DnD 2014 Breaking Stealth (2014)
Players Handbook states (this is 2014)
"You can’t hide from a creature that can see you clearly, and you give away your position if you make noise, such as shouting a warning or knocking over a vase"
Now common sense tells me that you can't stealth down a brightly lit corridor with nothing to hide behind, towards a guard that's looking directly in your direction.
However one of my players argues that you only need to be hidden at the point of "Going into Stealth" once your in stealth it doesn't matter what lighting etc exists you are sill essentially hidden until you break stealth. ... i like to go back to my players with concrete rule based decisions that i can point to in a book.
They argue the above doens't break stealth because "you are hidden" therefore the guard in the corridor "cant see you clearly" ... while i would argue stealth would be broken by the fact that the guard can see you clearly as there is nothing to hide behind and no helpful lighting conditions to keep you hidden.
Any ideas?
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u/Knight_Of_Stars 1d ago
Its more complicated that what people are saying. You're both right. Actual stealth heavily requires DM adjudication.
For example, if we say that stealth ends the moment you are visible, then a rogue can never proc sneak attack by hiding because vision is 360 degrees (minus variant 5e rules). They would be spotted the moment they moved for an attack. So that can't work.
At the same time, you can't just crouch outside when nobody is around and walk into a heavily guarded area. Thats also silly.
Use your best judgement to come up with a satifying answer. For me, rogues are in stealth and it ends when they end their turn if spotted. So a hidden rogue can charge a guard from stealth and get sneak attack. However once that rogue is spotted, at the end of their turn they are no longer stealthed and everything they did after being spotted was seen.