Can you sneak up on an Ancient Green Dragon?
As we anticipate the release of the 2025 Monster Manual, I thought I'd do a review of the rather surprising ways that sneaking around and hiding works in D&D now.
In the 2014 rules, you could take an action to Hide (Rogues of course can do this as a bonus action starting at level 2). You'd have to find some kind of concealment, either via cover or being heavily obscured (or only lightly obscured for Wood Elves if that obscurement is natural like rain or tree branches) and then roll a Dexterity (Stealth) check (or "Stealth Check" as I usually say it). In order to be successfully hidden from another creature, you'd need to exceed (and here I think you did actually have to get over it, rather than the way DCs work) their passive Perception. This could be aided by being in dim light or darkness, as this would give them disadvantage on Perception checks (which translates to a -5 to their passive).
Then, once hidden, the creature would need to make a Perception check (actively, as an action) to find you (this is likely why so many dragons have "make a perception check" as a legendary action,) though attacking or doing anything showy like casting a spell would also reveal you.
The rules in 2024 are... actually very different.
For one thing, there is no "hidden" condition. But let's get to that.
The first, rather shocking, thing is that a Hide check has a set DC - and it's only 15, which for even a 1st level Rogue with expertise in Stealth might have an over-50% chance of succeeding at. At higher levels, those with Stealth Expertise will likely reach a point where they simply cannot fail this check. For Rogues, actually, with only a +5 to this, once they hit level 7, they simply cannot fail as long as they're proficient with Stealth (and rare is the Rogue that isn't).
There's an upside to this, which is that the DM need not play coy about how perceptive their monsters are - a 15 means a success. The downside, of course, is that it is just as easy to hide from a Gelatinous Cube as it is to hide from an All-Seeing Angel (not a real stat block, but something that might have, like, a 34 passive Perception).
Or is it?
So, here's the next change:
There's no "hidden" condition, so Hiding now, instead, confers the "Invisible" condition. That is the same Invisible condition that is prevented by things like Faerie Fire. Ok, you know, fair enough, if you're basically wrapped in Christmas lights like Barry Wheeler from Alan Wake, even if you're hiding in a cupboard, they're going to see the lights shining around the cupboard door.
But where I think this becomes kind of interesting is how it interacts with Truesight.
Truesight, as I've always interpreted, is a way to kind of see past illusions and magical falsehoods. If someone is using a magical disguise like through Disguise Self, you'd just clock them as their true form. But I'd always imagined that, in the absence of any illusions, someone with Truesight would just see the world the way anyone else did (barring some massive, "mortals can't see reality as it truly is" thing).
But let's hop over to the Truesight definition. Among other things, you can simply see creatures and objects with the Invisible condition.
So... can you just not sneak up on someone with Truesight? It would seem you can't.
That said: back to the Hide definition: in order to hide, you must be either Heavily Obscured or behind Three-Quarters or Total Cover, and cannot be within their line of sight (I feel like the former two imply that, don't they?)
Ok, now, our "Heavily Obscured" definition says that you're blinded while looking into an area that is Heavily Obscured (typically via smoke or fog or some other opaque vapor). Interestingly, Truesight might pierce magical and nonmagical darkness and see through illusions and even magical transformations (man, what does a werewolf even look like to someone with Truesight? Like both forms at once?) and, even crazier, into the Ethereal Plane (the Border Ethereal, of course). But it does not confer immunity to blindness or allow you to see through opaque objects, so a smoke-bomb should do it.
If they are immune to being blinded? That's really interesting. I mean, logically, you could argue that they're not strictly "blinded" if they are just seeing all the smoke around them, which is obscuring you. Condition-wise, it would seem to let them see through it though (as a DM, I might lean back on the former interpretation, but that's what we're figuring out here, isn't it?)
Now, there are some floating DCs here - but it's not for the sneaker, but rather for the seeker. Once you have succeeded on your DC 15 check, you still note your total roll, because that becomes the DC a creature has to make on its Wisdom (Perception) check in order to find you, which would be the Search action.
Now, what about Blindsight?
Interestingly, this might actually be more effective than Truesight. Within the range of your Blindsight, you can see anything that isn't behind Total Cover. That means that, had a creature hidden behind Three-Quarters Cover, you'd spot them even if they succeeded on their Hide check.
So, does a Blindsight creature - such as a dragon - knowing where you are mean you don't have the Invisible condition? I guess it depends a little. The Hide action definition says that your Invisibility ends if a creature "finds you," but it's up to DMs to rule whether a creature must actively "find you" with a Search action or if spotting you with Blindsight counts. Given that the Hide action does not call out the Search action, I'm inclined to say that this happens instantly.
Interestingly, while the advantage on attacks and disadvantage on attacks against you doesn't function with the Invisibility condition if the creature sees you, you do still get advantage on your Initiative rolls.
Also, just to touch on Tremorsense - this does let a creature locate a creature, but it doesn't count as a kind of sight - a Dwarf using the new Stonecunning might be able to find the invisible Duergar in their mine, but they still have disadvantage trying to attack them.
So:
There are a couple things that are sort of odd here:
What, exactly, is the point in having passive Perception anymore? If the DC for hiding is a flat number (and one that's very achievable,) and actually finding a hidden creature requires an active Search, what do we need this value for?
Then, also, is it weird that it's easy (trivial, even, for mid-to-high-level Rogues) to hide from the most powerful monsters?
But...
Is that actually, in fact, really freaking cool?
Maybe if you did build your Rogue to be super-sneaky (as I think most Rogue players probably do,) then shouldn't they be the one that can sneak past vigilant hydras and beholders?
And, in fact, by setting the flat DC at kind of the "standard DC" rate, might this encourage groups even with lots of heavy-armor wearers to at least try a stealthy approach more? Hell, you get a Ranger with Pass without Trace, and even my -2 Dex, heavy-armor-wearing paladin from Curse of Strahd would have a... hold on, math:
With the +10 from the spell, they're at a net +8 to Stealth, so they need to roll a 7 or higher twice in a row. That's 70% squared, or 49%, which is still slightly less likely than to fail, but practically a coin flip.
The other big thing to note, though, is that it allows monsters to hide as well. Now, any creature with +4 to Dex or more is going to have a decent chance to be able to flee the party, either to strike back immediately or to regroup, or to gather more allies.
This is, for sure, going to take some getting used to. Players might not even notice that the super-perceptive monster can't find their character after a "mere" 16 on their Stealth check, and DMs might not want to waste a turn just taking the Search action. But Players will for sure protest when a monster drops off the map and they say "but I have a passive Perception of 21!"
Still, even though it feels like cheating - it's kind of cheating both ways, and I think it has the potential to make for more exciting and memorable encounters.
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