SRD Talk:Hide Skill

The rules never really state what the effects of hiding are. It is implied that a hidden character cannot be seen, so I just treat it as total concealment. Furthermore, what is the differance between sniping and hiding while attacking? they seem to be functionally the same thing. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by FreeHands (talk • contribs) . Please sign your posts.

Well if you are hiding and your opponent fails to spot you, then you are basically treated as invisible. So you are playing it right; you have to guess which square to attack and there's a 50% miss chance even if you guess the right one. The difference between sniping and hiding while attacking is that you can't do the second one. Once you attack your are immediately unhidden, and can't attempt to rehide without either sniping, distracting (using a bluff check), or using your Hide in Plain Site class ability. JazzMan 11:03, 31 December 2010 (MST)

Actually, the rules clearly state that you CAN hide while attacking, you just take a -20 penalty on the hide check (it is "practically impossible"). And I figured out the differance between that and sniping: sniping implies that you "unhide" before making your attack, so you no longer have cover or concealment relavent to your enemy that would interfere with your own attack. if hiding while attacking, then the cover or concealment still has effect, which may hinder the attack of the hidden chracter. in both cases, you make a hide check with a -20 penalty, which is what confused me. I hope that is all cleared up now.