Pass Without Trace
- Level: 2
- School: Abjuration
- Class: Druid, Ranger
- Casting Time: Action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, S, M (ashes from burned mistletoe)
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour
You radiate a concealing aura in a 30-foot Emanation for the duration. While in the aura, you and each creature you choose have a +10 bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks and leave no tracks.
Tactical Usage
Pass Without Trace serves as the premier stealth enhancement spell that dramatically improves party concealment and tracking avoidance capabilities. The +10 bonus to Stealth checks often means automatic success for most characters, while no tracks prevents pursuit and investigation after infiltration missions.
Group stealth becomes viable even with heavily armored party members who would normally compromise concealment attempts. 30-foot emanation covers entire parties in most formations, ensuring coordinated movement without detection splitting.
Extended operations benefit from 1-hour concentration duration that covers lengthy infiltration missions, wilderness travel through hostile territory, or surveillance activities requiring sustained concealment from enemy forces.
Spell Combinations
Pass Without Trace synergizes powerfully with Invisibility effects to create near-perfect concealment that combines visual and auditory stealth enhancement. Silence adds complete noise elimination for comprehensive sensory avoidance.
Movement enhancement through Longstrider or Expeditious Retreat allows faster travel while maintaining stealth benefits, enabling rapid repositioning without compromising concealment. Spider Climb provides three-dimensional movement options.
Detection avoidance improves through Nondetection for magical surveillance immunity and Zone of Truth resistance for interrogation protection. Message enables silent communication during coordinated stealth operations.
Material Component Details
Pass Without Trace requires ashes from burned mistletoe as its material component, connecting the spell to druidic traditions and natural stealth enhancement through plant magic. Mistletoe grows parasitically on various trees throughout temperate regions.
Component preparation involves harvesting mistletoe during appropriate seasons and burning it to create fine ash suitable for spellcasting. Sacred or ritual burning might enhance component potency for traditional practitioners.
Availability considerations make urban acquisition potentially challenging, though herbalist shops and druidic suppliers often maintain prepared ash supplies. Wilderness druids can harvest and prepare components during natural travel.
Creator Notes
Pass Without Trace provides exceptional utility that can significantly impact stealth encounter design and exploration pacing. +10 bonus often ensures automatic success against most Perception challenges, requiring creative alternative detection methods.
Group stealth dynamics change dramatically when entire parties can move silently and tracklessly. Encounter balance requires consideration of enhanced infiltration capabilities and potential encounter bypassing.
Tracking prevention eliminates pursuit scenarios that rely on physical evidence, encouraging alternative investigation methods through witnesses, magical detection, or predictive intelligence gathering.
Environmental Interactions
Pass Without Trace functions effectively in all terrain types and weather conditions, making it valuable for wilderness travel, urban infiltration, and underground exploration. Natural environments provide additional concealment synergy.
Track elimination affects all types of physical evidence including footprints, scent trails, disturbed vegetation, and broken twigs that might reveal passage routes. Magical tracking might still function depending on detection methods.
Terrain advantages stack with spell benefits in naturally concealing environments like thick forests, rocky terrain, or urban areas with multiple concealment options. Open terrain provides fewer synergistic opportunities.
Common Rulings & Clarifications
Stealth bonus applies to all Dexterity (Stealth) checks made while within the emanation, including movement, hiding, and action concealment. Passive Stealth scores increase by 10 for automatic detection comparisons.
Track prevention is absolute - affected creatures leave no physical evidence of passage regardless of terrain, weather, or activity level. Magical detection spells might still locate or track targets through alternative methods.
Emanation movement means the concealment area follows the caster, maintaining party coverage as long as members remain within 30 feet. Spreading out beyond this distance leaves distant allies without protection.
Concentration requirements mean the spell ends if the caster loses focus through damage, incapacitation, or competing concentration effects. Party coordination ensures caster protection during critical stealth phases.
Alternative Applications
Wilderness survival benefits from trackless travel that prevents predator following and territorial creature pursuit. Resource gathering and exploration become safer when dangerous wildlife cannot track party movements.
Evidence elimination serves investigation scenarios where removing traces of party presence prevents enemy intelligence gathering. Crime scene departure and witness protection gain significant advantages through track prevention.
Military applications include reconnaissance missions, supply line protection, and troop movement concealment that enhances strategic surprise and operational security during large-scale conflicts.
Related Spells
Stealth enhancement connects to Invisibility for visual concealment, Silence for auditory hiding, and Nondetection for magical surveillance immunity. Expeditious Retreat provides movement speed without stealth benefits.
Tracking magic like Locate Creature and Scrying provide alternative detection methods that bypass track prevention. Hunter's Mark might still function through magical rather than physical tracking mechanisms.
Environmental magic including Mold Earth and Plant Growth can create additional concealment options that complement stealth enhancement for comprehensive hiding strategies.
Scaling Analysis
Pass Without Trace does not scale with higher-level spell slots as its bonus value and duration represent optimal effectiveness for 2nd-level magic. Multiple castings provide extended duration rather than enhanced benefits.
Campaign utility remains consistently high throughout character progression as stealth challenges scale with encounter difficulty. High-level enemies often have enhanced Perception that makes the +10 bonus increasingly valuable.
Party coordination benefits increase with group size and tactical sophistication as experienced players develop advanced stealth strategies that maximize the spell's potential for complex operations.
Narrative Flavor
Pass Without Trace manifestation should emphasize the subtle but comprehensive nature of enhanced concealment. Mistletoe ash might create faint shimmer effects or barely visible auras that quickly fade to complete invisibility.
Movement under the spell's influence appears naturally quiet and trackless rather than obviously magical. Footsteps make no sound, vegetation springs back undisturbed, and environmental disturbance naturally conceals party passage.
Different caster traditions might manifest unique concealment styles - druids could invoke natural camouflage that harmonizes with environmental patterns, rangers might create woodland spirit assistance, while other casters could weave shadow magic or dimensional displacement for stealth enhancement.