I was thinking more of using stealth to sneak past an encounter alltogether. In that case, there’s no getting around the fact the paladin can’t stealth well.
In that case the Paladin can take off or swap their armor to one doesn't provide Disadvantage on stealth checks. Risk of getting caught with worse armor for the benefit of skipping the encounter. Idk, I think it's perfectly fine that noisy heavily-armored characters are bad at stealth and can get the whole party noticed. This is a also case where you can make use of consumables/party abilities---Invisibility, Guidance, Bardic Inspiration, etc---to buff the Paladin's stealth and improving your chances; something that should be encouraged in a party-based game.
Part of the reason stealth is hard to get right is that it has to work in and out of combat. For example, it would seem like making Hide a full action wouldn’t matter oustide of combat. However, it matters in turn-based mode. If the party goes turn-based then group hides, no-one save for the rogue has an action left that turn. You’re stuck with passing the turn and hoping you don’t get found. Wouldn’t it be awkward if Turn Based Mode then Group Hide were significantly different from Group Hide then Turn Based Mode?
Why not hide first and then enter turn based mode? If you're already in stealth, then you should still have actions available to you, no? Or does BG3 still consider you to have used your action if you enter TB mode within 6 seconds of clicking "hide"?
I agree that ideally stealth should work for both real-time and TB modes. Though, if I had to choose, I'd prefer it works for TB mode and the game defaults to forcing you into TB mode whenever you're noticed from stealth. I also agree that I don't trust Larian to fix the mechanics without introducing other significant issues..
