Dalebert
2018-09-22, 06:23 PM
Is Skulker an underrated feat for rogues? Consider this. Dim light is treated as light obscurement. Skulker lets you hide when all you have is light obscurement. So if you have the feat, you can hide in dim light versus creatures without darkvision and you can always hide in darkness because even creatures with darkvision see in darkness as if it were dim light. That massively expands your hiding options!
It occurs to it's not useful in the middle of an encounter because hiding still requires you to be out of sight when you do it. So don't expect to bonus action hide in plain sight thanks to dim light, but it's still useful.
The other part of Skulker that I think is underrated is not getting perception penalties in dim light. Again, if you have darkvision, darkness is supposed to be treated as dim light. How many DMs actually think of that and apply it, particularly to their NPCs? If you have a rogue scouting ahead with Skulker, and say you're in darkness with darkvision, you should be able to use your bonus action to remain hidden from enemies AND they have disadvantage on perception which is -5 to passives. That should make your stealth much easier to pull off. The thing about a scout is you not only have to remain unperceived by your enemies, you have to notice them. What if they're hiding too? You fail to notice them and you scout right past them and they ambush your party behind you.
It occurs to it's not useful in the middle of an encounter because hiding still requires you to be out of sight when you do it. So don't expect to bonus action hide in plain sight thanks to dim light, but it's still useful.
The other part of Skulker that I think is underrated is not getting perception penalties in dim light. Again, if you have darkvision, darkness is supposed to be treated as dim light. How many DMs actually think of that and apply it, particularly to their NPCs? If you have a rogue scouting ahead with Skulker, and say you're in darkness with darkvision, you should be able to use your bonus action to remain hidden from enemies AND they have disadvantage on perception which is -5 to passives. That should make your stealth much easier to pull off. The thing about a scout is you not only have to remain unperceived by your enemies, you have to notice them. What if they're hiding too? You fail to notice them and you scout right past them and they ambush your party behind you.