use normally? Was her friend able to see her the whole time until line of sight was lost as she moved around the corner?

Question #2: Does being undetected while using stealthy stride require the utilization of cover and concealment (stealthy stride is just smoothing out the wrinkles in this case) or does using stealthy stride (talent) allow an adept to stand in the middle of a well lit, open room and avoid detection when someone walks in, looks directly where the adept is standing, and fails their Awareness test?

ChrisDDickey
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Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: Questions about stealthy stride

Post by ChrisDDickey » Tue Mar 29, 2022 10:01 pm

I interpreted it that like all illusion magic, the results are individual. IE: some can see though the effects and some can't, and that while somebody who can see through the illusion telling somebody about the effect will give the other person a +5 (or more) to their sensing tests, if the people who can see through the illusion are not talking or yelling about it, it does not matter if some see through the illusion.

(1) I would say that the effect does manifest for all who are not in direct line of sight of the person using the Talent. Those within line of sight are just treated as automatically having made their sensing tests.

(1a) The person using the Talent would not know if somebody succeeded on their sensing test to see through the illusion. A dispel magic is a totally different thing, and I am not certain whether you would always notice that or not. Maybe.

(1b) Not usually applicable. If trying to do any magic in a Null Magic Zone, then they would probably notice it was not working. And they might not notice it if their stealthy stride roll was just very, very poor (like a 3) and if everybody is likely to see through it, but they would usually know that the effect activated and was in effect, even without knowing that it was doing a very poor job. But like I said, the SS magic totally failing to activate because the target was observed is not something I do.

In the example, there would be no problem because the bouncers had not observed her activating the effect.

Question #2 is less clear, but my interpretation is that (absent the Impossible Hide Talent - which is a master level Talent) some sort of cover or distraction is required. Read the Impossible Hide Talent in the Companion, and that will better let you understand the limits of SS alone.

In my opinion the GM should say when a proposed line of movement would be impossible to SS in. Something like "there is no cover you can use there, your Stealthy Stride will not do any good unless at least one of the guards is somehow distracted". Note that people posting guards would tend to favor well lit spaces with no cover or likely distractions, but that has to be a fairly major design element of their post. Any "seedy establishment" with "bouncers" probably has plenty of both cover and distractions. All of this however is just my opinion, and was developed from reading the Impossible Hide talent, not from the text of the Stealthy Stride Talent.

Panda
Posts:172
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 5:30 am

Re: Questions about stealthy stride

Post by Panda » Sat Apr 02, 2022 8:46 pm

Greetings,

1) The latter; it doesn't allow the character to vanish, which is the function of a later, much higher Circle talent.

1a) Yes, they know if it's been dispelled because their magic is no longer working.

1b) If Stealthy Stride is used while someone is watching them, it doesn't "fail to activate," — this is not what the talent says.

1c) If a character is using Stealthy Stride and leaves sight, anyone looking for them must find them again, making an appropriate test if they didn't find them through a test in the first place. They should likely gain a bonus since they know exactly what they're looking for, just not where.

2) Anyone searching for them should get a large bonus if it's allowed at all. As noted above, this is specifically the purview of a high Circle talent. While Stealthy Stride is magic, it's not impossible magic and the skill is pretty similar. Would you let the skill function in this fashion?

foxbait7733
Posts:5
Joined:Thu Nov 02, 2017 6:21 pm

Re: Questions about stealthy stride

Post by foxbait7733 » Sun Apr 03, 2022 5:06 am

Thank you both for the excellent clarifications.

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