Ability Modifiers: Stealth
In the Ability Modifiers feature, we will be exploring Ability checks: mostly Skills, and how to modify, or enhance, their usage in gameplay. This time, we will take a look at how following someone using Stealth can use an ability other than Dexterity.
Stealth falls under Dexterity in the list of skills, assuming that the character will be trying to move silently and undetected by controlling their movement. But there are other ways and means to follow someone without them knowing. Blending in with a crowd, knowing the lay of the land and shortcuts to head them off, disguising oneself as another that might not be suspicious following them, or having insight into the quarry’s movements can help someone trail another without needing to be dexterous.
A player being creative should be able to ask the DM, or the DM should make the call, to use a different Ability to perform Sleight of Hand, namely Wisdom or Charisma in these types of scenarios. But, wouldn’t these be cases to use other skills like Insight, Investigation, Perception or Performance? Certainly these could be used, but, this is also an opportunity to utilize a different Ability modifier for the same skill. If the character is trying to “conceal yourself from enemies, slink past guards, slip away without being noticed, or sneak up on someone without being seen or heard” just with a different strategy than using their agility, reflexes and balance; then the DM can allow them to use an Ability that makes sense.
Simply use the Wisdom or Charisma modifier and add Proficiency or Expertise the character has in the skill.
An urchin shadowing a mark.
Urchins can be very stealthy: their small size and natural agility allow them to be unseen. But their stealthiness goes beyond that whether in a city or the wilderness. Their awareness and knowledge of their community or environment gives them an advantage to sense where their mark is heading and ways to move around unseen. Since Wisdom is a representation of perceptiveness and intuition, it can be used to represent this ability in place of Dexterity in Stealth skill checks. Likewise, their ability to seem like children, an unthreatening and unexpected person to be trailing another individual, can allow them to use Charisma to go unnoticed.
