My suggestion is for 2 hearing rings. 1 is 2.5 meters radius around the target. The second is between 2.5 and 5 meters. And that is with Wisdom 10. Wisdom 15 would be 15 feet radius or roughly what... 4.5 meters, and the second ring would be roughly 4.5 to 9. The idea is that players would have to make 2 checks, 1 for each ring, to try to sneak up on someone.
Also, remove the ability for players to see sight cones and hearing rings. Then you have no idea if you are in a ring or cone or not. It's hard to exploit the system if you can't see the cones and rings.
But I'd actually be totally happy if they just removed our ability to see the cones.
Not a fan of making detection ranged invisible, unless they would be made more intuitive. As it is vision range can reach very far, and I think being able to determine whom you get spotted by is valuable.
I am also not fan of multiple hearing rings - it's just becomes too much. You could make it larger/smaller depending on enemies Wisdom modifier, but I think just difficulty of the steaking check is what should be changing.
My only issue (with the game as we have now - things make be different once we gain more levels and more proficiency in skills) is that at the moment I don't feel there is really a benefit to investing in stealth - there isn't a clear benefit from it. Avoiding vision cones is a way to go, and as such stealthing through is player skill based, not character skill based.
I would like for hearing coned to exist, not necessarily to block low stealth characters to not be able to sneak by enemy mobs, but to make certain actions more restricted to high stealth characters - like sneaking right up to enemies, pickpocketing them, or even: doing a guaranteed push. If for example making a stealth push was harder for non-dex, stealth experts I think it would erase a lot of OPness that comes with it - characters who would likely be able to utilize it regularly, wouldn't push very far, and those who can to push far, might need to outside assistance - like invisibility potions.
- Fun fact about stealth: Pillars of eternity (1, 2 or both? not sure, its been ages) had vision cones and hearing rings.
PoE1 had just detection radius, PoE2 added vision cone, making it far harder to sneak within enemies vision range. It worked really well, but also differently - D&D rolls make the system strictly binary, while PoEs used meter filling - so higher stealth would determine how long one can stay within enemies detection range, rather then if they can stay within that detection range.
