Stealth Modifiers and Unused Spells

[Ankh Seeker]

Does anyone know how light sources, etc, modify stealth? The manual says that a light source gives a penalty, and low light a bonus, to stealth actions. I understand the opposed checks with spot and listen, but nowhere have I seen the actual penalty here listed. Is it higher for brighter lights? How much is it? Does wearing clanky armour give penalties to overcoming those listen checks? Does using the silence spell on yourself make it easy to beat listen checks?

I am also curious abut the spells that hardly see use, but could be useful. What do you think are the most underused and useful spells? (i have a few ideas, but I'm waiting to hear others first. )


Thanks

[Fire Monkey]

I have heard before that light/dark sources do definitely make a difference to your hide skill. However, it is pretty difficult to quantify without a large amount of experimentation with different equipment etc. to lower or higher various skills. I am also pretty sure that anything like that would be hard coded and it would be hard to find out what the exact figures are.

I am pretty sure that light sources you carry yourself (e.g. a ring with a low light 5ft enhancement) cause slight penalties to hide. Something like -5 I think.

I don't know whether silence helps your move silently skill, but I very much doubt it. I am pretty sure that it just stops you from being able to talk.

[Beary666]

Well silence gives you 100% immunity to Sonic damage, so i would imagine it would silence every sound souce in the area of effect.

[Spell Singer]

Casting silence on yourself might have the effect you wish but as it has a 15' radius you would inform people that something is odd...and so I suspect you defeat the purpose right there. A mage could test this out easily with invisibility and silence.

And there is no information on what the modifiers for lighting are. But it is easier to stay in stealth mode in a dark area, that much I can confirm from practice. If you assume a +2 or -2 to your skill from lighting I would think you are likely to be not far off. It could be higher but on the other hand I have not noticed that much penalty to being in stealth in daytime. And my stealth skills in the case of the characters I have checked this sort of thing out on are ok but not ?ber so a major modification would be noticable.

[CPU]

Does anyone know how light sources, etc, modify stealth? The manual says that a light source gives a penalty, and low light a bonus, to stealth actions.

Somewhere on these boards and somewhere on the Bioware boards, this is explained. Basically: it was poorly worded. Try this to make more sense of the player handbook:

The manual says that a light source gives a penalty, and low light a bonus over brighter light to stealth actions.

[Tharliss]

This is an old thread, but it still has an unanswered question of interest:

Does the Silence spell have any affect on the "Listen vs. Move Silent" check?

In theory, it should give you something like a +100 to your MS, but does the game engine actually take the Silence spell into affect?

[Marleh]

ooooh... I'll try to test this one with Rhiss as the subject.

[Tharliss]

ooooh... I'll try to test this one with Rhiss as the subject.

Heh...Rhiss is the one who inspired me to ask this question! He is the only person in recent history who can detect Zach while he is stealthed.

*shakes his fist at the lizard and that damned tongue of his!*

[Gorgon]

Lots of stuff here on the Bioware boards, but not many reliable numbers for modifiers (though many guesses). It is still an interesting read if you can plod through it all.

http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic ... 2&forum=42

Oh, and Zach can always try sneaking around Smeec again. Just don't forget the elven boots this time

[Tharliss]

Oh, and Zach can always try sneaking around Smeec again. Just don't forget the elven boots this time

*Grumbles* I've decided that if anything/anyone can hear me, that I'm just going to attack and cut off their ears...

*Can't wait for his next level of rogue so he can bump up his MS some more*

[Marleh]

*Gives up trying to boost listen to anything comparable*

[mortzestus]

I have listen 92 here!!!