On Spot/Hide and Listen/Move silently

[CalamaroJoe]

Hello folks,
I'm quite new to 3.5 edition (we have not played for a long time since the times of 2nd ed....), and I'm not sure that I fully understood the way to use these kinds of skill checks.

When there is one creature per side it' easy: opposed skill checks.
But when there are several creatures per side? It happened in yesterday session: a pack of wolves hiding in bushes waiting for the PCs. Do you roll all checks for the enemies and all checks for the PCs?
I mean: when there are many creatures (we have 6 PC) it's quite probable that at least one PC spots/hears al least one enemy. Do you think it's fair ?

Frustation apart, do you have some simple ways do handle this?

(sorry if this is a trite subject)

[PopcornMage]

Roll once for each, use the highest modifier on each side.

If you really want, you could roll individual for everybody, but I think it's more tedious than anything else.

[Foryn Gilnith]

Do you roll all checks for the enemies and all checks for the PCs?

Yes. Sneaking around lots of guards is hard; sneaking with lots of people is hard. I start rolling stealth from the lowest skill modifier and go up to the highest until somebody fails their stealth check so badly that the subsequent rolls can't be worse. Similarly, I start rolling perception from the highest down, until the modifier gets so low that it can't possibly exceed the existing highest roll.

[CalamaroJoe]

Thanks.
I see there are two different schools out there.

Maybe that I (and all my players) must only become more confident with the rules. So far every single encounter involved a lot of searching in pages and pages of the manuals... I hope that things will go better with experience.

[Duke of URL]

Don't underestimate the use of passive checks, either. If players/NPCs aren't actively trying to hear or see something, just have them "take 10", which eliminates the need for die rolling and you just need to compare based on the highest modifier.