Stealth Mechanic

Hey Everybody

I would like to hear your input and possibly any new ideas the other BGDF users have for implementing stealth in a turn-based combat system on a hexagonal battle grid (think D&D tabletop). Right now I have two varying ideas for stealth, and will playtest each for fairness, fun, and game flow. Here they are:

Stealth Mechanic Option 1: While in combat, a character may spend an action to enter Stealth Mode. While sneaking, he removes his character piece from the Battle Grid and keeps track of his actions on a Stealth Grid (a separate piece of paper with a smaller version of the Battle Grid printed). The player must note the location of his character, as well as each action. The character's actions and location will be unknown to the other players, since he is in stealth (players in his party may be able to know his actions by looking at the stealth grid sheet). He simply marks his actions, movement, and location (with turn) on his stealth grid and announces the end of his turn, unless he performs certain actions which take him out of stealth mode (such as attack, cast a spell, use equipment abilities, he runs into an enemy, an enemy runs into him, or his time of stealth runs out; it lasts a certain duration).

Stealth Mechanic Option 2: While in combat, a character may spend an action to enter Stealth Mode. His character remains on the Battle Grid, but enemy NPC's, which follow a certain set of automated tactics, ignore the character in terms of carrying out their tactics (in essence, they don't see him). Enemy players will see the character on the battle grid physically, but will not be able to target him will spells or may not attack him. The only way they could attack him, viably, is with an Area of Effect spell (which they could do so in Option 1, as well, if they are using an AoE spell that would hit the stealthed character's location while targeting someone else.

In either option above, there are three requirements for a character to enter Stealth Mode: they have at least one rank in stealth training, their characters must be out of eyesight from ALL enemies, and the cooldown from their last Stealth Mode must be over (the cooldown decreases with additional ranks of Stealth Training, as well as other benefits).

I have issues with each option, and I'd like to hear your thoughts of each, and possibly new mechanics of stealth. Here are the problems I see with each:

Option 1: Removing the character from the board is nice in that it best simulates stealth (which also would work with invisibility spells, they just put you into Stealth Mode), but it requires more effort in terms of executing and keeping track. It MAY also cause tension among players if other players think the stealthed character is cheating. I would trust the players to be honest and would rather not design a mechanic just b/c cheating is viable, but it's still something I think is worth considering.

Option 2: Enemy players still know the location of the player. While the major benefits of stealth are still seen (can't be attacked or targeted by spells), enemy players still know the location of the player and can play around that knowledge (you can't really force them not to, in any way I can imagine).

Thanks in advance for your attention and ideas,
20%