A Narrative Approach to the Hide Action in D&D 5e

The Hide action often causes confusion in Dungeons & Dragons 5e. Can my character hide if the enemy can see them? Is it possible to move between cover unseen?

In this article, I'll try to lay out my own approach to the Hide action. I'll examine the written rules and then extend them with my own restrictions. The goal is to arrive at an understanding that's consistent, but above all, understandable.

One of the most important sources of confusion is what Hide actually means. Does it only refer to the change in my character's visibility? Does the action also include the movement my character needs to make to reach the spot where they intend to hide?

Motivation

The Hide action is a central, and above all fun, part of many classes. But many people feel that the way the Hide action is often used tends to break immersion, if immersion is something you value.

Consider the following scenario: A character (a rogue) is standing in a hostile creature's line of sight. They decide to hide behind a tree. They succeed on the Stealth check. Having just been in the creature's line of sight a moment ago, the character now steps out of cover to fire an arrow. The character has advantage on the attack roll, and abilities like Sneak Attack trigger.

If you care about the narrative, it's hard to explain why the hostile creature should be caught off guard. The character who was just standing right in front of it fires from cover it only entered a moment earlier. No time has passed in which the creature could plausibly have lost track of it. The fact that the creature never gets a chance to react to the character's disappearance reinforces the assumption that very little to no time actually passes.

The following interpretation of the rules is meant to eliminate this problem without taking away players' enjoyment of hiding.

Breaking Line of Sight ≠ Hiding

A look at the Attack action shows us that actions require certain preconditions to be met before a character can even use them. For a more narrative approach to the Hide action, a simple extension of the conditions already stated in the rules is enough:

You can't hide from a creature that has clearly seen you during your turn.

This condition is the single most effective adjustment to the rules for the Hide action. Ultimately, it's simply an extension of the existing rules.

You can't hide from a creature that can see you clearly.

Player's Handbook, p. 177 (German edition)

This adjustment integrates the time component discussed earlier into the rules. As a result, creatures get the chance to react to the rogue.

The character can only hide once the creature they want to hide from is unable to re-establish line of sight before its next turn. Because valuable seconds pass during that time—enough seconds for the creature to lose track of the character's position in the heat of battle, as the fight rages on and the creature gets distracted. This restores narrative consistency.

Seeing Clearly = Lightly Obscured

Both the adjusted condition for the Hide action and the original version refer to seeing clearly. So what does it mean to not be seen clearly? Features like Mask of the Wild (wood elf lineage) offer some detail on this.

You can try to hide even when you are only lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, or other natural phenomena.

Player's Handbook, p. 21 (German edition)

By implication, this feature suggests that being lightly obscured is normally enough for hostile creatures to prevent characters from using the Hide action. It follows that characters without features like Mask of the Wild can only use the Hide action when they are heavily obscured. This definition can be further expanded using the rules on cover.

A target [..] that has total cover is completely concealed by an obstacle.

Player's Handbook, p. 196 (German edition)

This makes it clear that characters with total cover are able to use the Hide action.

Conclusion

It helps to think of the Hide action as a variant of the Attack action. After all, it's still a combat action. A precondition has to be met for this combat action before it can be used at all.

This new interpretation of the rules only minimally limits the combat effectiveness of those who use the Hide action excessively. In return, it supports a consistent narrative, which for many groups matters more for their enjoyment of the game than the raw efficiency and effectiveness of their abilities.

There's no attack roll if there's no enemy in range.
There's no Stealth check if the ogre is staring you directly in the eyes right before you duck behind a wall.