You can cut or lift a purse and hide it on your person, palm an unattended object, hide a light weapon in your clothing, or perform some feat of legerdemain with an object no larger than a hat or a loaf of bread.
Check: A DC 10 Sleight of Hand check lets you palm a coin-sized, unattended object. Performing a minor feat of legerdemain, such as making a coin disappear, also has a DC of 10 unless an observer is determined to note where the item went.
When you use this skill under close observation, your skill check is opposed by the observer’s Spot check. The observer’s success doesn’t prevent you from performing the action, just from doing it unnoticed.
You can hide a small object (including a light weapon or an easily concealed ranged weapon, such as a dart, sling, or hand crossbow) on your body. Your Sleight of Hand check is opposed by the Spot check of anyone observing you or the Search check of anyone frisking you. In the latter case, the searcher gains a +4 bonus on the Search check, since it’s generally easier to find such an object than to hide it. A dagger is easier to hide than most light weapons, and grants you a +2 bonus on your Sleight of Hand check to conceal it. An extraordinarily small object, such as a coin, shuriken, or ring, grants you a +4 bonus on your Sleight of Hand check to conceal it, and heavy or baggy clothing (such as a cloak) grants you a +2 bonus on the check.
Drawing a hidden weapon is a standard action and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity.
If you try to take something from another creature, you must make a DC 20 Sleight of Hand check to obtain it. The opponent makes a Spot check to detect the attempt, opposed by the same Sleight of Hand check result you achieved when you tried to grab the item. An opponent who succeeds on this check notices the attempt, regardless of whether you got the item.
You can also use Sleight of Hand to entertain an audience as though you were using the Perform skill. In such a case, your “act” encompasses elements of legerdemain, juggling, and the like.
| Sleight of Hand DC | Task |
|---|---|
| 10 | Palm a coin-sized object, make a coin disappear |
| 20 | Lift a small object from a person |
| 50 | Lift a sheathed weapon from another creature and hide it on your person, if the weapon is no more than one size category larger than your own size. |
| 80 | Make an adjacent, willing creature or object of your size or smaller “disappear” while in plain view. In fact, the willing creature or object is displaced up to 10 feet away (make a separate Hide check to determine how well the “disappeared” creature or object is hidden). |
Surprise Off-Hand Attack: If you palm a dagger in combat, you can surprise your opponent when it suddenly appears in your hand. For this technique to work, you must be armed with a dagger, must have the Quick Draw feat, and must be holding nothing in your off-hand. You must fight the same foe for at least 2 consecutive rounds to get your opponent used to the idea that you have nothing in your off-hand. At the beginning of your turn in the third round, make a Sleight of Hand check opposed by your opponent’s Spot check. If you succeed, your foe is considered flat-footed for the next single attack you make with the dagger.
Conceal Spellcasting: When casting a spell, you may make a Sleight of Hand check to make your verbal and somatic components less obtrusive, muttering magic words under your breath and making magic gestures within your sleeves. Your Sleight of Hand check is opposed by any observer’s Spot check. The observer’s success doesn’t prevent you from casting the spell, just from doing it unnoticed.
Action: Any Sleight of Hand check normally is a standard action. However, you may perform a Sleight of Hand check as a free action by taking a -20 penalty on the check.
Unlike other uses of the Sleight of Hand skill, if you have the Quick Draw feat, it’s a free action to put the dagger in your hand for a surprise off-hand attack.
Conceal spellcasting takes no action, as you make the check as part of your normal spellcasting.
Try Again: Yes, but after an initial failure, a second Sleight of Hand attempt against the same target (or while you are being watched by the same observer who noticed your previous attempt) increases the DC for the task by 10.
If you palm a dagger, whether your Sleight of Hand check succeeds or fails, no foe will fall for the same trick from you twice in the same combat.
Special: If you have the Deft Hands feat, you get a +2 bonus on Sleight of Hand checks.
Synergy: If you have 5 or more ranks in Bluff, you get a +2 bonus on Sleight of Hand checks.
Untrained: An untrained Sleight of Hand check is simply a Dexterity check. Without actual training, you can’t succeed on any Sleight of Hand check with a DC higher than 10, except for hiding an object on your body.
Source: Player’s Handbook (Page 81), Races of Stone (Page 133)