Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Mega-threads and Guides Stealth & Ambush Game Mechanics Megathread

I find the idea compelling but one thing that I can't wrap my head around is how the rolls are triggered. Let's say I want to shank someone, so I approach him with stealth. As I close down I will be triggering stealth checks making 3 in total.
How are this checks made? Am I rolling or using a passive stealth check?
Let's say this are the difficulties:
• Far range: Enemy passive perception -5
• Mid Range: Normal passive perception
• Kiss on the neck™ range: Passive perception +5

- If my stealth rolls are separate it's a huge disadvantage because the probability of getting a bad roll increases.
- If you make a unique roll and use it for all the different ranges two possibilities appear:
1) You get the number on your log, you con exploit this system by examining your enemy and checking if your roll works for all the ranges, if not, you go back and try again until you get a desired roll (or use resources to have a better stealth check), as the first ring is the easiest one, it's simple to accomplish so it gives you the chance try and see your rolls before hand.
2) If the roll is hidden is a bit more fun, if the result is bad you can always reload and try again. But I would say that it works properly as a deterrent though and has a gamble component like, how confident are you on that hidden roll?
- If we use passive stealth, it's similar to things said before, you can examine the enemy and make assumptions on that. This number can only be changed with resources, so "Blessing of the Trickster" as it gives advantage would be +5, Pass without Trace it's a +10, so you use them up and it's just maths there, no randomness.

Now, on those basis I think the most compelling one is the "Hidden roll one" because it's the one with the least exploits, but I feel that is a bit convoluted and it's pretty much the same as having the one circle.

I think in that regard we enter in a bracket of Realism vs Gameplay
Usually when playing a stealth based game you start with a simple mechanic and the game adds complexity in steps like, for example, "Styx" game:
-You first learn about the difference in sound between run and sneaky walk.
-Then you learn about hiding under a table, in wardrobe, behind a wall, etc.
-Then how to approach and remove light sources.
-Then kills.
-Then muffled kills.
-Distrations thowing breakable objects.
-Difference in noise produced between walking in soft surfaces, hard ones, and others with debris and stuff.

And so on, and so on.
They build on top of the system and instruct the user as he plays. But that's their gimmick, their whole thing. In BG3 stealth is more like a side option to approach combat, so adding too much complexity probably lacks purpose.


I'm more in line with making decisions based on gameplay purposes than realism.

So, why would I make an armored character have trouble shanking an enemy in melee range?

In DnD melee characters are the ones with the most options to enhance their attacks, example:
-A lvl 8 character, 3 lvls in rogue Assassin + 5 in Paladin could (and I quote a reddit post):
"Any hit on a surprised creature is a crit (because Assassin subclass). So using second level divine smite, on a single round (with advantage) against a surprised enemy, I could be doing 2d8+mods (from the crit on the rapier attack), plus 6d8 (second level divine smite on the crit) plus 4d6 (from critting on sneak attack) and then another 2d8+mods from the second rapier attack crit (and maybe even another 6d8 if I expend another second level divine smite for my second attack in the round)."
On top of that in BG3 you can coat your weapon with poison so the one shot potential is crazy.

Now, it's a Rogue too, and I think he should be able to sneak up on people, but let's make him spent some resources:
-Paladin's heavy amor? Gone. He should continue the fight with less AC at least (though with high dex he could just be using light armor).
-Getting to a main baddie in this approach should be almost impossible unless you have a crazy amount of resources spent on it (Blessing of the Trickster, Pass without Trace, Invisibility), on top of using the smites and poisons.
It should be hard to get him because there should be guards making sure no-one gets inside, standing guard, patrolling; so multiple rolls required.
-He gets separated from the rest of the party. You've might have killed the BBEG guy but now you are far from your party surrounded by enemies and you might not have the AC nor hp to survive.

This is all based on that you gank the most important NPC, if you just do it on a lowly guard, combat triggers and that's it, you don't earn a lot of advantage.

A problem is that this doesn't affect range character:
For them the solution is as real life, have walls protecting important people. I feel like in chapter 1 we had a lot of advantages because many enemies can be neutral or friendly towards us, like Nere or the Goblins at some points. So we got to walk wherever we wanted. This might change in the following chapters. Also, we've had a lot of open spaces to exploit.


On top off all that, I think a good design logic is repetition, the player learns mechanics by applying them over and over again, if stealth is an alternative approach it shouldn't have too much variation, nor complexity as the game progresses. It might sound boring but BG3 have many other things that consume our attention like character/party builds, story paths, RP choices, inventory management, etc.