Stealth Actions

Hide

The Hide action allows you to roll a new Stealth defense. In combat, the pertinent form of Stealth is physically cloaking your presence and uses Earth or Air.

This Action has a few restrictions:

You must be out of line of sight for all foes
You must abide by the limitations laid out in the Stealth section of Earth

When attempting to hide in combat, a good question is “Would a rational opponent have a strong idea of where I am even if they cannot see me?”

Combat is inherently chaotic and automatically degrades Stealth defense by 1d6 at the end of your turn.

Repeated hiding

Like many tricks, stealth becomes less effective when you rely on it too much. Each time you attempt to hide, you must justify to the storyteller how this is a novel approach. Otherwise, your targets will swiftly adjust tactics to undermine your effectiveness.

When you use the same hiding tactic more than once in a Scene, add a Penalty 5 for each attempt.

Optionally, if you face the same or similar enemies repeatedly, the storyteller may persist this Penalty over time. The enemies don’t fall for the same trick over and over!

Sneak

Sneak is any form of movement while under Stealth.

All terrain is more difficult while sneaking. Add Difficult Terrain +1 while sneaking.

The storyteller may represent difficulties during sneaking by:

Imposing additional Difficult Terrain penalties
- Such as a field of dry twigs or a room of broken glass
Requiring Challenges for traversal
- Disaster would reveal your position

While sneaking you use your Stealth defense. Foes Challenge against that defense with Air as usual.

Ambush

Ambush is the moment when you want to transition from Stealth to combat. How well you can execute the Ambush depends on how well you have managed your Stealth and Alertness.

Ambush with Stealth

When you Ambush based on your Stealth score, you have two basic options:

Seize the initiative
Surprise attacks

First, to use this option, you should be in an active Scene and have an active Stealth defense.

If you have multiple Stealth scores between you and your allies, use the lowest
- Meaning if one ally isn’t in Stealth, you’re doomed
- Use Arts that allow your better sneak-sneaks to cover the others!
If you’re not under Stealth, you cannot ambush

Assuming you satisfy the above, declare your intent to Ambush. Then:

The foe with the highest Air Ki in the Scene Challenges against your Stealth
Degrade your Stealth by their Result

If this drops your Stealth to zero, you fail at Ambush and transtion to a standard combat immediately.

Otherwise, consider your remaining Stealth defense. This will be your budget. Spend from the following effects until you can afford nothing else.

5 points of Stealth: Grant 1 Bonus Ki to 1 ally
- You may grant 1 and only 1 Bonus Ki to each ally; they choose what element to apply it to
15 points of Stealth: Re-order combat
- For the first round of combat, player phase precedes Boss phase

However you choose to spend this budget, your Stealth drops to zero as soon as combat begins

Ambush with Alertness

Alertness is a more general system meant for more complex scenarios such as infiltrations. Accordingly, you can generate more precise bonuses.

When you wish to Ambush under an Alertness system, the overall process starts as the section above.

Use your Stealth score
Reduce by the foe’s Challenge
Consider your budget

However, in Alertness, you may bid either Stealth or Alertness for the benefits above. The costs are the same whether Alertness or Stealth; generally, you will want to spend all your Stealth first since Alertness is much harder to offset.

5 points of Alertness: Grant 1 Bonus Ki to 1 ally
- You may grant 1 and only 1 Bonus Ki to each ally; they choose what element to apply it to
15 points of Alertness: Re-order combat
- For the first round of combat, follow this order: Player Phase > Boss Phase > Player Phase > Monster Phase > Environmental effects
- Afterwards, use the standard order

Remember: In combat, Alertness rises by 5 per round! Swiftness is key!