Hello,
I've been racking around an idea in my head for a while now, about how stealth mechanics interact with Neverwinter Night as a multiplayer game. How those mechanics interact in a roleplaying setting. A feat to allow a character that is non-hostile to you with detection skills, to be able to spot and relay that information in a manner that is consistent with the game mechanics, while simultaneously retaining balance. I don't have the slightest clue how you'd do this mechanically, but here's my thought:
A feat that would allow a listen or spot character to relay and reveal a stealthed character they can locate, to player characters within a radius around themselves, who are non-hostile. The feat would give a special ability, and to use it, you must hostile the target first. It would take a full action, and a dialogue would drop in the combat log that alerts everyone that it happened, with heavy emphasis in the feat description detailing that your character must say something ICly, it isn't a telepathic message to everyone around you. Whether this is a gesture or a shout, is to be determined by roleplay. Additionally, the Sleight of Hand feat could be used for a second-tier version of this skill called, 'Silent Proximity Spotting,' wherein you can roll Sleight of Hand vs. a Spot check to prevent the hostiled target from being alerted that you indicated them, however all neutral characters nearby would still receive the text. This player could type something like... [The Garda gestures Westward a moment with a knowing look to his ally.] to indicate 'Silent Proximity Spotting,' meanwhile, the spotted man would be mechanically visible to all players who received it. There could be additional feats that increase the radius of players that are made aware, however I would imagine it best if the radius was kept small.
The reason I've been thinking about this is, and while I've had this issue before, I know other players have, too. If you're a non-detection character and you keep company of detection characters, a man can be stealthed and directly infront of your face, and the character to your right can see him, but for whatever reason, you cannot. They can go, 'I SEE YOU! QUICK, GET HIM!' but you can't mechanically interact with them whatsoever. They can just walk off, so long as they don't attack, they can't be targeted by anyone else. I find that to be all-too-common, and something of a pain in the ass, pardon the french. It's not even the main reason. If I'm beside someone, who is a spotter, and there's a dude in the bush? They go, 'Hey, look in the bushes. Yeah, there. See him?' -- No matter how much attention your character pays to that region, even if they're literally in plain sight, you are none the wiser mechanically. It ends up treating stealth more like this multi-planar invisibility where half the room can see you, half-can't and cannot respond.
May the knock-down drag out begin.