Special Hide Rules

In an attempt to find a way to get super stealthy creatures like the Goblin to be able to hide in the same turn as they attack I contacted the #rules_discussion discord group and chatted about ways to achieve the action. I think we found a really good solution by using using a minor action to hide for the very specific situation in which a Goblin or other relatively small and nimble creature slips out of view immediately after attacking and/or moving.

Thank you to the #rules_discussion discord group for the excellent discussion and super quick response.

Monchkrit Bashlan

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As I am want to do I kept looking around and located a short explanation in the 5e conversion of the Rogue Cunning Action that says that all characters can attempt to hide once per round. So it looks like the Goblin’s nimble escape isn’t all that special in Open Legend.

I still can’t find that hide as a minor action in the core rules though.

Thanks,
Monchkrit

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I would only allow such a minor action when it is attached to a move action, because I couldn’t justify a creature trying to hide while standing still. Also terrain plays a big factor in my opinion. If there is nothing around to hide behind or to take cover behind, than I wouldn’t allow for such a hide action.

As long as these conditions are in place, than I would allow for a deception roll or an agility roll to take cover and hide, but else you’d have creatures hiding for free after each round, which can break the verisimilitude of any given situation, by choosing mechanics over narrative.

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That is because there is no official hide rule in OL. Setting, theme, campaign can all greatly vary in the way in which you might hide. From a rogue slipping into the shadows, to a Mech Warrior activing cloaking.

Hiding would be a straight attribute roll determined by the GM for the setting.

The idea of being able to hide in the middle of combat is pretty silly in most cases. The more hectic the battlefield, the easier it might be. But if you are actively engaged from someone and then just slip behind a boulder…

So depending on narrative and the scene, GM would determine the difficulty.

You could hide with Agility (being able to gracefully move and not be noticed as much)
Logic perhaps (calculating the perfect time to slip away)
Deception (someway distracting)
Movement (teleporting, moving yourself unnoticed)
Alteration (changing the light to create a destraction or temporary double image of yourself to slip away)

Those are just a few ideas off the top of my head.

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To create a character that vanishes mid combat I would use Boon Focus 2 with either Invisibility or teleport to get out of their sight lines. With invisibility you get Advantage 3 or 5 to hiding and Teleporting can simply put you out of an enemy’s sight lines. With Boon Focus 2 you can use either boon as a minor action.

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This confused me. So even though your invisible…why do you get an advantage to hide? Aren’t you then already hidden? Is there game mechanics for hiding? I couldn’t find it. Or is that also GM’s choice?

There are no core game mechanics around hiding as such, merely modifiers (Invisible as the most obvious example). Refer to @Great_Moustache’s post above to see some examples for Attribute Rolls these would apply to.

The deal with Invisible is that it’s not undetectable, the most obvious thing here is that an Invisible person still can be heard. In Invisible’s Effect it even states that it isn’t perfect Invisibility and can be seen when looking for the right things (i. e. a shadow without body to cast it, flimmering in the air etc.):

Light passes through the target, making them translucent, however their physical form distorts and refracts light in a way that only the keenest sight can perceive.

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