Stealthing and hiding

Question

So I've been DMing a 5e game lvl 1-3 so far. And I have a question about stealth for my rogue. My player has been hiding behind/stealthing behind another PC.

So this is what usually happens. PCs bust into a room, and the enemies see him. The rogue makes a stealth check and hides behind a PC as a bonus action, then attacks from stealth and gets sneak attack. He will do this every round. I do try to do Perception for the NPCs, but they fail. So he basically disappears for the whole encounter.

So then he attacks cause he is fully hidden and gets a sneak attack every time. This seems OP!! I thought you could only hide in full cover. I know the Skulker feat allows a player to hide in partial cover, which I looked up. Hiding behind a PC of medium size only allows partial cover. Please help me! I just wanna make sure I'm doing this right and I hate players who take advantage of a loop hole.

Answer 1

You are correct, generally, you cannot hide behind another PC or creature and make a stealth check.

However, lightfoot halflings can (they make great rogues for this reason) if the creature is one size larger than them (which includes medium sized PCs).

The skulker feat though, does not allow hiding behind PCs. It allows hiding in "lightly obscured" areas, but no other situations. PCs provide half cover, but no obscurity, so skulker does not apply.

Also, remember that the rogue needs to use their bonus action to hide (for other characters it's an action). This means that they can't effectively use two weapon fighting and hide regularly.

Ultimately, this merely allows the rogue to get her sneak attack off every turn. Contrary to what you are thinking this is not overpowered in any way. This is the rogue working as designed.

At low levels, the rogue can be quite good, especially when you factor in advantage. However, as you level up, the rogue's damage, because it always depends on the single attack, will fall off the table compared to other classes.

So, while this may seem overpowered, rogues are supposed to be able to get advantage fairly easily, and to be able to perform sneak attacks on pretty much every turn, this is the only way they can consistently compete for damage, especially as things level up.

Answer 2

First off what the rogue is doing may be unnecessary as all he needs to do to satisfy the conditions for a sneak attack is to have an ally within five feet of the target. A surprise attack is only one way to generate a sneak attack on a target.

Secondly, the Rogue is not able to hide behind a PC due to the following rule on page 60 of the 5e Basic Rules(Player).

You can’t hide from a creature that can see you, and if you make noise (such as shouting a warning or knocking over a vase), you give away your position.

Once the Rogue is spotted by a creature he cannot hide from the creature unless he breaks line of sight.

Does ducking behind a character count as breaking line of sight? No it doesn't, it only provides half cover per the rules on page 74.

A target with half cover has a +2 bonus to AC and Dexterity saving throws. A target has half cover if an obstacle blocks at least half of its body. The obstacle might be a low wall, a large piece of furniture, a narrow tree trunk, or a creature, whether that creature is an enemy or a friend

Exception: Lightfoot Halflings can hide behind other characters due to a racial ability.

You can attempt to hide even when you are obscured only by a creature that is at least one size larger than you.

But remember: this doesn't exempt them from the observation rule.

The best bet for the Rogue character is to wait until one of his allies is within 5 feet of his target before launching a sneak attack.

Thirdly, Hide for Rogue is a bonus action not a free action. A minor point but its use precludes the use of any other ability that can be used with a bonus action. (Like a second weapon attack with two weapon fighting).

As a final note, frequent sneak attacks are expected to occur often with the Rogue. This may seem overpowering compared to the fighter. The Rogue has a single devastating attack while a fighter is able to generate multiple attacks.