Monster Intern:
A) The Gnome Skulks 'beats everyone's perc' stealth check. (paying attention to a giant fireball and drakes in the opposite direction should have still given Maverick The Gnome leeway against automatically noticing them the second you enter room.)
C) The Gnome Skulk's 'Remain hidden if you miss' gimmick in that case.
D) In the event Tim is allowed to psychically know the Gnome is right there to shoot (Such as May pointing out Maverick the Gnome shot at her even though it's an stealthy stay hidden shot.)
PHB p.188:
✦ Cover or Concealment: Unless a creature is distracted,
you must have cover against or concealment
from the creature to make a Stealth check. You
have to maintain cover or concealment to remain
unnoticed. If a creature has unblocked line of sight
to you (that is, you lack any cover or concealment),
the creature automatically sees you (no Perception
check required).
Which I have been playing according to in Ascension of Heroes. For all my args against rules about stealth, this one actually makes sense. It doesn't matter how sneaky you are, if you are out in an open, lit room, people will see you. And as the rule says, you will be seen automatically.
The people who wrote this adventure didn't make rooms that have much concealment for these poor gnomes. So yeah, your statement "That whole 'stay hidden if you miss' benefit is surprisingly useless to these guys." is true.
Monster Intern:
B) The readied action attack, which would have fired (and missed) May?
I can understand not memorizing enemy reactions, hell it's hard enough to remember party member reactions. But these are the like, eight or ninth Gnome skulks we've fought, and we fought Gnome Skulks in the encounter directly before this one too.
This I'll fix.
But the other stuff, you can search and tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I have kept to Maverick not being hidden if he's in line of sight unless he had cover. Sorry that A, C and D are frustrations to you, but again, not for being inconsistent.
However, I can still add a little more effort to the whole noticing bit.
Monster Intern:
what happened to his 'fade away' power?
He's at full HP and just got hit. Granted, his pets are all dead now, so if I were him, I'd run. But there's that irritating "10 HP" bit for them. But I'll edit that in anyway since you brought it up.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:40, Sat 25 June 2011.