Playing a rogue in NWN

[peacemake]

I made a rogue, invested skillpoints in hide, move silently, set traps and craft:traps. Now I'd much like to use those skills. I want other players NOT be able to see me!

Any time I sneak, other players see me clear as day! Is there a toggle somewhere for that? Do I need to be hostile at them in the pvp-menu?
(one player even asked, upon seeing me in a bush, "sneaking?" )
[don't take this wrong, I like the notion of respecting my rogue character's sneaking abilities, it's just... the fact that you HAVE to ask if I'm sneaking...]

Anyways! What about traps? I put down a trap and had a player walk over it. Nothing. It's like a mage casting a fireball at a bonfire and no-one around taking any damage!

I like the PVE-aspect of the server but it puts a wrench in the machinery for my roleplaying.

[Lothoir]

There's a button in the lower-right corner of the screen that lets you toggle sneaking/stealth. Your Move silently and Spot rolls will automatically be rolled against everyone else's Listen and Spot and if their roll beats yours then they'll see you.

So until you get a few more levels, don't expect to be hiding from anyone.

[peacemake]

Really?! I never knew!




...but seriously, I have max ranks in hide and move silently and a bunch of +hide +move silently items. I can sneak through sundren sewers without any of the lizardfolk noticing me. None of this matters against players. Everyone sees me. Irritating.

[Fezzik]

People spend points in listen and spot. And their stats help as well; I believe the rolls are automatic and happen every once in a while while you are in stealth mode; so if you roll a 2, and someone rolls a 20, you'll have to have a pretty high skill base. The more you move around, the more likely you are to be noticed. When someone "sees" you I think it's more of a matter that they actually hear you. They can tell where you are (blackened image) but they can't actually make out who you are. If you don't want to be noticed, make sure you stay still and don't move.... and you're not in the middle of a street

It took one rogue and one bard I have still, til level 9 before they were hiding consistently to anyone that didn't have good spot and listen.

[peacemake]

A friend of mine made a character here with NO points in either spot OR listen. We were not in a party together. AND he didn't level up. So he was level 1.

I am a level 5 halfling rogue with maximum ranks in hide and move silently, items that boost both skills and a dex of 24 (cat's grace). I stealthed at port avanthyr smithy while he stood at the fountain near the port itself. I moved towards him and as soon as I was within his draw-distance (graphics options), he could see me clear as day. Like I was not stealthing.

THIS is my grief.

[DM_Equinox]

Was he in your party?

Also, you will only TRULY be hidden if you

a) are OUT of the line of sight of whoever you're hiding from at the time you enter Stealth, i.e. around a building's corner or behind a rock - though some of these will not work perfectly, depending on how the maps are built. (It may be that Line of sight does NOT equal draw distance.)

b) Have the Hide in Plain Sigh feat.

If none of these is true, whoever sees you ENTER stealth mode will continue to see you when you are IN stealth mode.

[Kaeldorn]

Quite simply bad luck. 8 ranks in move silently, 7 bonus from your dex, and a couple of points (say, 4) from items. All it takes is a 20 roll for him to hear you moving even if he has no wisdom modifier (and a listen of 0). As was said, you're going to need a couple of levels to avoid being heard/seen by just anyone.

EDIT: Oh yes, as Equinox said, if you are in the same group you can always see your hiding party members.

As for traps; traps only work against hostiles. You need to toggle each individual player character you want to hostile before you can use any hostile actions against them, including traps. This is done through the menu (bottom left), player list, then clicking the player's 'drawn swords' icon. They are able to see when you do, so do it well ahead of time if you want to have some element of surprise.

[peacemake]

A friend of mine made a character here with NO points in either spot OR listen. We were not in a party together.

I expect you could say we were within line-of-sight, albeit MILES AND MILES apart. Almost opposite ends of the map. ...but that would be stupid.

[peacemake]

Quite simply bad luck. 8 ranks in move silently, 7 bonus from your dex, and a couple of points (say, 4) from items. All it takes is a 20 roll for him to hear you moving even if he has no wisdom modifier (and a listen of 0). As was said, you're going to need a couple of levels to avoid being heard/seen by just anyone.

That just plain sucks! I need to be Elminster's level before I can reliably hide from a simple farmer..

As for traps; traps only work against hostiles. You need to toggle each individual player character you want to hostile before you can use any hostile actions against them, including traps. This is done through the menu (bottom left), player list, then clicking the player's 'drawn swords' icon. They are able to see when you do, so do it well ahead of time if you want to have some element of surprise.

Thought as much.. Time to start hostiling everyone and everything when I log on then.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

[Kaeldorn]

That just plain sucks! I need to be Elminster's level before I can reliably hide from a simple farmer..

Oh, you can succeed. But only for short periods of time. Like.. past him, or in and out.

Look at it from the other perspective; it should not be easy to sneak around someone without any chance of detection. Especially in an RP server, that's an insanely powerful ability to have.


As for your traps idea.. I hope you weren't serious about hostiling just anyone. You'd better have some IC reason to harm/kill individual characters if you try to do so (insanity not included), or you can expect the DM's wrath sooner or later.

[peacemake]

No worries.

[Iso]

Standing still and/or having Search Mode activated also helps a listener/spotter to see you. Elves get automatic full checks at all times, due to their keen senses.

[gbbishop]

some are very very good at sneaking and the game engine with sneaking is a bit of an enigma, least for me. most ppl who sneak couple it with invis and some other things as well.

my frustration with rouges stems from sneak attack and ray spells... why the hell would the game designers neglect that and build a prc that specifically combines sneak attack and spells (arcane trickster) HELLO! anyone else think this is stupid?

alas neither of these issues are problems that should lie at the feet of the SUNDREN DEVELOPERS!

these probs are bungles by atari and co. truth be told there are sooo many flaws in the nwn2 engine... im just happy that the good ppl here provide this service... as it is nothing short of amazing...

just for the record i thought the inability to sneak up on goblins frustrating.. so i quite playing my rouge all together.

[Zoberraz]

Nothing prevents you from making RP rolls as well. You can emote your way sneaking about a character without actually remaining unseen to the other player - sure, the other player might know you are sneaking around him... but that allows you both to interact at bit too, even if it's just going about skulking another person.